To visit the attractions of Disneyland is the dream of every child who loves fairy tales and cartoons. The first W alt Disney theme park appeared in 1955, it was he who was the embodiment of the ideas of the famous cartoonist about what an entertainment site for children and adults should look like.
What is the park series famous for?
Children and adults love Disneyland rides because they give you the opportunity to plunge into a fairy tale for at least a few hours. The parks are large entertainment complexes where you can not only ride various carousels and eat sweets, but even stay overnight if you come from afar. The magical atmosphere reigning here makes many people forget about all the existing problems and worries - this is one of the main reasons why the flow of visitors here never weakens.
As of 2019, there are six park areas, two in the US (Anaheim and Orlando), two in China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), and one each in Paris and Tokyo. Each of them is visited by about 20 million people annually, and the number of guests is constantly increasing, so the creators of the parks are seriously thinking about building a seventh recreation area.
How did Disneyland parks come about?
The idea of creating an amusement park "Disneyland" came to W alt Disney while traveling with his family to Los Angeles, where he visited the famous Griffith Park. The animator immediately imagined in his head a place where children and adults could come to have fun. For many years, this dream did not leave Disney, but he decided to create his own park only in the early 1950s. Fans of the cartoonist sent him letters asking him to visit his studio, but he was well aware that there was little of interest in it, so he began to look for a suitable place to build a separate park.
Because there was not enough money at the initial stage, W alt Disney entered into an agreement with ABC and Western Publishing. The construction of the very first park in California began in 1954 and was completed after 366 days. The official opening day is July 18, 1955, but every year on July 17, all employees of this park put on special badges indicating the age of the California recreation area. The reason for this is quite prosaic - the day before the opening, Disney organized an open day for the press, which failed miserably due to organizational shortcomings.
What do parks have in common?
All existing "Disneylands" were built according to a singleconcepts - each of them is divided into several parts (“countries”). All of them are built around the symbol of the film studio - Sleeping Beauty's castle, which can be seen on the screen saver in any cartoon created at the W alt Disney Studios. Upon entering each country, the guest finds himself in the corresponding thematic environment, he does not hear what is happening outside this part of the park. The famous cartoonist demanded that builders and designers create attractions at Disneyland so that the visitor could completely escape from all his affairs and succumb to the atmosphere of magic.
In parallel with the countries in each park, there are so-called backstage, which includes office space, as well as shops, cafes and other areas where visitors are not allowed to enter. The seating areas are built in such a way that these "backstage" most often remain invisible to guests, and do not spoil the atmosphere with their industrial landscape.
The very first Disney park
The firstborn of the cartoonist was a recreation area located in the small California town of Anaheim. The most important value of this “Disneyland” is the rides, the description of which cannot fully convey the magical atmosphere of the fabulous park. Walking along Main Street, reminiscent of an ordinary town from Westerns about the Wild West, the visitor will get to the Central Square, where the famous castle from cartoon screensavers is located. From it you can go to the “World of Adventures”, where the “W alt Disney Enchanted Tiki Room” is located - for the first time in the 1960s, they used robotics in combination with animation, which for those timeswas a sign of incredible progress. Also here you can find the "Temple of the Forbidden Eye", created in the style of the Indiana Jones films, will pleasantly surprise the "Tarzan's House", designed in such a way that you can feel like in a real jungle here.
Pirates of the Caribbean occupies a special place in the list of Disneyland attractions in California, which was so loved by the audience that a whole series of films of the same name was created on its basis. Visitors sail on boats past a restaurant on the island, after which they descend into the grotto and witness a storm and a shipwreck. In the next scene, the audience sees a real battle between the fort and the pirate ship, during the collision you can see Jack Sparrow, who takes an active part in the action. At the end of the ride, Blackbeard and Davy Jones invite guests to visit again.
Another popular American Disneyland carousel is the Haunted Mansion. According to legend, 999 characters live in the mansion, which are supposed to cause fear in anyone who enters it. All of them were either borrowed from various literary works or invented by their creators, some of them appear only once, while others appear several times. Visitors move around the house on small carts while various robots try to scare them. There is also a similar attraction in Tokyo Park, slightly modified versions are available in Paris, Shanghai, as well as in the second American Disneyland.
French park
Despite the fact that the American recreation area appeared earlier, the most popular is still the Parisian “Disneyland”, the attractions here are located on an area of almost 2000 hectares. It consists of five parks surrounding the fairy-tale castle, each of them has a specific theme. The most popular of these is Adventureland, where carousels such as Adventure Island, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, and Pirates of the Caribbean are successful.
In general, copying an American park is a distinctive feature of Disneyland Paris, the attractions are the same, but they are adapted for a European visitor. Another mini-park is the “Main Street of the USA”, built taking into account the peculiarities of American life that reigned in the States at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The main carousels here are walking passages - you can ride in a car of the corresponding era, as well as on narrow-gauge trains that run around this part of the mini-park. It is also here that various parades and fireworks are held.
Sci-Fi fans should definitely visit Disneyland Paris. Photos of rides from the Land of Discovery mini-park refer visitors to the works of Jules Verne, where he predicted a bright and unique future. Here the most popular carousels are “Utopia” (gasoline car karting), “Star tours” (computer flight simulator), also some visitors come here to watch the musical “Legend of the King-lion”, inspired by the popular cartoon.
When describing the attractions of Disneyland in Paris, many often make the mistake of considering the park of the W alt Disney Studios a separate recreation area. It appeared here in 2002 and is designed to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the entertainment venue. It houses the latest carousels based on Cars, Finding Nemo, Lilo & Stitch cartoons, as well as several cinemas that show only W alt Disney films.
Hong Kong Entertainment
The list of attractions of "Disneyland", located in this Chinese city, is relatively small and for the most part repeats those located in other parks. The Hong Kong recreation area opened in September 2005, its total area is 27.4 hectares, which is hundreds of times smaller than in Paris. There are hotels and restaurants on the territory of the park, which mainly serve Chinese dishes, it will be quite problematic to find European food here.
Traditionally, the following “countries” exist here: “Main Street USA”, “Adventure Land”, “Fantasy Land” (similar to the Paris “Land of Discovery”). The main difference between Hong Kong Disneyland is the presence of Toy Story Land - a mini-park created on the basis of the Toy Story cartoon series, in 2013 an analogue of the American Haunted Mansion appeared here. Despite its small area, the park is consistently popular with residents of Hong Kong and nearby cities.
Vacation in Japan
Tokyo "Disneyland", which photos of attractions are significantly different from pictures from other parks, appeared in 1983 and became the first park to be built outside of America. In all the buildings erected here, a unique oriental flavor is felt, and the fabulous atmosphere here seems a little different than in other recreation areas. "Disneyland" is located on an area of 465 hectares, includes a number of shopping complexes, hotels and an additional recreational area Tokyo DisneySea, which is not officially part of the network.
In total, there are 47 carousels on the territory of the Japanese park, some of them are a copy of those located on the territory of the American recreation area - “Haunted House”, “Cinderella Castle”, etc. If we talk about which rides in Disneyland Tokyo are the most popular, we will first of all talk about Splash Mountain - a wooden boat trip through a tunnel with fairy-tale characters, Big Thunder Mountain - a steam train ride through an abandoned mine and Cinderella's Castle - a house, where guests are invited to learn more about the history of the poor girl and even see how her beggarly outfits turn into puffy dresses.
Chinese-style American entertainment
In 2016, Disneyland in Shanghai opened its doors to visitors. After five years of construction, this seemed to many to be a real miracle - even studio fans did not believe that the park would be completed to the end. As of 2019, there are seven mini-parks in this recreational area, as well asa large number of restaurants, hotels and inns. Places in the latter must be booked in advance, as the number of people wishing to visit here is growing year by year.
Shanghai Disneyland, whose amusement photos are somewhat reminiscent of a park in Hong Kong, begins with Mickey Avenue, a long street dedicated to the classic heroes of the film studio - Mickey Mouse, Chip and Dale, Donald Duck, etc. Then you can go to the mini-park "Fantasyland", dedicated to Disney cartoons - "The Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", etc. You can't do without "Treasure Bay" - a port town with attractions from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise. The newest mini-parks here are Tomorrowland (Star Wars and Buzz Lightyear rides are popular here) and Toy Story Land, which only opened in 2018.
Disneyworld USA
Because the park in Anaheim was quite crowded for everyone, W alt Disney thought about building another place for family vacations. This is how Disneyworld appeared in Orlando, as of 2019, its area is about 100 square kilometers, it has 4 “countries”, a couple of water parks, cafes, restaurants, hotels and other entertainment places. If we talk about how many rides in Disneyland have existed since the opening, then there are about 15 of them, and all of them are part of the very first mini-park - the Magic Kingdom.
The most popular in this case is the "country" called Epcot, dedicated totechnical innovations and cultural interaction between different countries. It is divided into two zones: "Future World" and "Showcase of the World", in the first one you can visit the best attractions of Disneyland related to space exploration - "Universe of Energy", "Spaceship "Earth", "Test Track". The second zone contains pavilions that allow you to get to know the culture of 11 countries that currently exist and occupy a leading position in the world economy.
A distinctive feature of the park in Orlando is the presence of a large transport system to serve guests. Visitors can ride on 11 monorail trains, water taxis, and there are free buses that take you from one part of Disneyland to another.
The future of magical worlds
As Disneyland rides continue to be wildly popular, new parks are likely to be built. At the moment, Australia, Latin America and Africa remain undeveloped, so the owners of entertainment zones can turn their attention to these regions. It is worth noting that the cost of the entrance ticket is quite high, as of 2015, it was about 100 US dollars for an adult. Since 2018, it has increased to $109 (although this is in the so-called low season, but in general it is $129 on peak days). For this price, the visitor gets unlimited access to attractions, with the exception of paid shooting galleries, which is very convenient. To the park administrationQuestions have repeatedly arisen that the cost of an entrance ticket is quite high and not everyone can use the rides, but it still remains unchanged.
The parks administration notes that most of the visitors are adults who come to the parks several times a year to ride the carousels to their heart's content. With the help of special techniques used in the construction, guests get the complete feeling of falling into a fairy tale, from which they do not want to return to reality, which is why children and adults all over the planet adore Disneyland.
