In honor of continuing D23 Expo Coverage, today’s inaugural Mapping the Magic Monday takes us just outside the walls of Disneyland to the corner of Katella Avenue and Disneyland Drive.  For the first time in quite some time, and one of only three times total, I stayed off property for my Disneyland and D23 trip.  After a week-long Disney World trip only two months prior, and knowing that we would be spending three of our five days at the Expo, it made the most since to stay in a hotel that was a little more reasonably priced and closer to the convention center.  It was about a two-minute walk from the Anabella Hotel to the convention center and less than a 10-minute walk to Disneyland.  It really wasn’t a bad distance either direction, and there were lots of fun things to see along the way.  And, every time we crossed the street to or from the parks, I would admire the patina map of the Anaheim Resort on the sidewalk.  So, follow me, as I map my way from the Anabella around the Anaheim Resort…

Places of Interest:

One of my favorite things about walking from the Anabella to the Anaheim Convention Center were these unusual footprints on the sidewalk between the two destinations.  They came right out of the bushes and went no further than the manhole, and, oddly enough, they were permanent… not wet, not muddy, completely permanent.  Zombies?  Swampy pod people?  I’m not really sure, but I did get a kick out of watching everyone’s expressions as they passed this part of the sidewalk.

When viewed from just the right angle, the giant, angular structure in front of the convention center forms an “A.”  It looks especially cool when it is framing the fountain that greets visitors entering the convention complex from the Katella side.

The trees lining Disneyland Dr., from Katella to the Paradise Pier, are loaded with twinkling lights, which, at night, makes this stretch of the map look a lot like a fairy land.  I think it is really great that the Anaheim Resort has worked to make the neighborhood a little more magical, especially for guests staying off Disney property.

The Paradise Pier is one of my favorite hotels.  I actually fell in love with it when we stayed there for the first time during the 2009 D23 Expo.  Even though we weren’t staying there this time, we got to walk by it every time we went between the Anabella and the parks, and it was always a fun treat to see it all lit up at night, especially from the backside, when we were walking back from Downtown Disney, because there is a special surprise projected on the parking structure.

Quite possibly my favorite stop on the Anaheim Resort map is the shortcut we took through the Grand Californian on our way to the parks.  The Grand is probably my favorite place in the world, and while the price is somewhat prohibitive for staying there on every Disneyland trip, it’s still wonderful just to be immersed in the atmosphere.  This year the flowers growing over the gated entrance were particularly breath-taking.

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