Disneyland plans to open a new parking lot months ahead of schedule as summer crowds descend on the highly anticipated Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge despite a wetter-than-usual rainy season that hasn’t significantly slowed construction .
The 6,500-space Pixar Pals parking structure is expected to open between late June and late July, months ahead of the September opening of the new garage, according to Disneyland officials.
“We are thrilled to have made improvements to this,” said Disneyland Vice President Kris Theiler. “It’s currently planned for the end of July, but we are working very, very hard with the contractors. We are optimistic that we will be able to bring this forward until the end of June. »
Galaxy’s Edge opens May 31 for a “soft opening” reservation period only. Star Wars fans wanting to explore the new 14-acre themed land between May 31 and June 23 will need a Disneyland ticket and a free advance reservation that grants access to Galaxy’s Edge.
The new Pixar Pals parking lot is under construction next to the 10,000-space Mickey and Friends parking lot. A new pedestrian bridge connecting the two parking structures to Downtown Disney is expected to open in mid-September, Disneyland officials said.
Disneyland also plans to open 2,150 additional visitor parking spaces on the Toy Story grounds by the end of June. Visitors will pass through a new security bag check area on the Toy Story grounds before boarding buses to the main gate plaza between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
The Katella Cast Member car park will become the Bullseye visitor car park. Employee parking will be moved to the Pumba parking lot.
Toll lanes and additional parking spaces in the two garages will increase capacity by 50%, officials said. The upgrades will add 16 parking toll lanes, 33 security bag check lanes and electronic parking sensors in both structures.
The addition of the Pixar Pals Garage should drastically reduce the need to redirect cars arriving at the Mickey and Friends parking lot to the Toy Story parking lot, a time-consuming hassle that has plagued Disneyland visitors.
The new $100 million parking structure will feature six levels named after Pixar characters: The Incredibles (level 1), Coco (level 2), Cars (level 3), Monsters Inc. (level 4), Finding Nemo (level 5) and Inside. Exit (level 6).
The new parking lot improvements are part of a Disneyland initiative called Project Stardust, which is taking a comprehensive look at park-wide operations, infrastructure and crowd management with the goal of improving efficiency, traffic and access.