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 ...

Having first visited Disneyland as a 2-year-old, Fairfax journalist James Croot reflects after his recent sixth visit. "To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savour the challenge and promise of the future." Walter E Disney's words when he opened his theme park in July 1955 have never felt truer than ...

Disneyland may be where all childhood dreams come true, but Disneyland is also quickly becoming a foodie mecca as well. With a wide array of culinary pleasures to choose between, from carts to fine dining, here are our picks for best Disneyland eats. On The Go For a quick bite on the go without the muss and fuss of sitting to eat because you've got places to go and lines to wait in! Fresh ...

Disneyland gets sued for injuries and deaths all of the time. Believe me, I get that accidents happen, but most of these tourists are simply victims of their own stupidity. Mild disclaimer: a few of these I've read about on only one site, so I'm not entirely sure they happened. Now, let's get down to business. Matterhorn, Space, and Thunder Mountains are not most dangerous in that respect, ...

The seventies at Disneyland started with an invasion, then went into space, and ended with a wild ride in the frontier. Unfortunately for Disneyland, the riots that had been happening in cities across America during the latter half of the sixties and some of the protesters turned their attention to Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom. On Aug. 6, 1970, the Yippies (an offshoot of the hippies of the sixties) ...

It was a "Fantasmic!" start for Disneyland in the 1990s, and the decade ended with a new Tomorrowland and the disappearance of the parking lot. 1990-92 Not much happened for the first two years in terms of changes or additions of new attractions until 1992. Mission to Mars had its last flight and was grounded. In New Orleans Square, something new was coming to the waterfront of the Rivers of ...

During the rush of getting the Park constructed, "Tomorrowland" was the last land finished. Budget cuts didn't allow all of its attractions to be opened that first day. One of those cuts was to use the "Nautilus" sets from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" as a walk-through. When it closed in 1966, the organ belonging to Captain Nemo was moved to the ballroom of the "Haunted Mansion." For the first four ...

Over 60 years ago, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. In the decades since, Walt Disney's original theme park vision has undergone changes both big and small. Rides, attractions, and entire swaths of land have sometimes been overhauled or torn down to make way for modern amusements. But thanks to documentaries and numerous Disney bloggers, we can still look back at some of the most iconic rides ...

If Disney CEO Bob Iger ends up running for California governor - as has been rumored - I'm sure that the environment will stand atop his platform, because nobody in the entertainment business recycles more than Disney. Animated movies becoming live action films, movies becoming theme park rides, theme park rides becoming movies. It's the Circle of Life, Hollywood style. Most recently, Disney ...

When Disneyland opened its doors in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955, the word astronaut was not yet a household term. But a bright white rocketship towered over Tomorrowland (and, in fact, the entire park), poised to blast off into soon-to-be explored galaxies. Behind it stood a geometric space station, red letters over the entrance labeling it "Rocket To The Moon," with two large spherical theatres ...

Disneyland is well-known for its "Imagineers," the people who combine imagination and engineering to create the spectacular. Their most amazing work, of course, is seen in commercials for the "Happiest Place on Earth." Ever notice how Disneyland isn't crowded in the commercials? With some serious Imagineering, and a few actors, the most-crowded place on Earth looks like a park where you can stretch ...

In the 1960s, there was no Ariel. We had living mermaids who greeted you from the rocks of the Submarine Voyage lagoon at Disneyland in Anaheim. If you were lucky, one would swim over with her big fin and wave through a porthole. With ride operators who resembled sailor boys, the attraction was very romantic - "Guys and Dolls" meets "Beach Blanket Bingo" - even before submerging "80 fathoms ...

Friends, the past few months have been a mere exercise in what is about to become the largest online and public battle against Disneyland-specifically its managers, starting with Paul Pressler. He is the one who will be held responsible for the destruction of Disneyland as we know it and as Walt planned it. I write this with a very heavy heart. I do not want my playground to become my battlefield, but that ...

From Glendale Disneyland's new Tomorrowland won't open until May 1998, but in a drab gray and beige industrial building in Glendale the project already is mostly complete. The building is part of Walt Disney Co.'s Imagineering complex, where ideas are put to paper and then crafted into models of the company's future endeavors. The model for the rebuilt Tomorrowland nearly fills a cordoned, windowless ...

The Country Bear Jamboree, a 17-minute show made up of more than 20 audio-animatronic bears, originally opened as an "E" ticket ride in Walt Disney World Florida, as one of the premier attractions for the park's opening in 1971. Just one short year later, it opened here in our very own Anaheim Disneyland, in Bear Country to be exact, on March 24, 1972. It's been there ever since. The original Jamboree ...

Was a time when Tomorrow was big. Back in the '60s and '70s, despite-or perhaps because of-Vietnam and nuclear missiles, Tomorrow was a good place to be. They even gave it a name: Tomorrowland. Unlike the rest of Disneyland's fluff, Tomorrowland had the feel of an exhibit, a place where we learned that the future would burst with helpful robots, time-saving products, efficient mass transit and commonplace ...

For the third time in its history, Disneyland has opened a revamped Tomorrowland. Gone are the impersonal chrome and steel of the old structures, along with the Mission to Mars ride, the PeopleMover and the Circle-Vision theater. In their place, Disney has built a kinder, gentler tomorrow with buildings decorated in lush jewel tones and gardens filled with fruit trees and edible plants. Tomorrowland ...

In announcing a renovation of Disneyland's Tomorrowland, Walt Disney Co. imagineers acknowledged that men on the moon, home computers and time had caught up to the land, one of the five original areas in the 42-year-old-park. When Disneyland opened, "1986 sounded very futuristic," said Tony Baxter, senior vice president-creative development for Disney's imagineering unit. Among the rides and ...

Disneyland, the country's first truly big-time theme park, is located 27 miles southeast of Los Angeles in Anaheim. When the park opened in 1955, Walt Disney promised it would get bigger and better. Well, Disneyland is celebrating its 25th birthday this year, with a spectacle of special happenings. In fact, you may want to check into what's on tap when and schedule your visit accordingly. But whenever you ...

I remember visiting Disneyland as a child and digging Tommorrowland. When I was older, not only could I expect the promise of taking a Flight to the Moon and partaking in a Mission to Mars, but I'd be using one of those spiffy video phones. Maybe some aspects of Tomorrowland should have found a home in Fantasyland, but I can now see who I'm talking to while they're in another place and have the added bonus ...

Bill Justice, a former Walt Disney Studios animator who worked on classics such as "Fantasia," "Bambi" and "Alice in Wonderland" and later joined Walt Disney Imagineering where he helped program Audio-Animatronics figures for attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, died Thursday, a day after he turned 97. Justice died of natural causes in a nursing home in Santa Monica, said Ted King, a ...

Children, you have no idea what your parents endure to get you a little "Frozen." Merchandise is scarce. Birthday parties with official tie-in decorations are nearly impossible to pull off. And the theme-park lines to meet Anna and Elsa, the sibling royals at the heart of the world's highest-ever-grossing animated movie, are long. Very, very, very long. I was dispatched to Disneyland in ...

Rocket to the Moon closed and inspired several futuristic flight rides were equally unsuccessful. Rocket to the Moon was a Disneyland opening day attraction in 1955 that placed guests in a giant rocket ship, or moonliner, standing in Tomorrowland. The futuristic simulation ride was sponsored by the now defunct airline TWA (Trans World Airline). Guests sat in a circle with screens ...