Getting to Disneyland from Los Angeles via transit (on 4th of July!)
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| Disneyland Railroad locomotive |
Transit to Union Station
First, I need to get to Union Station (I use Metro Rail trains, which I can walk to). Checked the weekend / holiday schedule for, in my case, the Expo sorry, E-line, and the red/purple ... whoops again, sorry, the B-line and D-line. I have a virtual TAP card on my phone (which you can configure to work even with a low battery‡). This portion of the trip will be $1.75 each way.
Working backwards, I want to be at Union Station by 6:45 a.m., so I need to be at 7th Street / Metro Center by 6:37 a.m. to catch the B or D Line train, which means being at my local station about 5:30 a.m. (~60 minutes total travel time to Union Station, ± a few minutes waiting at stations / changing trains). It’s a ~40 minute walk or a ~9 minute bike ride (or a relatively cheap Uber or Lyft) to get there, so, set my alarm for 4 a.m. ...
Amtrak Pacific Surfliner to Anaheim
Then, I need to get from Union Station to Anaheim. I downloaded the Amtrak app onto my iPhone and used it to select tickets on the Pacific Surfliner. Each trip (there and back) is $16 for an unreserved coach seat (would have been $26 each way for business class), and I pre-paid.
There: July 4 7:10 a.m. departure, arrive in Anaheim 7:48 a.m.
Return: 2:10 p.m. departure, arrive back at Union Station 2:57 p.m. (I could have taken a later trip back, 9:10 p.m. (Union Station at 9:57 p.m.) or 11:10 p.m. (11:57 p.m.) (although the last LA Metro trains depart Union Station around 11:30 p.m.), but I have a party to attend at 5:30 p.m. at the marina...)
(A door to door Uber would be about $90 each way, plus tip.)
(It looks like I could have also taken MetroLink? With a holiday schedule for the 4th of July.) With a $10 weekend day ticket? Something to explore for next time... Though it looks like, at least for the weekend trains, the MetroLink trains are the Amtrak trains, and the schedule states that only monthly pass holders can ride at no additional cost.)
To the Parks
The Surfliner will deposit me at the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC), and from there I can take the Anaheim Regional Transportation (ART) (A-Way WeGo phone app) to Disneyland. Here: “You may transfer to the Anaheim Regional Transportation Route 15 bus, which will take you directly to the Disneyland Resort, or you can transfer to the OCTA Bus Route 50 and exit at the Katella-Harbor Blvd. stop with a short walk along Harbor Blvd. (approximately 3 blocks) to the Disneyland Resort.” (Transportation)
I should arrive shortly after rope drop, which will give me at least 5 solid hours in the park before I have to head north for non-Disney festivities.
... And the Reality
I took an Uber to the metro station, got there at 5:28 a.m., on a train by 5:33 a.m. At 6:02 arrived at 7th Street / Metro Center, walked downstairs and by 6:09 a.m. I was on the next train (D line) to Union Station. Got to Union Station at 6:18 a.m. My Amtrak could be leaving from platform 11B in ... 50 minutes(!). Whoops. Grabbed coffee from the Starbucks at the other side of the station (Union Station West).
Boarded at 6:50 a.m. Nice seats. 110V outlets for charging devices. The train left right at 7:10 a.m. I could have used a $10 Metro Link ticket (day pass) or $17.50 for a round trip, but the Metro Link trains run like 1:3 versus the Amtrak trains and I had a tight window, so, the $32 for Amtrak was worth it, I guess. (Gas for my Jeep for a round-trip to Disneyland is about $26 at mid-2024 fuel prices.)
Got to the ARTIC station in Anaheim at 7:47 a.m. Tried to figure out what was what. At 7:58 a.m. I asked for help and was directed to Bay 12/13, to catch the 15 ARTIC Sports Complex bus that, that morning, was purportedly running every 50 minutes. It showed up about 8:30 a.m. (~9 minutes early) and I was the only one waiting; I boarded and it departed! (It was free since I’d come in via Amtrak. I showed the ticket on my phone and that was enough: “You can transfer to either service for free by presenting your valid Amtrak paper ticket or e-Ticket to the bus driver when you board.”)
A note: The A-Way We Go app kinda sucks. If you search for, say, Disneyland, you have to scroll through numerous hyper-specific destinations before you find the buried ★ Disneyland entry, which is what you want:
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| App screenshot |
The bus took about 30 minutes to get me to the parks (8:54 arrival, 8:58 through security, 8:59 in the park, 9:04 a.m. in line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout).
I checked the app periodically to see when the next bus(es) would be leaving. At first it was showing (every 1:15 by late morning) 10:31 and 11:39 departures, so I planned to be back at the transit turn-around by 12:45. By 11:20 the app was showing the next bus back at 12:59, but based on my experience earlier, I planned to be out there earlier than that.
At 12:44 I was on Main Street heading back and checked the app and it now said the next bus would depart at 2:14 p.m.! I prepared myself to take an Uber back to ARTIC if I had to, but decided to see what happened at 12:29 first. At 12:53 the bus arrived and once again I was the only person waiting and once again the bus departed immediately (about 5 minutes early).
It was about a 20 minute trip back to the station, and by 1:10 p.m. I was waiting at ARTIC. Boarded Amtrak at 2:08 p.m. and the train left at 2:11 p.m. and pulled in to L.A. Union Station about 2:40 p.m. Hopped a train to 7th Street / Metro Center, got there about 3:04 p.m. The next train to Santa Monica wouldn’t leave for another 15 minutes ... At 3:18 p.m. I was westbound on the E line, arriving back where I started about 3:45 p.m. Got home just before 4 p.m. (Uber home from the train station.)
The bus “schedule” was infrequent and inconsistent and frankly infuriating, but at least free. Would I do it again? Probably. Would I be happy about it? Not really.
‡ Settings → Wallet & Apple Pay → Express Transit Card, and select the TAP card.
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