Disney has come a long was since the ‘Black Sunday’. Each year more visitors throng Disney Parks than any other theme park. The parks are also constantly innovating, adding new attractions and variations to the existing rides. What’s new at Disneyland this year? Following the golden jubilee celebrations last year, Disney has announced the next 15 months as “The Year of a Milllion Dreams”.

No contests, no purchases; just being in the right place at the right time could get you one of those million dreams. The Disney crew just distributes these dreams at a pre-determined place and time. The dreams cover a gamut of experiences like:

• Stay at the Mickey Mouse Penthouse at the Disneyland with a grand view overlooking both Disneyland and the California Adventure Park.
• Enjoy the experience of leading Disney parade in all Disney Parks worldwide
• FASTPASS access to Disney Rides
• Meet your favorite Disney Characters in Person
• Disney vacations and a whole lot of other dreams.

Apart from the dreams, there are lots of other attractions introduced. The little ones could train at the Jedi Training Academy to become Jedi Knights or take lessons from famous heroines at Disney Princess Fantasy Faire to become a princess.

Submarine Voyage at Disney, which was last seen during late 90’s, has been revived. The ‘Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage’ introduces one to all the characters of the movie ‘Finding Nemo’ almost in a life like setting. The whole experience has been modeled based on the movie itself.

Exciting variations have been introduced to the ‘Pirates of the Carribean’, with secret hideouts and treasure troves at the Tom Sawyer Island. Explore this land of unknown surprises where ghost pirates and curses abound.

Monsters Inc. is a new attraction introduced recently. Enjoy the ride with the main characters of this movie-based adventure as they take you through the streets of Monstropolis.

The Space Mountain too has been all spruced up with new background music and effects. The ride and the background blend together better than before to give a great outer space feeling.

Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters is an interactive game-like experience where you could chart your own plan and course and fight a personal war against the evil forces.

Disney High School Musical, a traveling show is another new attraction. Join with the members of this show in a great performance of song and dance; sing and dance along with them, in this exclusive experience for High School goers.

Of course don’t miss the Twilight Zone of Terror, where you travel up 13 floors in a high-speed lift and get dropped all the way down, just to be transported up again. This ride is not for the faint hearted.

For those who enjoy parades and shows, The Disney’s Electrical Parade is up and running again on popular demand at the California Adventure Park.

This year Disney has again innovated its attractions based on the current trends as well as popular demands and as always these changes make a difference both to the visitor and Disney!

The all time favorite Disneyland in California had a very humble beginning. Walt Disney and his brother Roy started the Disney Bros. Studio in the 1920’s, which then went on to be known as the Walt Disney Studios, with Alice’s wonderland being their first animated production. This venture being a moderate success, the much-famed animation character of Mickey Mouse was then created. Soon, all the other trademark characters like Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy were also added to Disney. The company produced many movies in the meanwhile. For Walt Disney, the 1940’s ushered in a spell of financial stability and success..

It was then that Disney started thinking about a fun place where he could introduce Mickey and all the other characters to the public, especially the children. The place was to be located closer to his Studio in Hollywood and would house the homes of all the toon characters. As the plans evolved, Disneyland became a magic land filled with themed amusement, water features, fantasy rides, entertainment shows, parades and theatres.

Disney wanted the park to be modeled on the lines of his home at Marceline, Missouri. It was intended to be a clean and safe environment where children and their parents could have a nice time. It was different from the amusement parks in vogue then, which offered roller coaster rides, with food and beer vendors in the vicinity and with no regard for proper sanitation facilities.

In 1952, Walt put together a team of imagineers comprising skilled architects, special effects people, writers and artists to bring alive the most beautiful and entertaining landscapes. He still needed the finance to build this dream project and had a tough time marketing and getting a dream funded. By 1953, a rough visualization of the park was in place, with the main regions highlighted in a pen and ink sketch and Anaheim was chosen as the ideal location for this grand scale project.

To promote funding for his project Walt followed the most innovative marketing strategy of his times by utilizing the television media. He entered into a long term programming contract with ABC Network in return for financial backup. As part of this agreement Walt presented a weekly show featuring the concepts of the themed regions of Disneyland. He also mortgaged his insurance and home and his dream began to take shape in the 1950’s.

It cost about 17 million dollars to complete the project and on July 17 1955, Disneyland was opened to the public. The visitors could stroll down the Mainstreet USA and towards the four different themed regions, which housed 26 attractions, few of which are active even today. The Opening day was a memorable one, when so many things went wrong, from the forged invitations to food shortage, gas leaks to shoes stuck in the soft gravel, ‘Black Sunday’ was covered live on ABC network. Since then there has been no looking back for Disneyland. Walt Disney died in 1966 but his spirit lives on with each new attraction added to this magic land.

Walt Disney introduced the concept of the theme park to the world in 1955 with Disneyland. It opened with only 18 different rides and other attractions. Today, there are over eleven Disney parks all over the world. But with these developments, it is inevitable that there were some planned concepts that were never built for Disneyland. Some of these planned concepts are outrageous, incredible, and ambitious. They would have been great additions for the Disneyland parks if they had been built but they were never built for one reason or another. Here is a list of Disney attractions that were never built:

1. Mineral King Ski Resort - this development should have been a ski resort with the Disney theme.

2. Disneyland Bowl – an outdoor amphitheater that can suit 5,000 people for concerts and other exciting events for Disneyland. This was conceptualized for Anaheim along Harbor Boulevard.

3. Walt Disney Riverboat Square – this should have been a theme park in St. Louis

4. The Disneyland Center – a dining, entertainment, and retail concept with buildings that are modeled from California landmarks, Venice’s boardwalk, and the San Diego Coronado Hotel. This design would have later progressed to become the Downtown Disney built along the six acre lake.

5. Lava Lagoon – a waterpark with a Polynesian theme that should have been built beneath the glass dome in Disneyland Paris.

6. Port Disney – should have been the American version of the Tokyo DisneySea located in California.

7. Disney Asian Resort – this should have been located where the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa was later built in Florida.

8. Disney Venetian Resort – this should have been located between the Transportation & Ticket Authority and the Contemporary Resort in Disney World, Florida.

9. Chinatown – should have been an expansion in Main Street, USA.

10. Hollywoodland – themed to be located between the Main Street USA and the Tomorrowland.

11. Mythia – Greek and Roman legends inspired this concept.

12. Tomorrowland 2055 – a planned update and renovation for the current Tomorrowland

13. Big City USA – this should have featured a Broadway-inspired theater which should have features live performances everyday. However, this serves as the inspiration for the establishment of the American Waterfront in DisneySea.

14. Edison Street – should have been a sidestreet expansion into the Main Street USA. This was inspired by the introduction of electricity to America.

15. Liberty Street – this is another concept for the sidestreet expansion to the Main Street USA with a theme about American towns in 1776.

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