A terrific collection of photos from around Disneyland on November 6th and 7th can be found over on LaughingPlace.com. The park was playing host to a Hollywood movie production for “Saving Mr. Banks” complete with mega stars and set design meant to recapture the early… Read More »Disneyland goes Retro for Saving Mr. Banks
Disney Parks and Resorts is out with their next major promotion. The focus is on presenting something new, exciting, and magical each week to reinforce the idea that you must travel to a Disney park now while you can still make family memories that last a lifetime. We looked at a few of the Commercials earlier, but here is the full press release:
Guests will find an extra sprinkle of pixie dust each week when they visit Walt Disney World and Disneyland resorts next year, Disney officials announced today.
While 2013 is already a momentous year for Disney Parks –with New Fantasyland as the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom history at Walt Disney World Resort and the first full year of a reimagined Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort – Disney today unveiled Limited Time Magic: 52 weeks of magical experiences big and small that appear, then disappear as the next special surprise debuts.
Read More »Catch it before it ‘glows’ away – Limited Time Magic is Disney Parks next promotion
Our thoughts and wishes for a speedy recovery go out to the Disneyland maintenance worker who was hospitalized in critical condition after an after-hours accident at Space Mountain. The incident occurred on October 3rd after the park had closed. The cast member was putting an… Read More »Disneyland Cast Member Hospitalized After Accident at Space Mountain
Congratulations to the athletes and organizers of what sounds like another successful running of the Disneyland Resort Half Marathon. More than 17,000 registered runners, including actor Sean Astin (The Goonies, Rudy, The Lord of the Rings), traveled down Route 66 through Cars Land for the first time, along with passing through Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Angel Stadium and the streets of Anaheim. All along the route, runners were greeted by cheering fans, Disney characters, music and live entertainment.
Here are some of the highlights from the race:
The men’s winner was Jimmy Grabow, from the appropriately named Running Springs, CA. He won the Disneyland Half Marathon in record fashion, finishing in 1:05:29. Grabow’s time was nearly two minutes faster than the previous mark, set by Paul Ngeny (1:07:24) in 2011.
Cindy Lynch, of Cardiff, CA, captured the women’s title, finishing with a time of 1:24:45. She was followed by Kellie Nickerson (1:26:29), who earlier this year captured the inaugural Tinker Bell Half Marathon at Disneyland.
This year’s sold-out half marathon field included runners ages 14 – 78 from all 50 states and 19 countries. The Disney Blog’s own Lauren S. was a runner in the event and she’ll be jumping in shortly with her account of the day. In the meantime, we have three more videos below the cut, including an interview with the race winners and Sean Astin.
Read More »Disneyland Greets Thousands in Half-Marathon, Event Highlights
Disneyland knows how to do celebrations right. Even though it was the resort’s birthday yesterday, they took the time to honor and celebrate USA Volleyball with a festive cavalcade down Main Street, U.S.A. The patriotic tribute celebrated two Anaheim-based teams and recognized the dreams of… Read More »Disneyland Fetes USA Volleyball Team Prior to London Olympics
Can you believe it! This is the last DCA History Lesson! More importantly, the week we have been waiting for since it was announced in 2007, DCA’s 1.1 billion dollar expansion will finally be completed. Time has flown. To celebrate, I thought the only way to cap off an incredible expansion of this size, would be to go to the most iconic part of DCA…Paradise Pier. Strap in screamers, we have 4 topics to cover. Sit back, face forward, and hang on!
The focal point of Paradise Pier was (and still is) the Ferris wheel. Being 160 ft. in diameter, it is hard to miss. WDI decided that the essence of California could be represented by the sun (hence the Sunshine Sculpture at the front of the park), so they stuck it on the side of the wheel. Based on Mexican folk-art, one of the main “defining features” of the park also featured a very fun, and sometimes thrilling, ride. With 16 swinging gondolas, it brought Ferris wheels to a whole new level. Once the expansion was announced and the direction Paradise Pier was taking was different than what the sun represented, they announced that the Sun Wheel would now becomes Mickey’s Fun Wheel. The attraction closed in Oct. of 2008 and reopened in May 2009 with the Mickey head.
(I just know that title is going to generate some weird ads)
A couple short videos today that show how much of an emphasis Imagineering placed on faithfully recreating the world of Pixar’s Cars for Disney California Audiences audiences to encounter. It looks to me like WDI did a terrific job of aligning the world of ‘Cars’ with the requirements of Cars Land.
Below the cut is one of those terrific time-lapse construction videos where you get to watch months pass by in 30 seconds.
Photographer Daniel Navarrete used over 30,000 still photos taken over the course of a year to create this fantastic video of Disneyland and California Adventure. Using the magic of Time-Lapse Navarrete gives the parks a new perspective. Almost makes It’s A Small World look like… Read More »Time-Lapse Disneyland Video Fun