Star Tours Articles
10 Hidden Details Only True Fans Noticed
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All Disney fans know that Disney parks are full of surprises and hidden Easter eggs. Many of these hidden details pay tribute to creator and cartoonist Walt Disney and the long, celebrated history of the parks. Others are just fun little gags that are sure to delight children and adults alike. Disneyland in Anaheim, California was the first park to be opened by Walt Disney, and it has undergone many ...
13 Disneyland Anniversary Foods That Offer Nods To Parks Past
Disneyland will offer a nod to its past with a new menu lineup that pays tribute to Fantasyland 's Captain Hook 's Galley, Tomorrowland 's Space Place, Adventureland 's Tahitian Terrace and Frontierland 's Casa de Fritos during the Anaheim theme park 's big birthday bash.
Disneyland kicks off its 70th anniversary celebration on Friday, May 16 with a new food and beverage lineup that includes ...
18 Disneyland Attractions Parades And Fireworks Shows That Closed This Decade
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Walt Disney famously said that Disneyland would never be complete as long as there was imagination left in the world and that adage held true during the past decade as a host of attractions departed for Yesterland. Let 's take a chronological look at 18 Disneyland attractions, parades and fireworks shows that closed in the 2010s to make way for new or updated experiences. 2010 - ...
1st Disney Park Goes Golden
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After half a century, those mad teacups are still spinning, the baby elephants are still flying, the hippos' ears are still wiggling and the cash registers are still jingling. Disneyland, a place both timeless and frozen in time, hits a milestone this summer when it turns 50 in Anaheim, Calif. But not everybody sees the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth as exactly that. A feisty band of ...
23 Rides That Have Shut Down And The Surprising Reasons Why
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 ...
45 Surprising Secrets About Disneyland
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It's been 45 years since Disney Parks first took intrepid thrill seekers into the darkest corners of outer space. We're talking, of course, about Space Mountain. And while it's true that the iconic indoor roller coaster opened first at Walt Disney World in Florida on January 15, 1975, did you know that it was first dreamed up, at the request of Walt Disney himself, by ...
5 Disneyland Secrets That Nobody Knows
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If you're heading to Disneyland this summer, you can increase your knowledge and impress your traveling companions by sharing these 5 little-known secrets from the park. So without further ado: 1. The Disneyland "Test Bricks" If you are heading down Main Street toward Sleeping Beauty Castle, take a quick right toward the locker rentals. There, just to the right of the entrance to the lockers, ...
5 Things To Know If You Are Taking A Preschooler To Disneyland
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Magic is real. Dreams really do come true. And the world can astonish you with its beauty and endless capacity for new adventure. How do I know all these things? I just spent two days at the Disneyland Resort with a small child. Disneyland is good for all ages, of course. But there is something extra-special about visiting the Park with a little one. When my preschool-aged daughter saw Mickey ...
50 Things You Didn't Know About Disneyland
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In honor of Disneyland's 50th anniversary, we present 50 cool, obscure and simply odd things you probably didn't know about the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth. Many were culled from Mouse Tales by David Koenig (Bonaventure, $19.95). Some were provided by Disney archivist Dave Smith, and others came from 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland by former park employee Kevin Yee and lifelong fan ...
60 Reasons To Visit Disneylands 60th Anniversary
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You don't really need a reason to visit Disneyland. It is the happiest place on earth after all. But when was the last time you stepped onto Main Street U.S.A. and took a spin on Dumbo the Flying Elephant? If it's been awhile, you might want to consider planning a visit this year as the resort goes all out for its 60th anniversary Diamond Celebration. In honor of the occasion, let's highlight 60 of ...
A Land Of Dreams And A Land Of Fears
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My blessings are too many to count, so instead, I count the things I'm gonna miss when I die. Originally, my list was made up of mostly family and friends. But then I started adding things like sex and Haagan-Daz, fried green tomatoes, Lucky Charms and pork chops, jump shots and over-the-shoulder catches, Chopin and Al Green, and before long, my miss-list was larger than my blessings-list. Today ...
A Magical Experience Takes Flight
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It was as if Tinker Bell flew in from Neverland and sprinkled some of her fairy dust as pure magic occurred for some very special kids Thursday. Eyes sparkled and smiles beamed while 81 children with life-threatening illnesses and severe physicial disabilities explored Disneyland. And when Dreamlift came to a close, they had forever touched the hearts of those who shared the day with them. "The ...
A Park With A Powerful Spell
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Disneyland opened on this day in 1955. For five decades, the Anaheim attraction has worked its magic on our culture and transformed the entertainment industry. To build his dream theme park in Anaheim a half-century ago, Walt Disney borrowed against his life insurance policy and cashed in property, including a vacation home in Palm Springs, to pay the $17-million construction bill. When the ...
A Sprinkle Of Pixie Dust
"Fantasyland" is said to be Walt Disney's favorite Land. And it's tough to blame him. "Sleeping Beauty Castle" welcomes you, as both the main entrance and park icon. "King Arthur Carrousel" was built in 1875 and operated in Ontario, Canada from 1922 until 1955 when it was relocated to Disneyland. Until 1975, only one horse was white, and now all of them are. Merlin hosted a ceremony that determined which ...
Are Those 200 Dollar Lightsabers Really Worth It
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Anyone knows that a trip to Disney is going to cost you a pretty penny. First, there's the price of park tickets and then the cost of food, drinks, and fun little treats, and last but not least you need to have a budget for souvenirs. While many are happy picking up a character t-shirt, stuffie or their own Mickey ears, there are some park souvenirs that are definitely a bit pricier, and that includes ...
Birthdays At Disneyland Really Are Free Heres How It Works
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When we heard that Disneyland was giving free tickets on your birthday, we thought the least we could do was go check it out. The process for getting into Disneyland free on your birthday is pretty simple. The rules say bring a driver's license or passport for adults and a certified birth certificate for kids. The offer gets you into one park. Or you can upgrade to a park hopper by paying the ...
Blinkin Lincoln Animatronic Used To Go Crazy And Smash His Chair In A Robotic Fit
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The Great Emancipator who has starred as an audio-animatronic historic figure in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln for a half century at Disneyland got off to a rough start in 1964 when he would go crazy from power surges and smash his chair in a robotic fit. “Mr. Lincoln would sit in this chair and he would start to get up and all of a sudden he would go into this robotic fit and fling his arms ...
Book Written By Two Disneyland Janitors Dives Into Dirty Details Of Cleaning The Magic Kingdom
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What's the cleanup needed after a "Code V?" What about a "Code H?" Those terms and many other secrets of keeping Disneyland clean are revealed in a book by two former members of the park's custodial staff, titled "Cleaning the Kingdom: Insider Tales of Keeping Walt's Dream Spotless." The book, by Ken Pellman and Lynn Barron, takes readers on a detailed tour of what it takes to be a "jani" (a ...
Can You Name All 15 Eticket Rides Still At Disneyland It Is Not As Easy As You Think
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As Disneyland celebrates the 60th anniversary of the E-ticket, it seems like a good time to look back at the rides that earned that distinction at the Anaheim theme park. But what are the E-ticket rides of Disneyland? Naming them all is not as simple as you might think. There were 23 E-ticket attractions during the ticket book era that stretched from 1955 to 1982, according to ...
Conjuring Up Some Fresh Magic
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When Walt Disney was asked how he dreamt up the idea for Disneyland, he had a simple reply: he thought there ought to be a place for parents and children to have fun together. But he seldom spoke about the challenges he faced while building his dream park. Disney had a vision for something that had never been done before. It was a dream -- and an expensive one at that. In 1953, the price tag to build ...
Dangerous Disneyland Mental Fatigue Part 1
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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, ...
Date Line Disney 74
Hello friends, I'm back for another personal look at Disneyland from my distorted perspective, Dateline 1974. Yes the days of bell bottom jeans, bun hugger pants and tight 501's. Tight? (You mean you guys wore your pants tight back then?) Yes son "tight" not loose and down not to our knees like you guys do today. Wow, totally gross Dad. Without argument, I just chalk it up to the ever-present generation ...
Debunking Most Widely Shared Myths All Of The Plants In Tomorrowland Are Not Actually Edible
I had a plan. A plan I knew my wife would hate. On our family 's vacation to Disneyland in February, I would test what I always believed to be the most unbelievable of Disney 's urban legends: 100% of the plants in Tomorrowland are edible. My wife 's response when I tried to softly break the news to her: “Grant. No.” The reasons no one has ever vetted one ...
Discovering Disneyland
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You have to look quickly, and you have to know exactly where to look. But if you do, you'll catch a pretty cool inside joke at Disneyland. On the Star Tours ride, just before your runaway Starspeeder exits the space station, keep your eye on the lower right side of the screen: You flash past what looks like a giant electron microscope. Old-timers will recognize it as the Mighty Microscope from ...
Disney Adventure Without The Kids
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When I told a New York friend I was heading to Disneyland to explore its appeal for adults, his immediate retort was that it would be a very brief visit. And when our group, not a person under 35, walked through the gates of Disneyland on a warm Saturday and contemplated the crush of elbow-high humanity before us, I wondered if perhaps he was right. Yet seven hours and eight attractions into my first ...
Disney Announces Upgrades In Anaheim And Major Expansion In Orlando
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Disney World in Florida will double the size of its Fantasyland, California Adventure will get new attractions, and the Star Tours ride in both states will be upgraded, the company says. Disney unveiled plans today for the largest expansion in the history of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, provided updates on its $1-billion expansion of Disney's California Adventure and said it would modernize ...
Disney Buys Lucasfilm For $4.05 Billion
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For more than two decades, Jedi Knights and Darth Vader have wielded their lightsabers at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. On Tuesday, they officially became part of the family when The Walt Disney Co. acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. from founder George Lucas for $4.05 billion. Disney is paying approximately half in cash and issuing 40 million stock shares at the deal's closing, the company said. "This ...
Disney Fire Keeps Space Mountain Riders Grounded.
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Two boys vacationing at Disneyland sprinted to Space Mountain when the park opened Wednesday morning, hoping to be first in line. But the escalator leading to their favorite roller coaster was on fire. The English boys were told the ride, being worked on as part of Tomorrowland improvements, would be down for an hour. ''Ah, man!'' yelled Matthew Hickson, 14. ''Now I'll have to wait in line ...
Disney Magic, West Coast Style
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We were halfway through the six-hour flight from Newark to the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, CA when I began to question our decision to haul our two kids, ages 8 and 16 months, clear across country to visit Disneyland. True, it's a shorter flight to Orlando, but my son shared our "been there, done that" sentiment about Walt Disney World. We were anxious to check off the Disneyland Resort from our ...
Disney Parks Temporarily Close 10 Rides
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Ten attractions at two Disney parks will be closed for refurbishments for at least part of this month. Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin in Disneyland has among the longest closures in November. The Mickey's Toontown ride closed Sept. 20 and is set to reopen Dec. 17. Most rides are scheduled for routine maintenance and refurbishments. The schedule is subject to change. Here is the current ...
Disney Reveals New Star Tours Destinations
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Disney unveiled some of the new destinations featured in the revamped Star Tours ride that is set to open this summer at Disneyland. Crews are now transforming the 1987 ride into a 3D journey through space based on the "Star Wars" movies the original trilogy and the three prequels. The ride is scheduled to debut June 3. The new sites, announced on the Disney Parks blog, are: The planet ...
