I suppose wereally have Universal Studios to blame for this… really, we do.
Years ago Universal decided they could better utilize the land that there parking lot was on by building a virtual city with stores lining the entire walkway leading up to Universal Studios. They dubbed it the Universal City Walk, sold retail space in it, and paved the way to amusement park expansion innovation.
Disney has certainly followed that lead and even extended it. I won’t go into the travesty they have created with Disney’s California Adventure (OK, I didn’t even go in it but I probably won’t… I flat out refuse to). What I will comment on is the great Downtown Disney they have created in the wake of the success of the Universal City walk.
The first thing that I noticed about Downton Disney was the new big parking structure. OK, this isn’t exactly part of Downtown Disney itself, but I will say that Disney certainly has spent a pretty penny in coming up with enough parking to accomodate the masses in a very fine parking structure. Let’s move on.
If you park in the aforementioned parking structure you can take a tram that drops you off right at Downtown Disney.When we came riding up to Downtown Disney I noticed that we were coming up along the back side of the Disney owned Pan Pacific Hotel (which is adjacent to thefamous Disneyland hotel). Now this dissoriented the hell out of me because my memoryup to this point remembered these hotels being across the street from the theme park. That’s right folks, Disneyland is so popular they were able to have an entire street diverted to accomodate their new parking structure and Downtown Disney walk (I might also add in at this point before I forget that all the money put in to this for some reason makes me think about all the recent layoffs the Disney corporation has had).
One of the coolest things I saw about Downtown Disney is that at its far end there is an access station for the parksmonorail. I don’t know what allows you access to this tram, whether your pass to get in is allowed or if it is only for re-entry and Pan Pacific/Disneyland Hotel guests, but this is a really cool feature if the family has stepped out of the park to eat at one of the many resteraunts in Downtown Disney and just want to take a lift right back in to the park. I will ride the Monorail one day, I swear.
Downtown Disney also features a big ass Disney Store as well as many fine resteraunts and stores (the House of Blues caught my eye). Since Downtown Disney is free it is an interesting exploration into commerce. Check it out if you can.
That’s it for today.
-WW