The 17,600-space Eastside garage proposed by Disneyland would have a few hundred more parking spaces than the Mickey & Friends and Pixar Pals garages combined if the DisneylandForward project gets approved by the city of Anaheim.
The massive Eastside parking structure would be one of the largest garages in the world — eclipsing the one-time record-holding Mickey & Friends garage that would be dwarfed by comparison.
The DisneylandForward proposal seeks to update a 1990s Anaheim city plan to allow for a mix of theme park, hotel, retail, dining and entertainment on the eastern and western edges of the Disneyland resort.
The $1.9 billion DisneylandForward proposal is scheduled to go before the Anaheim City Council for a vote in May.
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The proposed Eastside parking structure would serve northbound arrivals on the I-5 Freeway with up to three proposed walking bridges across Harbor Boulevard connecting to the theme parks.
Disneyland’s proposed 17,600-space Eastside garage would be bigger than the 13,000-space Seattle Sea-Tac Airport garage or the 11,500-space Detroit Metro Airport garage — two of the largest parking structures in the world.
But Disneyland’s proposed eastside garage likely wouldn’t be the largest parking garage in the world. That title belongs to a Canadian mega mall.
The 20,000-space parking structure at Canada’s West Edmonton Mall is the largest in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. (Photo by Ted Shaffrey. The Associated Press)
The world’s largest car park at the West Edmonton Mall can hold 20,000 vehicles, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. An adjoining overflow lot has room for 10,000 more cars.
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Some argue the West Edmonton Mall’s hybrid garage/lot system shouldn’t count as a single parking structure — leaving room for Disneyland to claim the crown of world’s largest parking garage.
Disneyland would boast nearly 50,000 total parking spaces if the proposed eastside garage gets built.
The six-level Mickey & Friends parking structure was the world’s largest when it opened in 2000. (File photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The 10,000-space Mickey & Friends garage was the largest parking structure in the U.S. when it opened in 2000. The attached Pixar Pals garage added another 6,500 spaces when it opened in 2019. Surface parking adds another 5,400 spaces at the Toy Story lot, 5,900 spaces in the Disney hotel district and 4,100 spaces in Disneyland employee lots.
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Disneyland’s three garages — Mickey & Friends, Pixar Pals and the proposed Eastside — would form a structure system with 33,500 parking spaces.
The new Pixar Pals parking structure is shown under construction next to the Mickey and Friends structure at the Disneyland Resort in 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The 43-square-mile Walt Disney World resort with four theme parks, two water parks and 31 hotels likely has many more parking spots than the Disneyland resort. But because of its expansive size, most of Disney World’s parking is in surface lots rather than garages.
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The 12,000-space Magic Kingdom lot and 11,000-space Epcot lot are among the largest surface parking lots in the world. The Disney Springs outdoor shopping mall has Disney World’s largest parking structures with the 4,000-space Orange Garage and 2,200-space Lime Garage.Universal Studios has much bigger parking structures than its Disney rival in Florida.
Universal Studios Florida has two of the largest parking garages in the world with the 10,200-space South Facility sitting right next to the 9,200-space North Facility, according to Forbes. Together, the twin garages hold 19,400 cars.
Universal Studios Hollywood has four garages named after movies: E.T., Jurassic, Frankenstein, and Curious George. The E.T. parking structure opened in 2016 with 5,000 spaces.