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Disneyland Resort
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The Disneyland Resort is a recreational resort complex in Anaheim, California. The resort is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks and Resorts division and is home to two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping, dining and entertainment area.
Known simply as Disneyland at the time it opened in 1955, the property originally consisted of the theme park built by Walt Disney, its parking lot, as well as a hotel owned and operated by Disney's business partner Jack Wrather.
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Encyclopedia
The Disneyland Resort is a recreational resort complex in Anaheim, California. The resort is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks and Resorts division and is home to two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping, dining and entertainment area.
Known simply as Disneyland at the time it opened in 1955, the property originally consisted of the theme park built by Walt Disney, its parking lot, as well as a hotel owned and operated by Disney's business partner Jack Wrather. Amid a drastic expansion project in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the name Disneyland Resort was coined to refer to the entire Disney complex, while Disneyland Park was coined to refer to the original theme park.
History and development
Concept and construction
Walt Disney's early concepts for an amusement park called for a park called "Mickey Mouse Park" located adjacent to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank (presently the site of the West Coast headquarters of ABC). However, as new ideas emerged, Walt and his brother Roy quickly realized that the Burbank location would be too small for the project. The brothers hired a consultant from Stanford Research Institute to provide them with information on locations and economic feasibility. The consultant recommended a remote location near Anaheim, adjacent to the then-under-construction Santa Ana Freeway. Covered by Orange County's namesake orange groves at the time, the consultant correctly predicted that the location would become the population center of Southern California.
Since the location was remote in the 1950s, Walt Disney wanted to build a hotel so that Disneyland guests traveling long distances could stay overnight. However, the park had already depleted Disney's financial resources, so a deal was negotiated with Hollywood producer Jack Wrather in which Wrather would build and operate a hotel called the Disneyland Hotel across the street from Disneyland.
1955-1998: One park
Though its opening day was disastrous and would later be dubbed "Black Sunday", Disneyland became a huge success in its first year of operation. The hotel, which opened 3 months after the park, enjoyed similar success. Walt Disney originally envisioned building more facilities for Disneyland visitors to stay in Anaheim, but since all his financial resources were drained, entrepreneurs established their own hotels and other hospitality industry businesses in the area surrounding the park and hotel, eager to capitalize on Disneyland's success. To Disney's dismay, the city of Anaheim, eager for the tax revenue generated by more hotels in the city, was lax in restricting their construction, and the area surrounding Disneyland became the atmosphere of colorful lights and flashy neon signs that Disney had wanted to avoid (and which years earlier had caused the city of Burbank to deny Disney's initial request to build his project in Burbank). The city also constructed the Anaheim Convention Center across the street from Disneyland's parking lot. Residences were also constructed in the area as part of they city of Anaheim's growth in the late 20th century.
Eventually, Disneyland was "boxed in" by these businesses, a factor which would later lead Disney to acquire a significantly larger parcel of land for the construction of Walt Disney World. In later years, the Disney company gradually acquired the land west of the park, most notably the Disneyland Hotel in 1989 following Jack Wrather's death in 1984, the Pan Pacific Hotel (now Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel) in 1995, and several properties north of the Disneyland Hotel in the mid to late 1990s.
1990s: Planning an expansion
After Walt's and Roy's deaths in 1966 and 1971, respectively, the Disney company would go on to achieve great success with the multi-park, multi-hotel resort complex business model of Walt Disney World in Florida, which opened in 1971, while continuing to achieve success with the one park, one hotel business model at Disneyland. In the 1990s, however, the sights were set on turning Walt's original park into a multi-park, multi-hotel resort destination as well. (It is well known that Michael Eisner, Disney's chairman at the time, had heard that most visitors were spending as much as a week at Walt Disney World but only a day at Disneyland.) Publicly known ideas for expansion in California that were never realized included:
- In 1991, Disney attempted to garner public support for a project called Port Disney, to be built in nearby Long Beach. The proposed project would have been located adjacent to the RMS Queen Mary, which Disney acquired as a consequence of purchasing the Jack Wrather corporation in 1989 (Disney purchased Wrather in order to acquire the Disneyland Hotel), and would have featured a theme park, five hotels, a marina, a shopping and entertainment district, and a cruise ship port. The idea was eventually scrapped due to cost concerns, and parts of the concept would later be incorporated into Tokyo DisneySea.
- Also in 1991, Disney announced plans to build WestCOT, a theme park similar to Epcot in Florida, on the site of the original Disneyland parking lot. WestCOT would be scrapped in 1995 amid similar cost concerns as well as environmental concerns.
- In 1997, Disney was given the opportunity to purchase Knott's Berry Farm, a competing theme park in nearby Buena Park, as part of the Knott family's sale of its theme park and specialty food business. Had the sale been completed, Knott's would have been converted into Disney's America, a project originally proposed for construction in Haymarket, Virginia in 1993 but scrapped the next year due to protests from the general public. The Knott family, however, refused to sell to Disney out of fear that Disney would eliminate much of what Walter Knott had built, and opted to sell the theme park to Cedar Fair instead. Ironically, Cedar Fair eliminated more than what Disney had planned.
The cancellation of the WestCOT project ultimately led to the idea for a California-based theme park to be built on the same site proposed for WestCOT, which would ultimately become Disney's California Adventure.
1998-2001: Park becomes resort
Construction began in 1998 and the majority of the Disney property outside of the original park was a construction site until 2001; the interior of Disneyland Park remained largely untouched during this time. Temporary surface parking lots were set up across West Street with tram service to the main entrance to offset the loss of the parking lot. Parking lots were also set up on smaller parcels of land Disney had acquired east and southeast of the park, primarily used for employee parking as well as guest overflow parking.
Several Disneyland landmarks were demolished during this time, most notably the marquee on Harbor Boulevard, whose three versions had stood at the entrance to the Disneyland parking lot since 1958; the last was installed in 1989. Also demolished were all of the Disneyland Hotel's original buildings from 1955, as well as most of the hotel facilities outside of the three guest room towers. The remaining Disneyland Hotel facilities were extensively renovated to replace some of the amenities that were demolished.
Aside from Disney's California Adventure, new construction on the former parking lot included Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Downtown Disney. A section of the southeast corner of the original parking lot remains in use as a parking area and is a future growth space for California Adventure; since the park's opening, it has had 3 small expansions into this growth space, and a much larger expansion slated to begin construction in summer 2008.
Across West Street from Disneyland Park and the construction site of Disney's California Adventure, the six-story Mickey & Friends Parking Structure was built on newly acquired land north of the Disneyland Hotel as the replacement main parking area for the theme parks. The Disneyland Hotel was downsized to accommodate the construction of Downtown Disney and surface parking lots. The Disneyland Pacific Hotel was renovated and re-themed to the area of Disney's California Adventure the hotel tower overlooks, and re-named Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel. Streets were regraded, renamed, re-routed, or outright eliminated, and the traffic pattern to access Disneyland and the Disneyland Hotel by vehicle, widely known among locals and frequent visitors for over 40 years, was altered. Most notably, West Street was regraded, re-routed near its intersection with Ball Road, and renamed Disneyland Drive between Katella Avenue and Interstate 5.
The construction on the Disney property was accompanied by the city of Anaheim's renovation of the area surrounding Disneyland, now dubbed the Anaheim Resort. The flashy, colorful neon signs that lined Harbor Boulevard—which Walt Disney himself had opposed many years earlier—were taken down and replaced with shorter, conforming signs. Freeway onramps and offramps were reconfigured as part of a larger expansion project on Interstate 5 between State Route 91 and the Orange Crush Interchange.
2001-present: Disneyland Resort
Most construction was completed by early 2001, and Disney's California Adventure held "preview" openings in January 2001. Word of mouth reviews from those entitled to attend the previews (mostly Disney employees, annual pass holders, and American Express card holders) were largely negative. The park opened to the public amid much fanfare on February 8, 2001; however, the negative reviews impacted attendance, and the company's initial attendance projections for the park were never met.
Disney spent much of California Adventure's early years attempting to boost attendance at the park. In the short-term, Disney brought the venerable Main Street Electrical Parade to the park, quickly added Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It!, and offered discounted admission and other promotions aimed at boosting attendance.
In addition to the short-term fixes, long-term projects to address the park's early criticisms have included the permanent addition of a bug's land to add attractions geared towards children, and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror as another E ticket. Some of the park's oft-criticized early attractions were replaced within the first year of operation, most notably Superstar Limo, Disney's Steps in Time, and Disney's Eureka! - A California Parade.
After Disney's California Adventure's opening, new attractions began appearing at Disneyland Park as well, most notably The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, both carbon copies of similarly named attractions at the Magic Kingdom. Other major projects at Walt Disney's original park included a substantial renovation of the nearly 30-year-old (at the time) Space Mountain, the return of the venerable Submarine Voyage as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and the introduction of new trains to the Disneyland Monorail System.
The Resort celebrated the 50th anniversary of Disneyland Park from 2005-2006 in an 18-month celebration known as the Happiest Homecoming on Earth. This was part of the larger Happiest Celebration on Earth promotion at all Disney theme parks. The Year of a Million Dreams promotion was the successor to the Happiest Celebration on Earth, and ran from 2006 to the end of 2008. Disney's current promotion, What Will You Celebrate?, began January 1, 2009, and offers free admission to visitors on their birthday.
Present expansion
In 2007, Disney announced a US$1.1 billion expansion project for Disney's California Adventure, including construction of a new land based on the Disney-Pixar film Cars, as well as substantially retheming and adding new attractions to existing areas. The project began construction in 2008, and will be completed in phases from 2010-2012. Disney's Grand Californian Hotel is currently undergoing an expansion to add Disney Vacation Club suites, while the Disneyland Hotel is slated for an extensive renovation beginning in the summer of 2008.
There has been widespread speculation since the construction of Disney's California Adventure started that Disney would build a third park in Anaheim, most likely a water park. Rumored sites for the park have varied from the current Pinocchio oversized vehicle parking area to, more recently, a strawberry farm located southeast of the resort property that Disney purchased in 2004. However, Disney CEO Robert Iger stated in 2007 that the company's focus is to fix its second park before moving on to a third park.
Expansion spreads across the world
The expansion of Disneyland into the Disneyland Resort later had a similar effect on its sister properties in Japan and France, both of which also were single parks. In 2001, Tokyo Disneyland became Tokyo Disney Resort with the addition of Tokyo DisneySea. The following year, Walt Disney Studios Paris was added to Disneyland Park Paris, and the entire property came to be known as Disneyland Resort Paris.
Location
The Disneyland Resort is located several miles south of downtown Anaheim, near the border of neighboring Garden Grove.
The resort is generally bounded by Harbor Boulevard to the east, Katella Avenue to the south, Walnut Street to the west and Ball Road to the north. Interstate 5 borders the resort at an angle on the northeastern corner. Not all land bordered by these streets is part of the Disneyland Resort, particularly near the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue, and along Ball Road between Disneyland Drive and Walnut Street. Disneyland Drive cuts through the resort on a north-south route and provides access to the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure, Downtown Disney, and the three hotels. Magic Way connects Walnut Street to Disneyland Drive just south of the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure and provides access to the parking structure, Disneyland Hotel, and Downtown Disney.
Special offramps from Interstate 5 combined with a reversible flyover over the intersection of Ball Road and Disneyland Drive permit easy access into and out of the Mickey & Friends parking garage during peak morning and evening traffic times. The official address of the resort is 1313 South Harbor Boulevard.
Properties
The Disneyland Resort's main properties include:
- Disneyland Park, the original theme park built by Walt Disney, which opened on July 17, 1955.
- Disney's California Adventure, a theme park that celebrates the history and culture of the Golden State, which opened on February 8, 2001.
- Disneyland Hotel, the original hotel built by Jack Wrather which opened in October 1955 and was acquired by Disney in 1988.
- Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, based on the craftsman style of architecture of the early 1900s.
- Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel, a hotel themed after the section of Disney's California Adventure it overlooks.
- Downtown Disney, an outdoor retail, dining and entertainment district located between the entrance promenade of the Disneyland Resort theme parks and the Disneyland Hotel.
Major administration and service properties (other than those integrated into park/hotel facilities) include:
- Team Disney Anaheim, the administration building for the Resort that also houses its employment office.
- Disneyland Resort Center, an ancillary administration building primarily serving the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort and Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons.
- Mickey & Friends Parking Structure, the primary parking area for guests of Disneyland Park and Disney's California Adventure.
Operations
Transportation
Unlike the Walt Disney World Resort, all properties at the Disneyland Resort are located within walking distance from each other; therefore, there is very little vehicular transportation between properties.
The Disneyland Monorail System transports guests between the Tomorrowland station, inside Disneyland Park, and the Downtown Disney station (formerly known as the Disneyland Hotel station). Admission to Disneyland Park must be purchased to ride the Monorail.
Parking lot trams provide free transportation from esplanades located to the west and east of the theme parks' main entrance to the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure, and to the Timon lot with access to the Katella crosswalkAnaheim Convention Center, respectively.
Shuttles to off-site hotels and overflow parking areas pick up and drop off at the esplanade east of the theme parks' main entrance, as well as the esplanade near Downtown Disney and the Disneyland Hotel. Taxis can also be found in these areas.
Public transportation is available from the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) and Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) adjacent the east end of the property, along Harbor Boulevard. OCTA also provides service along the north and south ends of the property, along Ball Road and Katella Avenue, respectively.
Emergency services
The Disneyland Resort maintains a private security staff charged with protecting the company's assets and interests, including controlling access to restricted areas, detaining shoplifters, enforcing park/resort rules, and imposing and enforcing trespass warnings. Most of the time Security officers working in guest areas serve as de facto information posts, and also handle guest issues such as lost children and personal property damage. Law enforcement outside the authority of Disneyland Resort Security is the jurisdiction of the Anaheim Police Department (APD), which maintains a regular 24-hour presence at the Resort.
The resort maintains its own private fire department, called the Disneyland Resort Fire Department (DLFD). DLFD has several fire trucks stationed throughout the resort property and has the capability to put out minor structural fires; however, its primary purpose is fire prevention and investigation. Most of the department's operations are behind the scenes; the Main Street Fire House and other firefighter-themed attractions at the Resort are for show only and are not actually associated with DLFD. The resort also maintains a staff of nurses 24 hours a day to operate first aid stations situated in each park and hotel, as well as to act as first responders to emergency situations that occur away from the first aid stations.
Fire and rescue services beyond the capability of the DLFD and/or the nursing staff are handled by the Anaheim Fire Department (AFD), which has a station just east of the Resort property. AFD also maintains a constant paramedic presence at the Resort.
Attendance
The May 2008 issue of trade magazine Park World reported the following for 2007 compiled by Economic Research Associates in partnership with TEA (formerly the Themed Entertainment Association):
- Disneyland, 14.87 million visits (No. 2 worldwide)
- Disney's California Adventure, 5.68 million visits (No. 13)
Management
- President, Disneyland Resort - Ed Grier
- Senior Vice President, Operations Disneyland Resort - Michael O'Grattan
- Former Presidnet, Disneyland Resort - 2003-2006 - Matt Ouimet
- Former President, Disneyland Resort - 2002-2003 - Cynthia Harris
- Former President, Disneyland Resort - 1994-2002 - Paul Pressler
- Former President, Disneyland Resort - 1990-1994 - Jack Lindquist
- Former Senior Vice President, Operations Disneyland Resort - Greg Emmer
- Former Executive Vice President Disneyland 1972-1980 - Dick Nunis
External links
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