Enchanted Tiki Room Articles
Survival In Mauschwitz
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Not for nothing did a grizzled lifer at Disneyland refer to his worksite as "Mauschwitz." In this case, "lifer" means "one condemned to wear a Donald Duck suit, day in and day out, even when it's 110 degrees in the shade, even when he can't see well enough through the eyeholes to make out which kid is kicking him in the nuts, and even when he's so saturated in sweat that his vision is blurry and his ...
Disneyland Rolls Out New Audio Guide For Blind Visitors
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Main Street is busy and noisy. It's packed with people, strolling by the classic old-time storefronts. Horse-drawn trolleys and old jalopies carry camera-clad visitors. If you're blind, it's hard to tell what's going on. That's why the Disneyland today unveiled a free, handheld audio device, which uses GPS to trigger descriptions of the park's outdoor areas. "The central plaza near Sleeping Beauty ...
Disneyland Tour Follows Walt Disney's Journey
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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 ...
A Disneyland Summer Vacation
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My family just came home from a wonderful week-long vacation at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. We are big Disney fans, and have a blast every time we go, but this trip we saw some new stuff, and actually learned a cool secret that I'm willing to share with you GeekDad readers, as long as you all promise to use the knowledge sparingly. First, the interesting new stuff: Disney is doing a very cool job ...
Disneyland Resort Offers Plenty Of New Attractions
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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
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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 ...
Wonderful Weekend Trip To The Magic Kingdom
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There is nothing quite like experiencing Disneyland through a four year-old or soon to be four-year old I should say! The entire family got to share in grandson Samuel's amazing birthday celebration at the happiest place on earth. From the moment of arrival at the hotel when the staff presented him with birthday balloons and a distinguishing "birthday" button to wear to the time that "Terk" the ...
Disneyland Enchanted Tiki Room, Walt Disney World Polynesian Luau Are Distant Cousins
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The Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at the Polynesian Resort in Walt Disney World has been entertaining guests since the 1970s. It's a lively night set in the open-air Luau Cove Theater, with ample servings of Polynesian food coupled with traditional South Pacific entertainment, like fire-knife dancing. And yes, there are plenty of grass skirts and leis to go around. But did you know that the Luau ...
Walt Disney King Of Fantasy
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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 ...
7 Tips For Tackling Disneyland In A Day
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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 ...
Disneyland Pays Tribute To Small World Composer Robert Sherman
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Disneyland Resort honored one of its best-known composers, Robert B. Sherman, who died Monday in London, placing a simple wreath of white flowers outside his window on Main Street U.S.A. Robert B. Sherman and his brother, Richard, were given their own window in 2010, which reads, "Two Brothers Tunemakers," a recognition reserved for the most cherished Imagineers, artists and others instrumental to ...
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 ...
9 Disney Venues Temporarily Close
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Nine Disney park venues, including attractions and restaurants, will be closed for at least part of this month for routine maintenance projects. The closures include six attractions in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Three park restaurants also are undergoing renovations during part of the month. A section of Main Street, U.S.A. is reopening Wednesday, although an expanded Carnation ...
12 Unique And Magical Memories To Be Made At Disneyland
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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 ...
Tour Visits Walt Disney Apartment
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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 ...
A Guy A Girl And 366 Straight Days At Disneyland
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If, like Jeff Reitz and Tonya Mickesh, you go to Disneyland oftenvery oftenyou know that asking for a roast beef melt made without horseradish, as opposed to a roast beef melt with horseradish removed after the fact, will require a ten-minute wait at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe. You know that, if conditions are right, you may ride in the wheelhouse of the Mark Twain Riverboat and help steer. You know ...
Disneyland Enchanted Tiki Room Turns 50
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More than 50 years ago, Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room first opened its doors to the public. The attraction was revolutionary as the first to use audio-animatronic technology to make the robotic creatures talk and move. Designer Kevin Kidney is a Tiki aficionado and also designed several pieces of the merchandise promoting this year's anniversary. "The whole audio animatronics thing started ...
All 9 Lands At Ranked
Fantasyland offers the most rides and is ideally located in Disneyland. Mickey's Toontown has mediocre rides and limited shopping and dining options. New Orleans Square has the best dining options and underrated classic rides. Disneyland in Anaheim is divided into nine distinct ''lands,'' and some of these certainly offer better experiences than others. ...
Haunted Mansion Returns With A Historical Addition
Although the revamp of Disneyland 's Haunted Mansion isn 't complete, the beloved attraction is open for the first time since January. Greeting guests are various new features and improvements plus the return of one absolutely delightful historical detail.
During the Haunted Mansion 's Monday reopening, eagle-eyed visitors noticed the very special bat near the beginning of the ride: ...
Failed Ugly 90s Ride That Still Looms Over Guests
Disneyland is a kingdom of illusions. Forced perspective makes small buildings appear grander. Special paint colors hide eyesores in plain sight. Disney Imagineers company lingo for theme park creatives are the best in the business at keeping reality from creeping into guests ' consciousness.
But there is a glaring exception: a ride, dead now for nearly 25 years, that still looms large ...
Disneyland With A Preschooler 7 Genius Tips For Avoiding Meltdowns And Bankruptcy
When you figure in the high cost, endless lines, height restrictions and miles of walking, does it ever make sense to take a preschooler to Disneyland?
Yes, as long as their adults adjust their expectations, plan carefully and slow waaay down. Because, let's face it, most preschoolers are too young to understand what Disneyland is all about. It's the parental (and grandparental) ...
Disneyland Turns 60 Ranking Its Attractions by Land
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Oh, boy! The Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration begins today! Disneyland Park opened in Anaheim, Calif., on July 17, 1955, and ever since, it has entertained millions of guests from all over the world. That's no small feat! "It's amazing to contemplate all that Disneyland has come to mean to so many people around the world," Tom Staggs, COO of the Walt Disney Company, recently told the ...
Blaine Gibson Disney Legend Behind Pirates And Haunted Mansion Dies At 97
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Legendary Disney animator and sculptor Blaine Gibson, who designed some of the most iconic images in the company's theme parks around the world, died on Sunday, according to the Orange County Register. He was 97. Gibson worked alongside Walt Disney during the development of Disneyland, and his sculptures were used to create the faces on characters in rides such as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and ...
Local Veteran Recalls Meeting Walt Disney
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Longtime Victor Valley resident Bob Campbell Jr. said meeting Walt Disney, watching the birth of Disneyland and riding horses in the High Desert over 50 years ago is only a small part of his "long and wonderful life." Campbell, a 74-year old Air Force veteran, said he still remembers the early 1950s when he and his Sunday school teacher, Willis John, met Disney at his office at the Walt Disney Studios ...
10 Tips For Your Familys Next Trip To Disneyland
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With all the rides, shows, characters and restaurants, it's no secret that families are flocking to Disneyland. But with as many as 60,000 visitors on a peak day, it can become overwhelming to know how to make your vacation magical. Here are a few tips to make sure the happiest place on earth lives up to your family's expectations. From our experience, if you can plan your Disneyland days during ...
Password Safari
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If you're tired of freeways, or looking for something really different to do, Walt Disney has come up with the solution: a "trip far from civilization." The password is"Safari," and summertime visitors at Disneyland will be validating their passports, stepping aboard steamers and sailing off on a grand new tropical adventure that may set jungle exploration back to the days of "Dr. Livingston, I ...
African Veldt
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Way down in Jungleland, below the Amazin' Disney line, there's news among the gnus. "The Trapped Safari" is the new headline feature and a bit of bright fun in Disneyland's far-famed Adventureland and the Jungle River Cruise. Jackals, hyenas and buzzards lay siege to a comical hunter and his retinue treed by the wild beasts. Disneyland adventurers drift safely past as lions devour an unsuspecting prey ...
Disneyland Capital Investment Grows
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During its first 10 years, Disneyland's capital investment grew from $17 million on opening day to more than $53 million. In the next five months, the figure will jump another $20 million with the completion of four new gigantic attractions. "What we will do by this summertime," Walt Disney said after announcing the new attractions last week, "is to raise our investment more than the whole of ...
Of 999 Ghosts In Disneyland Haunted Mansion These Are The Stars You Need To Know
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There are 999 ghosts inside Disneyland's Haunted Mansion (and always room for one more), but some of them are breakout stars. How well do you know your favorite haunts? Ghost Host: The basso profundo voice of Paul Frees, known as the "Man of a Thousand Voices," guides guests through the tour of the Haunted Mansion. The Ghost Host is not the owner of the mansion, but rather a high-ranking servant. In ...
Disneyland Without Kids More Rides More Booze
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Yeah, yeah, Disneyland is a magical place for kids. But after visiting child-free for a long weekend, I found distinct advantages to an adults-only trip to the Mickey Mouse Mecca. So, let's skip the character breakfast and head straight for the good stuff with these PG-13-rated tips for more rides, more booze and fewer meltdowns (hopefully). Enter fortified Good food inside the Anaheim, ...
This Is How Disneyland Looked And Changed In The 1960s
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It was the '60s, a decade of change. And just like society, Disneyland would change too - in dramatic fashion. 1960 Just like previous years, Walt Disney was constantly tinkering with Disneyland as the decade started. The first year of the decade, he added more scenes to the Rainbow Ridge Mine Train, and changed its name to the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland. The mules got a new name, ...