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LibertyCall
01-10-2007, 09:48 AM
I'd always wanted to stay there as a kid, and I still do, but I think being able to hop on the monorail right there would be a huge incentive to spend the extra money to stay there.

As it is, all that extra money and still not being a shorter walk than Hojo's has kept me from doing it.

I'm sure there must be something that made it an impossibility. I mean other than the designers *wanting* everyone to have to walk through DTD to get back to the hotel.

Wendi
01-10-2007, 09:53 AM
The monorail stops in the exact same location it always did. The Disneyland Hotel simply shrunk in order to add DTD. There used to be more grounds and one-level hotel rooms in that area.

Malcon10t
01-10-2007, 10:13 AM
It goes to the same location, they moved the hotel! (I love that line.) Well, it went to the shopping area and the Monorail Cafe and near the bungalows of the Hotel, and they ripped all that down to make way for the expansion. But it stops in the same place it always did.

LibertyCall
01-10-2007, 10:32 AM
Ok, I see. I just remember it stopping right next to a building, and as a kid, I just assumed that was the hotel.

hbquikcomjamesl
01-10-2007, 11:24 AM
The building that used to be there used to be part of the hotel.

backsthepack
01-10-2007, 11:27 AM
I loved that as a kid as well! I was in shock the first time I went back as an adult and it wasn't like that any longer. Though, I like you, thought that they had moved the track. :confused:

Mark Mywords
01-10-2007, 02:05 PM
Here's a good before and after photo (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showpost.php?p=695281&postcount=45)

DisneylandForever
01-10-2007, 02:10 PM
Here's a good before and after photo (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showpost.php?p=695281&postcount=45)

Great pic!

I miss the old DLH. I can't remember the name of that shop on the corner, but it was awesome! And the Monorail Cafe, Small World toys, the sports store next to it, the Neon Cactus, Atari Adventure!

Sigh.

FMTX
01-10-2007, 02:56 PM
Great pic!

I miss the old DLH. I can't remember the name of that shop on the corner, but it was awesome! And the Monorail Cafe, Small World toys, the sports store next to it, the Neon Cactus, Atari Adventure!

Sigh.

Did they replace those rooms they lost somewhere else Paradise Pear? Also cool commercial.

Tinkermommy
01-10-2007, 03:03 PM
Thank you for posting the pictures! We stayed at the DLH for the first time when my daughter was a pre-schooler, and I thought I remembered boarding the monorail right off the lobby. DTD and California Adventure were under construction, and our room looked over one of the construction sites.

Back then, we weren't the Disney freaks we are now, and we didn't start going regularly until 2-3 years later. I've never quite been able to figure out how all that was possible, and where our tower was. Now it makes sense!

Opus1guy
01-10-2007, 03:21 PM
Here's a good before and after photo (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showpost.php?p=695281&postcount=45)
And here's a really "before" picture...showing the building before the Monorail Station was tacked on:

http://members.aol.com/opus1guy/uploads/dlhtravelport.jpg

:)

Klutch
01-10-2007, 03:37 PM
I've been looking for a photo like that for awhile. Unfortunately, it's a little small. Does anyone know where I could see a larger example of that picture, or a similar picture?

What throws most people off is the monorail used to go over a public road; West Street. That street is now Disneyland drive and is no longer a public thoroughfare.

I grew up in East Garden Grove. It was always exciting to drive by Disneyland in the back seat of my mom's old Chevy and watch the monorail go by. Yes, it was indeed very magic. :)

nightdesigns
01-10-2007, 04:38 PM
Here is a pretty detailed article about the end of the original Disneyland Hotel with photos:
http://www.yesterland.com/dlhotel-the-end.html

gibson510
01-10-2007, 07:38 PM
nice pics from yesterland.

LibertyCall
01-10-2007, 07:50 PM
Great pics, thank you! I have to say, even though it would be great to step out of the lobby and right onto the monorail, I wouldn't trade DTD for that. Especially now that I'm a "grown-up".;)

mousemom
01-10-2007, 08:54 PM
Wow! This is amazing...I would never have guessed as I've only been coming since the year CA Adventure opened.

DianeM
01-10-2007, 08:59 PM
It didn't stop next to the building - it stopped in the building. I don't know which floor, but we stayed at the DL hotel a few times when I was a kid, and I remember getting on the monorail from the hotel proper. My memory may be distorted - it was a very long time ago. But I'm absolutely sure that the monorail went into the hotel itself. I remember walking from our room to the monorail without going outside.


Ok, I see. I just remember it stopping right next to a building, and as a kid, I just assumed that was the hotel.

LibertyCall
01-10-2007, 09:10 PM
As I remember it, it was sort of an outside corridor. No more than ten or so feet from the actual building. You just had to go downstairs and there was a bar (where they had karaoke), a really big gift shop, and the lagoon with the remote control boats right outside.

twist1980
01-10-2007, 09:12 PM
Great photos everyone! Isn't is funny that the monorail stop seems so much further away even though it isn't? It seems crazy to have to walk to the station, but I'm happy that ESPN Zone, the AMC theater have been added. IMHO a small price to pay for the monorail to be "connected" to the DLH!

gibson510
01-10-2007, 09:20 PM
Yea liberty im pretty shure your right. Although my memory is a little sketchy too.

Opus1guy
01-10-2007, 09:21 PM
It didn't stop next to the building - it stopped in the building. I don't know which floor, but we stayed at the DL hotel a few times when I was a kid, and I remember getting on the monorail from the hotel proper. My memory may be distorted - it was a very long time ago. But I'm absolutely sure that the monorail went into the hotel itself. I remember walking from our room to the monorail without going outside.

You memory is both very good and a bit distorted. :)

The Disneyland Hotel Monorail Station was always an outdoor "platform" type station. It never ran right through the lobby. See this photo of the Hotel's Monorail Station from when the Monorail was first extended to the Disneyland Hotel:

http://members.aol.com/opus1guy/uploads/dlhearlystation.jpg

And that's pretty much how it remained until Downtown Disney.

But where you are somewhat right is that it ran right above and next to where the lobby used to be. Because that area and building is where the registration lobby used to be! It was part of an area known as the "Travel Port"...which contained hotel check-in, and various travel provider (airline, car rental, LA Airways Helicopter Service) desks and staff. Here's a shot of Registration when it was in that part of the hotel (but this photo was taken before the Monorail was put in):

http://members.aol.com/opus1guy/uploads/dlhearlylobby.jpg

:)


As I remember it, it was sort of an outside corridor. No more than ten or so feet from the actual building. You just had to go downstairs and there was a bar...

Correct. Except for a long time you didn't have to go downstairs to get a cocktail! Right though a door from the Monorail platform itself, was the famous Monorail Bar! Though the bar itself looked like a San Francisco Cable Car:

http://members.aol.com/opus1guy/uploads/monorailbar.jpg

This bar cost a lot of Cast Members their job, and was also responsible for more than a few incidents with Guests too. Which might have lead to its closure. :)

Leofoenget
01-10-2007, 09:31 PM
I'd always wanted to stay there as a kid, and I still do, but I think being able to hop on the monorail right there would be a huge incentive to spend the extra money to stay there.

As it is, all that extra money and still not being a shorter walk than Hojo's has kept me from doing it.

I'm sure there must be something that made it an impossibility. I mean other than the designers *wanting* everyone to have to walk through DTD to get back to the hotel.

YESTERLAND did a whole thing about the monorail few weeks back. Seems the Monorail is in the exact same spot it has always been, but they tore down the old hotel and put in downtown Disney. They just moved the hotel. I like to look at 50 years of Disney postcards, and there is a series of DLH postcards where you can see the hotel in different stages. One very early pre monorail then with the monorail put in,and then its torn down.

emmah
01-11-2007, 08:16 AM
It didn't stop next to the building - it stopped in the building. I don't know which floor, but we stayed at the DL hotel a few times when I was a kid, and I remember getting on the monorail from the hotel proper. My memory may be distorted - it was a very long time ago. But I'm absolutely sure that the monorail went into the hotel itself. I remember walking from our room to the monorail without going outside.

that's how i remember it too! we stayed there for my 10th birthday and I can remember coming home tired at the end of the day and walking off the monorail and finding ourselves in (what I remember as) the lobby of the hotel. It was, to my 10 year old self, and all the way over from NZ, completely surreal and futuristic.

DisneyPrincessCat
01-11-2007, 09:06 AM
I always remember the buildings where the monorail station was. When I finally made my way back to DL after many years of being away, it looked SO different and I was trying to get my bearings. When I went in 1996 or 97 with hubby they had these big walls and walkway between them from the Sierra bldg side of the hotel to get to the monorail station. DCA and DtD were under construction and I remember thinking that the monorail station seemed sooooo... far away from the hotel, futher than it felt before. But it was just that the buildings attached to the hotel had been removed and the whole place was now topographically different. I remember the shops in the old building where the monorail station was. We always rode the monorail over there, because we could not afford to stay at DL Hotel when I was kid and it was cool to get to go see it. In the 1990's, when hubby and started going again, we always stayed at DL Hotel and do to this day. It all just looks so different from when I went with my family in the 1960's and 70's to now. I missed going from the early 70's up until the mid 90's. Could not really afford it and I worked like a maniac through all those years, 50 -60 hour weeks. Just did not get the chance to go, money being tight and I never took vacations anywhere. Just stayed home to sleep and rest up for more work. I am retired now at 52, so all that work paid off and I can be a kid again!!!!!! :)
We love DL and WDW and spend ALL our vacations there now, which pisses off the family to no end...no we do go see the folks too, just spend alot of time at the parks when we can go. House is for sale, we are moving to Orlando OR SoCal to be closer!!!! I love any thread about Disneyland history, love the Walt stories and all the old pics, they really take me back. Yesterland SHOULD be a real park, across the esplanade from Disneyland, instead of PixarPark (DCA)!!!!!!! Thanks for taking an oldtimer back a little ways.....
sues

Malcon10t
01-11-2007, 09:16 AM
In the 60s, 70s, and thru the Mid 80s, when we went to Disneyland, we stayed at the Disneyland hotel. By the mid 80s, the monorail no longer was "within" the hotel. Personally, I preferred to take the tram in the mornings to the park, I prefer coming in thru the gates. And the yellow an dblue trams were waiting right under the monorail to take you. Early years, checkin was right there, but more for car arrival than the monorail. In the 70s, the bungalows were our favorite place to stay. We used to love to take the paddle boats out, I'll have to look for the pics of my baby brother (he is now 27) on the paddle boats. In the 80s, we loved coming off the monorail to the Monorail Cafe. There was so much to do between the monorail and the room, it could take forever to get to the room.