Disneyland and I are contemporaries. “The Happiest Place on Earth” is about to celebrate its 50th birthday. And I? Let’s just say we’re, ahem, roughly the same age.
When I was growing up in Southern California in the ’50s and ’60s, Disneyland was always there in my proverbial back yard, like a favorite relative you went to visit now and then.
Its attractions remained largely static over those years. Sure, there were the occasional updates. The “Rocket to the Moon” ride disappeared as our space program made it look obsolete. The G.E. Carousel of Progress rotated out as it began to look passe.
For the most part, though, the Disneyland of my youth stayed reassuringly the same.
The rides back then may not have benefited from today’s special effects. But Disneyland always offered unsurpassed entertainment. I was lucky enough to see the great Louis Armstrong, yes Satchmo himself, playing “Dixieland at Disneyland” in the ’60s and Count Basie holding court at a bandstand in the ’70s.
My earliest memories of Disneyland encompass the years when Uncle Walt himself was at the helm, long before corporate expansion and executive turnover, before Disney World and Euro Disney, before Michael Eisner and Pixar.
So when I returned to Disneyland recently after many, many years, my, how things had changed. The place had grown up. I felt like Rip Van Winkle, strangely disoriented.
Gone are the acres of parking lot, turned into the “promenade” between Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. And wedged into the main entrance corridor is Downtown Disney, an outdoor shopping mall and entertainment/eatery complex.
I must confess to a sense of nostalgic relief, though, as I went through the Disneyland turnstile and found that Main Street, U.S.A. remained unadulterated.
| Tickets:
1 Day Park Hopper: $63 (ages 3-9) $73 (ages 10 plus) 2 Day Park Hopper: $85 (ages 3-9) $105 (ages 10 plus) 3 Day Park Hopper $109 (all ages) 4 Day Park Hopper $129 (all ages) 5 Day Park Hopper $139 (all ages) Hours: Vary. Check www.Disneyland.com for current hours. Hotels of Disneyland resort: Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel 1600 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, CA 92803 Rates vary, from regular rate of $335 for a standard room to $1,155 for 3-bedroom suite Disneyland Hotel 1150 Magic Way Anaheim, CA 92802 Rates from $265 (standard), $800 (3-bedroom suite) Paradise Pier Hotel 1717 S. Disneyland Drive Anaheim, CA 92802 Rates from $235 standard, $645 (3-bedroom suite) Reservation line for all 3 hotels: 714-956-6425. Vacation packages: Disneyland offers online vacation packages. Alaska Air also offers packages. At www.MouseSavers.com, for most dates until June 29, kids fly free with a paid adult fare when you buy an Alaska Airlines Disneyland vacation package. |
Many of the Fantasyland attractions that were there on opening day in 1955 – Dumbo, the Flying Elephant, the King Arthur Carousel, The Mad Tea Party (otherwise dubbed “the tea cups”), Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, and the Storybook Land Canal Boats – were intact. And the beloved Autopia, where children could pretend they were licensed drivers, had not been torn out to make way for a Disneyfied NASCAR track.
Some things are sacred, after all.
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