Disneyland

Disneyland in Anaheim is the original, the park Walt Disney opened himself in 1955, the one he walked and refined. Together with the neighbouring Disney California Adventure, it is more compact and nostalgic than the sprawling Florida resort, and for many the more charming for its history and the sense of Walt's own hand.

Background

Walt Disney first set out the idea in a memo of August 31, 1948, calling it a "Mickey Mouse Park" and planning it for a plot of 16 acres across Riverside Drive from his Burbank studio. After a feasibility study by the Stanford Research Institute he bought 160 acres near Anaheim in 1953, then planted with orange groves and walnut trees. Building work started in 1954, and a televised press event on ABC dedicated the park on July 17, 1955, a day before it opened to the public. Its berm hiding the outside world and its hub-and-spoke layout shaped later theme park design. By December 2021 it had recorded 757 million visits, and 17.33 million people came in 2024.

Source: Wikipedia, "Disneyland"

Highlights

• Sleeping Beauty Castle - the original, more intimate castle.
• The classic rides - Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain.
• Disney California Adventure - the neighbouring park with its own thrills.
• The nostalgia - the sense of the original park Walt built and loved.

When to go

Weekdays outside school holidays for thinner crowds; the mild California climate makes any season workable, though holidays are very busy. Evenings bring the fireworks and lit-up castle.

Practical notes

It is compact but very busy, so queues and crowds are real, and it is expensive with ticket tiers and paid line-skipping. It is smaller than Florida's resort, which suits a shorter visit. It rewards planning and an early start.

Nearby

Los Angeles, its beaches and Hollywood are a drive away; Anaheim surrounds the resort.

Key facts