The Friday FastPass: Toy Story Parking Lot

Written by guest-poster and friend of Days In The Park:
Amy Naluai  

I've been a Disneyland fan for as long as I can remember, starting with my earliest memories:  My first pair of Mickey ears, a birthday dinner at the Tahitian Terrace, and watching the Main Street Electrical Parade with bright eyes and my big smiles.  I can think back over the years upon the many different changes that have taken place, and how Disneyland has morphed into the Resort that it is today.

One big change that comes to mind is when Disneyland's parking lot was set to become the site of a whole new theme park.  I had to bid farewell to the Eeyore and Pinocchio parking lot sections (the two sections I most loved parking in, which ironically were on opposite ends of the lot) and say hello to Disney's California Adventure.  From that point on, how guests parked and got to and from their cars changed forever.  Aside from staying at a Disneyland Resort hotel (or nearby hotel) and walking (or taking a shuttle), guests were in need of a safe, new, and convenient location for their cars.  Disney's solution for that was the construction of the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure.  However, Park attendance has remained strong and Annual Pass numbers have increased, making the recently opened Toy Story Lot a beneficial addition to Resort parking options.

Amy (and friend) show off their parking ticket from their first Toy Story Lot parking experience

I first experienced the Toy Story lot while I was at "Disney's Tip Off Classic", an NCAA-Division 2 basketball tournament held at the Anaheim Convention Center.  As I left the convention center I accidentally happened upon the entrance to a random Disneyland Resort parking lot.  I remembered it from my past as simply a big, empty lot that was behind K-Lot (one of the parking lots I used back in my Cast Member days); the lot was used once in a blue moon as Convention Center overflow.

During one of the games my friend and I sat there devising a plan to head over to the Disneyland Resort for a little Sunday afternoon fun.  We agreed on almost everything; where we would have lunch and what ride we would go on first, but we couldn't agree on what would be the quickest way to get there.  Getting into the Mickey & Friends parking structure seemed so out of the way, but we were going to be there too long to mess with parking at Downtown Disney.  That's when the random parking lot from the night before popped into my head, and I remembered one of my new Disney friends on Twitter, Julie, talking about how much she loved parking in the Toy Story Lot.  Aside from that the whole thing was quite a mystery to me.  In fact, I wasn't sure if Annual Pass parking was even accepted there so I had to send off a quick tweet to Julie to confirm that I wouldn't have to pay for parking.  She confirmed that Annual Passes were okay there, and I am now pleased to say that The Toy Story Lot is no longer a mystery, and that I've parked in every Disneyland Resort parking lot!

The big, blue Toy Story Lot buses.  Definitely much more colorful than the trams from the Mickey and Friends parking structure!

With my parking experience I am here to share my take on some pros and cons of parking in the Toy Story Lot.

Pros:

• There wasn't a long line at the booth to get in like there can often be at Mickey & Friends.  The Disney Parks Blog even recommends the Toy Story Lot in one of their blog posts as a parking tip for those traveling from the South or East of the resort.
• Even though we were in the "boondocks" of the Woody lot, it didn't feel like it was as far as when you get parked in row 1K on a floor of the parking structure.  The Disney Parks blog post on parking tips suggests that "those with small children and strollers might appreciate the short walk to the bus at the Toy Story Lot" and it's true, it felt like a much shorter walk.  Also, something about being in an open space instead of the enclosed structure made it feel different as well, in a good way. 
• While guest capacity on the buses is significantly less than on the trams, there were plenty of buses ready and waiting to take us both to and from the resort, and let's be honest, the buses look pretty awesome.  The bright blue color and Toy Story characters are so much fun!  The buses are great for those with strollers or those who just want a little more room to breathe.  The seats seem more comfortable than the tram benches and you don't feel like a stuffed sardine.  As a taller woman (I'm about 6' tall) the tram ride can often be uncomfortable if I'm not in the very first row of the car, because my knees always hit the seat in front of me.  I didn't have that problem on the bus.  The bus has seating that faces both front and sideways, and I felt like I had plenty of room.  
• Buses are climate controlled!  The air conditioner was on in the afternoon and it wasn't a freezing cold ride back to the car that night.   I can see this being a big plus in very cold or rainy conditions.
• For those who need to purchase tickets they have kiosks and Cast Members available to you so you don't have to deal with the long, crazy lines at the ticket booths in the esplanade at all.  You can buy your tickets before you get on the bus and avoid long lines!  There does seem to be one exception however, and it would appear that in rainy weather this option is not available. 
• I've always loved the ease of getting off of the 5 freeway at Disneyland Drive and the structure being right there, so I was worried about accessibility from the freeway.  It's still pretty convenient to get to as far as freeway access.  On my second Toy Story Lot experience, I exited the freeway at Disney Way; from there you can either turn left at Clementine, right on Katella, left on Harbor and left into the lot, or Disney Way to Harbor, turn left and then left into the lot just past Katella.  To go home we took Harbor to Disney Way and got on the 5 at Anaheim. 
• In general it seemed like less chaos and much less waiting coming to and from the lot and Resort

The "boondocks" of the Woody Lot

• I didn't see any bathrooms
• It's not convenient if you're planning to hit up any of the shops or restaurants in Downtown Disney
• It's kind of far, so where you have the option of walking to the Mickey and Friends structure if you want to, I feel like that's not really a feasible option with parking at the Toy Story Lot.  I mean, I'm sure you could, but it's not nearly as convenient.  That would be quite a trek!

For those interested in checking it out, Annual Passport parking is valid there, and parking costs the same as it does in the structure for everyone else (Autos = $15).  If you're coming from the North or West Disneyland.com will direct you to the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure.  If you're coming from the South or the East the directions will take you to the Toy Story Lot. 

Dare I say it, but I think I almost like parking in the Toy Story Lot better than the structure!  The 'no bathroom' thing could be an issue, but all things said, it was a very positive experience parking there.  I'd encourage you to check it out for yourself and see what works best for you.  I know that anything I can do to make getting into the parks easier and faster is a good thing in my book.  With that said parking in the Toy Story Lot just might become a regular thing for me!

Cast Members are ready and willing in the Toy Story Lot to help you with tickets before you even get to the Resort

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The Friday FastPass: The Family Make The Trip

I suppose for most people, Disney is about families.  Even if you are single, or just spend a lot of time in The Parks by yourself, you can't help but notice families and be surrounded by everyone else's family.  In a way, it's kind of thrust on you.

Last week I wrote a little introduction to myself (and my introduction to Disney) in my post along the Magical Blogorail.  For me, my Disney experience began, and I'm sure will end one day, with my family.  As a kid, my parents were huge Disney proponents and my favorite television shows and movies were all Disney oriented, save Star Wars, and even that has a Disney tie-in.  The best vacation of my life was when I was 17 and my parents took me to The World for the first time.  I'm planning my own trip back there with my parents, my family, and my sister's family sometime in 2012.  We can't wait.  

Now that I have my own family, well, you can see how important an aspect of any Day In The Park that is to me.  I could spend hours (and do sometimes) just scrolling through old pictures and remembering all the magic we've had at The Parks.  For us, the ability to be Annual Passholders has truly been a blessing, and it's something we enjoy immensely.

Chad and Fam in the Disney Animation Building (2006)

    

Chad's wife and kids outside Monsters, Inc. in Disney California Adventure (2010)

Not just my own immediate family, either, but we really do see each and every one of us here (all two of us!) as family.  Mark and I didn't just fall into this by accident.  We've spent a lot of time together over the years, and we've logged countless in The Parks together.  We may not be blood, but there's no doubt we both kind of view each other like brothers, so when we're there, we're family; no question.

The really cool thing, though, is that Mark also does get to spend time at The Park with his own "real" family.  Being able to spend time in The Parks with our own immediate families, as well as each other, just adds to the wonder of it all.

Mark and his niece Christyana enjoy the fireworks at Disneyland

Amazingly enough, it doesn't stop there, either.  Neither one of us really knew what to expect when we started our website.  I guess we figured the most we could hope for was to gain a small amount of readership over time, and maybe a comment or two here or there.  Maybe just get something out there that someone enjoyed reading.

When I initially signed up for Twitter, it was solely for the sake of advertising.  I'd never been on Twitter before, and I didn't even know how the whole thing worked (What's an RT?  What does that @ symbol mean?).  

What I discovered, and very quickly I might add, was that there is a thriving community, a family, of Disney people alive and well and raging on Twitter.  If anyone had told me beforehand that we would meet such wonderful people and make such good (and true!) friends through our website, I would probably have scoffed at the notion.  

Yet, there you are.  Our family has indeed grown.  Over the past several weeks we've met and spent many hours with some of the people we've met through our website.  It's been nothing short of amazing.  People talk about Disney Magic and Disney Family all the time, and to see it in real life and watch it at work is just astounding. 

We should be upfront about this, too.  I'm not an extrovert.  Typically I abhor crowds and I'm not into meeting new people at all.  I'm incredibly shy and don't usually do well around new people.  I challenge you though to ask any of our new friends if they could tell that about me.  I've had nothing short of an all-out blast the last few weeks, and I have our new friends to thank for that.

Chad (l) and Mark (r) with Rosemary from FindingMickey.com

Chad and Lynnette outside the Plaza Inn on opening day for the Holidays

Chad, Julie (f-l), Amy (r-r) and Jenna (r-l) riding California Screamin' - Disney California Adventure

I guess that I'm learning as we go along just what it means to be a part of the Disney family, and that it doesn't have to stop with our own immediate families, either.  

There's plenty of room for everyone in our family.  

It helps to make each and every Day In The Park just a little more magical than it might be otherwise.

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The Friday FastPass: Leave Some For Later

On last week's FastPass, we spent a little bit of time looking at Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders and discussing a few ways in which they might "pace" themselves while they're at The Park.

Today, we continue our FastPass lessons along the same lines of thought with another suggestion on ways to pace yourself; "Leave Some For Later."

We don't often do it, but when we're actually brave enough to drop little nuggets to others about the things in The Parks that we still have not done, people give us amazed looks, usually followed with "You haven't done <insert Disneyland Resort item here>?  And you call yourselves Disneyland fans?"

We're not really sure at what point it became a sign of your "fan"aticism to have done everything there is to do at The Parks, but apparently that is the standard many people think we need to adhere to.  Not all, but many.

But we enjoy challenging that line of thought (if it is indeed your feeling) with our own mantra of always leaving something for later.  What many people don't get, or find hard to believe, is that it is a calculated notion and move on our part.  We don't want to do everything all at once.  We enjoy leaving more for the next visit.  After having been Annual Passholders for years at this point, there are still oodles of things we haven't done.  Attractions we've not experienced.  Delicacies we've yet to try.  Restaurants we've never dined at.

But that's okay, because that's how we like it.  We enjoy knowing that the next time we go, there's that chance we're going to experience or do something we never have before.  We might not, but we live in anticipation for the chance that we do.  It's one of the ways that we allow ourselves an extra opportunity to keep the magic alive.  Don't get us wrong, The Park does a great job of that, but we like to give it a little help of our own.

We've been wanting to start a "First Timer" segment on our blog for a while now, and this presents an excellent segue into that, and a perfect example of our mantra of "leaving things undone" all in one shot.

You see, until quite recently, just about a month ago in fact, Days In The Park had never experienced that seminal dessert of Disney lore, the Pineapple Dole Whip.  Do we need to give you time to inhale and scream out "What?!?" before continuing?

But it's quite true.  We, of course, had long since heard of said delicious Whips, but we just hadn't bothered to brave the long lines to wait for one.  But once we began blogging, and hearing more and more about the yummy goodness that makes up The Whip, we began to look for our opportunity.  It still took us about a month, but while wandering around Adventureland one morning we espied the Dole Whip stand with nary a person in line.  Opportunity, consider yourself seized!

This picture was taken later at a repeat eating

Other than a slight mishap (when Chad ordered the wrong item to begin with) it was a life altering moment.  Choruses of angels in Heaven began singing "Allelujah"s.  Birds chirped.  A rainbow was espied over Sleeping Beauty Castle.  And once we had picked ourselves up off of the ground (where the Flavor Train had knocked us) we figured out just what everyone had been talking about for so long.  Another bit of magic (the magic of pineapple juice and soft-serve in one yummy cup) could now be added to our list.  We could happily (and hungrily) now add something to our routine.  Was it worth the wait?  Absolutely.  Glad we postponed as long as we did?  Absolutely.

Chad's Dole Whip lies waiting after one bite left him lying unconscious on the ground

What about you?  Are you a "all or nothing" person, or are you willing to hold off on doing things in an effort to keep the magic alive and going on at The Park?  Is there anything you want to do at The Parks that it just hasn't seemed like the "right time" to do yet?  We'd love to hear from you.  And we look forward to showing you some more of our "First Time" experiences in the months to come.

Now, off to the Enchanted Tiki Room to make up for lost time.

Mark shows off his "First Timer"s Dole Whip outside the entrance to Adventureland; also known as "Flavor Town"

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The Friday FastPass: Pace Yourself

editor's note: We thought we might try something different on Fridays, and maybe give out some thoughts on "lessons" that we think we've learned in The Park.  Many of them (not all but many) will deal with being Annual Passholders at Disneyland Resort who can visit The Park on a fairly frequent basis.  That said, we hope that they're interesting enough to be read by anyone, and maybe by some who visit those Other Parks down in Florida.

When we were kids, just like you we'd be willing to bet, we grew sick and tired of our parents who, while on vacation, were constantly telling us to "slow down".  When we were lucky enough to actually go somewhere that interested us (my dad was forever dragging us all over the southern states to civil war battlefields), our jubilation was often punctuated with:  "Slow down!  The rides aren't going anywhere!", or "Why are you in such a rush?  You need to take your time and enjoy everything."  And, as I'm sure most kids are wont to do, we completely ignored him and went on about our business of rushing to and fro, and we certainly refused to slow down even the teensiest bit.

And now, being pretty much the exact age that my dad was when he was doing his best to curb my enthusiasm, I've learned a very valuable lesson:  The old man knew what he was talking about.  When I first started going to The Park with my own kids, I would hear those awful words slipping out of my own mouth.  I'd try to stop them, but they'd punch, kick and fight until my mouth was wide open and here they'd come.  It was deplorable, and it brought me such shame.

But, as time has gone on, and we've learned the ropes, we've figured out just what an awesome thing it is (oh, the power!) to have Annual Passes into The Park.  

When we first made the decision to Pass, we were completely foolish about the whole thing.  We'd get to The Park, with our double stroller and two toddlers in tow (now we have 3 boys), and proceed to run around like chickens with our heads cut off for a good 8-10 hours, and then get home and wonder why the heck we were so exhausted.  Foolish, weren't we?

After a year or so of sheer, unadulterated idiocy though, we finally began to learn the ropes.  The old adage that everything doesn't have to be done at once is completely true.  Heck, my wife and I didn't even have to take the kids with us every time.  *faint*  

As we've gone on as Passholders (I think we're in Year 4 now), we've learned our limitations and we stick to them.  We've learned what pacing works best for each situation we find ourselves in while we're out there.  When daddy wants some alone time with the boys, he knows it's best to pop in for 2-4 hours, wait in line and ride a bunch of stuff, and then leave.  In those situations, it's probably apropos to blast in and out like a tornado.  When mommy and daddy need some alone time, that's the time to do something slow like ride King Arthur's Carousel, have a nice dinner at The Blue Bayou, or just sit along Main Street USA with an ice cream cone and enjoy the music at Coke Corner.  When we take our youngest (now three years old), the family knows our time there will probably be shorter and mostly spent in Fantasyland.  If there's an event going on that's going to bring in an extra quadrillion people over the weekend or during the week, it might be best to postpone and avoid the madness for a few days because, as my dad said, The Park isn't going anywhere.  The Park can be an extraordinarily crowded joint.  Putting yourselves (and worse, your kids if you can avoid it) in the middle of that sometimes just isn't worth it.  Everyone gets agitated, it's hot, lines are long... sometimes it's just best to cut your losses and come back another time rather than get into a full-fledged war in New Orleans Square.

That's not to say that we never stay for longer periods of time.  In fact, during the summer, one of our favorite things to do (and it's the only time of the year we do) is grab a hotel room and stay for 2-3 days and keep going back, which offers us the freedom to head back to our rooms and nap and then go back if we need to.  We have a lot more leeway that way, but it's not always feasible to do so.  We've gotten really good at assessing situations and moving on from there.  Whether that means we stay for long periods of times, or a quick "in and out", we've learned with much practice.  And this is certainly not call to try and take away your childrens' enthusiasm, either.  Merely a call not to let it overwhelm you, or them, for that matter.

What we've really learned is that part of the beauty of Disneyland (for us, and it could be for many Passholders) is that it isn't a vacation for us anymore; it's a lifestyle.  It's just become a part of who we are as a family.  And rather than having to fit it all into one day, or two, or three, the memories we make there can now be spread out over the span of a lifetime.  It's an  experience that is ongoing for us as long as it'll let us have it. 

We think it's crucial as Passholders to know your own pace, your children's pace (if you have them) and the pace of The Park if you're truly going to enjoy all that Disneyland Resort has to offer.  As much as it might seem like you have to do it all at once, as a wise man once told me, God willing, it isn't going anywhere.  It'll always be there waiting for you when you're ready to come back.

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