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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2002 |
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If you’re staying at the Yester Paradise Pier Hotel, you can enter and exit Yester California Adventure through a private entrance. This hidden gate is exclusively for Paradise Pier Hotel guests. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Private entrance (lower left corner) and Paradise Pier Hotel |
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The Paradise Pier Hotel is instantly recognizable by the wave cornice which crowns the 502-room hotel. The private entrance has the same wave pattern in the same colors. But how do you get from the hotel to the private entrance? And where does it put you at California Adventure? |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Walkway between a parking lot and a wall |
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Walk out the front door to the Paradise Pier Hotel to the sidewalk along Disneyland Drive (formerly West Street). Cross Disneyland Drive at the crosswalk, as though you’re going to Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. Instead of continuing to the Grand Californian, follow signs to a walkway that passes south of the huge American Arts and Crafts style hotel. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Private entrance (lower left) |
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It’s not a particularly “magical” walkway. There’s a tall wall at your right and a parking lot to your left. California Adventure is on the other side of the wall, but you’ll have to walk further before you’re able to enter the park. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Closer look at private entrance |
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Eventually, you’ll reach a small gate with a few turnstiles. Be sure to have your room key card, or you’ll be turned away. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Private entrance (bottom) |
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When you enter the park, you’ll be between Corn Dog Castle and Souvenir 66 in the Route 66 section of Paradise Pier. Make a note of that. Otherwise you may have trouble finding the exit when it’s time to leave. By the way, Dinosaur Jack says “hi” if you view the Sunglass Shack from the correct angle. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Between Corn Dog Castle and Souvenir 66 |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2002 Last-minute souvenir shopping near the exit (left) |
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After a day at the California-themed park, it’s time to go back to the Paradise Pier Hotel. You’ll exit where you came in. Souvenir 66 is on your right for your last-minute shopping, just as Greetings from California is on the right when guests exit through the main entrance plaza and the Disneyland Emporium is on the right when guests exit from Disneyland Park. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, September 9, 2001 Just around the corner from Souvenir 66 |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 11, 2001 Private exit |
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It’s not a busy gate. Not many people use it. But it’s a much shorter walk than exiting through the main entrance plaza, past the 11-foot CALIFORNIA letters, through the entire length of Downtown Disney, and finally south to the Paradise Pier Hotel. It’s also shorter than exiting through the private entrance for the Grand Californian. Enjoy this benefit of staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel! | |||
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The hotel that became Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel originally opened in 1984 as the Emerald of Anaheim Hotel, a part of the Emerald/Pan Pacific Group owned by the Japanese conglomerate Tokyu Corp. Five years later, the hotel’s name changed to the Pan Pacific Hotel. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2000 Disneyland Pacific Hotel before conversion to the Paradise Pier theme |
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In December 1995, The Walt Disney Company purchased the strategically-located hotel and took over operations. It became the Disneyland Pacific Hotel. In January 1998, the Disneyland parking lot, located across the street from the hotel, became the construction site for Disney’s California Adventure. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2000 Disneyland Pacific Hotel sign on the side of the 15-story tower |
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Being directly across the street, the high-rise hotel would be visible from inside the new park. It was so close that a wall or berm would not be able to hide it. The solution was to tie the hotel into the theme of the park’s Paradise Pier section. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001 Very visible from the park |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2000 No longer the Disneyland Pacific Hotel |
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On November 1, 2000, the Disneyland Pacific Hotel became Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. The exterior had a new color scheme and a playful cornice with waves. The cosmetic change did not evoke “the heyday of the great seaside amusement park piers,” but at least it looked less like an airport hotel from the 1980s. And, for the most part, Paradise Pier itself, in its original incarnation, didn’t evoke the early 20th century either. A Disneyland Resort press release in December 2000 announced that the newly-renamed hotel would have a private entrance gate into the new park: The hotel’s premier location overlooking Paradise Pier, one of the most dynamic and colorful sections of the new Disney’s California Adventure theme park, makes the hotel’s name and theme a natural fit. Additionally, guests of Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel will enjoy the exclusive benefit of a private entrance into Paradise Pier in the all-new Disney’s California Adventure. California Adventure’s “third entrance gate” remained in use for only three and a half years. It closed permanently at the end of September 6, 2004. Effective the next day, Paradise Pier Hotel guests going to California Adventure had to use the park’s main entrance or the Grand Californian entrance. The former private entrance became a passage to backstage, restricted to “Cast Members Only.” The parking lot and large grass area in the photos from 2001 were eliminated with the construction of the Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, which opened in September 2009. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel behind the Paradise Garden Grill |
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On June 23, 2018, Paradise Pier at Disney California Adventure was split into two lands, Pixar Pier and Paradise Gardens Park—with the hotel overlooking the latter. Although there was no longer a land called Paradise Pier, Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel retained its name and decor. |
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Concept Art Only © Disney/Pixar Pixar Place Hotel concept art |
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It took almost four years for a new name and new theme to be announced. On April 28, 2022, the Disney Parks Blog shared the news that Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel would be transformed into the Pixar Place Hotel. There would no longer be a cornice with waves. Pixar iconography would replace the California surf iconography. The new theme was overdue, but it wasn’t a surprise. But then, in early June 2022, something genuinely surprising happened… the Paradise Pier Hotel’s private gate into Disney California Adventure reopened. It’s unusual for anything to “return from Yesterland” after almost 18 years! |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2022 Private Entrance for Paradise Pier Hotel guests, 2022 edition |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2022 Temporary sign |
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The reopened private entrance is at Paradise Gardens Park between Corn Dog Castle and Seaside Souvenirs (the former Souvenir 66). It’s the same location as before, although the surroundings have changed. The entrance looks completely different. And it looks temporary. In this case, ”temporary” is unlikely to mean that it will close again any time soon. It just means it was too soon to build a new portal themed to the Pixar Place Hotel. While Paradise Pier Hotel guests deal with the disruptions and inconvenience caused by work on the hotel’s transformation, they will at least be able to enjoy the convenience of the private entrance. The walk from Disneyland Drive to the private entrance has improved dramatically. Instead on a straight line between a wall and a backstage parking lot, it now meanders through the lovely landscaping that separates the Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel from Disney California Adventure. |
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© 2022 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated Nov. 18, 2022 |
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