Hotel and ticket questions please help! :)

[a_port90]

Looking for opinions on the walking distance to the park from the Holiday Inns and Suites on Walnut Street?

I have read conflicting reviews from a number of sites with a lot of people saying that it is an easy walk and others have said the shuttle is a better option?

I have never visited Disneyland before so not familiar with the area at all!

Another quick question on getting into the park!

I have purchased our tickets already online and have a copy on my phone as well as a printed ticket, if we head into the park from Downtown Disney are we required to go to the main gate to get tickets?

I apologize if these are silly questions I just want to be prepared!

 

[ParkHopper1]

I have stayed at that HI quite a bit. Figure about 10-15 min walk to the gates....but we are able bodied adults that move quick. You can take the tram from Mickey and Friends, but that may only save you some walking energy...not any quicker time wise especially at peak times. We always walk it. I believe it is on the ART route, but that would probably also take longer than walking.

If you have tickets with bar code, you just preceded right to the gates and they spit out your ticket when you enter. No need to go to a ticket booth first.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

If you decide that you want to take the M&F tram, you aren't allowed to cut through the parking lot anymore as a shortcut. So you would walk all the way to the corner of Disneyland Dr. and Magic Way to enter the walkway to the parking structure to go through bag check, then get on the tram. Bag check is quick at M&F and the trams run often, but as the pp noted, I don't know that going that way would save you any time.

 

[billbillbill]

We got a good deal to stay at this HI a few years ago. The hotel was fine but we were not fans of the walk with strollers and young kids. It was long enough that there was no going back to the room during the day and a dreaded walk after the park closed. As for the walk, there is no cutting corners. You have to walk around the parking structure and construction site, down to the entrance to downtown disney and through it to get to the entrance. By day 3, we started taking the ART shuttle. I know our trip planned this year, we are staying across the street and looking forward to being closer.

 

[Whistlebee]

I’ve never stayed there as it seems so much easier getting to the parks from the Harbor side. Do you have other hotel options?

 

[hlbtimes2]

We stayed there about 6 years ago. Property was ok, but the walk was a bit longer than we prefer. We really like being on the harbor side of the park. We used the ART, but found the scheduled to not be terribly accurate. The rooms, at that time, did not have a fridge in them. We really like the mini fridge for bottles water and soda. Not sure if that has changed or not.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Up side to that Holiday Inn is that while it may be a further walk than Harbor properties, that time can easlily be made up entering security at DTD entrance vs the horrid backup that can happen on the Harbor side security, especially at park opening.