Parking Pricing
(All Lots)
Car/Motorcycle $20
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Oversized (Motor Home or Tractor w/o Trailer $25
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Bus or Tractor w/ Trailer $30
Prices As of March 27, 2018
PARKING
Disneyland
Mickey and Friends Parking Structure
There are multiple parking areas at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA. The two main parking locations are the Mickey and Friends parking structure and the Toy Story parking lot. These parking areas are not near each other but both offer transportation to and from their location to the theme parks. Additionally they each have their own pick-up and drop-off locations so remember which one you park at so you don't get on the wrong tram or shuttle at the end of the night. When in doubt ask a cast member.
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The Mickey and Friends parking structure is a massive 10,000+ parking space structure that runs a quarter mile long. At one time it was the largest parking structure in North America. It utilizes a one-way flow of traffic with a single entry and exit point making this parking structure one of the most efficient around, especially for its size. Just about all times of the day, there are cast members directing which way to go from the point you enter and pay at the ticket booth to when you park your car and head toward the trams.
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The design of the entry point keeps you from getting lost or going the wrong way, along with a seemingly infinite number of cones. There are six levels and each is themed by a different character and color scheme to help you remember where you parked. Upon entering the parking structure you will be given a receipt, so in case you leave and come back, just show the cast member at the ticket booth that receipt and they'll let you back in without paying twice. This ticket/receipt also doubles as a way to mark down where you parked. Printed on the receipt are each parking level and corresponding row and aisle number and letter. The receipt paper allows you to use your finger nail or car keys to circle or mark where you parked and since you do not have to leave this receipt with your car, simply take it with you and refer to it when you leave to locate your car. Of course you can also take a picture of the posted signs (as seen above) or at least remember what time you arrived at the park.
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TIP: Should you forget where you parked, just ask a cast member to help you or locate the blue emergency lights and stations location on each level of the structure as well as the surrounding area. If you press that emergency button the security watch commander will come on and ask what the issue is. Tell them that you're a guest and cannot remember where you parked. They will ask you what time you arrived, hopefully you remember, at least a close guess. They will be able to look up what level and quadrant they were parking at that time and that at least narrows it down.
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All of the parking aisles are one way no matter which one you drive down. Since cast members are there to help you park this will be easy. This also helps alleviate traffic jams and thus making things fairly smooth when there are a lot of cars trying to park or exit.
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Sometimes later in the day or at night, there will be fewer cast members, this means that you may be on your own to find parking. When this happens, just remember, which ever aisle you choose to drive down, if there are no available parking spaces or you pass an open space, you may not be able to reverse to get back to it; you will then have to drive all the way around again and start over just as if you were entering that level for the first time. This may sound confusing, I will try and clarify with an image below.
Mickey and Friends Parking Structure Levels
Here is a birds eye view of the area with each parking area marked. Keep in mind that Paradise Pier and Garden Walk do not have shuttle transportation to the parks. If you park in either of these parking areas, you will be walking to and from the parks.
This is a birds eye view of the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure from Google Maps. This shows the rooftop level, which is Minnie Mouse. Each of the other levels have the same layout. Vehicles enter on the far right at the light blue arrows. There are multiple lanes entering the parking structure so stay alert and often times you can switch lanes to find a short line. The parking booths are about 3/4 of the way in on the ground level. Once you pay you will be guided by cast members or at least cones on where to go next. Running along the north side are ramps. If you get the first ramp, that leads to levels 5 and 6. the second ramp goes to levels 3 and 4 and lastly the far ramp goes to level 2.
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In this example you would take the first ramp all the way to level 6, where you would enter in the north eastern corner, marked here by yellow arrows. Cast members will then guide you on where to go next. Depending on how full that level is, you may be guided around all the way to the row closest to the escalators, or on any subsequent row/aisle, marked in green. Notice how all of the rows flow the same direction. This is what I mean by one-way traffic. Further more, this is also what I mean when I mention that if you arrive later in the day, there may not be a cast member there to guide, so you will have to choose which aisle to drive down. Because you will not know if that aisle has any available parking or not, there is a chance that you drive all the way down that aisle, only to have to circle back around, via the red arrows back to the yellow arrows and choose a different aisle. As before mentioned, you may not be able to reverse should you pass an open parking space only to get to the end of that aisle to discover that was the only one or the closest one. If no one is behind you, I believe it is okay to safely go in reverse to go back to that spot. However, there is a good chance that another vehicle will be behind you and force you to driving around.
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The escalators are located in the south east corner of the structure. The stairwells that are scattered about around the entire structure are meant to be emergency exits only. If a cast member, specifically a security cast member sees you using them, they may ask you to stop and go back and to use the escalator. There are also two elevators, however, there are posted signs that those be used only by guests with strollers or wheel chairs/electric scooters. I do not have any children but I notice that the lines for the elevators can get quite long and the elevators themselves seem to be slow moving. So if you can avoid the elevators, this will save you time.
PARKING TIP:
When calculating your estimated time of arrival to the park, whether it is so you can be there for "rope drop" or you are meeting someone, make sure you account for the time it will take to park, get through security and get through the main gate. It is not uncommon for it to take 15-30 minutes to park, 1-15 minutes for the parking tram and another 1-15 minutes to get through the main gate at any park. Remember that when special
events are taking place or a convention is in town, traffic may be worse during those times. Also, the Mickey and Friends parking can become full and when this happens they will reroute you to another Disney parking lot.
Toy Story Parking Lot
The Toy Story parking lot is the next largest parking area for Disneyland Resort guests. It is located about 1 mile from Disneyland and they offer complimentary shuttle service from Toy Story parking lot to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure parks. Unlike the Mickey and Friends parking structure, the Toy Story parking lot is a large flat parking area. It shares the area with cast member parking, so you may see Disney Cast Member shuttles as well. They are separate from the guest parking so no need to worry about getting on a cast shuttle. However, keep in mind that the point of drop at Disneyland is surrounded by hotel and other buses that will not take you to the Toy Story parking lot, so be sure to listen and pay attention so you know where to catch the correct shuttle back to the the Toy Story parking lot. You normally do not have to wait too long for a bus, they tend to have many operating at the same time. The ride to the parks is fairly short and on hot summer days, it is usually nice and cool on the shuttle.
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Because the Toy Story parking lot is one large paved lot, pay close attention to the marked signs to find out where your car is located. Just like the Mickey and Friends parking structure, they use characters to mark the different parking areas: Buzz, Woody and Jessie are their current characters and those are followed by a number and letter to help narrow down the search for your car.
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The Toy Story parking area is located right across the street from the Anaheim Convention Center. There are neighboring hotels and if you are attending a convention, it is a good place to catch a free shuttle to the parks. If you are a pass holder, and if you arrive early enough, you can park there for free then walk to the convention center. Keep in mind that they do not want you to do this, however, they can't exactly stop you either. We were recently there for WonderCon 2018, and when we arrived there were no posted signs and they did not ask anything as to the convention. At the end of the day when we were returning to our car, we noticed a large sign that read, "No convention parking", but again, it seems if you get there early enough this is not an issue.
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Just like the Mickey and Friends parking structure, you will receive a ticket/receipt upon entry. Keep this with you and mark where you parked. This will also act as your re-admittance slip should you take your vehicle from the parking lot and return later in the day.
Paradise Pier Parking Lot
The Paradise Pier parking lot is located next to none other than the Paradise Pier Hotel...no surprise there! As you can see from the map above, this parking lot is a bit further out and there is not shuttle service to or from this parking area. If you park here (and sometimes you have no other choice is the other locations are full), you will have to walk the entire length of Downtown Disney to get the other park entrances. It can be a nice walk and an excuse to see Downtown Disney if you otherwise were not planning on seeing it. The parking lot itself is a large paved area, similar to the Toy Story lot. As with all of the parking areas, cast members are there to assist you most of the time. Just like the Mickey and Friends parking structure, most of the rows are one-way which helps alleviate traffic jams, but some folks don't get that concept, so drive slowly and watch for other vehicles.
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The Paradise Pier Parking lot is not intended for all-day parking unless otherwise noted at the ticket booths. Instead this parking area is used as an extension or substitution for the Downtown Disney Parking lot.
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TIP: Another tip you might try if your prone to forget where you parked. Before you leave your vehicle, if you have a smart phone, mark you location on the map and save it. At the end of the day when you're searching for you car, just pull up that map and get walking directions back to that location and it should lead you straight there. I recommend this for either Toy Story parking lot or Paradise Pier parking lot because you will be guaranteed cell phone reception...the Mickey and Friends, being that it is a structure, if you're not on the roof, you may have trouble locating the exact location of your car from the GPS signal.
Garden Walk Parking Garage
The Garden Walk parking garage is for the adjacent Garden Walk outdoor mall, however, on very busy days or if they're doing any sort of construction at the other parking sites, they can and will utilize this area for additional guest parking. To my knowledge there are no shuttle buses to or from this location, similar to Paradise Pier parking, therefore, if you park here, you will be walking to the parks.
NOTE: Much like anything dealing with the parks and budgeting cost for you vacation, you will be constantly reminded that everything costs something. As far as parking goes, $20.00 seems to be the running price just about anywhere (baseball games, hotels, other theme parks), but that still doesn't mean it's cheap or that you want to pay that price. But keep this in mind when deciding on whether to park at a Disney parking lot or not. The surrounding area is all no parking, as is the residential areas, they require a residence parking permit. The only way around this is if you are staying with someone or using Airbnb. Anaheim police constantly patrol the area and you will almost guaranteed to have a parking ticket should you try and leave your car in these areas.
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Any area that does not have parking restrictions that is on the street are usually a pretty far distance from the parks. This may be okay when you begin you day, but if you plan an all-day excursion to the parks and at midnight or 1:00AM you are hobbling out of the parks, the last thing you're going to want to do is walk several miles to your car. To put that into perspective, on average people seem to walk any where between 7-12 miles for a full day at Disneyland. So if just getting to and from your car is between 3-4 miles, that could be an extra 30-50% additional walking. My recommendation is to pay the $20.00, save yourself the walk and take comfort of having your car in a Disney lot that is patrolled by security and generally safe from harm.