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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, June 6, 2005

TRAVEL
Still magical at 50

 •  50th anniversary highlights
 •  Disneyland inspired hope at time of crisis
 •  If you go ...

By April Orcutt
Special to The Advertiser

A horse-drawn streetcar makes its way down Main Street U.S.A.

A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse greet visitors as they enter the Magic Kingdom. Disneyland visitors delight in posing for a photo with Mickey to help remember their experience.

April Orcutt • Special to The Advertiser

Princesses are everywhere. In pink organdy and lime-green tulle, wearing crowns and cone hats trailing scarves, little Sleeping Beauties and Snow Whites giggle and jump and skip. Near the 1880s-style train station, preschool girls dressed as Pocahontas and Ariel the Mermaid — "princess" is a far-reaching term — a grown-up Cinderella in fairy-tale blue tilts her head coyly and signs autographs.

Disney's many 'Lands'

Disneyland began with five "lands" with different themes:

Main Street, USA, represents the ideals of small-town America around the turn of the 20th century.

Fantasyland features Sleeping Beauty Castle and storybook attractions based largely on Disney films.

Adventureland encourages travel in Africa, Asia, India and the South Pacific.

Frontierland is a tribute to America's pioneers of the Old West.

• In the early years, Tomorrowland faced the problem of always being out of date, but now it takes a retro look at the future.

Three more "lands" were added later.

New Orleans Square features jazz and the flavor of the bayou.

Mickey's Toontown is a 1930s-style cartoon village come to life.

Critter Country creates a charming backwoods environment.

A sign reads: "Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy." This is Disneyland, the original Disney theme park built on dreams in Anaheim, Calif. It is imagination and engineering becoming "imagineering." It is the place that influenced entertainment, theme parks, my outlook on the world, California's self-image, and even world politics when Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had a fit because he wasn't allowed to visit.

Now, 50 years after the park opened on July 17, 1955, Disneyland celebrates its golden anniversary with 18 months of festivities and additions, including new attractions, grand parades, innovative shows and state-of-the-art pyrotechnics.

"Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals and the dreams that have created America," the late Walt Disney said on opening day, "with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration for all the world."

After an absence of two decades, it seemed a good time to return — and I had a blast.

The "magic" began immediately. Inside the turnstile entrance, Ken, a park photographer, asked a smiling Latino couple to stand in front of Mickey's portrait in flowers and hold their hands together in front of them. Later, they could visit Main Street Photo and see their picture — with the fairy Tinkerbell standing on their palms.

On opening day at these turnstiles, Disneyland staff designated then-7-year-old Michael Schwartner and his 5-year-old cousin, Christine Vess, as the "first guests" and gave them lifetime passes.

(Another first-day guest, 11-year-old George Lucas, later created the park's motion-simulator space ride, Star Tours. That was after he made a few movies with "Star Wars" in the title.)

When I spoke with Schwartner on the phone in April, he reminisced about meeting Walt Disney: "He asked if I could wiggle my ears. I squished up my face and tried. Then I asked him if he could, and he wiggled his ears for us."

Schwartner believes Disneyland is the best place of all to people-watch. I agree.

I walked under the train trestle and into the park where flowerbeds and hanging baskets of red tulips, white alyssum, and yellow and purple johnny-jump-ups boosted the turn-of-the-20th-century, small-town feeling of Main Street U.S.A. In front of a brick Victorian gift shop, a barbershop quartet of grocer, constable, and two natty gentleman in vests, spats, bowler and straw hat sang "Swinging on a Star," a Frank Sinatra tune about the importance of staying in school.

I wanted to see the window in Walt Disney's apartment above the fire department, where a light is left on as a tribute to him. A bigger tribute is "Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years," an exhibit that gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the park.

The stream of little princesses led to the physical heart of Disneyland: Sleeping Beauty Castle, gussied up with banners and crowns and looking better than on opening day, when a gas leak forced its closure. Families line up in front of the drawbridge and moat for the daily princess parades and the anniversary procession, "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams."

Gowned in swaths of richly colored royal banners, Sleeping Beauty's castle was unveiled on May 5.

© 2005 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

I headed to Fantasyland for my favorite childhood ride: Peter Pan's Flight, one of the original 18 major attractions. (Now the park has more than 60.) As a child, soaring in the tiny pirates' galleon over a moonlit London got me dreaming of travel. After the "flight," I asked twins Vanessa and Alexandria Tabares, who were celebrating their fifth birthdays, about the ride. Vanessa, in a Minnie Mouse dress, said she liked the mermaids best; and Alexandria, dressed as Gypsy Esmeralda from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," said she didn't like Captain Hook.

Captains I adored are those on the Jungle Cruise. This trip always feeds my desire to explore the world. I set off for Adventureland.

The advantage of going on a school day is the lack of lines, and I practically walked straight onto the boat bound for the "Amazon, Congo and Irrawady rivers." What makes Disneyland work is its cleverness, and the Jungle Cruise, which has entertained visitors since opening day, might be the best. Real-people river guides with personalities (albeit scripted) offer silly puns and patter, such as pointing to an African chief holding shrunken heads and saying, "He's the biggest trader. He'll give you two of his heads for one of yours." I enjoyed it so much that I turned right around and went on it again.

The FastPass advantage

Many of the rides in these lands became extremely popular, and long lines have been the biggest disappointment for many Disneyland visitors. Now the FastPass service is designed to help by saving your place in line while you do something else. Put your ticket in a machine near the ride entrance, and the machine will give you a pass marked with an hour block of time. Return during that hour and go to the special FastPass line for a much shorter wait. FastPass is available on various rides.

Web information: To get a list of rides with details and tips about each one, go to www.disneyland.com and click on "Parks," then "Disneyland Parks," then "Attractions." If you're going to see a particular attraction, call or check the Web site first to make sure make sure it's not being renovated. (714) 781-4565 or (213) 626-8605, ext. 4565.

Later, I spoke with Velora, a maintenance woman, who said, "My husband says everything in your life can be going wrong — and then you go to Disneyland."

A few feet down the road, I picked up a FastPass for the Indiana Jones Adventure. (FastPass allows you to trade your ticket for a pass marked with an hour-long block of time.) I returned to the special FastPass entrance during that hour and entered the "underground" tunnels.

Indiana Jones Adventure is a "storybook ride" for adults, but the vehicle's drastic bouncing, banging and twisting distracted me from the visuals, sound effects and story. Anyone with even a hint of back, neck or heart problems should stay far away.

The next morning I headed towards New Orleans Square, where the Bayou Brass Band and their high-energy jazz rattled Mardi Gras beads draped on wrought-iron balconies. Walt was a big fan of Dixieland jazz, and during the 1960s, Disneyland was one of the few local venues for jazz musicians.

In the Blue Bayou Restaurant, fireflies flash and circle before wispy clouds that float across the full moon low in a deep blue sky. Frogs croak, insects chirp, and beyond moss-laden cypress, silhouettes of johnboats glide silently through the dark bayou waters. Behind my wrought-iron chair, lanterns flicker near lavender wisteria twisting through white-lattice fences, and the aroma of jambalaya hangs in the cool air — nothing is what it seems, except for the jambalaya and me.

The Pirates of the Caribbean is here, and Chonet Adams, 26, and Glynn Humphreys, 33, from Adelaide, Australia, said it's their favorite attraction. They had ridden it five times.

My next stop lurked around the corner: the Haunted Mansion. Jose, the "undertaker," greeted me at the door with a somber nod. "I bet you're the only person in Disneyland who's not supposed to smile," I said. "I could smile if I wanted," he said, "but it's hard to smile when everyone around you is dead." One thing you can say about Disney "cast" members: they know how to play their roles.

Practical tips

• Best time to go is a sunny school day.

• Bring a change of clothes for small children in case they get splashed or soiled.

• Storage lockers are off Main Street, USA, behind Market House.

• Certain rides are not suitable for people with heart conditions or back or neck problems; look for signs.

• Get your hand stamped so you can return.

• Souvenirs are everywhere. Set a budget and boundaries with the kids to avoid overspending.

• Designate a time and place to meet in case your group gets separated.

• Wear comfortable shoes. You'll do a lot of walking.

• When you're ready to sit, places to hear live music include New Orleans Square, Golden Horseshoe, Tomorrowland Stage, Main Street, and the Plaza Inn. Downtown Disney has the House of Blues and Flambeaux's Jazz Club.

From flying ghosts to hitchhiking spirits, the Haunted Mansion showcases Disney imagination. Although this attraction has been around for 35 years, I still don't know how they made the woman's head in a bubble that floats. And I don't want to know —Ýthat's part of the fun.

Next stop: Tomorrowland, where a retro-future look replaces 1955-cutting-edge, pre-Sputnik, opening-day attractions like Rocket to the Moon. The new Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters combines rider-operated, 360-degree-spinning Star Cruisers with football-shaped laser cannons for battling the "evil Emperor Zurg." By summer, gamers bitten by the Buzz bug will be able to team up with park players from home.

The refurbished indoor roller-coaster Space Mountain, another showpiece for the anniversary celebration, will reopen with new effects on July 15. Maybe Autopia is in Tomorrowland because it represents the future-of-driving dream for kids. Like the local freeways, the ride's always crowded. You have to reach a minimum height to drive, and Ricki Hadow, 52, who grew up near Los Angeles and now lives in Boulder, Colo., calls that step "a Southern California rite of passage."

While agreeing with those who abhor Disney's commercialism and hype, I love Disneyland. I can forgive Main Street, U.S.A., for being idealized. Disneyland is a stage, a play, a theater. We guests are part of the performance.

In Downtown Disney, I asked Blair Kessler, 36, from Calgary, Alberta, what he liked best about Disneyland. His reply: "The smiles on my children's faces."

April Orcutt is a native Southern Californian who grew up 10 miles from Disneyland.

• • •

50th anniversary highlights

• New rides in Tomorrowland, including Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters with a play-at-home online option. Space Mountain relaunches with new special effects July 15.

• New decor and fireworks display for Sleeping Beauty Castle.

• More floats and dramatized scenes from Disney films for "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams" down Main Street, U.S.A.

• Behind-the-scenes park history presented in interactive kiosks and films in the Opera House.

• Photo collages decorating Disneyland Resort.

• Events at other Disney parks, such as a Block Party Bash featuring animation at Disney's California Adventure; "Soarin' Over California," a hang-gliding simulation ride and

"Cinderellabration," a musical stage show, at Walt Disney World; and special Disney Line cruises from California to Mexico.

Details on the 50th anniversary: www.disneyland.com; click on "Happiest Homecoming on Earth."

Events at other Disney resorts: disneyland.disney.go.com/
dlr/special/golden
.