I have a question about the ART.

[Disney Dider]

I am looking at a hotel further away. The ART website says it runs 8-12am. Does that mean you cannot get to Disneyland early to get in line????

 

[DanT]

my experience with ART in October of this year was that if there was an Early Entry Morning, they would run early enough to get you there at least one half hour or more before Early Entry opening.
They basically start at least 1/2 hour or 1 hour early to get you there in plenty of time.

 

[Eeyore's Wife]

Our experience is that morning ART is not dependable enough for our taste. We only stay within walking distance or with a hotel that has a dedicated shuttle.

You may have no trouble, or you may find yourself getting into the park when main street is packed with people waiting for rope drop.

In addition, if you have an early seating for a restaurant in the park, ART may not be able to get you there for that either.

 

[kylieh]

We found in Oct 2008 ART to be unreliable in terms of times between trips. Sometimes it was 15 minutes, other 40 minutes. And there was no way of telling.

We ended up catching a cab to the park when we wanted to be there by a certain time. From memory it was around $10 or so. We were staying at Homewood in Garden Grove.

Next trip we're staying at Sheraton Garden Grove which has it's own shuttle. It was what changed our mind from staying at Homewood to Sheraton.

 

[DanT]

our experience with ART in 10/09 was that it was very reliable, on time, if not early and we never had a problem getting on a bus.
So you take your chances I guess....our experience was good.

 

[Gisele]

My experience with ART last year, is the same as Dan's. So therefore I concur. Just make sure that you do not miss the last bus, otherwise, there are cabs of course, as well as OCTA, which I believe runs later from ART in the evening. The one OCTA driver that I encountered last year, was rude, and I did not appreciate being made to feel like I was some kind of stupid tourista for asking more than one question. They were not long questions and it really was just two.
To where the ART drivers were all very nice, friendly, and personable too as well as informative.

 

[dstorm]

I did quite a bit of research on both and during busy season ART would not get us to Disneyland early enough for a Magic Morning. We decided to drive and was really glad we did. Very convenient and easy to drop off family before parking to get in line.

 

[pixiewings71]

We found in Oct 2008 ART to be unreliable in terms of times between trips. Sometimes it was 15 minutes, other 40 minutes. And there was no way of telling.

We ended up catching a cab to the park when we wanted to be there by a certain time. From memory it was around $10 or so. We were staying at Homewood in Garden Grove.

Next trip we're staying at Sheraton Garden Grove which has it's own shuttle. It was what changed our mind from staying at Homewood to Sheraton.

It does but it shares with 2 other hotels, the shuttle starts at the Hyatt, goes to the Crowne Plaza and then to the Sheraton so be aware it might be full by the time it gets to you. (at least that was the case last time we stayed at the CP, that was a year ago tho so it might be different now)

We haven't done ART in years, when we did it was very full very fast, especially in the early morning hours. What we finally started to do was DBF would drive us and drop the girls and I off, then he would go back to the hotel, park and take ART to the parks, we would be waiting inside for him. It was easier and we felt safer because we weren't left standing, nor were the kids. Good luck, hopefully they have more shuttles running now......ftr, we have not done ART since 2006 so it's been a while.

 

[DanT]

Just checked the ART schedules for this week....first pickup is at 7am on most days and at 6:20 on a couple of days this week...
seems that would be plenty of time to get you to the park...in time for early entry on the appropriate days.
Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday pickup starts at 6:20 am...for Magic Mornings.
Regular park opening is at 8 am for those days...so it would seem to give you plenty of time to get to the turnstiles/or Rope Drop.

We used ART to get us to DL for Magic Morning when we were there in October 2009 and we were standing second in line....plenty early

 

[Disney Dider]

Thanks everyone. Wish the service wasn't so iffy. LOL But we have the option of driving too. We are probably staying at Homewood.

 

[kylieh]

It does but it shares with 2 other hotels, the shuttle starts at the Hyatt, goes to the Crowne Plaza and then to the Sheraton so be aware it might be full by the time it gets to you. (at least that was the case last time we stayed at the CP, that was a year ago tho so it might be different now)

Thanks for the note - My GF stayed not too long ago. They had mulitples running in peak, and to timetable. Not too worried. We're still happy to cab if necessary.

 

[pixiewings71]

No, there's a timetable, they run the shuttles every 20 min or so. And yes, if there are a ton of people they will send out more but it takes time to do that. Cabbing is pretty cheap too, it was about $5 when we did it.