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For those of you who do not know, I am what is called a Disney Adult. Not the annoying type, but Disneyland is one of my favorite places to visit. As an annual pass holder, I go once a month. And regardless of if I am going myself or with friends/family I usually end up the one driving. This part of the process is not fun. My usual process is to wake up at around 5:15am to quickly get ready, grab an energy drink and take off towards Anaheim. I arrive to the McDonald's on Harbor Blvd. at around 6:45am after an hour or so of driving through Los Angeles on the I-5 freeway. I then park at the Toy Story parking lot, for free because of my pass, and take the shuttle to the park. At the end of the day, I drive straight home and that usually takes 1.5 to 2 hours. This drive is the absolute worst. Especially between Anaheim and Los Angeles. The traffic sucks, the drivers suck, being tired after a full day at Disneyland sucks, it's just an awful way to end an otherwise fun day. I am personally a huge public transportation advocate, and dream of the United States to one day transform its infrastructure to be like many European cities that have taken the streets back from cars and returned them to pedestrians, metros, trains, busses, trollies, bikes, and so on. So, I decided to try a car free trip to Disneyland with the limited public transportation that exists in Southern California. So, the rule for my weekend was simple: I could not get into a car with only the exception of getting to and from my local Amtrak station. This is because public transportation is nearly if not literally nonexistent in my suburban town. 

The Journey

My journey began on Saturday afternoon when I got to my local Amtrak station. The Amtrak website said to get to the station 30 minutes early, and so I did. This was my first mistake. This was completely unnecessary, and I would have been just as well arriving 10 minutes early as I was arriving 30 minutes early. The train arrived to my station exactly on time and I promptly boarded the Pacific Surfliner. I rode upstairs since I had a 2-hour ride ahead of me. The train itself was very clean, everyone minded their own business, the workers were incredibly friendly and helpful. The seat was super comfortable. There was on board Wi-Fi available, but I just used my phone's hotspot since I was watching a Twitch stream and the Wi-Fi login page said that video streaming was limited. The train made several 2 or so minute stops on the way south, with one notable exception. When it pulled into the Los Angeles Union Station, the stop was more like 20 minutes. This is I guess when the workers take their breaks/swap shifts. It is also apparently when the snack cart restocks but I did not feel the need to figure that bit out. Either way, after taking off from Union Station, there was only a 5 for so minute ride to the Fullerton station, and from there, 30 or so minutes to Anaheim. So, the train pulled into the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) at around 5:45pm, right across the street from the Angeles stadium. This building is beautiful, it's large, clean, and even has a pretzel stand inside! But I was getting tired and was hungry so I needed to get to my hotel quickly so I can go get dinner. 

At ARTIC there are several bus bays as the OCBus has several routes that pass through there. I needed to get to my Travelodge hotel right on Ball Rd and Disneyland drive, and this is where confusion started setting in. Google Maps had instructed me to take route 50 and then transfer to route 83 to get to the hotel. However, the day of, it changed it to telling me to take route 50 and then transfer to the ART bus on line 11 to also take me to the hotel. So, I followed those instructions and got off at a bus stop to wait for the Ball Rd line to show up. I waited and waited, watching the countdown on a sign go from 10 minutes, to 5, to 1, to Due and then no bus. This went on for a while until I finally saw the Ball Rd bus! But as soon as it turned the corner, it just blasted off. Either I was not standing at the bus stop correctly, or that bus had no intention of stopping there. This was quite unfortunate, and for many reasons I did not want to keep standing at this bus stop. However, moments later I was saved by the OCBus, line 83 just as Google Maps had originally said. Picked me up and we were off. I did almost miss my stop because Google Maps had a false bus stop listed, but luckily the next closest stop was only a 5-minute walk from the hotel. 

Once I checked into the hotel, I just dropped my stuff off, freshened up and was immediately out the door. I had eaten nothing but a bag of my meal plan friendly beef jerky all day and had planned to have dinner in Downtown Disney. My assumption was that I was so close to Downtown Disney that walking there would be no issue. This would have been true if Google Maps did not take me the complete wrong direction. Think of Disney as two concentric circles. The inner circle requires a security check to get through, and the outer one is pretty much the roads and parking lots leading into the resort. Being a pedestrian in the outer circle is an absolute nightmare and navigating into Downtown Disney was completely confusing as there is a huge lack of crosswalks or really any signs. So, the walk took much longer than it needed to, but I eventually made it to Downtown Disney. I am not sure what possessed me to assume I could just waltz into one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world on an August Saturday evening and just quickly find dinner. But I did! The great part of going to these places by yourself is that you fit anywhere. Oh, that restaurant that has been fully booked for days? Come right in! There's a seat at the bar you can go to as long as you are older than 21! So, I ate at the Naples pizza place, the bartender who helped me out was incredibly nice. The food was better than mid but nothing to write home about.

While I was eating, I was watching the Mickey and Friends tram come and go and I started scheming. What if I take that tram to Mickey and Friends, which is on Disneyland Drive and then just walk to Ball Rd where my hotel was? If this could work in this direction, then I can avoid the bus altogether in the morning. So, once I finished eating, I paid for my food and left what I hope was a good tip for how much my food cost and head over to the tram. I hopped on board and quickly found myself at the Mickey and Friends parking lot. At this point I had no idea where to go. This was the only part of the weekend I felt like I might get hit by a car, I was jaywalking all over the place where there was a river of oncoming traffic. After realizing I had gone the complete wrong direction, I found a bridge I could take to walk across Magic Way, and then cross to the pedestrian side of Disneyland Drive. From there, I started my stopwatch, as I had found my route and just needed to time it out. I walked back to the hotel and even picked up a snack at the AMPM next door. It took about 20 minutes total. Not bad at all, and basically the same amount of time the bus would have taken. So that solidified my game plan for the following morning.

Having a hotel room to myself was wonderful, I was able to be as comfortable as I wanted and just watch random bullshit on my tablet until I decided it was time to sleep. I did, however, have a bit of an America™ moment. At around 9:30pm I was bombarded BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. Holy shit! Am I about to die in my underwear in some mid ass hotel room? Until I heard a BOOM SSSHHHH sound when I realized, those were the Disney fireworks. Note, I have stayed at many hotels in this area throughout my life. However, those were all on Katella or were just simply Disney Hotels. These hotels are positioned at a point where you can still hear the fireworks, sure, but the Travelodge was positioned at a point where the noise was unbearable. But of course, the fireworks stopped long before I planned to go to sleep anyways so it was fine at the end. Whoever stayed at the hotel the night before set the alarm to go off at 4am, so that was fun, and I accidentally hit snooze instead of turning off the alarm so 10 minutes later I had another fun awakening. I eventually woke up for real at like 6am, got ready and was out the door.

I wanted to get to Disney before rope drop, so as soon as breakfast was open, I was there so I can check out and go. There was no continental breakfast, only a grab and go breakfast that was mostly just a paper bag of different methods of putting sugar in your body. This would later prove to be an issue for me as I have been on a specific meal plan for the past two months. But I digress, I was eating as I walked down Disneyland Drive and made pretty good time to Mickey and Friends. From there I took the tram to Downtown Disney as if I had driven to Disneyland. I had to bring my overnight bag and clothes with me as I only had the hotel to the prior night. So, in Downtown Disney, I rented out a locker for the day to leave that and just have my backpack with my regular Disney essentials. From there, Disney was normal, I had a great time! Did going on Radiator Springs Racers break my rule?

Regardless, it was eventually time to leave, at around 7:30pm I walked down Harbor to Katella and was immediately picked up by a route 83 OCBus towards ARTIC. Had I gotten to that stop 30 seconds later, I would have missed the buss and had to wait at least 20 or 30 minutes for the next bus to arrive, so I got pretty lucky. On the bus these two guys seemed to be in a heated disagreement and I was half expecting a fight to break out at any point but luckily that did not happen, at least, not before I was dropped off at ARTIC.

I got to ARTIC at around 7:45pm, which was about an hour and 20 minutes before my train was scheduled to pick me up. So, I sat there and waited, the WI-FI at ARTIC was good. The only strange happening there was this guy doing a photoshoot with a bunch of random people, but I did not mind much. From there, the train picked me up, and took me up to LA Union Station. This northbound train was going to make its final stop in Union Station, so anyone on the train had to either get home from there on their own or take a thruway bus. I, of course, opted for the later option. The bus was not as fun as the Surfliner. The seat was uncomfortable, the bus just ended up driving on the freeway anyways, so it was like just driving home normally except having to take a bunch of surface streets through random cities. I eventually made it to my local Amtrak station not long before midnight where my sister picked me up and drove me home.

What I liked

My overall experience of this weekend was overwhelmingly positive. I had an amazing time. My favorite part outside of the park itself was taking the Pacific Surfliner. The train was just so nice, the trip was smooth, the workers were kind, friendly, and helpful. The train itself was safe and comfortable. ARTIC was very nice, I did not mind sitting there for over an hour even a little bit. Union Station was large, and I almost got lost, but it was also clean, well lit, and generally a lot better vibe than I had expected in downtown Los Angeles at 10pm. 

Drawbacks

I was not a fan of the bus. The seats are uncomfortable, there is no one on board to make sure people aren’t being weird or whatever, and the timing is unreliable, confusing, and incredibly inconvenient. You must download like three apps to get around the Disneyland area by bus and none of them have a good way of helping you figure out how to get from the location you are standing to the location you want to be. They are simply a digital bus pass. There are bus stops everywhere but figuring out which bus stop is for which bus system, and which route of that system, and when the bus will bother showing up is just a headache. And as I wrote above, the thruway was also not a great way to get back to town from Union Station. 

What to do Next Time

So, there was plenty of drawbacks to this approach, but I am convinced that the concept is proven: it is possible to have a Disney weekend without using any car except to get to and from your local Amtrak station. However, American infrastructure is simply not built to really make public transportation all that convenient so I will be a lot looser with the rule next time I do this. For example, to go between the hotel and ARTIC I will just take a rideshare. As much as rideshares are not great, having to take an hour to travel like 3 miles was simply not worth it. Also, the hotel choice is incredibly important. Next time, I will stay at a hotel right on Katella or Harbor, close enough to walk to the Toy Story parking lot where I can easily take the ART shuttle to the resort, as it is the only reliable ART line that exists and it’s free. Also, in that area there are a ton of places to eat, so no need to go all the way to Downtown Disney. Lastly, I will be spending two nights in Anaheim instead of one. Arrive the night before the Disney day and spend the following night at the hotel as well. This way, I can take a direct train from Anaheim to my local Amtrak and not worry about getting home so late. I can also go between the park and the hotel freely on the Disney day as I like to take breaks during my Disney days regardless. And lastly, I wouldn’t have to carry my overnight bag in and out of the park. Obviously, this option is much more expensive, but I feel the convenience is well worth the price. But have no illusions, taking the train to Disney is NOT a cost saving option, it’s quite more expensive. You are paying a lot of money and extra time for the convenience of not having to drive to and from Disneyland. I will personally pay that price because I did very much enjoy the trip, but I can understand if most people would rather just drive. I am looking forward to doing this again, that is, if Disney opens up the Magic Key renewals already, come on Disney, what’s up with that?