Disneyland Scraps their Eastern Gateway Project and Proceeds with Luxury Hotel and Parking Structure

Back in 2016, I wrote about Disney’s plan to add a new luxury hotel to their lineup of Disneyland properties.

Back then, Disney was also proposing the Disneyland Resort Eastern Gateway Project, which would have included a parking structure as well as a pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard (where the Carousel Inn hotel used to be) and pathway along Disney Way. The project would have included a transportation hub with security screening, and would have brought guests right near the ticket booths.

Restaurants and shops along Harbor Blvd complained mightily about the proposed walkway to the city, citing concerns from the perspective of a local community.

Earlier this week, Disney announced that they would be proceeding with the luxury hotel on park property, but would be scrapping the Eastern Gateway Project. Instead, they’ll be building a six-story parking garage on the west side, to help with the constantly increasing influx of visitors.

The 6,500 space parking garage will allow guests to board trams that will whisk them to Downtown Disneyland. For those familiar with the Disneyland parking structures, the new one will be located next to the Mickey & Friends parking structure. The new hotel’s own parking structure will fit almost 2,000 vehicles.

The still yet-unnamed hotel built in “contemporary style” with a resort-feel and water features at the entrance will have 700 guestrooms, two swimming pools, a platform where the Disneyland monorail will stop, and restaurants including a rooftop one with a view of the nightly Disneyland fireworks.

Walkways will connect the new property with Disneyland’s other existing hotels.

If you are wondering where all the space will come from to allow such a large parking garage next to Mickey & Friends, you won’t be surprised to hear that it will require removal of the nearby Rainforest Café, AMC Theaters, Earl of Sandwich, Starbucks, and ESPN Zone to make way for the new garage. It is possible that some of them will be relocated to be somewhere inside of the hotel though it is too soon to get confirmation.

Construction on the hotel will start in the summer of 2018, and is slated to be finished in 2021. The parking garage work is expected to start at the end of 2018 with hopes that it’ll be dine in time for the opening of Star Wars – Galaxy’s Edge in 2019.

Rates are expected to start at around $375 a night, which is down from the originally anticipated $450.