Will This Get Motorists Out of a Jam?

It was tough enough to find a good parking space when there was just one amusement park intown. But with Disney’s California Adventure taking over three-quarters of the old Disneyland main parking lot, the obvious question is this: Where are they going to put all those cars?

Disney hopes that Mickey & Friends, a 3.8-million-square-foot parking structure, billed as the largest in North America, will keep traffic jams from becoming part of the California Adventure experience.

The six-level structure, off Disneyland Drive just south of Ball Road near Interstate 5, provides 10,000 parking spaces.

These, combined with 6,000 spaces in three surface lots and the remaining portion of the old Disneyland lot, give the two theme parks a total of 16,000 guest parking spaces. That’s 4,500 more than before.

But the new $90-million parking structure, where Disney’s “speed parking” concept is designed to park one car per second, is the hot new ticket.

“The challenge was to create an efficient parking system that brings guests off the I-5, gets them into parking areas and out of their cars and into the resort system easily and quickly,” said Tom Kozlowski, director of development for Walt Disney Engineering.

The Mickey & Friends structure--its floors are named after Disney characters--can be reached this way:

Going south on I-5, take the Disneyland Drive exit; going north on I-5, take the Disney Way exit.

The Disneyland Drive exit will take you directly to the parking structure. However, to reach the structure off Disney Way, you must turn right on Harbor Boulevard, left on Ball Road and then left onto Disneyland Drive; otherwise, Disney Way takes you to three of the surface lots.

Before entering the parking structure, there is a transition zone, which Kozlowski calls “a major entry statement.” It’s a landscaped area with a grove of palm trees that, he said, creates the feeling that guests are now entering “a resort garden district.” Up to six entry lanes feed into the structure and then increase to 10 lanes up to the parking ticket booths. (Parking is $7 for autos and motorcycles.)

From there, guests are directed by cones and Disney “cast members” to the various parking levels, which are reached via wide outdoor ramps on the side of the structure. Once they reach their designated floor, guests are directed by cast members to their appropriate parking spots.

Disney says this “speed parking” efficiency will be achieved through the combination of high-vehicle capacity at the toll plaza area; the ramp system, which eliminates visitors’ having to drive around each floor; and cast member guidance.

Once parked, guests are directed by signs to a walkway. It leads them to the southeast corner of the structure, where escalators take them down to the Mickey & Friends Tram Station. Trams then drive them to the entrances of the two theme parks and the adjoining Downtown Disney.

When visitors leave the parking structure at the end of the day, vehicle exit ramps take them down an enormous outdoor light well in the center of the structure, which is landscaped with towering bamboo.

Once visitors are outside the structure, signs direct them back to I-5.