Hi Ellen!
Welcome to planDisney! Thank you for sending this
Disneyland Resort vacation planning question to us hEAR. I'm happy to be your planEAR today!
This is an excellent question, Ellen. If you're like me (I'm not fast, just furious) the average walking time of 13 minutes does nothing for you in terms of understanding the distance between
Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel and The Esplanade where you'll find the entrance to both
Disneyland Resort as well as
Disney California Adventure Park. Some "Luke Roadwalkers" can make the trek in 8 minutes, and other walkie-talkies need half an hour. But have no fear because I'm hEAR with training heels. According to Google maps, the official distance is 0.65 a mile. That can be quite the walk-and-stroll, depending on a few different factors.
I don't want you to get scrambled legs, so I do think that you should go to Google maps and look up the walk, Ellen, as the route isn't as direct as "walk out the front door and turn left"; it's actually "walk out the back exit to the parking garage, turn right, follow the sidewalk through the roundabout past the
Disneyland Hotel and enter at the very west end of the
Downtown Disney District." This is where you'll also go through a security and bag check. To get a better sense of this track yourself, Google 'Disneyland Park', and then when the results screen pops up, click the map view. From here, click 'Directions' and then in the "from" field, type in Paradise Pier Hotel. Lastly, make sure you tap the walking person icon, and you'll be shown the exact path to follow.
If you're a 'new kid on the walk' to all things Disneyland Resort, there is a second way that takes the walkaholics directly to a side entrance of
Disney California Adventure Park, which is to cut through
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. In this case, you
will exit the front entrance of the Paradise Pier Hotel and turn left on the sidewalk. You'll cross the street at the Paradise Way light and make your way to the guarded entrance booth of the Grand Californian Hotel. You will need to show your Disneyland Resort Hotel room key as this route is only for Mickey's best pals. Once inside the lobby, head towards the pools. From here you'll make your way around the ground level towards the
GCH Craftsman Bar which is where you'll find the side entrance to the theme park complete with its own security and bag check set up.
I also don't want you to be stuck between a walk and a hard place either, Ellen. Just in case you should need it, know that
ScooterBug Anaheim is Disneyland's preferred vendor of mobility scooter and stroller rentals. They'll drop your rental off and even pick it back up from your hotel's Bell Services counter so you can grab your gear and go vs. you needing to wait around for the delivery.
I hope that all of this walkie talk doesn't leave you chafing the dream, Ellen! I promise it's not that bad. Thank you again for reaching out to us hEAR at planDisney! Be sure to find us on
Instagram. And if you have any more questions, We're All Ears!
~Kristen N.