Autopia Articles
First Visit To Disneyland: Unforgettable
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For many years, Disneyland which celebrated its 56th anniversary this past July 17 was a place we thought we might never see. Since 1972, we were "regulars" at Walt Disney World, yet Disneyland was as far away in distance as it was in our travel plans. We finally broke down and made it to The Happiest Place on Earth in Anaheim, Calif., in late July, 1998, some 43 years after Walt Disney's fabled ...
Storm In A Teacup
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With a boy of his own, Stephen Lacey makes his first visit to the Disneyland of his childhood. When I was a boy, my idea of Disneyland was pretty sketchy; it was where Mickey and Donald lived. And there was a ride where you sat in a giant spinning teacup. I knew only one kid who had been, a boy in third class named Brian. He was terribly thin, with bruises all over his body. One day our ...
California vs. Blackpool: General
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
A Grandmother's Magical Return To Disneyland
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If you live in North America, indeed much of the world, you are unlikely to have avoided the spell that has been cast over modern culture since the day Walt Disney opened the gates to his Disneyland theme park in California in 1955. If you were a lucky child, your parents loaded up the station wagon and headed to Anaheim at least once during your childhood, cramming the family into a little offsite ...
8 Memory Keepers To Pick Up At Disneyland & Almost ALL Under 10 Dollars
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I dare you to go to Disneyland and not buy at least one souvenir on your visit. Unless you work there or are a season pass holder who drops by whenever you please, odds are you will pick something up to help you remember the "magical" time you had. Me, I'd like to take the entire park home with me, but that just wouldn't be practical. Instead my family picks up a little this or a little that some sort of ...
California vs. Paris: The Lands of The Future - Part One
This month and next, I shall be comparing the Lands of The Future found in the two Disneyland parks closest to my heart (California and Paris). In California, as per Florida, Tokyo and Hong Kong, this land is called Tomorrowland; in Paris this is called Discoveryland. For the benefit of these articles, when I say Tomorrowland, I am only referring to the California one; I am also only writing about the ...
Still Returning After 36 Years
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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 ...
California vs. Paris: The Lands of The Future - Part Three
This month I shall conclude my comparisons of California's Tomorrowland with Paris's Discoveryland, by looking at their versions of Autopia and Captain EO. Captain EO, the $30million 3-d musical starring Michael Jackson and Anjelica Huston, was an opening day attraction at Disneyland Paris, by which time the film had already been showing for five and a half years in the California Park and EPCOT ...
These Moments Remind Us Why Disney Is Special
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Disneyland is a big place. Sometimes it's the smallest thing that counts. It's early Sunday evening last weekend, and even as Space Mountain boasts a 45-minute wait, crowds are thin at one of my favorite places from childhood: Innoventions in Tomorrowland. I remember gaping as a kid at the way the building -- then called the Carousel of Progress -- slowly rotated. Inside was a show put on by ...
Fastpass Service At Disneyland Resort
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Free to all guests Available for 13 attractions Spend less time standing in line The FASTPASS attraction entrances are separate, with much shorter lines Park admission passport goes into the machine A ticket prints out with a window of time to return Simple to use Saves time for more fun Follow these 3 easy steps to learn how to use Disney's FASTPASS Service at ...
Make The Most Of Disneyland Anaheim California
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It's known as the Happiest Place on Earth. And judging by the wide-eyed look on my daughters' faces as we walked through the front gates of Anaheim's Disneyland Park, the statement is spot on. Wandering up Main Street USA, the central thoroughfare at the world-famous theme park, one of the first things we see is Sleeping Beauty's castle. It looms before us like a scene from a fairytale with its ...
How Disneyland Gave My Son The Golden Gift Of Patience
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"Mom, pleeeeeease can we play? Can we do something fun? This is so boooring. Monday is soooooo boring," my 6-year-old whined to me as I sat at my desk. Nine times out of ten, I would have called in the circus and pulled out my "let me entertain you" hat. Instead of letting him be bored and then sitting with my own guilt about having to work, steam broccoli, fold laundry, and basically not be the ...
Much Has Changed Much Thankfully Remains The Same
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It had been more than seven years since we last visited the Disneyland Resort. So much has changed since 2006 ... and, thankfully, so much remains the same at Walt Disney's ground-breaking theme park, known universally as The Happiest Place on Earth. Disney fans who live on the East Coast and spend the majority of their vacation time in Walt Disney World in Florida have a somewhat skewed view of ...
I Am A Theme Park Expert Who Took An Actual Disneyland Family Vacation For The First Time In Years
I 've been a theme park fan all my life, to the point that today, writing about them has become my actual job. I 'm not afraid to call myself a theme park expert. I 've learned a lot about how they work, from the behind-the-scenes attraction design to the operational aspects of major parks like Disney World and Universal Studios. And yet, even I can occasionally learn something new.
You ...
What Would Disney Build At Disneyland With $1 Billion
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A Millennium Falcon ride? Going for a spin in an Iron Man suit? Disney executives have announced plans to spend $1 billion on new attractions in Disneyland and/or Disney California Adventure. Here are some options: 'Star Wars' More Yoda? Natural, it would be. The Star Tours ride has been running since 1987, and the stories and characters from "Star Wars" could generate even more rides, ...
Disneyland To Close Some Attractions To Build Star Wars Land
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To make way for "Star Wars," Disneyland is about to launch its largest expansion ever, which means shutting down a significant chunk of the Anaheim theme park. In January, 10 attractions and eateries will close - some temporarily, some permanently - only a few months after the resort hiked the price of annual passes as much as 31%. This spring, Disneyland's biggest rival, Universal Studios Hollywood, ...
Backstage Chemical Leak At Disneyland Prompts Closure Of Four Attractions
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Four attractions at Disneyland were briefly closed Wednesday after a small chemical leak was discovered coming from the park's water filtration system, authorities said. Anaheim police and fire departments responded to the park at 1:30 p.m. where a chemical commonly found in pool cleaner was reported leaking from a pump at one of the park's four backstage filtration facilities, said Sgt. Daron Wyatt ...
Annual Passholder Days In Full Swing At The Disneyland Resort
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Disneyland launched a little something extra for its annual passholders on Monday with AP Days. The event, which takes place the entire month of February, will give annual passholders some special treats and things to see and do, especially since several of the more popular attractions are closed for refurbishment. Each week of of AP Days in February will have a theme, with the first week called ...
Barbecue And Breakfast Dining Relocate In Park
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Breakfast was being served at a new location in Frontierland starting last week, and where breakfast used to be served, it's all about the barbecue food. Riverbelle Terrace was converted to a table service restaurant for lunch and dinner only, complete with a maitre'd outside taking reservations in the mornings. The new menu consists of mostly barbecue food, mostly items that used to be served at the ...
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 ...
Space For Star Wars Land Taking Shape At Disneyland
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Walk near the northwestern section of Disneyland and you might think you are hearing Imperial walkers from Star Wars, but you are only hearing the sounds of demolition. Machines are tearing up the foundations of buildings beyond the berm that used to house support facilities for the theme park, but have been demolished to make way for the eventual construction of the 14-acre "Star Wars" land. The ...
Pondering Passing On Our Annual Disneyland Passes
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Early last summer, I wrote a provocative piece called "Ten Ways to Improve Disneyland." It included such controversial suggestions as closing Autopia, banning Craisins and serving alcohol at full-service restaurants. A few weeks ago we were at Disneyland, and I was happy to see the parks had accepted my suggestion to add fast casual breakfast options in the morning. "Breakfast burritos from Rancho del ...
Disneyland Autopia Returns With Honda Cars But Not Much Of A Tomorrowland With Gas Power
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Disneyland's Autopia is back on the road again after shutting down in January for a makeover, and this time, they've got Honda on board as a new sponsor. Autopia, the only existing Tomorrowland attraction dating back to the opening day in 1955, was one of many Disneyland attractions that were temporarily closed for refurbishment as the theme park underwent a number of upgrades and updates. ...
This Is How Disneyland Changed In The 2000s
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The new century started out with few changes inside Disneyland, as the company was focused on big changes outside the park, but things would liven up as the century progressed. 2000 Parking at Disneyland changed with the opening of the Mickey & Friends parking structure on the land that was a strawberry farm for decades. The more than 10,000-space structure was the largest one when it started ...
This Day In History Disneyland Opened 61 Years Ago Today
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Disneyland, the only theme park designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, opened on Sunday, July 17, 1955. Construction lasted for exactly one year, and cost only $17 million to complete. The opening was only intended for about 11,000 invited guests and press, though a total of 28,000 attended due to a rush of counterfeit tickets. The event was telecast by ABC, anchored by actors ...
9 Extinct Disneyland Attractions You Probably Never Knew Existed
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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 ...
Autopia Adds Storyline With Robots On A Camping Road Trip
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A new storyline has been added to Disneyland's classic attraction Autopia featuring two robotic characters on a camping road trip. They are the robotic characters of ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility), developed by Honda, and "Bird," a robotic buddy. "Autopia's never really had a storyline," said Kim Irvine, a Disney Imagineer who serves as Disneyland's art director. Irvine felt it ...
Autopia All New Look
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Where did you first sit behind a steering wheel, with your foot hovering over the gas pedal, ready to finally go, go, gooooo? It might have been a quiet cul-de-sac in your neighborhood, with a parent at your side. Or you might have initially driven a car through the carless parking lot of a local stadium or ballpark. Or, if you grew up in Southern California, you could have enjoyed your first ...
Disneyland And Imagineering Part 14
There's Got to be a Morning After When we last left off, Walt Disney had made it through Opening Day. It wasn't all that he had hoped it would be, but he made it. "Black Sunday" was supposed to be a relatively tame press preview. Instead it resembled more of an all out free-for-all -- the park being besieged by triple attendance that was more than expected. From a certain point of view, this was ...
