SANTA ANA, Calif. Disneyland visitors looking to save a few steps at the beginning or end of the day can jump aboard the Monorail before the park opens or when the park closes now that the “highway in the sky” is once again offering early morning and late night service.
The Disneyland Monorail has resumed evening service for the first time since the pandemic closure of the Anaheim theme park in March 2020.
The transportation attraction that runs between the Anaheim theme park and the hotel hub on the west side of the resort begins running 30 minutes before Disneyland opens each day for Disney hotel visitors eligible for early park entry and closes with Disneyland each night.
Early Entry privileges starting 30 minutes before the opening each day of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure began last week for guests at the Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. Disneyland and DCA typically open at 8 a.m. — which means Disney hotel guests will be able to get into the parks starting at 7:30 a.m. most days.
The Disneyland Monorail returned to operation in October with reduced operating hours as part of the phased reopening of the theme park resort following a yearlong coronavirus closure.
Since returning to operation, the Monorail has closed most days in the early evening before sunset as Disneyland ramped up attendance and staffing levels during the phased reopening of the parks. The Monorail trains — which lack air conditioning — also don’t run on particularly hot days.
During normal operating hours, you’ll need your ticket or annual pass and a theme park reservation to hop on the Monorail at the Downtown Disney entrance and bypass the front gate on your way to the Tomorrowland station. Hotel guests with Early Entry privileges board 30 minutes prior to park opening.
The Monorail also offers a respite at the end of the day for hotel guests with aching feet or park visitors who want to skip the parking lot tram and walk the last leg from the Downtown Disney station to the Mickey and Friends and Pixar Pals parking garages.
The “highway in the sky” offers aerial views of Tomorrowland and Fantasyland in Disneyland and a quick peek at Buena Vista Street in Disney California Adventure on its circuitous route that includes a Downtown Disney stop near the Disneyland Hotel.
The Monorail debuted in 1959 along with the Matterhorn Bobsleds and what is today known as Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage as part of the first wave of E-Ticket attractions. At the time, the theme park attraction and transportation system were the first daily operating monorail in the Western hemisphere.
U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon helped usher in the E-Ticket era of Disneyland on June 14, 1959, during a daylong celebration that was nationally televised on ABC and hosted by Art Linkletter.
A monorail system was envisioned for Tomorrowland with the 1955 debut of Disneyland, but Walt Disney was unsatisfied with the design options at the time. The unique straddle-beam track from Germany’s Alweg Corp. was the perfect solution. Disney loved the monorail’s nearly noiseless operation delivered thanks to a combination of electric propulsion and rubber wheels on the beam.
Disney called the new monorail attraction a “prototype of a rapid transit system which may solve many of the traffic problems of our modern day” in a May 1959 personal letter to Nixon.
The trains on the 8/10-mile beamway around Tomorrowland didn’t take you anywhere until 1961 when the track length more than doubled to incorporate a Disneyland Hotel stop.
The track route was diverted in 1994 to accommodate Indiana Jones Adventure and in 1999 to make room for Disney California Adventure, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Downtown Disney. The latest Mark VII trains first debuted in 2008.
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