New Back Entrance to DCA?

[NorCalFanatic]

If we are staying at the Villas at the Disneyland Hotel will this gate open with our room key or is it exclusively for Pixar & Grand Californian Hotel guests.

We just stayed VDH and used the gate as recently as Saturday. It’s great! Exit out the villas cut through the frontier tower, walk down Paradise and cross the street. Depending on the light (and line at security but there’s almost no line ever) you’ll be in the park in 5-7 mins.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

We just stayed VDH and used the gate as recently as Saturday. It’s great! Exit out the villas cut through the frontier tower, walk down Paradise and cross the street. Depending on the light (and line at security but there’s almost no line ever) you’ll be in the park in 5-7 mins.

Oh nice - that's faster than I thought!

 

[StarlitNight05]

We just stayed VDH and used the gate as recently as Saturday. It’s great! Exit out the villas cut through the frontier tower, walk down Paradise and cross the street. Depending on the light (and line at security but there’s almost no line ever) you’ll be in the park in 5-7 mins.

Awesome, can't wait! I'll be staying at VDH the end of the month!

 

[NorCalFanatic]

Oh nice - that's faster than I thought!

I usually time various walk times from VDH/DLR for all those who complain about it being SO FAR from DLH/VDH. For example….it’s 17 mins from tomorrow land monorail entry to the DLH security gates or it’s 25 mins from ROTR exit to the DLH security gates…..and I’m 50ish with bad knees so I’m not speed walking it.

 

[PirateBrigade]

I want to reiterate how much I love this entrance. DVC/VGC guests on the first floor in rooms 1520 & 1522 are literally 35 feet from their sliding door patio to the entrance of DCA.

I haven't measured, but I actually do not think there is a closer distance from literal bed to turnstiles in any of the Disney parks worldwide. I think even MiraCosta inside DisneySea is more than 35 feet from the closest room to park entrance.

 

[AquaDame]

I want to reiterate how much I love this entrance. DVC/VGC guests on the first floor in rooms 1520 & 1522 are literally 35 feet from their sliding door patio to the entrance of DCA.

I haven't measured, but I actually do not think there is a closer distance from literal bed to turnstiles in any of the Disney parks worldwide. I think even MiraCosta inside DisneySea is more than 35 feet from the closest room to park entrance.

OK but does it get loud...? Oh who am I kidding, we're up and ready to go anyway.

I'm certain we'll use this entry to hustle down to Midway first thing - my husband loves it.

 

[DonnerB]

OK but does it get loud...? Oh who am I kidding, we're up and ready to go anyway.

I'm certain we'll use this entry to hustle down to Midway first thing - my husband loves it.

I’ve been in 1502 and 1510 in the last year (so closer to the actual entrance/further from the exit of the VGC wing by the grills). Maybe I was just exhausted from park days, but neither of these were loud to me .

 

[kristensideaoffun]

Well, I would hope you could get out without a key, otherwise, it would be the Graybar Hotel.

Anyway, I never said you can't go OUT through the gate, simply said that you can't enter Grand Californian as a pedestrian without having a room key, meaning neither entry to DCA is accessible from Disneyland Drive (the front entrance to the hotel). If you're standing out on Disneyland Drive (say, as a guest at the Westin), the only way into DCA is through Downtown Disney to the Esplanade, or Downtown Disney then through the Grand Cal lobby. You can definitely walk out to go to Great Maple, but if you don't have a room key, you'll need to have someone open the gate for you to get back in to Grand Cal.

The post I was responding to read:

And I was simply adding that for anyone trying to walk in off the street, you need a key to get IN through both pedestrian gates (the Pixar Place DCA gate, as well as the sidewalk gate into Grand Cal).

You can also use the entrance if you have a dining reservation at GCH. You just tell the CM at the guard shack that you have a reservation and they will buzz you through. I’ve never had the CM check my reservation, but other posters on this board have been asked for their reservation details and the CM looked it up to make sure they were just cutting through.

 

[Porsche4]

We just stayed VDH and used the gate as recently as Saturday. It’s great! Exit out the villas cut through the frontier tower, walk down Paradise and cross the street. Depending on the light (and line at security but there’s almost no line ever) you’ll be in the park in 5-7 mins.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Did you do early entry or rope drop from there or just enter the park later in the day?

 

[NorCalFanatic]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Did you do early entry or rope drop from there or just enter the park later in the day?

We haven’t done rope drop there yet. We usually use the DGC entrance for early entry as we’re heading towards Guardians and Webslingers first and that location is closer. For the rest of the day though we use it to come and go.

 

[StarlitNight05]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Did you do early entry or rope drop from there or just enter the park later in the day?

I'm going at the end of the month and plan on using this entrance for early entry to DCA (hopefully) and also later in the day. I'll report back on my experience!

 

[NorCalFanatic]

I'm going at the end of the month and plan on using this entrance for early entry to DCA (hopefully) and also later in the day. I'll report back on my experience!

Look forward to hearing it! We’ve been curious about using it for early entry

 

[Porsche4]

I'm going at the end of the month and plan on using this entrance for early entry to DCA (hopefully) and also later in the day. I'll report back on my experience!

Oh thanks so much that would be super helpful. Hope you have a great trip.

 

[AZMermaid]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Did you do early entry or rope drop from there or just enter the park later in the day?

We went in twice today. Both times we were the only people using it. The first was about 5-10 min before the end of EE and we walked right in. We basically just wanted to start our Genie day so we walked around and had breakfast at Craftsman in the hotel. Then we went back in at 9:30.

We did EE last year from here and were early. They held us at the entrance and then let us go at the right time. There were maybe 40 people there, but it was super new at that time.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

In March we will be returning a rental car at the Paradise Pier/Pixar hotel, our drop off time for the car is 8am. Will we be able to use the back door entrance to DCA from there? We aren't staying at a Disney resort, just dropping a car off, so I understand if we can't use it just hoping to I guess.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

In March we will be returning a rental car at the Paradise Pier/Pixar hotel, our drop off time for the car is 8am. Will we be able to use the back door entrance to DCA from there? We aren't staying at a Disney resort, just dropping a car off, so I understand if we can't use it just hoping to I guess.

You need a Hotel key to open the gate. Or you could stand there and wait until someone else goes through and follow them.

 

[ThreeMountains]

Can anyone show me on a map exactly where this entrance is? I've been looking but haven't seen one. Just curious.

 

[wench]

Can anyone show me on a map exactly where this entrance is? I've been looking but haven't seen one. Just curious.

 

[ThreeMountains]

View attachment 825903

Oh nice, thanks! That's about where I thought. Didn't realize they showed it in the app.

 

[roxy72]

Slightly unrelated, but does anyone know what is going on with new DVC work in the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area? My husband was in DCA today and he took a picture of a sign that said "Pardon our pixie dust, we have Disney Vacation Club magic coming soon". However, this was INSIDE the park nearby Grizzly River Run. Is anyone familiar with this work? Maybe it's related to the Grand California DVC villas which are nearby?