Disneyland celebrates half a century of fun and fantasy. Andrea Black STEPS inside the fairytale.
For many people, visiting Disneyland is the fulfilment of a dream of a lifetime. This year marks Disneyland’s 50th birthday, with anniversary celebrations due to get under way from May 5 and continue for the next 18 months.
If you were around for the opening day 50 years ago, which came to be known as Black Sunday, you might be surprised that Disneyland has made it this far.
The ambitious Walt Disney opened Disneyland in 1955 to a live TV audience via a telecast co-hosted by an out-of-work actor named Ronald Reagan. The park was nowhere near completed and the publicity proved disastrous. Fresh paintwork hadn’t dried and the heels of the VIP starlets invited to witness the spectacle got stuck in the wet asphalt. The hot summer day meant drinking fountains were in demand but there were too few due to a plumbing strike.
Thousands of entry tickets were forged and gatecrashers out-numbered invited guests. Calamity ensued. Rides and attractions weren’t ready, and some were just plain ill-advised — the Penny Arcade on Main Street featured a shooting gallery that used live ammunition rifles!
However, Disneyland today is a worldwide phenomenon and one of the most visited attractions.
Disneyland itself is known as Disneyland Resort and includes two theme parks (the original Disneyland and a new theme park next door called Disney’s California Adventure), a ‘downtown’ shopping district and three onsite hotels. It’s a veritable dream world of storybook and cartoon characters, rides and entertainment, including the Snow White musical at the Fantasyland Theatre (if you stick around afterwards, you can meet Snow White, Bashful or Dopey).
All the Disney characters roam the park — except for Mickey Mouse who resides in ‘Mickey’s House’ in Toon Town — so there are plenty of photo opportunities.
There’s a host of guided tours to take. Try the ‘Walk in Walt’s Footsteps’ and get a fascinating peek at the real Walt Disney; his vision, the challenges he faced and, ultimately, his success. You can look around Walt Disney’s exclusive Club 33, an elite private club hidden upstairs in the New Orleans section of the park (it’s the only place in Disneyland where alcohol is served).
You’ll also visit Walt’s private room with its many power points (apparently he liked to change the room around a lot), and the fire station on Main Street USA where he kept his private quarters. A light is always left on as a tribute to Walt, who died in 1966.
The other ‘characters’ you meet here are the cast members (or employees) — an enthusiastic bunch who seem to have taken their happy pills. They’re the ones who don the Mickey suit, clean the immaculate pathways or guide small groups of visitors through the theme park. It’s not surprising to find that celebrities such as Steve Martin, who sold Disneyland guidebooks, and Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Alice from Alice in Wonderland, started their careers here.
But it’s not just the cast members who are enthusiastic, a gaggle of ‘Disneyphiles’ visit the park daily. One lady comes to the park every day just to ride the ‘Indiana Jones Adventure’ (where you rush headlong through the jungle in a jeep dodging oncoming booby traps) over and over. The crew gave her a crystal bowl to commemorate her thousandth ride, while recently a lorry driver from London named his son Disney. Unfortunately his surname is Pain.
Of course you can’t come to Disneyland and not go on a ride. From old favourites such as ‘It’s A Small World’ (a mini United Nations) and the ‘Flying Dumbos’ merry-go-round to ‘The Haunted Mansion’, a frightening experience and the last attraction Walt worked on before he died (some say he haunts it). Recently a Haunted Mansion tombstone sold for a whopping US$37,400 on eBay.
The California Adventure park, which opened in 2001, is a 22-hectare homage to the state of California. You can take a virtual hang-gliding adventure called ‘Soaring Over California’ and get a birdseye view of the State. While thrill seekers should head for
the new ‘Twilight Zone Tower of Terror’, an unnerving sudden drop and quick ascent in a dark lift shaft. For a nail-biting, hair-raising rollercoaster experience try the ‘California Screamin’, a gut-churning 1.6 km ride of plunging steel that takes you from zero to 88 kms in five seconds.
If you’re not up for such antics take some time out to visit Disneyland’s array of amusement park fare. For a real ‘Disneyland’ breakfast, visit Goofy’s Kitchen in the nearby Disneyland Hotel, where you can breakfast on Mickey-shaped chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly pizza. If that doesn’t appeal, keep walking. The nearby Downtown Disney district offers a wide range of restaurants, from New Orleans-style to Italian fare, bars and shopping.
Disneyland plans to celebrate in great style. Original rides will be given a golden coat of paint, including the iconic ‘Sleeping Beauty Castle’, which generations of TV viewers will remember from The Wonderful World of Disney. Tinkerbell will appear from the sky to sprinkle her fairy dust as part of the fireworks celebrations, while Mary Poppins herself, actress Julie Andrews, has been named honorary ambassador.
Disneyland will open a new attraction called ‘Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters’ in Tomorrowland, where you can pilot your own star cruiser to defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg. ‘Space Mountain’, a Disneyland favourite, will re-open complete with new effects and redesigned rockets.
The celebrations will also include an exhibition that showcases Disneyland’s first 50 years and will feature a film that documents the evolution of the ‘Happiest Place
on Earth’.
It’s been said that toward the end of his life, Walt Disney would peer out from his apartment window above the fire station and shed a tear at the lucky children experiencing his dream for the first time. Fifty years later, every guest who leaves Disneyland with tired legs, an empty wallet and a huge smile can rest safe in the knowledge that “it’s what Walt would have wanted”.
Getting there: For travel packages and great deals to the USA, call NRMA Holidays on 1800 051 045 (a service provided by Qantas Holidays Limited). Packages offer a range of ticket options and accommodation such as the onsite DISNEYLAND Hotel and DISNEY’S GRAND CALIFORNIAN Hotel.
Car hire: NRMA Members can obtain International Driver’s Licences through NRMA, plus discounts on car hire from Hertz. Visit www.mynrma.com.au/travel
Travel warnings: For current advice on security issues, visit smartraveller.gov.au
Tips: Get there at least half an hour before the gates open, then run! Avoid the queues for rides with a free FastPass, which allows you to pre-book a time for the most popular attractions within a one-hour window.
Flight time: Fourteen hours from the east coast of Australia, Disneyland is 50 kms (45 minutes drive) south-east of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Best time to go: Avoid weekends and US school holidays (June–August is the US school summer holiday period).
Member offers: Don’t forget to Show Your Card & Save (yes, your NRMA card) at over 54,000 places in the US. Visit www.sycs.com.au for details.
More Information: For more details on Disneyland, visit www.disneyland.com.au. For info on California, call California Tourism on 9959 4356 or email california@integra-tm.com.au
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