Disneyland to move security checkpoints to include Downtown Disney, but the move will create new challenges in its security

Disneyland is moving its security checkpoints further west to include Downtown Disney, but the move will create big challenges 
in its security. Arrows in red show weak points in the new secured areas of DTD, especially the fire escape at Brennan's Alley 
(point 35) and Rainforest Cafe employee access (point 3)
Update 11/15/16!

After we published our article below on potential security breaches inside Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Disneyland officials decided to make some changes in their planned westward push of their westside security checkpoints. 
   
Disneyland's K9 Pluto units seen above, some of which are 'vapor wake' dogs
Originally, Disneyland planned to take down the westside bag checks at the Esplanade entry plaza and erect only three security checkpoints in its place on the westside before guests enter Disneyland property: (1) Mickey & Friends parking structure, (2) between ESPN Zone and Rainforest Cafe, and (3) between ESPN Zone and Earl of Sandwich.

Now, Disney is adding a fourth bag check and metal detector security checkpoint, not previously announced, at the Moon Gate entry for the Grand California Hotel between Sephora and Anna & Elsa's Boutique in Downtown Disney. 

We've also heard from inside sources that Disney is frantically constructing all kinds of new walls and barriers, that were not originally planned in the move, to plug up as many of the security weak points and holes we pointed out in the article below. (See map of security weak points in Downtown Disney above.)




As we anticipated, we believed Disneyland would have eventually had to make these moves as they discovered the weak points on their own; however, as we also pointed out in the article below, there remains one very difficult weak point in security located in the northwest hallway of the Conference Center of the Grand California Hotel leading out into Brennan's Alley (a blind alley between Brennan's Jazz Kitchen and WonderGround Gallery located at #35 on the map above) through emergency fire doors that cannot be quickly fixed before the end of the year.


As we stated before, even if Disney puts alarms and cameras on those fire doors, it would take at least a few minutes before security can respond to anyone who bolts through those doors. In that time, those persons could hide their faces and change their clothing while they are well inside the secured areas and possibly inside the theme parks.


They do have gates that are always opened at Brennan's alley, but they cannot lock those gates because Brennan's alley is a designated emergency escape route for hotel and conference center guests.




Previous article:

The Disneyland Resort will be moving its west side security checkpoint on the Esplanade entry plaza even further west on property to include Downtown Disney (DTD). 
  
Enhanced security measures at Disney theme parks have increased wait times,
created longer lines and delayed guests from getting to where they want to go
The move to pull the Downtown Disney District shopping center into the resort's secured area makes it much more convenient for guests to move back and forth from its theme parks to Downtown Disney without going through a security checkpoint again, but the move also creates several new challenges to maintain security within the brand new enclosed secured perimeter as Disneyland officials have yet to adequately address how they will secure new security weak points and holes to unmonitored access from the public in Downtown Disney created by the chaos of the ambitious move.

Disneyland officials optimistically expect the move to be completed by year's end, which is little less than a couple of months' time, but serious security challenges inside Downtown Disney created by the move puts that overly optimistic timeline in severe doubt.

There are no plans, at the moment, to change the east side checkpoint, near Harbor Boulevard, for now.



The westside security checkpoint for guests at the entry plaza will be pushed much further west and split into three new checkpoints for bag checks and metal detectors at points where all guests enter Disneyland property.

The current west side security checkpoint at the Esplanade entry plaza will be
moved further west to enclose the Downtown Disney shopping district
The westside checkpoints will now be at: (1) at the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure, before boarding the tram towards Downtown Disney, (2) between ESPN Zone and Rainforest Cafe on the westside of DTD, and (3) between ESPN Zone and Earl of Sandwich, adjacent to the second security checkpoint just mentioned. (See blue boxes above for two of the three new security check points above and the video below for the security checkpoint at Mickey & Friends Parking Lot.)

“We are moving the location of our bag-check and metal detectors to the point where guests enter our property through Downtown Disney and the Mickey & Friends parking structure,” a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman said.

Guests will be checked as soon as they leave the Mickey & Friends parking structure before boarding the tram toward Downtown Disney and at two other checkpoints before entering Downtown Disney. Officials said these new checkpoints would likely screen guests coming from the hotels, coming to the parks, or who are visiting the Downtown Disney shopping district.


Officials are hoping the change will make it easier for guests to move more freely between the Disneyland theme parks and Downtown Disney, encountering less hassles and delays from Disneyland's security detail; however, there is always a tradeoff between convenience and efficacy in such a concession.
 
Behind the photographer is a hallway going north to a group emergency fire
doors that leads out into Brennan's Alley in Downtown Disney
The map of DTD at the very top illustrates several holes in security (see the red arrows) that currently allow free access to either the public and/or employees of Disney or DTD operating participants.

Three of the existing access ways currently in DTD allow free and unencumbered access to the public that is not currently addressed by Disneyland's new plan: (1) multiple access ways into DTD from the Grand California Hotel (GCH), (2) access way through the Grand California Hotel overflow parking lot between the Lego store and the second Starbucks and underneath the monorail tracks on the southwest border of the bridge over Disneyland Drive, and (3) the walkway northeast of the bridge over Disneyland Drive that follows under the monorail and dumps off pedestrians onto the sidewalk along the tram route.


We expect several of these more obvious security holes to be addressed by Disneyland officials, such as the Moon Gate access from the Grand California Hotel, the tram walkway underneath the northern monorail track, and the Lego-Starbucks-monorail alley way, either by adding security checkpoints that have not been announced yet, closing off these access ways to the public, or even restricting access to only employees and operating participants.


However, there are some secluded access points open to the public that a fast solution cannot address adequately without extensive reconstruction, especially in less than two months time.


For instance, anyone who has been inside the Conference Center of the Grand California Hotel knows that there are several one-way fire escape doors leading out into "Brennan's Alley" adjacent to Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen in DTD.

Brennan's Alley, left of Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen in DTD, allowed free
and secluded access to the public into DTD from the Grand California Hotel
Usually that area of the hotel in the Conference Center is secluded and largely unmonitored (on the hotel side), but still open to the public during business hours. Furthermore, there are currently no fire alarms when opening those doors.

This access way poses the most vulnerable point of breach in Disneyland's security inside the new security perimeter in DTD, and cannot be easily closed off because of city ordinances mandating an emergency evacuation route for safety reasons during potential disasters.

Even if Disneyland placed alarms on these doors and surveillance cameras in these areas, it would still take a few minutes for security to respond before someone with possible malicious intentions has already breached security and gone into the crowded DTD area and possibly into the theme parks.

Entryways into secured areas that bypass security checkpoints in the Grand California Hotel including the infamous 'fire
stairwell 5' (shown as point 1 above) which can be accessed from the 3rd floor on up from 'wing 4' (rooms x4xx's) of the
Grand California Hotel leading out between World of Disney and La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney (between 
points 15 and 16 in the map of Downtown Disney at the very top)
All in all, we counted more than 12 weak points in DTD alone that allowed for unsecured access, bypassing the checkpoints into the Disneyland Resort's new secured areas. Clearly, Disneyland's plan to implement the new security perimeter in less than two months is premature at best until all these new security issues are addressed.


There have been a slew of recent news stories about guest being arrested for trying to bring loaded handguns into Disney theme parks. (See stories below in our Sources.)


Part of the reason Disney is moving their security checkpoints closer to the parking lots and hotel rooms—apart from including DTD in the secured area and making it more convenient for guests to go back and forth between the theme parks and DTD—is so that Disney can avoid needlessly getting paying guests arrested for carrying illegal handguns and incurring a black eye in the press from those incidents.


Disneyland security will instead tell guests who are carrying illegal weapons—no matter who they are or what their intentions might be—to return their weapons to their cars or hotel rooms before trying to come back into the resort, rather than calling police to investigate those suspicious situations. This new policy change may be a recipe for disaster because it's always a better policy to say something, when seeing something.


Articles published after our article: 


Sources: 

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