Disneyland: 2010

Disneyland has changed a lot since this time last year! Disneyland saw many refurbishments to rides that surely needed them while it quietly celebrated its 55 Anniversary. The park looks better than ever! Disney's California Adevnture saw a huge increase in the amount of construction work, with the debut of World of Color, the retheme of several attractions, and groundbreaking for The Little Mermaid and Carsland. Please note that some of these are my own pictures, while some belong to dlfreak over at MouseInfo.com. He always has the best pictures, so I encourage you to check them out!
We have a lot to look back on, so let's go!

Disneyland

Star Tours closed earlier this year in preparation for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, which opens May 2011.

Remember Honey I Shrunk the Audience? Well, that aging ride was put out to pasture for good to make way for Captian EO: Tribute.


The Disney Gallery, which had been MIA since The Dream Suite was created, was finally brought back to a really nice location in the Main Street Bank. The Disney Gallery is now connected to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, which opened last year.


And let's not forget the 4 month long refurbishment for the Rivers of America. All the boats and Fantasmic! went down while new additions were made to the Rivers. New effects were also seen in Fantasmic!





Disney's California Adventure
I thought there were a lot of walls at DCA in the beginning of the year! But now, there are many, many more! One thing that has slipped many people's minds (including mine!) are the new additions to Grizzly River Run. Slowly, the white water raft ride is being transformed into a 50's era National Park. Unfortunately, I have no pictures. But rest assured, by the time Golden State is ready to be tackled in Phase 2, all of the extreme sports references to the mountain will be gone.

Through various stages, the Red Car tracks in Hollywood Pictures Backlot were completed. The land was also announced to become Hollywoodland in the future. To combat the closure of the main entrance, temporary one was built between a bug's land and Tower of Terror. This became permanent in August.



The former ampitheater was demolished and made way for a beautiful viewing terrace dubbed Paradise Park.

The Little Mermaid construction has also increased. The ride opens May 2011.

Silly Symphony Swings also opened this year, surprising many people with its rich details and beautiful surroundings.

Across the way, Burger Invasion and Pizza Oom Mow Mow closed to become Paradise Gardens eaterie..

Maliboomer finally disappeared, which shocked many fans because it happened so quickly. Still, it is nice to see it gone! A park is supposed to open in its place, featuring a meet and greet.


Mulholland Madness also closed, to be turned into Goofy's Sky School next year.

Carsland rockwork has dominated the DCA skyline, with topping off occuring in October. The Bountiful Valley Farm closed to make way for more Carsland space.



To add to World of Color, Glow Fest was a popular, albeit tacky, Dance Party. ElecTRONica premiered in the fall, which was much nicer and even more popular

Meanwhile, the big event this year at DCA was its new nighttime show. World of Color premiered to the park guests in June. It has been well recieved, and later, Troncore was added after the show, which has been recieved well, too.

In the front of the Park, walls have gone up around sunshine plaza. It will be a mess next year as stores close and walls fill the land. The new turnstiles should be open by August, though the letters are slated to be removed in January. But come may, there will be

a lot less walls throughout the park!

Disneyland Hotel
The Disneyland Hotel is finally getting a decent theme to a retro Disneyland. The towers are being transformed, and the rooms are beautiful. The pool area is also seeing a major makeover. The entire thing will be finished by 2012. Perhaps then something will be done about Paradise Pier?




It's been a fun and exciting year at Disneyland Resort. Things will be even better next year, with new rides and the fastly approaching opening of Carsland. Stay tuned!

Disneyland: One Man's Dream- Return of the Subs

We already established about a month ago that in 1959, the Submarine Voyage was added to Disneyland as one of three new E-Ticket attractions. Then we discussed how in 1998, the ride closed. Shortly after that, it was announced that a new ride would be placed there by 2003. Originally, they were going to put an Atlantis themed sub ride in the lagoon, but the movie flopped at the idea was abbandoned. It would be years before any ride would be place there.

Later in 2004, there was activity in the lagoon. A Sub was docked at it's original dock for an inspection, and to see if animated scenes would appear through the porthole.

Finally, the highly anticipated ride opened. Some people loved it; others critized it for being "just TV screens". Whatever the case may be, the ride had insanely large lines. It had the longest wait out of all the rides at Disneyland!



The story of the ride is that you are setting out to explore and undersea volcano. You "dive" (via bubbles galore) and are emerged in a wonderful underwater landscape. You see ancient ruins and characters from Nemo, and continue on to a large reef. As you go deeper and deeper, the cpatain commands that the sonar hydrophones be turned on, which actually allow you to hear the fish. It's at this time that we see scenes from Finding Nemo via projections in the show building while people are still in the submarines. At the end, you end up seeing the volcano, and the captain decides not to put any of this into the log because "no one would believe any of it. We better get out of here before we see a mermaid or a sea searpent" (in homage to the original ride).


The rise was popular. However, some quests can't go down into the sub due to claustrophobia, size, etc. So, Disney also has an alternate viewing area, where you watch the ride in a nicely themed seaside Marine Observation Outpost. To this day, it is not uncommon to find waits for the ride at about an hour. But what will be next for Disneyland?

Disneyland: One Man's Dream- Disney's Grand Claifornian Hotel

Similar to how Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian is the flagship resort of the resort, The Grand Californian Hotel is the flagship resort of Disneyland. Unlike the Paradise Pier Hotel and Disneyland Hotel, this is the only hotel that Disney has built, owned, and operated since it opened.

Another cool thing about this hotel is the proximity to everything. Outside it's door, you have Downtown Disney. Outside it's other door, you have DCA. The hotel comes with it's own enterance to both venues, making it very unique.


The Grand Californian Hotel is based on the Art and Crafts movement of the early 1900s in California. The hotle feature large, sweeping ceilings that are very high. All the colors blend with nature, and the idea of a home based on the Arts and Crafts movement was taken from being inspired from a garden to a forest. And the hotel really shows this.

Many items in the hotel, from furniture to lights to ornaments, have been handmade specifically for the hotel. The loby itself is a spectacle. One of it's many features is a huge fireplace, which many people like to sit and watch.

The hotel features a large pool area with slides and fountains. It also features a few restaurants, most notably Storyteller's Cafe, The Napa Rose, and White Water Snacks. The hotel features some of the best food in the entire resort.


Due to growing demand for the hotel, in 2007 Disney announced plans to expand the resort by 30%. The expansion will include 200 hotel rooms, and a brand new wing containing 50 Disney Vacation Club villas. This mark's the DVC's first villas on the west coast. The expansion also includes a new pool area, more landscaping, a viewing platform to view fireworks and Disney's new show World of Color, and a large underground parking garage. Actually, the expansion opens it's doors to guests and DVC members in a few days!!




Soon it would be clear that The Grand Calfornian Hotel would be the crown jewel of the Disneyland Resort expansion- not DCA.

Disneyland: One Man's Dream- The New Orleans Square Story

In the 10th Anniversary show, we were given sneak peeks at New Orleans Square, which was the first new land to be added to Disneyland since opening day. Today, it is the home to two of the most popular Disneyland Attractions. It's also the location of one of Disney's greatest entertainment venues. And for these reasons, it remains as the favorite land for many Disneyland-goers not to mention exclusive to Disneyland, only.


But it's evolution is almost as interesting as the evolution of Disneyland itself.

First, let's take a trip to Adventureland. In 1963, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room opened. Inside, Audio-Animatronic birds, flowers, and tiki gods entertained guests. For the time, it was very hightech. This innovation would be used highly in New Orleans Square.

Around this time, a majestic New Orleans-type house was constructed in Disneyland. This mansion had a sign on the front of it's gates- a want ad for ghosts. Little did Disneyland park-goers know what was happening inside. And Walt didn't know either.

Soon, this part of Frontierland was gutted and the railroad tracks were moved to allow for constuction of the brand new land to begin. Foundations were layed but worked stopped. This was due to the World's Fair, reported in a previous update. And for 2 years, this construction area sat empty and closed of to the public. Inquistive minds climbed the Swiss Family Treehouse to see what was going on.
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But really, the ideas for New Orleans Square dated back to when DIsneyland was first invisioned. Walt wanted a Haunted House, and planned one for Main Street. This idea was eventually scrapped but never totally disappeared.

The Haunted Mansion went through various stages. It was initially concieved to be a walk-through tour, but the ideas grew bigger and bigger. The Haunted Mansion would still sit dormant while Walt worked on other things, like Tomorrowland and Pirates of the Caribbean.

In the late 50s, Walt wanted to do a Pirate Wax Museum. So when he wanted to build New Orleans Square, he saw it as the perfect location for the walk-through. Construction stopped during the Worlds Fair with the rest of New Orleans Square. After the Fair Walt came bak and decided to do a pirate boat ride with Audio-Animatronic pirates wrecking havoc on a Caribbean seaport. Design started, however the ride was to big. So WED planned to have the majority of the ride outside the railroad tracks in a building. Therefore, guests would have to travel under the tracks to get to and from the showbuilding. They would do this by plunging down a waterfall, then climbing up one. Pirates would also be the home to the Blue Bayou, which would be a great restaurant in the actual pirates ride overlooking the Bayou.

While construction on Pirates of the Caribbean began, planning for the Huanted Mansion started back up. Stories included a muderous pirate who moved here, killed his bride, then hung himself. There was also talks about doing a "Museum of the Wierd". Many aspects from each story were incorperated into the mansion, where guests would tour a "retirement home" of sorts for ghosts.

New Orleans Square officialy opened on July 24, 1966. Though the 2 big rides were not opened, and neither was the Blue Bayou, people strolled through the streets and felt as though they were actually in New Orleans.

There was one last roadblock- on December 15, 1966, just a few months before Pirates opened to the public. Therefore, it was the last attraction Walt Disney exclusively worked on. Pirates would open to the Public in March of 1967, and from Day One is a hit. Not to mention my personal favorite attraction in any Disney theme park.

The Haunted Mansion would not open unti, 1969, three years after Walt Disney's death. It was the first attraction completed without the help of Walt, and helped prove to the Imagineers that Disneyland could still succede even without the man who dreamed it up. The opening of the Haunted Mansion spiked attendence incredibly high, probably because most people wanted to see what was inside it ever since they saw it 6 years ago.

Today, New Orleans Square is one of the most renowed lands in Disney theme park history. And the Dream Suite as well as Club 33 are also pretty cool, too! Both were designed to be used by Walt Disney, but after he died, the front part, which was to be Walt Disney's own apartment was office space while the back part became Club 33, an exclusive membership area for people. Later, the front area became the Disney Gallery, later to be replaced by the Dream Suite, where Walt vision of the Suite could finally be realised- special guests could stay there during th Year of A Million Dreams. (I actually had the privelege of eating in both Club 33 and staying a night in the Dream Suite. It was Fantastic!)



*Note: All concept art in this column are Copyright Disney. No copyright infringement intended.