Here's a question: Is Walt Disney Co. a marvelous Southern California economic engine or the Spawn of Satan? I spent a week in August grappling with just this question, on vacation with my wife, my three boys and my brother and his family at Disneyland. Even the biggest fan of the Happiest Place on Earth has to admit that there is something slightly unnatural about the "Disney Experience." For me, it ...

In 1954, Bob Gurr was in the fast lane -- albeit a scaled-down version -- to success. The man who would go on to become a Disney Legend five decades later was hired by Walt Disney months before the opening of Disneyland to take part in the creation of the Autopia car attraction in the Tomorrowland section of the park. Gurr had worked previously for the Ford Motor Company, so Disney figured Gurr ...

It's sweltering and Disneyland is packed, but 8-year-old Katie Grace Dhority and her 6-year-old sister, Laurel, are too excited to care that it's at least 90 degrees in the shade and there are lines everywhere, even at the water fountains. This is, after all, their first trip to Mouseville, and since they live in Pocahontas, Ark., they aren't sure when they'll be back. They're studying a map ...

Who cares if it's hot? Certainly a pint-sized princess doesn't when she's busy getting bejeweled and bedazzled. Despite the Southern California summer heat, 4-year-old McKenzie Reyes was all smiles, decked out in the sumptuous long-sleeved, floor-length green Princess Merida dress, a tiara in her hair and sparkles on her fingernails. Princess Merida, for the uninitiated, is the newest Disney ...

Disney 's “The Lion King” is arguably one of the company 's most famed stories. This summer, the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim is telling the familiar journey of Simba in a new way. On May 28, a live stage show, “Tale of the Lion King,” opened at the Fantasyland Theatre in the theme park with a distinct focus on African culture. The story-theater adaptation of “The Lion King” ...

The elaborately realized stage spectaculars of Disney California Adventure have won fans' hearts over the years, with guests often recalling the first time they saw a particular show, talking about their favorite parts of the performances, and vowing to see the production again and again. "Tale of the Lion King" found many such devotees when it opened at the Anaheim theme park in 2019, ...

It's been pretty well established at this point that I'm a bit of a Disneyland geek. That fact about me just has a way of coming up, even when I don't say anything. Perfect example: I proudly have my experience as a cast member tucked onto the bottom of my resume because I just can't bear to leave it off. At one of my internships I didn't say a word about it, I just talked about my journalism ...

A high-tech, talking Mickey Mouse character will begin making regular appearances at Disney California Adventure as part of a new show. This is the first time that the upgraded Mickey character, which has a moving mouth and blinking eyes, will routinely appear in front of visitors at Disneyland Resort. Mickey will play a central role in "Disney Dance Crew" that debuts Friday at California Adventure. ...

A Disneyland landmark welcomes new tenants this July, when the 70-foot-tall tree that once housed the Swiss Family Treehouse reopens with a Tarzan theme. Visit the home of the Lord of the Jungle by scaling a staircase made of items salvaged from a shipwreck, then crossing a rickety suspension bridge. Nestled high among the leaves, vine-covered huts are filled with the personal effects of Tarzan. Guests who ...

Disneyland closed Tarzan 's Treehouse on Sunday afternoon after a wooden slat broke on one of the Adventureland attraction 's rope bridges suspended three stories above the ground. Nobody was injured on Tarzan 's Treehouse, according to Disneyland officials. The attraction is closed for the evening, officials said. A Disneyland visitor who witnessed the Tarzan 's Treehouse ...

A group of Disneyland guests received a little more adventure than they bargained for Sunday night when they had to be escorted out of Tarzan 's Treehouse after a man apparently broke a wooden slat on the attraction 's suspension bridge. A visitor who witnessed the incident shortly before 5 p.m. wrote on Twitter that a father was jumping on the bridge in order to show his children that the ...

As a fat person who enjoys eating, and more importantly enjoys the camaraderie of eating with friends or family at the table. I have to admit one of the main thoughts of visiting Disneyland for a day is the thought of all the snacks to be had and eaten while there enjoying the park. I mean for me it really is a main concern. At 52, Italian, and carrying a 250 pound frame it is the only time I can ...

Bradenton-based home builder Taylor Morrison has agreed to build Disneyland 's "Innovations Dream Home" at the California theme park. The 5,000-square-foot house, to be built in Tomorrowland, will showcase current and future technological advances in home building, featuring actors playing the fictional Elias family as they move from room to room preparing for a trip to China. It is scheduled to open in ...

A team of Disneyland designers, carpenters, special effects technicians, pastry chefs, bakers and confectioners spends up to four months each year creating the gingerbread house that wows Haunted Mansion riders every Halloween and Christmas season. “It 's like I don 't even have complete control of this thing at all,” Disney Live Entertainment Associate Art Director Tim Wollweber said during ...

As you and 39 companions strap into your bucket seats, your pilot, Rex the robot, casually informs you that this is also his first flight aboard the Starspeeder 3000 which helps explain the ensuing 4 1/2-minutes misadventure. Rex takes a wrong turn and Darth Vader's Death Star looms on the horizon. What began as a vacation getaway to the Moon of Endor, winds up in a fight for survival. The Starspeeder ...

Gary McLearn, 78, of Lake Havasu City, was a union painter's apprentice who helped prepare Disneyland's Main Street for the grand opening in July 1955. It was his junior year of high school in 1955, McLearn was 17 years old. A friend of the family was employed at the under-construction Disneyland, in Anaheim, Calif. It was a connection that landed McLearn a three-month apprentice painter's job. ...

A 17-year-old girl sustained minor injuries when a tree frond fell on the Jungle Cruise boat at Disneyland this afternoon. At about 12:30 p.m., winds gusting to 22 mph whipped the frond of a bird of paradise tree, which struck the boat, said Bob Tucker, spokesman for the Disney Resort. People were getting ready to get off the ride, which was standing still when the incident occurred, Tucker ...

If you're still out of school and have a high tolerance for heat, this might be a good week to visit Disneyland. One of the longest lines of the weekend was at Splash Mountain, which had a 65-minute stand-by wait Sunday afternoon, a good 40 minutes longer than Star Tours. The line for the Dole Whip stand was pretty long, too. Over at Disney California Adventure, there was an hour wait for ...

Tens of thousands have signed an online petition urging Disney executives to keep the Disneyland Resort closed until the COVID-19 pandemic is under control. As of Friday afternoon, over 23,000 people had signed the Change.org petition, which was started by an anonymous user called “We Are Anonymous,” after Disney announced this week that it would start a reopening of the resort in July. ...

At the mention of the four simple words that follow, our minds dull with repetition, our jowls sag - weary from constant frowning, our eyes slam shut, our teeth clench, our entire bodies become rigid. Anti-anxiety pills streak past water as a prime lifesaving supplement. Well, that happens to me, anyway. The words? "It's a Small World." I hate those words, and I hate that ride. I ...

The first time Star Wars: Galaxy 's Edge attractions senior leader Garett Heffner stepped foot in Disneyland 's new Rise of the Resistance he found himself in a massive Star Destroyer hangar staring at a 100-foot-wide space window. “It was still very much under construction and I just was in awe of the fact that this was just part of the queue,” said Heffner, senior production manager for ...

These are the droids you 've been looking for. And they 're being tested right now to interact with guests at Disneyland‘s Star Wars-themed Galaxy 's Edge. Disney Imagineering has issued videos that showcase the new technology that allows the free-roaming droids - called “droids-in-training” - to interact with guests. “The robots actually learn to imitate artistic motion - ...

There won't be a long line stretching away from the Tiki Juice Bar in late March for those tasty Dole Whip floats and soft-serve treats that Disneyland visitors crave because the Anaheim theme park will be testing a new mobile ordering strategy designed to help reduce congestion and crowding. The Tiki Juice Bar will run a test on March 28-30 when Dole Whip items at the food stand will be available for ...

Are you ready for the experience of buying a ticket to a theme park to become like the experience of buying a plane ticket? Strap in, because Disneyland dynamic pricing tests are happening right now, and it could impact the way the theme park operates as next year's opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge looms large on the horizon. Read more about this new pricing test below. The Wall Street Journal ...

Some people preserve family memories in scrapbooks and dresser drawers, filling them with vintage photographs of mom and dad, mementos of wartime service, souvenirs of that first trip to Disneyland. Diane Disney Miller has all that, too -- and she's planning a museum to share it with us. It will be a lot more than a scrapbook, but it won't look like a monument, a theme park or a shopping mall. ...