LA Moment
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Drivers on Los Angeles County's 527 miles of freeway have plenty to moan about. With vehicles traveling a total of 92 million miles every day over L.A.'s concrete ribbons, traffic jams and road rage are no surprise. But there's one freeway in the Southland--in Orange County, to be exact--that's a driver's dream. There are no accidents, speeding tickets are nonexistent, and picturesque foliage is all ...
La Quinta Woman Helped Keep Disneyland Secret
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When Walt Disney was deciding where to build Disneyland, he turned to the Stanford Research Institute in 1953 for help. His requirements were few: It had to be in Southern California and on flat land, away from the beach. The institute team, headed by Harrison Price, spent several months analyzing population trends, land prices, accessibility and the climate of 10 regions in the greater Los ...
Lamb And Cow Join Disneyland Petting Zoo
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Two new animals are part of Big Thunder Ranch. The lamb prefers to hide perched behind a manmade rock, and the cow stays inside a fenced-in area. But the two animals soon are expected to warm up to the touches of Disneyland visitors. The two, this month, joined the Big Thunder Ranch petting zoo in the back of Frontierland at Disneyland. The 6-month-old babydoll sheep from Northern ...
Land That Does Away With Time
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Parents entering Disneyland with their children are due for the same surprise they got from other Walt Disney creations. What is planned as a dutiful pilgrimage for the sake of the children turns out to be an eye-opening day of adult entertainment and education. Children who never saw a horse-drawn car of fire wagon are delighted. But adults are literally transported by these vehicles down nostalgic Main ...
Land To Close Indefinitely Adding To Construction Chaos
Another major closure is hitting a part of Disneyland that 's been overtaken by construction this year. On Monday, Disney announced that Critter Country will temporarily shutter on May 1. The closure makes way for a complete redo of the Briar Patch, a Splash Mountain-themed gift shop that needs a renovation due to the ride's closure. The new shop will be called Ray 's Berets ...
Landscape Contractor's Talents In Bloom For Disneyland Holiday Opening
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David Bishop is oblivious to the eight live reindeer prancing in the Big Thunder Ranch corral. Bishop, a lifelong Fullerton, Calif. resident, and his crew worked from 2-7 a.m. Nov. 10 plugging hundreds of red poinsettias and cyclamen into the Frontierland gardens for the 8 a.m. opening of Disneyland's holiday season. "We had to wait until workers strung all the Christmas lights before we could do ...
Large Cranes Dominate The Skyline Of Future Star Wars Land
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Cranes, lots of them, dominate the skyline above the "Star Wars" land construction zone at Disneyland. While there is still a lot of dirt visible in the construction zone, more concrete walls and tunnels were taking shape in the new land, including the new route for the Disneyland Railroad. Meanwhile, over at Disney California Adventure, scaffolding is now surrounding the upper floors of the ...
Large Crowd Puts Damper On Grad Night
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After tossing caps, the graduated seniors of Downey and Warren boarded rowdy school buses for Grad Nite, held at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim on June 18, to be herded like cattle, thoroughly patted down, and finally allowed to enter the amusement park and enjoy the festivities. "I loved Grad Nite, I thought it was awesome," said Downey graduate Stephanie Sanchez. "My friends and I went from ride to ...
Last Chance To Ride Splash Mountain As Closure Countdown Begins
The countdown clock has begun ticking toward the final day of Splash Mountain when Disneyland visitors are expected to wait in hourslong lines to bid farewell to the classic attraction and scoop up souvenir water from their last rides. The last chance to ride Splash Mountain at Disneyland will be Tuesday, May 30 - the day after the busy Memorial Day weekend comes to an end. At ...
Last Days For Halloween Season At Disneyland
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Visitors have just a few more days to see Halloween attractions and take part in festivities at the Disneyland Resort. The official Halloween Time concludes Sunday, which is Halloween. After that, crews will remove pumpkin decorations and attraction makeovers at Disneyland. Sunday is expected to be the last day to ride Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy a makeover of the classic Space Mountain roller ...
Last Of A Disneyland Breed
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In two weeks, the last working member of Club 55 will depart Disneyland. Bob Penfield, wrapping up a 42-year career at the Magic Kingdom on July 31, is the last of the Disneyland employees who worked at the park on opening day in 1955. He is one of a swiftly dwindling number of employees who worked with Walt himself and, in Disney lore, an affiliation with the company patriarch is akin to having ...
Lawsuit Alleges Disneyland White Rabbit Refused To Hug Black Children
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An African American family has filed a civil lawsuit (Case Number: 30-2013-00630743-CU-CR-CJC, Orange County Superior Court.) against a Disneyland employee and the amusement park after the man dressed as the White Rabbit character from "Alice in Wonderland" allegedly refused to hug black children during their visit last summer. According to the civil complaint (Case Number: ...
Lawsuit Claims Disney Pilfered Idea For Movie
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Walt Disney Pictures says its 2003 blockbuster, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, is based on rides at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland. But a Seminole County man claims some character names and plot points were pirated from a low-budget short film he made in the mid-1990s. Royce Mathew of Altamonte Springs outlined his case in a 200-page lawsuit, with another 186 pages of ...
Lawsuit Says Magic Key Annual Pass Program Favors Daily Ticket Buyers
A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court alleges Walt Disney Co. deceived buyers of a new annual pass who thought they would get unlimited access to the park but instead say they were blocked out in favor of daily-pass buyers. The lawsuit by Jenale Nielsen of Santa Clara County, who is described as a longtime Disney customer, claims that Walt Disney Parks and Resorts sold her a Dream Key pass ...
Lawsuit Settled In Death Of Woman Who Rode Disneyland Ride
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A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Co. brought by the heirs of Cristina Moreno, according to their attorney, prompting the cancellation of Thursday's scheduled pretrial motions and the start of jury selection on Friday. The young woman from Spain was on her honeymoon when she suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage after riding the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland in ...
LCD Brings Magic To Magic Kingdom
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The latest bit of magic at Disneyland's Magic Kingdom centers on "Star Tours"--an intergalactic adventure that combines flight simulation, film, and "Star Wars" mythology. Keeping visitors informed of "upcoming" events at the attraction is a liquid-crystal display (LCD) with its own kind of magic. The status board, located in a walk through preshow area, incorporates 300 sq. ft. of liquid-crystal film ...
Leann Rimes Records 'Remember When' The Anthem Song For The 50th Anniversary Of Disneyland
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As part of the "Happiest Celebration On Earth," Disney's global tribute to the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, Grammy Award-winning country singing star LeAnn Rimes has recorded the official anthem song of the celebration, "Remember When." The announcement was made today at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. The song will be featured as part of the new "Remember ... Dreams Come True" fireworks ...
Leaping Into Spring On Leap Day
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It was "Leap Day" at the Disneyland Resort, and even though spring doesn't start for another three weeks, flowers are blooming all over the place. In Frontierland, crews are continuing their preparations around the Rivers of America for the start of construction of "Star Wars" land. They installed two temporary dams on the Rivers of America so they can drain the northern portion of the river to ...
Learn From Disney And Let Single Riders Have Their Day
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I was in California recently for a wedding and, because I hadn't been since I was a kid, I did something unusual and slightly inappropriate: I went to Disneyland by myself. No one, from the park patrons to employees, wants to see you do that. It defeats the purpose to be alone in The Happiest Place on Earth. The single rider lines to fill out odd-numbered parties for the Matterhorn or Splash Mountain ...
Learning The Art Of Multi-Tasking
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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 ...
Learning To Cook The Disney Way
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Chefs hats flew into the air as 30 students celebrated their graduation from Disney's Culinary Academy. The students were employees from all across the Disneyland Resort and spent last week learning the finer points of cooking from two of the resort's certified executive chefs. "What we teach them is exactly what is being used out there in the industry," said Chris Justesen, certified executive ...
Learning To Love Disneyland Again
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As we walked across the broad, brick-paved plaza, a burst of music swelled, the strings rising to cinematic heights amid a pounding of kettle drums. A man in a crisp white shirt waved and beamed. Perfectly manicured flowers swayed in the breeze. It felt, for a moment, that we had accomplished something greater than simply walking out the gates at Disneyland in Southern California. But that is the ...
Least Expensive Day At Disney 24 Hours At Magic Kingdom Or Disneyland
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Disney has the most popular amusement parks in the world, and their ticket prices reflect it. A 1-Day adult ticket to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida costs $105, and the same ticket to California's Disneyland is $99. With prices that high, families need to make the most of their money. Here's a secret, for the past three years there's one day at Disney that's cheaper than all others. The ...
Legendary Cast Member Maynard Smith To Retire
Legendary Disneyland cast member Maynard Smith has announced his retirement, after 28 years working attractions including the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and more. He has become well known over the years for his comic impressions and antics, to the point that sometimes visitors seek him out at whichever post he happens to be working. In fact, he has not one but two fan sites on Facebook, ...
Legendary Danish Amusement Park That Inspired Disneyland
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Walt Disney had a dream of creating a "great, great playground for the children and families of America." He traveled to Tivoli Gardens, one of the world's oldest amusement parks located in the middle of Copenhagen, for inspiration. Unlike other "seedy" amusement parts of the day, Tivoli was a "a clean and orderly park in Copenhagen ... with 'lush flowers, tame rides' and a festive family ...
Legendary Disneyland Ghost Is Caught On Film
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For decades, fans of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion have discussed a long-gone resident of the Mansion called, simply, the "Hat Box Ghost," so named because he was a ghostly character posed holding a hat box, into which his head would appear and disappear. Though more a prop than a true fabled "Audio-Animatronic" creation, this character still became legend, probably because it was installed in the ...
Legendary Photographer Renie Bardeau Dies At 86
The man who arguably best documented the world 's first theme park over his long career has died at age 86, at his retirement home in Glendale, Arizona. Renie Bardeau - a publicity photographer at Disneyland for nearly 40 years - died of kidney failure Monday, after having recently contracted COVID-19, his daughter, Debbie Bardeau said Tuesday from her house in Carson. “What ...
Less Than Half Of 32000 Employees Have Returned To Work
Less than half of the 32,000 Disneyland employees have returned to work after thousands were laid off or furloughed during the 412-day coronavirus closure of the Anaheim theme parks. The Disneyland resort has 15,000 cast members currently working and expects to hire about 1,000 more this summer, according to Disneyland officials. Disneyland laid off or furloughed thousands of cast ...
Lessons Learned In Disneyland
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We're Disneyland freaks. We love the Matterhorn; Mickey-shaped, chocolate-covered ice cream; and mouse ears with our names embroidered on the back. At least twice a year, we make the trek to the Happiest Place on Earth. As veteran visitors, we think we know just about everything there is to know about Disneyland. Still, every trip we take note of new lessons. From our Memorial Day weekend trip: ...
Let It Go On Third Theme Park At Disneyland
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The Walt Disney Co. on Thursday shot down - for now - the long-rumored possibility of a third theme park in Anaheim. But CEO Bob Iger detailed plans for sequels to the company's hugely successful "Frozen" and "Star Wars" movie franchises. Answering a question at the company's annual shareholders meeting in San Francisco, Iger said Disney does have plans to expand the Disneyland Resort. Iger previously ...
Life In The Fast Lane
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By the time Michael Sahagian arrives at his favorite theme park ride, the Batman roller coaster here at Six Flags Great Adventure, the line already is hundreds of people deep. The wait time posted on the faux-granite entrance is 90 minutes. Sahagian, however, is unfazed. Whipping out a green paper pass marked "reserved," he blows right past the line and ducks into a hidden back entrance to the ride, ...
