The early morning train is lovely. Just catch a cab once you get to the ANA station (it's in the Angels parking lot if I recall correctly). When you get off the train, just follow people. It looks like you're in a desolate wasteland, but once you follow the path, you'll suddenly see that you're actually at a station with cabs and such. It's about $13 by meter to the
Disneyland Hotel, but I would recommend just being dropped at the entrance plaza b/c it's just a minute or two quicker and it would have been $10 by meter.
You'll need to be very aware of what time the last train leaves, though. Make sure there's enough time, make sure you're there ontime. To catch a cab back, just walk out the entrance plaza to where the cabs sit!
Now as for leaving...I know that at least one of the "train" stops in San Diego is actually a BUS stop. The one that I went to (when I was staying in a condo near the stadium in SD) was:
Station Building (with waiting room)
1050 Kettner Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92101
Then there's the Old Town station:
Platform only (no shelter)
4005 Taylor Street
San Diego, CA 92110
At the latter, there's nothing and no one to help with anything, so you'd need to have your ticket in hand, etc etc. The proper Station Building has the ticket machines, etc.
And of course you'll probably want to budget a cab back to your SD hotel since it will be nighttime.
You could definitely just rent a car...but when leaving SD (on a weekday at least) you want to leave VERY early, before rush hour, or after 9am. Otherwise it's just traffic traffic traffic.
Anyway, on my trip to SD where I stayed near the stadium, it was for a friend's 40th b'day to see Madonna, and the "adult" antics my friend and her friends got up to really bothered me. I had already planned on spending the last day of my trip (after Madonna) at DLR, but I was oging to invite the others. INstead, I got up at something like 4am, got ready in silence, the cab came (I'd arranged it the night before), left a note and LEFT. I had my train ticket already, and had planned to catch my plane from the Anaheim area, so I got up to Anaheim, took a cab, stuck my luggage in a locker, played and played all by myself...then got my bags, caught the Grayline Disneyland Express, got to the airport, and caught my plane. I had a GREAT time, and it was such an innocent experience, it really made up for my (married!) friend's behaviour during her b'day trip. Day trips can be fabulous.
