This month, I shall be comparing the Main Street, U.S.A.'s which can be found in the Disneylands closest to my heart (California and Paris). Both are based loosely on Walt's home town of Marceline Missouri. Anaheim's is set in 1910, as part of the original idea that various Lands were set in years when Halley's Comet could be visible from Earth. According to themed studs in the pavement, Main Street ...

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 ...

When visiting Disney, many families head straight for the E-ticket rides, from Space Mountain to the Matterhorn to Dumbo. But in doing so they not only spend a whole lot of time in long lines, but they miss out on so many magical moments and memories that can be made at the "happiest place on earth.' Though these attractions are less popular, they are just as special and endure in family memories far ...

Disneyland employees who work on Main Street, U.S.A., got an unusual request: How'd you like to be in a Tom Hanks movie? "I said, "Attaboy! Put me down,'" said Steve Finley, a 40-year Disneyland employee. Two Main Street drivers and a balloon vendor were among the handful of Disneyland employees who served as extras in "Saving Mr. Banks," released this month. The movie, starring Hanks as ...

Steve Finley is not a firefighter, but every day he gets to drive a fire engine for work, as he has since 1984. How does he do it? As an attractions host at Disneyland where five days a week he drives the Fire Engine up and down Main Street U.S.A. "It's no worse than the freeways. I probably drive faster here then on the freeways," he said. That speed is five miles an hour, and instead of ...

The final stop on my lovely tour of Disneyland, at least until "Star Wars Land" is completed, is the entrance to the entire park. Said to be inspired by Walt's hometown of Marceline, Missouri, "Main Street, U.S.A" is designed to look like the idealized center of a town at around 1910. One of the designers, Harper Goff, showed Walt some pictures of his childhood home in Colorado and Walt liked the ...

Clip clop. Clip clop. In case you've been missing the sound of hooves on pavement, the horses are back at Disneyland. The horse-drawn trolley is one of the few Disneyland attractions that's been operating since opening day in 1955, carrying park visitors up and down Main Street USA nearly every day for more than 60 years. That was until Jan. 8, when they went on hiatus while Disney workers repaired ...

For four decades, Renie Bardeau's job was simple: Capture the magic. If he had been a farmer or chef or bus driver, Bardeau's task would be difficult, because magic in the real world is rare and fleeting. But Bardeau did not work in the real world. He spent his time at a place where castles were real and fantasy had its own land, a cloistered kingdom built by a dreamer. Here the magic happened ...

As a child in Cuba, Chivas USA forward Maykel Galindo had no aspirations of visiting Disneyland. So while he soaked in his first-ever trip to the Happiest Place on Earth, Galindo could not help but feel the excitement only Disneyland can give. "It's incredible. I'm impressed by the amount of things there are here inside," Galindo said. "I feel like a child. I feel like I'm three years old." ...

I spent a delightful afternoon recently at Disneyland chowing down on a corn dog and riding on every antique vehicle along Main Street USA. I've been to Disneyland at least 100 times and I'm always surprised when I come across something at the park I've never tried. So on this day, I decided to skip all the roller coasters and dark rides and stick to Main Street. I'd often heard that the ...

The place is surrounded by a berm, a high barrow of earth, that insulates it from the external world. There is a single gateway where admission is charged. This, the land of Disney, is more secure than ancient Troy. No Trojan horse will get into Disneyland. Guards at the main gate closely scrutinize all who enter. Not even an unseemly teenager will get past them, much less a Trojan horse. Disneyland is ...

Would you believe it? An amusement park has hung up the nation's record as "the best-planned city in America" in meeting the needs of people. It has demolished the "architectural barriers" we know to our cost in every city and town: streets that stretch non-stop with no spot to sit and rest... flights of stairs too steep for the handicapped or very aged ...bus steps too high for easy ...

Disneyland, the theme park that bills itself as "the happiest place on Earth," filled with people during a recent spring-break April day when the temperature hovered near 90. People waited for more than two hours for a chance to ride Splash Mountain. Finding a bench to sit for a moment with a napping grandson proved challenging. Lines formed to use restrooms or sinks, purchase a bottle of water or ...

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 ...

In just about any sporting event, there often comes a key moment in the game when the outcome hangs in the balance. A baseball player strokes a key hit in the late innings, a football player dives head-long for a crucial catch, a basketball player makes a seemingly impossible shot with the clock winding down. They call these moments game-changers. At the Walt Disney Company, the advent of ...

The trio win a stay in the Dream Suite, but the resort hotels also would dazzle. She may not own glass slippers or a sparkly ball gown, but when Christine Terwilliger of Salem visited Disneyland on Jan. 31 this year, she starred in her very own fairy tale. Terwilliger and her family -- husband Shane and 6-year-old daughter Marissa -- were randomly selected to be the first guests ever to sleep in ...