How is the surrounding area around/across from DL?

[Mickey_777]

I haven't been to DL since I was 8 and I'll be headed there in a few months and staying off site. I've used GOOGLE to navigate S. Harbor blvd and the other streets surrounding DLR and it reminds me of International Drive in Orlando (lots of hotels and restaurants). So my question is how safe is that area? If I'm walking back to my hotel 3 blocks away after midnight, will there be shady characters around? Thanks much :animwink:

 

[Nicole220]

You'll be fine. You won't be the only one walking on Harbor. There are tons of people that walk to and from the parks. If you were going to be in other parts of Anaheim, that would be a different story. But the area surrounding the DLR is fine.

Edit: I've walked down Harbor at 3am and didn't run into any scary situations. :lol:

 

[Wilt Dasney]

I haven't been to DL since I was 8 and I'll be headed there in a few months and staying off site. I've used GOOGLE to navigate S. Harbor blvd and the other streets surrounding DLR and it reminds me of International Drive in Orlando (lots of hotels and restaurants). So my question is how safe is that area? If I'm walking back to my hotel 3 blocks away after midnight, will there be shady characters around? Thanks much :animwink:

I had a hotel a mile away from DLR on Katella last year which I walked from and to every day. I generally felt very comfortable during the walk, although there is a bus stop at Harbor and Katella where a few...interesting characters congregated (there was a homeless woman with a dog I walked past a few times, and I seem to remember somebody with a shopping cart at the bus stop). I'm sure there was no danger, but I would generally just keep walking without making eye contact or cut behind the bus stop through an adjacent parking lot.

Other than that, the area seemed very nice to me. Although I never was out after midnight!

 

[Laura]

Other than that, the area seemed very nice to me. Although I never was out after midnight!

I have been out alone around there after midnight when I have parked in the Pumba lot and I was scared to death. :lol: I stick with Mickey & Friends now.

 

[Mickey_777]

Good deal. It looks safe and all but it's always good to get an opinion of somebody who's been. Thanks guys/gals.

On another note, how quick is the walk to Dowtown Disney from South Harbor?

 

[sponono88]

I've walked from DL to the Cast Member parking lot that's behind GardenWalk. Past midnight, never noticed anything particularly shady :shrug:

 

[EpcotServo]

I love the Harbor Blvd. area around Disneyland. Never had any problems.

 

[TP2000]

I've never had any problems, or seen anything particularly dangerous looking, late at night along Harbor or Katella in the Resort District.

They spruced up all the surface streets around Disneyland 10 years ago as part of the DCA expansion, but in many areas you can still see that the bones of the place are rooted in 1960's motor inns and coffee shops, and so it's not the most luxurious and lavish area in the world. But it's nicely landscaped and well lit, and very clean and very safe.

Here's Harbor Blvd. adjacent to Disneyland in 1966 (Disneyland's parking lot is immediately on the left in this picture)

No wonder Walt spent '66 plotting out WDW!

Here's roughly the same stretch of Harbor Blvd. today. That Denny's is the exact same one seen in the 1966 picture, except with a new exterior and no big sign anymore. I have it on good authority that they are still using the same french fry oil from '66 however.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Here's Harbor Blvd. adjacent to Disneyland in 1966 (Disneyland's parking lot is immediately on the left in this picture)

No wonder Walt spent '66 plotting out WDW!

Yuck. What an eyesore. No wonder Walt felt like he needed more land.

I couldn't understand why people were so hard on the "real world" surrounding DL during my trip; that explains it. The "real world" looks a lot nicer these days. It's too bad Walt never saw a resort in California or Florida that wasn't surrounded by visual garbage.

 

[TP2000]

Yuck. What an eyesore. No wonder Walt felt like he needed more land.

I couldn't understand why people were so hard on the "real world" surrounding DL during my trip; that explains it. The "real world" looks a lot nicer these days. It's too bad Walt never saw a resort in California or Florida that wasn't surrounded by visual garbage.

To be fair, the streets around Disneyland were at their very ugliest and most garish by 1966.

In 1967, a few months after Walt died, the city of Anaheim began a beautification campaign on Harbor and Katella that buried the utilities, removed the telephone poles, and added some landscaping along the medians and widened the sidewalks. By the late 1960's the same stretch of Harbor Blvd. looked like this...

It wasn't until the big Resort District makeover of 1998-2000 that Anaheim got serious about uniform signage and street furniture, very expensive and thorough landscaping, zoning requirements on facades and structures, etc. The end result in 2010 is rather pleasant for the most part.

 

[TP2000]

I couldn't understand why people were so hard on the "real world" surrounding DL during my trip; that explains it. The "real world" looks a lot nicer these days.

Between you, me, and the Internet, I have developed a theory on this after visiting online Disney theme park fan communities for the past 13 years.

The people who decry how the Denny's and IHOP on Harbor Blvd. really put a damper on their Disneyland vacation are generally folks from back East who primarily visit WDW. They are grabbing at straws to try and pretend that Denny's simple existence on Harbor Blvd. somehow made their trip on Pirates of the Caribbean less magical, or their bobsled race down the icy slopes of the Matterhorn less thrilling.

It's now become just one of those tired yet easy things many WDW regulars think they are supposed to say about their first visit to Disneyland.

Myself? I'm a fan of SoCal's disappearing Googie architecture. And Anaheim in the 1960's, 70's and 80's offered up some of the best examples of it. I fear that in the race to be a "resort" with uniform signage and uniform streetscapes, that Anaheim has given up some of its personality and replaced the Googie with bland and oh-so-tasteful beige stucco and river rock accent walls and LED fashion lighting in dozens of cloned palm trees. It could be Desert Hot Springs or Mission Viejo or La Jolla or Newport Beach, or maybe even Anaheim.

It wouldn't hurt if Anaheim still had a bit of this kind of zip and funky Googie-a-go-go style on the streets around Disneyland!

There's very, very little Googie left in Anaheim.

 

[Rufus T Firefly]

Ah yes. Remember the good old Melodyland Theatre?

 

[Wilt Dasney]

^ TP, you are a wealth of interesting tidbits and visuals sometimes. :lol:

I can't say I'd prefer to see that kind of architecture and signage around DL, but I can definitely see the romance and sense of excitement behind that Atomic Age style of building. Very fun pictures of Americana there!

 

[sponono88]

To be fair, the streets around Disneyland were at their very ugliest and most garish by 1966.

In 1967, a few months after Walt died, the city of Anaheim began a beautification campaign on Harbor and Katella that buried the utilities, removed the telephone poles, and added some landscaping along the medians and widened the sidewalks. By the late 1960's the same stretch of Harbor Blvd. looked like this...

Ahh, I love this shot. Classic Disneyland. The Matterhorn peak in the distance..

 

[Mickey_777]

Those photos are great...thanks for sharing. The place has really cleaned up nicely

 

[Wilt Dasney]

On another note, how quick is the walk to Dowtown Disney from South Harbor?

Meant to respond to this yesterday. If you're on Harbor Blvd. north of Katella, you're probably looking at around 15 minutes or less from hotel room to DLR's central plaza. South of Katella will be a little longer.

My walk took me down Harbor, then left onto Katella for less than a block, and was consistently right at 20 minutes.