Toy Story Lot Questions

[Last91]

Hi, we are arriving to Disneyland in 3 weeks for our first vacation since May 2019 and have a few questions regarding the Toy Story lot. We are staying at the Hampton Inn on Katella and it seems that it is adjacent to the parking lot and according to various recent reviews, there is pedestrian access on that side and I just want to confirm if that is true?

Also, now that the trams are running at the other parking structure, how are the crowds at the Toy Story parking lot? Any tips for avoiding a long wait for the busses? Any tips and recent experiences are appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[gelatoni fan]

There is a sidewalk on Katella but it is a bit more likely to be closed than the entrance on Harbor. I don't really use it so I can't comment on the likelihood of being denied there.

In general, it'll be a few minutes faster to walk unless you happen to be going into the parks at some odd hour when the wait for buses is minimal. When leaving the park, you'll be able to see how crazy the line is. If you can get on a bus, just hop on but I've also seen it go all the way up to 45 minutes of wait for the bus.

If you plan to take the bus, just plan for it to take 30 minutes. It's not worth adjusting your arrival time substantially just to avoid waiting for the bus given that walking is another option.

 

[brightlined]

I used the pedestrian entrance on Katella a few times last week with no issues.

On my trip, I tended to walk directly to the Esplanade to avoid the morning mess at the lot. I mainly used it for afternoon trips to/from the hotel and at the end of the evening (usually after DCA closing at 10pm). Since I was mostly off-hours, the place was deserted. Walk into the lot, walk onto a bus, gone in a few minutes. There were some minor lines for the return after 10pm, but not as bad as I expected them to be.

 

[silvaohana808]

Hi, we are arriving to Disneyland in 3 weeks for our first vacation since May 2019 and have a few questions regarding the Toy Story lot. We are staying at the Hampton Inn on Katella and it seems that it is adjacent to the parking lot and according to various recent reviews, there is pedestrian access on that side and I just want to confirm if that is true?

Also, now that the trams are running at the other parking structure, how are the crowds at the Toy Story parking lot? Any tips for avoiding a long wait for the busses? Any tips and recent experiences are appreciated!

Thanks!

Hello there! Just wondering what you thought of the Hampton Inn? Did you folks walk to the esplanade at all? If so, how was the walk? If not, did you walk to the Toy Story Parking Lot? Thanks in advance!

 

[confetti]

We used the Toy Story lot (we drove in and parked) for 4 park days. 3 of those days we took an afternoon break, so that's more going back and forth. I never ever saw a long wait but maybe we just didn't come and go at peak times? In the mornings we didn't arrive to the parks until about 8:15/8:30 (so we were at the lot around 8:00/8:15). We took an afternoon break around 12:00/1:00 each day and then we went back to the parks around 4:00/4:30. We left for the night at different times, our first night we left after World of Color. That was probably the longest we waited for a bus and it was maybe 10 min? Next night we left around 8:00, the third night we left after the second showing of Fantasmic, so around 11:00. Our last night we left around 7:30/8:00.

Our first morning arrival at the parks we did Mickey & Friends parking and there were SO MANY people over there. Took way longer to get into the park. After that, we said forget it, let's do the Toy Story lot. Never waited as long as we did at Mickey & Friends. Most of the time we got on a bus right away or within 5-10 min. We didn't go through security at the lot, I think they only do that early in the morning. We went through the Harbor security check and that wasn't a long wait.

Most of the time, we saw droves of people headed toward the tram for Mickey & Friends and a much smaller amount of people headed for the Toy Story buses.

Edited to add: We were there the second week of June 2022.