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 ...

As pass holders to Disneyland I know there are times when we get a bit tired of the park when we have experienced the same rides and attractions for the millionth time around. If you have been reading any of past articles, you know how I feel about the subject. When I get these feelings I usually stay away from the park until I have to go back, and when I say "have to go back" I mean I literally "Have to ...

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 ...

Blending perfectly with its turn-of-the-century surroundings a specially constructed omnibus is the newest attraction on Disneyland's busy Main Street - of the world's most unusual thoroughfares. A "double-decker" with a capacity of 37 passengers and resembling the famous buses of pre-World War I London, it provides the practical function of transporting guests from the park's entrance to the four magic ...

The day after Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, many newspapers had a field day with the myriad of problems the park had, such as gas leaks, failing plumbing and a lack of drinking fountains. Some called it Walt's Folly and more. But that didn't seem to matter to the public because when the park opened its gates the next day, there was a long line of people waiting to get in - and the lines never ...

During the rush of getting the Park constructed, "Tomorrowland" was the last land finished. Budget cuts didn't allow all of its attractions to be opened that first day. One of those cuts was to use the "Nautilus" sets from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" as a walk-through. When it closed in 1966, the organ belonging to Captain Nemo was moved to the ballroom of the "Haunted Mansion." For the first four ...

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 ...

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 ...

For 40 years, the theme park chose ride operators based on gender-with frilly-frocked females working Storybook Land and macho men in pith helmets wisecracking through the Jungle Cruise. But last month, the first woman took up oars to help guests paddle canoes around Tom Sawyer Island, and the first man in 38 years piloted a Storybook Land Canal Boat through the whale's mouth. Soon, female conductors ...

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 ...

"Hotter than hell" is how Art Linkletter, the emcee and Walt Disney's longtime friend, remembers it. "The asphalt had just been rolled and people's shoes got stuck in it. But we carried on. We didn't worry about stuff like that." Fifty years is a long time, but those who were there when Disneyland opened its gates on July 17, 1955, still remember the tiniest details -- rides that broke down, wet paint ...

It's a wonderful, leisurely time of year to visit Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom! Anytime is a "good time" to visit Walt Disney unique Magic Kingdom - just ask the 12 million adults and 4 million children who've already been here! But with the Fall season, there is particular appeal and a still different enchantment about Disneyland, where guests find themselves "worlds away from today" - leaving ...

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." ...

Hi, this is Marcia Schlegelmilch reporting from Disneyland in sunny southern California. Disneyland -- where Mickey, Minnie and friends reside in the cartooniest of homes. Where pirates landed as they escaped the Caribbean. Where storybook characters like Alice, Pinnochio and Peter Pan come to life on a parcel of land dubbed the "Happiest" on Earth. I had been to this place before in my life, back in the ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

About five or six months ago I received an e-mail from the 1313 Club & Ape Pen Publishing Informing me of an event to take place at the Disneyland Hotel. The event, "The Marvelous Mechanized Magic Kingdom" was to feature the talents and stories of current and former employees and imagineers as they worked for Walt over the years. The 1313 Club and Ape Pen are both are created and run by Carlene Thie, ...

Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A. became a bit of a maze for visitors starting last week when workers began construction on the main thoroughfare into the theme park. Crews are working on the concrete along Main Street U.S.A., mostly at night, for almost two months, said David Gill, a Disneyland Resort spokesman. On Friday, visitors could see construction walls starting at Town Square near the park's ...

One would never think that Disneyland, the most fabulous entertainment center in the world, would feature an interwoven complex of nearly every kind of transportation conceived. There are transportation systems of the past, vehicles of the present day and transporters of the future. The first vehicles Disneyland visitors come in contact with are the Main Gate trams, a series of bench-seat ...

Hop aboard the horse-drawn trolley (or if you prefer a surrey, a double-decked bus, a "horseless carriage" or fire wagon) and let's begin a tour through Disneyland with a jaunt down 1900 Main Street. To our right as we leave Town Square is the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad Station, where passenger and freight trains depart for a trip around Disneyland. Facing the square are a bank, in ...

Frequent Disneyland visitors will tell you that any slow season of the past is virtually non-existent today. Visitors who tire of days standing in long lines for short rides are often pushed into paying for Genie Plus, which adds even more money to an already expensive day at the park. The good news, however, is that Disneyland Resort offers plenty of attractions that aren't rides to pass your precious ...