Disneyland Resort

If you are a Disneyland fanatic such as myself, then you are going to absolutely love recent film footage that has been released of Disneyland’s construction in 1954-55. Using time-lapse and traditional eye-in-the-sky photography, this is a dazzling piece of history, presenting how the fearless construction crews had Disneyland up and running in just under a year.

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.

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).

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.

Disney is offering a Pixie Hollow Summer Vacation Sweepstakes that gives participants a chance to meet Tinker Bell and see the Disneyland Resort in a whole new light as Summer Nightastic! generates high-energy excitement. The resort’s summer promotion runs from June 12 through August 23.

Beginning in August 2009, Southern California’s landmark Disneyland Hotel will start a significant renovation project that will include major improvements to its guest rooms and considerable changes to the exterior of the hotel. The hotel will remain open during the renovation, which will be conducted in phases, and is scheduled to be completed in 2012.

As previously promised, Disney kicked off the summer season this past weekend with the Summer Nightastic! promotion, featuring the relaunch of an improved Fantasmic! and Electrical Parade, the debut of the all-new Magical Fireworks show, the TLT Dance Club and Pixie Hollow Enchantment overlays.

As the saying goes, “the show must go on.” Disney’s revamped version of Fantasmic will debut as part of their Summer Spectacular promotion but without one of its stars – Maleficent, the 40 tall fire-breathing Dragon. Apparently during rehearsals, the dragon broke down.

Disneyland will soon introduce a flying Dumbo into the all-new Magical fireworks show, part of Disneyland’s Summer Nightastic promotion which begins June 12. Rather than an audio-animatronic machine floating above the Sleeping Beauty Castle, master puppeteer and longtime Disney collaborator Michael Curry, envisions a dancer in space performing on a wire 65 feet above the ground.

Zagat Survey has recently released its first Disneyland Resort Insider’s Guide, a comprehensive overview of 279 rides, attractions, dining, shopping, hotels and amenities throughout California’s renowned Disneyland Resort.

During the first 30 years of Disneyland’s history, the park often struggled to create an identity to attract locals into the park. One of the strategies they would employ is to host “themed” nights in which they might bring in some form of entertainment.