On the same day Disneyland is celebrating its 54th birthday, Disney Imagineering legend, Marty Sklar, is retiring after 54 years of service. Marty was honored today prior to the park’s opening with the dedication of a new window on Main Street, U.S.A. He rites from the position of International Ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering and leaves behind an incredible legacy.
Fifty four years ago today, Disneyland opened its gates to the public for the first time. Since then, Disneyland has become much more than a theme park – it has become a memory book to so many who have passed under the tunnels that lead to Main Street U.S.A. where to sign overhead reads, “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”
Disney officials are proudly proclaiming that the upcoming World of Color water show at Disney’s California Adventure will far surpass Disneyland’s Fantasmic and Epcot’s Illuminations in magnitude, creativity and technical wizardry. And if you have been following the construction progress as I have, you’d have to agree.
From The L.A. Times, Disneyland will add Halloween theming elements to its Space Mountain attraction as well as its fireworks show during the end of September thru the first day of November. The “Halloween Time” event, which runs from Sept. 25 through Nov. 1, is included in the price of admission to the Anaheim theme park.
Knott’s Berry Farm, famous for the Halloween Haunts held every September/October where the park literally becomes haunted, will unveil four new mazes for their 2009 season. The granddaddy of Halloween events will feature 13 mazes in all scattered throughout the park, with construction currently underway in backstage areas.
As work continues on the 1 billion dollar revamping of Disney’s California Adventure theme park, the OC register has put together a very cool interactive map of what the park will look like once everything is complete (some time in 2012).
Following a week of sneak previews and Passholder previews, the Hall of Presidents officially re-opened debuting its newest member – President Barak Obama. The new show carries the subtitle “A Celebration of Liberty’s Leaders” and for the first time features speaking roles for three presidents.
Sad news from Walt Disney Word: 21 year old cast member, Austin Wuennenberg, died today from an early morning collision between two Monorail trains. The two trains collided at around 2 a.m. at the Transportation and Ticket Center, which is the hub for Walt Disney World’s transportation system.
Hong Kong Disneyland is finally getting some much needed attention – a $450 million expansion plan that will add three new lands and a list of attractions that is nearing respectability. This is good timing with the very soon planned construction of another Disney theme park in neighboring Shanghai. Three new theme areas will be added which will give Hong Kong Disney 30 new attractions and boost the park’s size by 23%.
Disney’s California Adventure is quite a mess right now with construction projects going on everywhere. One of those projects is Cars Land, a new area within the park that will be themed after the Disney/Pixar animated movie – Cars. The actual location of this new land will be where the Timon parking lot currently resides.
