Disneyland, California, USA

Disneyland is an American theme park in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of The Walt Disney Company. It was dedicated with a press preview on July 17, 1955, and opened to the general public July 18, 1955. Disneyland holds the distinction of being the only theme park to be designed, built, opened, and operated by Walt Disney himself.

 

The concept for Disneyland began one Sunday, when Walt Disney was visiting Griffith Park with his daughters Diane and Sharon. While watching his daughters ride the Merry-Go-Round he came up with the idea of a place where adults and their children could go and have fun together. His dream would lie dormant for many years. Walt Disney's father helped build the grounds of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.

While many people had written letters to Walt Disney about visiting the Disney Studio, he realized that a functional movie studio had little to offer to the visiting fans. This began to foster ideas of building a site near his Burbank studios for tourists to visit. His ideas then evolved to a small play park with a boat ride and other themed areas. Walt's initial concept, his "Mickey Mouse Park", started with an 8 acres (0.012 sq mi; 0.032 km2) plot across Riverside Drive. Walt started to visit other parks for inspiration and ideas, including Tivoli Gardens, Greenfield Village, The Efteling, Tilburg , Playland, and Children's Fairyland.

 
An aerial view of Disneyland in 1956. The entire route of the
Disneyland Railroad is clearly visible as it encircles the park.

 

Construction began on July 18, 1954 and would cost USD$17 million to complete, and was opened exactly one year later. U.S. Route 101 (later Interstate 5) was under construction at the same time just to the north of the site; in preparation for the traffic which Disneyland was expected to bring, two more lanes were added to the freeway even before the park was finished.

Sleeping Beauty Castle during the Happiest Homecoming on Earth

Currently the park has been visited by more than 515 million guests since it opened, including presidents, royalty and other heads of state. In 1998, the theme park was re-branded "Disneyland Park" to distinguish it from the larger Disneyland Resort complex. In 2007, more than 14,800,000 people visited the park making it the second most visited park in the world, behind the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

1990s transition: Park becomes Resort

In the late 1990s, work began to expand on the one-park, one-hotel property. Disneyland Park, the Disneyland Hotel and the site of the original parking lot as well as acquired surrounding properties were earmarked to become part of a greater vacation resort development. The new components of this resort were to be another theme park, Disney's California Adventure Park; a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, Downtown Disney; a remodeled Disneyland Hotel; Disney's Grand Californian Hotel; and the acquisition of the Pan Pacific Hotel (later to be remodeled and renamed Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel). Because the existing parking lot (south of Disneyland) was built upon by these projects, the six-level 10,250 space "Mickey and Friends" parking structure was constructed in the northwest corner of the property, at the time of its completion in 2000, it was the largest parking structure in the United States.

Disney's California Adventure

In 2004, the park undertook a number of major renovation projects in preparation for its fiftieth anniversary celebration. Many classic attractions were restored, notably Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room.

Park layout

The park is divided into realms, which radiate like the four cardinal points of the compass from Central Plaza, and well-concealed backstage areas. On entering a realm, a guest is completely immersed in the environment and is unable to see or hear any other realm. The idea behind this was to develop theatrical "stages" with seamless passages from one land to the next.[13] The public areas occupy approximately 85 acres (0.133 sq mi; 0.344 km2).

Aerial view of Disneyland in 1963, looking southeast.
The Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) is in the upper left corner.
Harbor Boulevard forms the eastern boundary of the park.
Anaheim's newly completed Melodyland Theater ("theater-in-the-round"),
at the top of the photo.

 

 

Disney Theme Areas:

When the park initially opened, it consisted of five themed areas:

Main Street, U.S.A., an early 20th century Midwest town

Adventureland, featuring jungle-themed adventures

Frontierland, illustrating western frontier

Fantasyland, bringing fantasy into a reality


Tomorrowland, looking into the future.

Since the initial opening, additional areas have been added:

• In 1957, Holidayland, a 9 acres (0.014 sq mi; 0.036 km2) recreation area including a circus and baseball diamond, which was closed in late 1961.
  
• In 1966, New Orleans Square, based on 19th century New Orleans.
   
• In 1972, "Bear Country", themed to the mountain forests of the South. It was later renamed Critter Country and themed around Splash Mountain's Song of the South elements.
   
• In 1993, Mickey's Toontown, themed around the Toontown seen in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
   
• An elevated berm supports a narrow gauge railroad which circumnavigates the park. Disney's California Adventure Park was added in what used to be a Disneyland parking lot.

All in all Disneyland World is out of this world and worth to pay a visit. Surely, recommended to anyone who wants to taste real fun.