This thread is made to raise awareness of Anaheim's GardenWalk.
I went to Wondercon at the Convention Center this past weekend and parked over at GardenWalk. GardenWalk is the outdoor mall across the street from Disney's Toy Story parking lot on Katella. It is basically a cement canyon with three levels and a giant hotel on one side with rooms looking down at you. You can constantly walking up hill from street level. Most of the restaurants are at street level and seem to be doing okay.
GardenWalk has three levels themed to the sea, land and sky. The land floor you are surrounded by a cement canyon with fake grass with weeds growing out of it and fake plants. Most of the shops are closed and empty and there are very few customers. Even the iphone repair booth outside is closed. There is chipped paint pretty much everywhere. The shops are strange because they are mostly tourist trap nic nak stuff selling rip off Disney stuff. There are no clothing stores. Most of what is remaining is really weird. There are at least two stories that are filled with gumball machines that sell little bubble toys. There is an "arcade" with ticket claw games. There is a Ride Makers build-an-RC car that was doing pretty well. However, there is a year round Halloween maze with a monster over the door that is abandoned. There is a kids birthday party place. It is similar to a McDonalds playland with hamster tunnels and ball pits. There were a lot of people in there for a few parties. I guess they sell pizza for the parties.
The first floor is themed to the sea with video walls around the support pillars showing swimming fish. I didn't see any shops down there since it was deserted and a little creepy. The bowling ally was down there and looked completely abandoned. No one was bowling and I saw no employees.
The third floor has more closed shops, a dead AMC and House of Blues. There is a sign that says the food court is open but there is a ton of construction in front of it. As I walked over to it, I passed people selling fruit and vegetables in an outdoor market similar to what I would see in poor sections of Chino before the cops shut them down for not having a business license. I'm not sure if they are suppose to be there since there is no signage of an event. The food court has no corporate stores like Taco Bell, Subway or even Panda Express. There isn't even a Hotdog on a Stick. It is just weird stores selling strange Asian or Mexican food. Most of them are closed. The others seemed a little sketchy.
All in all, the place feels like it is falling apart. I saw no mall employees or security and there are very few people. It is clean though but who wants to go to an outdoor mall where your hiking up hill the entire time with minimum theming? The most busy place was the parking garage.
I went to Wondercon at the Convention Center this past weekend and parked over at GardenWalk. GardenWalk is the outdoor mall across the street from Disney's Toy Story parking lot on Katella. It is basically a cement canyon with three levels and a giant hotel on one side with rooms looking down at you. You can constantly walking up hill from street level. Most of the restaurants are at street level and seem to be doing okay.
GardenWalk has three levels themed to the sea, land and sky. The land floor you are surrounded by a cement canyon with fake grass with weeds growing out of it and fake plants. Most of the shops are closed and empty and there are very few customers. Even the iphone repair booth outside is closed. There is chipped paint pretty much everywhere. The shops are strange because they are mostly tourist trap nic nak stuff selling rip off Disney stuff. There are no clothing stores. Most of what is remaining is really weird. There are at least two stories that are filled with gumball machines that sell little bubble toys. There is an "arcade" with ticket claw games. There is a Ride Makers build-an-RC car that was doing pretty well. However, there is a year round Halloween maze with a monster over the door that is abandoned. There is a kids birthday party place. It is similar to a McDonalds playland with hamster tunnels and ball pits. There were a lot of people in there for a few parties. I guess they sell pizza for the parties.
The first floor is themed to the sea with video walls around the support pillars showing swimming fish. I didn't see any shops down there since it was deserted and a little creepy. The bowling ally was down there and looked completely abandoned. No one was bowling and I saw no employees.
The third floor has more closed shops, a dead AMC and House of Blues. There is a sign that says the food court is open but there is a ton of construction in front of it. As I walked over to it, I passed people selling fruit and vegetables in an outdoor market similar to what I would see in poor sections of Chino before the cops shut them down for not having a business license. I'm not sure if they are suppose to be there since there is no signage of an event. The food court has no corporate stores like Taco Bell, Subway or even Panda Express. There isn't even a Hotdog on a Stick. It is just weird stores selling strange Asian or Mexican food. Most of them are closed. The others seemed a little sketchy.
All in all, the place feels like it is falling apart. I saw no mall employees or security and there are very few people. It is clean though but who wants to go to an outdoor mall where your hiking up hill the entire time with minimum theming? The most busy place was the parking garage.
