Jungle Cruise Articles
Lodi Insider's Guide To The Happiest Place On Earth
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Disneyland. The Happiest Place on Earth. The sound of the Disneyland Railroad steam whistle piercing the air. The wind blowing through your hair as you plunge into the darkness of Space Mountain. The aroma of popcorn as you stroll down Main Street U.S.A. The Magic Kingdom. Oh, and the crowds packed shoulder to shoulder in the summer heat waiting to see a parade, seemingly endless lines for a ...
Disneyland Memories
Two months ago, I was warned that my article for the July issue would be about my first memories of Disneyland. I knew from the outset how hard this would be. If I had been asked about my first visit to Florida's Magic Kingdom this would be easy. It was November 18th 1988, which was Mickey's 60th birthday. I could write reams about my memories: the parades; my first trip on a monorail; finding ...
A Brief History Of Disneyland, An American Classic
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
"The thing will get more beautiful year after year. And it will get better as I find out what the public likes; I can't do that with a picture it's finished and unchangeable before I find out whether the public likes it or not." Walt Disney on Disneyland. Walt Disney found different reasons to build his seventeen million dollar Magic Kingdom in Anaheim in 1955. The idea had originally stemmed ...
Disneyland Tour Follows Walt Disney's Journey
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
A tour of Disneyland from the perspective of Walt Disney ends with the guide quoting a newspaper article describing Disney's success as a "product of luck." The 180-minute tour, titled "A Walk in Walt's Footsteps," shows that Disney's rise from a struggling animator to Academy Award-winning filmmaker and creator of the most famous theme park in the world had little to do with luck. The guided ...
Storm In A Teacup
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
With a boy of his own, Stephen Lacey makes his first visit to the Disneyland of his childhood. When I was a boy, my idea of Disneyland was pretty sketchy; it was where Mickey and Donald lived. And there was a ride where you sat in a giant spinning teacup. I knew only one kid who had been, a boy in third class named Brian. He was terribly thin, with bruises all over his body. One day our ...
California vs. Blackpool: General
Earlier in the year, I wrote an article for DLDHistory.com comparing the Alice in Wonderland ride in Disneyland to Alice's Wonderland at Pleasure Beach Blackpool (the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom). As I have recently come back from a week's vacation in Blackpool (and seeing as my main article this month was shorter than usual) I thought I would compare Anaheim's Disneyland Resort as a ...
Disneyland Resort Offers Plenty Of New Attractions
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
The self-proclaimed "happiest place on Earth" is about to become a whole lot happier. When Disneyland Resort's new 12-acre Cars Land opens in time for next summer's tourist blitz, it will represent the latest achievement in the world of "imagineering" a word that was coined to emphasize the imagination of Disney engineers. Presently under construction in the Disney California Adventure park, ...
Disneyland It All Started With A Mouse
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Who wants sugar in their tea? The Mad Hatter asked. Everyone cheered. It is at this moment when I realised the greatest thing for the 'little traveller' was the parks unique way to bring treasured favourites to life, such as a favoured classic, Alice in wonderland. Many years on from its opening on 17 July 1955, Walt Disney's theme park has sparked the imagination and captured the hearts of thousands ...
Elephant Returns To Disney's Jungle Cruise
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
The most-feared animal in Disneyland's jungle has reclaimed her throne inside the Jungle Cruise. The female African bull elephant, affectionately called "Mother-in-Law" by employees, re-emerged on the banks of the ride's Nile River earlier this month after a four-month absence for refurbishment and cleaning. In June, the figure, which weighs more than a ton, was airlifted out of the Jungle ...
Two Disney Rides Will Close Temporarily
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Two Disneyland rides are closing for maintenance for a few days in December, a traditionally busy month for tourists. The park usually postpones major closures until January when traffic slows down following the bustling holiday season. For December, the closures are: Jungle Cruise is undergoing routine maintenance on Monday (today). Indiana Jones Adventure shuts down on Tuesday and ...
Walt Disney King Of Fantasy
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Walt Disney and friends. Walt Disney, whose Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck brought laughter to the world and whose Disneyland is a playground for the world's people, calls his home at Smoke Tree Ranch, "my laughing place." Whimsical, as always, he refers to the Uncle Remus story where Brer Rabbit oh-so-casually mentions his "laughing place" and makes it sound so intriguing that Brer Fox insists on ...
Five Unique Artifacts From Disneyland's Opening That Remain At The Park
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
A lot has changed at Disneyland since the park first opened in 1955. Over the nearly six decades that have passed since its debut, many things at the Happiest Place on Earth have either been lost over time or met with a wrecking ball during one of the park's many expansions and refurbishments. We list five original Disneyland artifacts that existed in the park back when Walt walked Main Street, ...
Disneyland Sued For Negligence In Jungle Cruise Crash
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Disneyland sells its popular Jungle Cruise boat ride this way: "Board a trusty tramp steamer for a 7-minute guided tour of jungles from around the world, brimming with exotic animals and lush tropical foliage. Keep an eye out for potential perils -- and stunning beauty -- as your daring skipper navigates untamed waters with a skilled hand, a brave heart and a clever joke." We all know the hype ...
7 Tips For Tackling Disneyland In A Day
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
I've been to Disneyland hundreds of times over the last two decades and have been writing the Funland theme park blog for about four years now. As a result, people are always asking me how to do everything at Disneyland in a single day. The short answer is you probably can't. It can be a struggle for even hard-core fans with military assault-like strategies. The longer answer is there's lots of ways ...
Machine Tooled Happyland
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
The wondrous devices of Disneyland take on startling importance in the mind of a science fiction seer Two thousand years back, people entering Grecian temples dropped coins into machinery that then clanked forth holy water. It is a long way from that first slot machine to the "miracles of rare device" created by Walt Disney for his kingdom, Disneyland. When Walt Whitman wrote, "I sing the Body ...
California vs. Paris: Adventureland
This month, I shall be comparing the Adventurelands found in the two Disneyland parks closest to my heart (California and Paris). Standing in front of the castle, with your back to Main Street, U.S.A./World Bazaar, the first land you encounter clockwise in four of the five Magic Kingdoms is Adventureland. Internet rumors abound that in Shanghai, Adventureland will take up the ...
Couple Tries For Year Of Daily Disneyland Visits
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
It seems like a dream as flighty as Tinkerbell and as quirky as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Yet a Southern California couple have passed the halfway mark in their quest to visit Disneyland every day this year. "We joke around that we're here more than the cast members are," Jeff Reitz said Tuesday. Reitz, 39, of Huntington Beach, and Tonya Mickesh, 45, of Lake Forest were both unemployed when she ...
2 Disney Rides Temporarily Close This Month
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Two Disneyland rides will temporarily close for part of this month as crews undertake projects. Disney traditionally schedules few rehabilitation projects during the busy summer season, when crowds are heavy. Meanwhile, the Jungle Cruise is scheduled to reopen Thursday after a weeklong closure. Crews are shrinking the gap between the dock and the boats to make it easier for visitors to get on ...
Disneyland Jungle Cruise Closes For Week
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Disneyland is making it easier to hop aboard the Jungle Cruise a week from now. The popular attraction is closing for a week to undergo a project that will shrink the over-the-water gap between the dock and the boats where visitors board and leave the ride, said Kevin Rafferty Jr., a Disneyland Resort spokesman. Bumpers will be added to the boats. The ride is closed Thursday through ...
Tour Visits Walt Disney Apartment
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Disneyland Park has revamped its "Walk in Walt's Footsteps" tour with new attractions and a new price. The new tour is called "Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps" and it began on Sunday, according to park employees. The Disney Parks blog announced the change in August without providing details. But booking agents I talked to both at the park and on the phone say that it includes Walt Disney's ...
At Disneyland Even The Plants Have A Purpose
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Did you know that the trees and flowers planted throughout Disneyland were as well thought out as the design of the attractions and lands themselves? I didn't. In scurrying from one attraction to the other, I must admit that I never paid much attention to the foliage until I took Disneyland's two-hour "Cultivating the Magic" tour during which the guide talked of how the hundreds of varieties of ...
Fall Into Disney River Prompts Ride Changes
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
A 5-year-old girl's fall into the Jungle Cruise waterway prompted the state to order safety changes to the Disneyland ride, according to a state report. Crews recently added bumpers to the Jungle Cruise boats and minimized the gap between the dock and vehicles to make it easier for visitors to get on board. Jungle Cruise was closed for a week during construction and reopened in early August. "We ...
Mickey And Minnie The Rodent Billionaires
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Just about every day now, I send up a silent hosanna along the likes of: "Thank you, Oh Great One, for allowing me to raise my children before texting, sexting, Facebook, rap music and 'Gangnam Style.' " To that I must now add, "the exorbitant admission price for theme parks." Don't know if you saw the little news tidbit a few days back about how Disneyland and its neighboring Disney California ...
Sandy In Disneyland
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
During the early 1970s, Sandy Duncan saw her star ascend in a series of pleasant (if forgettable) films and television programs. Even though she wasn't the sexiest chick in show business, and even though her singing and dancing could hardly be considered as show-stopping, Duncan possessed a spunky vibrancy that appealed to casting directors - hell, she even turned up as a character in the Scooby-Doo ...
Make The Most Of Disneyland Anaheim California
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
It's known as the Happiest Place on Earth. And judging by the wide-eyed look on my daughters' faces as we walked through the front gates of Anaheim's Disneyland Park, the statement is spot on. Wandering up Main Street USA, the central thoroughfare at the world-famous theme park, one of the first things we see is Sleeping Beauty's castle. It looms before us like a scene from a fairytale with its ...
Jungle Cruise Gets A Holiday Makeover At Disneyland
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
The Jungle Cruise attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will get a special holiday makeover for the first time ever this year. For the first time ever, the iconic Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland Park in California and in the Magic Kingdom at Florida's Walt Disney World will be getting a special holiday makeover. The "Jingle Cruise" will launch in early November at both parks, and will ...
Disney Parks Provides Sneak Peak Of Jingle Cruise Holiday Overlay
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort are preparing for the Christmas season. On Nov 6, the Disney Parks Blog provided a sneak peak of what guests can look forward to with the new Jungle Cruise holiday overlay, as well as the overlay's opening dates at Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Park. The Jungle Cruise holiday overlay, called "Jingle Cruise," will offer a spirited addition to the classic ...
Disneyland And California Adventure Most Festive Place On Earth?
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Many people in Southern California lament that there is no distinct change of seasons and that winter holidays are lacking because there isn't any snow. But area theme parks have everything to get even the "bah, humbug!" types in a festive mood. For starters, there's Disneyland, "The Happiest Place on Earth," from its tall ornament-bedecked tree at the beginning of Main Street U.S.A. to the ...
Take A Holiday Jingle Cruise At Disneyland Resort
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
Jingle Cruise! Jingle Cruise! Jingle all the way! Oh, what fun it is to ride the Jingle Cruise during Disney Holidays, hey! The holidays are our favorite time of the year. One of the ways that we celebrate as a family is by visiting the Disneyland Resort. Now you can cast off on a thrilling expedition that has just gotten a holiday makeover for the first time ever in park history. What do you get when ...
Much Has Changed Much Thankfully Remains The Same
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
It had been more than seven years since we last visited the Disneyland Resort. So much has changed since 2006 ... and, thankfully, so much remains the same at Walt Disney's ground-breaking theme park, known universally as The Happiest Place on Earth. Disney fans who live on the East Coast and spend the majority of their vacation time in Walt Disney World in Florida have a somewhat skewed view of ...
Holidays At Disneyland Are Truly The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
**RESTRICTED CONTENT** Gain Access Here
To be sure, the holiday season wasn't created by the Walt Disney Company, but the folks who encourage us to believe in magic have certainly put their stamp on "the most wonderful time of the year." Having spent countless hours enjoying what Walt Disney World has to offer during this special time of year, we entered the Disneyland Resort recently somewhat apprehensive. Frankly, we have been spoiled by ...
