Testing Dynamic Pricing Models With 299 Dollars Pixar Pier Ticket
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Are you ready for the experience of buying a ticket to a theme park to become like the experience of buying a plane ticket? Strap in, because Disneyland dynamic pricing tests are happening right now, and it could impact the way the theme park operates as next year's opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge looms large on the horizon. Read more about this new pricing test below.
The Wall Street Journal ...
Thanks For The Magic Memories
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Some people preserve family memories in scrapbooks and dresser drawers, filling them with vintage photographs of mom and dad, mementos of wartime service, souvenirs of that first trip to Disneyland.
Diane Disney Miller has all that, too -- and she's planning a museum to share it with us.
It will be a lot more than a scrapbook, but it won't look like a monument, a theme park or a shopping mall. ...
That Blue Milk At Star Wars Galaxys Edge Will Cost You More Than A Butterbeer
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As if the steadily rising price of Butterbeer wasn 't enough to contend with, theme park fans will have to dig even deeper into their pockets to pay for the Blue Milk every Star Wars fan has been dying to try for the past four decades.
Blue Milk will set you back a cool $7.99 for the best-known drink in the “Star Wars” universe when the highly anticipated Galaxy 's Edge themed land debuts at ...
That Time Disneyland Employed Live Mermaids In 1959 The Park Seemed A Bit More Magical
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After photos of Disneyland's performing mermaids surfaced on the Internet a few years ago, one former sea nymph recalled a peculiar question a park monorail conductor once fielded from an elderly visitor.
"Are they real?" she asked of the mermaids. The conductor responded in the affirmative, to which the visitor mused, "I wonder where they found them. Probably the Sargasso Sea."
Whether the ...
The $2.29 Disneyland Secret
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The economy is rough, but at least I have more than Sports Chalet's price-per-share in my pocket
I don't often go to the park on a Thursday morning, but I had some time to kill before I had to go back to work, so I decided why not pop over to the park and see what's crackin'. I hopped onto the new and sweet Monorail Mark VII, which I've never been on by the way, and cruised into ...
The ‘Nemo Dream Mobile' Takes To The Road
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Disneyland Park California is being readied for its June 11 premiere of its newest attraction Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. To preview the attraction The Nemo Dream Mobile will be coming out of the water and onto the road in the US beginning May 4 for a spring-summer tour. This road-tripping submarine-on-wheels will bring some of the magic of Disneyland Resort and its new summer attraction to cities where ...
The African Queen At 70 How One Jungle Cruise Influenced Another Jungle Cruise
On July 17, 1955, Walt Disney experienced what he and many referred to as “Black Sunday.” Imagine, if you will, a swelteringly hot day in southern California surrounded by 28,000 people with limited access to water, atop asphalt soft enough to get your shoes stuck, and things are malfunctioning all around you. On top of that, people everywhere can see the chaos broadcast on their television screens. This ...
The Best Candy Where To Get The Sweetest Smackerels
The happiest candy is in the Happiest Place on Earth: Find out where to find the best candy at Disneyland.
Did you even go to Disneyland if you didn 't try a sweet treat? Every time I go to the park, I 'm looking for something sugary and sweet to feed this urge. Churros are a popular choice amongst guests alike, but something just hits different when you step inside the Disneyland candy shops. ...
The Best Disneyland Ride Of All Time
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After our E Ticket discussion from last week, I thought picking the best Disneyland rides would be fun. I might follow up with a worst rides post, although I'm not sure if I want to relive this again.
As I've been riding the local roller coasters for a Chronicle magazine article I'm working on, I've noticed how little concern the newer rides place on production values. Bay Area coasters such as The ...
The Big 5-0 For Disneyland
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From a roaming dinosaur to new rides to an online computer game, Disney will offer new attractions and spectacles at all of its parks this year to mark the 50th anniversary of Disneyland.
The flagship park in Anaheim, Calif., opened in July 1955. A celebration kicks off May 5 with festivities there and at the other Disney parks in Florida, France and Japan, said Jay Rasulo, president of Walt Disney ...
The Big Ooh
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Craftsmen must use their hands, heads and hearts to create the rides and inventions that make the park distinctly Disney.
Walt Disney dreamed the idea for Disneyland, but it took an army of innovators to build a place where people could step inside a story.
Disney tapped the best artists and risk-takers in his film studio to transform their two-dimensional fantasy worlds into a real place. When ...
The Day The Goths Got Happy
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I love visual incongruity. Life is more fun when you see the least expected. You know, like a rapping granny, a huge man walking a teeny tiny Pekingese, a super nerd with a smoking-hot girlfriend or the Happiest Place on Earth overrun with people not usually associated with happiness. Yep, my daughters and I were at Disneyland on Goth Day.
Lots of groups have gatherings at Disney theme parks. Disney ...
The DL On Disneyland
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After visiting Disney's California Adventure the previous day, head into the park when it opens at eight for shorter lines at those rides you are dying to get on. Sure, the newest ride in the park the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage is interesting, but check out some less appreciated aspects of the park. After you have braved the two-hour line (at least) at Nemo, remember to expand beyond the realm of major ...
The Early Word: New Books
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Walt Disney's Legends of Imagineering and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park
By Jeff Kurtti, Bruce Gordon (Illustrator)
Growing up in Southern California, I've seen the rise and downsize of many amusement parks - Pacific Ocean Park (P.O.P.), Marineland, Knott's Berry Farm when they pretty much just served chicken dinner with berry pie. In 1954, the year I was born in Santa Monica, home of a ...
The Force Is With Space Mountain
SPYING A TIE FIGHTER? You might be just departing an asteroid field, or exploring a new planet, or piloting your ship over a moon's horizon when you suddenly spy the fast and fearsome Imperial vessel. But there is a cosmic conveyance that can famously outmaneuver these fighters, if you know when and where to board. The "where" part is a cinch, as it happens to be based on Planet Earth: It's Space ...
The Force Reigns At Disneyland New Star Wars Event
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What if Disneyland converted Tomorrowland to a "Star Wars"-themed area rather than building a 14-acre Star Wars Land?
Starting Friday, you can see what that would have looked like with Star Wars Season of the Force at the Anaheim theme park.
The "Star Wars" festival officially kicks off Monday, but you can check out all the new additions to Tomorrowland right now as Disneyland "soft opens" a ...
The Future Knocks Again
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To get to the front door of the Elias family, the inhabitants of the new Dream Home at Disneyland, you must step onto a revolving walkway and glide past Tom Morrow, a Nathan Lane-voiced robot with a face like a machine-age Arcimboldo and a brush cut of stiff copper-colored wire. Tom's body is an exposed skeleton of hydraulics, wires and transistors, and his one concession to modesty, a clear plastic lab ...
The Great Big Beautiful History And Legacy Of Walt Disneys Carousel Of Progress 50 Years After It Left
As a West Coast resident, I have been to Disneyland far more times than I have been to Walt Disney World. As such, when I find myself in Magic Kingdom, while there are a lot of subtle differences between the two similar parks, I always find myself veering towards Tomorrowland first. The reasons are two special attractions you can find there that were once residents of Disneyland, but can no longer be found ...
The Happiest March On Earth Fetes Disneyland 64th
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The sights you'll see inside Disneyland park?
A certain snowy mountain, if you look northeast from the Central Plaza. Elephants flying overhead, if you're near King Arthur's Carrousel.
And birthday buttons everywhere, on hundreds if not thousands of lapels, all to show that The Happiest Place on Earth is the place where many people choose to spend their happiest ...
The Happiest Place In The World
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After giving a talk in Northern California, I prepared for the long winter in Indiana by going on a trip with family to Disneyland-which advertises itself as the "Happiest Place in the World."
You know what-it just well might be.
First of all, the weather -Southern California in mid-November. It was 85 degrees, with a cloudless sky, no humidity. I understand why people in Southern California want ...
The Happiest Place On Earth
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I'm going to go to Disneyland by myself. Maybe that doesn't strike anyone as odd, but at my age I think the only people who do that are the people who decorate their homes in a Mickey Mouse motif and wear Pluto sweatshirts. I am not one of those people. What I am is a mother whose kids had the nerve to grow up.
In reality, one of my children is still in college and the other two are momentarily ...
The Happiest Place On Earth?
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Of course, I'm talking about Disneyland. Right now, my feet are still aching! It was a quick trip. We flew in Saturday and went straight to the park. On Sunday, we went to California Adventure. Then, we headed home!
My son is almost two. I was worried he would be too young, but he loved it. The highlights: Meeting Mickey, Pooh, and Goofy! My son loved that part. He also loved the parade, the Buzz ...
The Henry Ford to Create Traveling Exhibit Celebrating 50 Years of Disneyland
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The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, will research and develop a traveling exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. The exhibit will be created by The Henry Ford in association with Walt Disney Imagineering and The Walt Disney Company.
In an unprecedented agreement, Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative design organization behind Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, will loan The ...
The Inner Child Gets His Kicks All Alone And Feeling Childish:
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But I wanted more of Disney's new Indiana Jones Adventure ride.
So I climbed aboard again. And again. And again.
And again. And again. And again.
And again.
Eight times altogether.
And why not?
At age 48, I was in Disneyland. Alone. I was vacationing for the first time without my wife, without kids, without anyone else. My time was my own. The choices mine - all mine.
Indiana Jones, ...
The Kingdom Was His Glory
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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 park opened July 17, 1955, toilets clogged, the food ran out and women's high heels sank into wet asphalt. Disney officials still refer to it as "Black Sunday.''
...
The Legacy Of Monsanto House Of The Future
I was not born when Disneyland first opened in 1955, or even during what was billed as its second opening in 1959. The fact is, I didn 't visit Disneyland until its 25th anniversary in 1980. By then, many early attractions were already gone: the Phantom Boats, Rainbow Caverns Mine Train, the Flying Saucers, Space Station X-1, Rocket to the Moon, and so many others. The one bygone attraction that stands out ...
The Living Legacy Of Walt Disney
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It was an unusual stockholders' meeting for a great far-flung enterprise. Many of the stockholders were children, and they whooped with glee at films in which Blackbeard's ghost played havoc with crooks, or Baloo the bear, from Kipling's Jungle Books. cavorted through a dance. The company, of course, was Walt Disney Productions, and the films were previews of its movies.
But no laughter greeted the ...
The Magic Endures At Disneyland
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When my adventurous eight-year-old resorted to a sympathetic pep talk to convince me to ride Disneyland's Space Mountain with him, the role-reversal was too embarrassing to refuse.
On that magical, starlit, pleasantly disorienting plunge, with my son holding my hand, I had my Disneyland moment: the thrill of a great ride shared with an ecstatic child.
At its worst, Disneyland with kids, like any ...
The Majestic History Of Matterhorn Bobsleds
Disneyland Park opened its gates for the first time ever on July 17, 1955. Since that notable date in history, Disneyland has grown, expanded, and renovated countless times making it the enticing vacation point that it is today. For some people, however, Disneyland is not just a vacation spot. The rich history that Disneyland holds along with the captivating attractions within its gates is why we, the ...
The Man Who Would Be Walt
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Neal Gabler worked on his biography of Walt Disney for seven years.
"There has been so much written about him," Gabler says in a phone interview from his home in Amagansett, N.Y., "and I felt obligated to read everything that everyone has written about him previously, because I wanted to know the lay of the land. And then there was the archival research, which was very extensive."
The archives he ...
The Master Of The Magic Kingdom Reminisces About 38-Year Disney Career
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Last week, Disneyland President Jack Lindquist confirmed that he would step down Nov. 18, Mickey Mouse's 65th birthday. Lindquist, 66, began his Disney career in 1955, the year the park opened. Starting as the park's first advertising manager, the jovial Lindquist rose in 1990 to become its first and only president.
"I don't think California realizes the debt of gratitude we owe him," said John ...
