Disneyland Resort features two theme parks: Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure. Opened in 1955, Walt Disney’s original theme park, Disneyland Park incorporates a "spoke and wheel" configuration. That is to say, all 9 themed “lands” branch out from the center of the park where Sleeping Beauty Castle resides. 

 

As of this writing, there are nine different lands spread out over approximately 85 acres.

​

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge - Opened in 2019

​

The new lands build off decades of collaboration between Walt Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm Ltd., a global leader in film, television, and digital entertainment production, including the Star Wars franchise. The work on Star Wars between these two creative powerhouses dates back to 1987 when the groundbreaking Star Tours attraction opened at Disneyland.

​

Stepping into their own Star Wars adventures, guests will become part of the action as it unfolds around them, and their interactions with the Play Disney Parks mobile app will deepen their engagement with the land. They may choose to aid a smuggler, join the Resistance, or pledge their loyalty to the First Order. This depth of storytelling is part of the total immersion that distinguishes the 14-acre Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge from any other themed lands in Disney history.

​

BATUU is a distant galactic outpost located along the Outer Rim of the galaxy, considered the frontier of Wild Space. This mostly uncharted region lies beyond all known star systems. The planet is home to the Black Spire Outpost, an outer port popular with smugglers and traders hoping to avoid any unwelcomed encounters with the First Order.

 

When guests arrive at Black Spire Outpost, they will encounter aliens, bots, droids, and other space inhabitants in search of supplies, food, and drink to resupply their craft for the next leg of their intergalactic journies. Don't be surprised if you stumble upon some familiar faces, like Chewbacca, or Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and some of his Stormtroopers.

​

​

Fantasyland - Original land opened in 1955

 

One of the original lands. Fantasyland is where Walt wanted to showcase his beloved characters that brought Disney to worldwide fame. Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Cinderella, Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland, and King Arthur all reside in Fantasyland through various rides and attractions with Sleeping Beauty Castle as the crown jewel. Storybook Land Canal Boats, offers guests a gentle boat ride through miniature scenes of famous Disney movies. It's said that on opening day, the gas-powered boats kept breaking down, requiring cast members to wade into the water and push the boats through the canal as guests became nauseous from the fumes emitted from the early gas engines.ne of the original Disney lands. Fantasyland is where Walt wanted to showcase his beloved characters that brought Disney to worldwide fame. Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Cinderella, Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland, and King Arthur all reside in Fantasyland through various rides and attractions with Sleeping Beauty Castle as the crown jewel. One ride, Storybook Land Canal Boats offers guests a gentle boat ride through miniature scenes of famous Disney movies. It's said that on opening day, the gas-powered boats kept breaking down requiring cast members to wade into the water and push the boats through the canal as guests became nauseous from the fumes emitted from the early gas engines.

 

 

Adventureland - Original land opened in 1955

​

Walt 's interests spanned the world. Jungle Cruise, originally designed to become the home of real African animals from Walt's Asian and African nature documentary was instead inhabited by mechanical trunk snorting elephants, bellowing Hippos and charging lions at the recommendation of professional zoologist. Oranges put the gold in the early golden state and is the birthplace of Sunkist. Millions of orange trees covered the Southern Calorinai landscape in the early '50s. Disney Imagineers needed real-life jungle foliage to create the illusion of a deep forbidding and mysterious jungle.  When an Imagineer noticed a pile of orange trees being cleared to make room for a nearby housing tract he got an idea. Upside down orange trees looked like a tangle of jungle foliage, or at least could be made to look so. Hundreds of uprooted orange trees were placed throughout the Jungle Cruise river banks with vines draped across the exposed roots creating the perfect spooky jungle. Oh, and green food coloring was used to give the river that shallow, muddy look. Perfect! 

Later additions to Adventureland included Indiana Jones Adventure and Alladins Theatre. 

​

 

Frontierland - Original land opened in 1955

​

Walt loved the rugged old west and the early settlers who migrated to it. The Daniel Boone television show starring Fess Parker was a big hit in the early days of television which of course provided Walt the perfect real-life hero Frontierland needed. An old wild west cowboy town with grizzled gun-slingers, dusty cattle rustlers, masked bandits, swindlers and gamblers all overseen by the local sheriff. Banjo playing saloon musicians add to a real-world, wild west experience.

​

 

Tomorrowland - Original land opened in 1955

​

“Here You Leave Today and Enter the World of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy”

 

Tomorrowland has had more attractions than any other park area. Guests have experienced the “world of tomorrow” through experiences such as the Carousel of Progress, Adventure Thru Inner Space and the PeopleMover. In 1998, Tomorrowland was completely redesigned for the third time since park opening, with a retro-futuristic, Jules Verne-inspired theme. Since 2005, Tomorrowland has grown to include attractions such as Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue and the re-launch of Space Mountain. 

​

 

New Orleans Square - Opened 1966

 

As the first 10 years of Disneyland went into the history books, the first major addition to Disneyland park opened. New Orleans Square opened July 24, 1966, based on 19th Century New Orleans. The main attraction is, of course, those wile pirates who pillage and ransack their way across the Caribbean islands, the last attraction Walt personally supervised before his passing in 1966.  New Orleans Square is also home to popular nighttime extravaganze "Fantasmic."

 

Frightful Delights of Haunted Mansion - Opened on August 8, 1969, The Haunted Mansion concept dates back to before Disneyland® was even built. Harper Goff, the recipient of the esteemed Disney Legend award, crafted a stunning black and white sketch of a crooked street leading out of a main street setting and past a gloomy graveyard. Perched high on a hill, inside the graveyard, sat a run down and forbidding mansion. Soon after Disneyland® opened in 1955, Walt asked Imagineer Ken Anderson to create a story themed around Harper Goff’s original sketches and to design a new “grim-grinning” attraction to be located in the new New Orleans themed land being built between Frontierland and Adventureland. Ken studied old plantations in New Orleans to come up with the "pre-Civil War” styled manor complete with dead trees, tattered paint, overgrown weeds and yes, things that go “bump” in the night. Unsatisfied with Ken’s first sketches, Walt decided to visit the famed Winchester Mystery House for some “spirited” inspiration and was immediately taken by the stairs of the manor that lead to nowhere and doors that open into walls. Ken wrote stories about fictional characters that were to inhabit the new haunted attraction. Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey, two Imagineers who were in charge of the spectral effects and given a large studio at WED Enterprises to build and test the effects of the attraction. The night cleaning crew was so frightened by the spooky effects that were being developed, management asked the effects crew to leave the lights on at night. As a spoof one night, the crew rigged all the effects to a motion sensor switch which when passed by would turn everything on. The next morning when the crew arrived for work, all the effects were still on. In the middle of the floor, lay a broom where the terrified cleaners had left it while hastily exiting the premises. The effects crew cleaned the studio themselves that day.

​

 

Critter Country -   Opened in 1972

​

Harken back to the old South where you'll find Splash Mountain, based on Walt Disney's 1946 classic "Song of the South," Splash Mountain is the only Disneyland® attraction that inspired an entire land. Opened in 1989, Splash Mountain and the then Bear Country was renamed to Critter Country in its honor. Splash Mountain is a classic flume ride. Passengers board an eight-seat log ride that winds peacefully down the river through the swamplands of the old South. Over 100 animatronic creatures sing songs from the movie. 20,000 gallons of water per minute is pumped through the ride. The end of the journey will send you down a five-story drop at speeds of 40 mph. Splash Mountain has two lifts and several drops - one in the dark. Oh, did I mention YOU WILL GET WET! The farther in front you sit, the wetter you'll get.

 

 

Also located in Critter Country is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride. Opened in 2003 and replacing Country Bear Jamboree, it quickly became a favorite among the 6 years and under set.  Hop aboard your six-rider, Hunny Bee-hive and join Pooh and his pals as you search through the 100 Acre Wood for that elusive pot of honey.

​

Also located in New Orleans Square are the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes. 

​

 

Mickey’s Toontown - Opened 1993

​

Where toons and kids all hang out and play together. Meet Mickey and Minnie at their house, bounce and jump with Goofy in Goofy's Bounce House and anchors away on Donald's Boat. Ride to the skies on Gadgets Go Coaster, find out Who Framed Roger Rabbit on Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. This is a dark ride with the Toontown Cab Company. Guests board a cartoon taxi named Lenny, Benny’s twin. Passengers explore Toontowns back alleys, pass by Baby Herman’s digs, visit the backstage at the Ink & Paint Club and stumble into Judge Doom’s underworld hideout where "DIP," a dreadful blend of acetone, benzene and turpentine is being stored. As a result of hitting a puddle of the deadly concoction spilled by Judge Doom's gang of weasels, taxis spin in both directions by turning the steering wheel. Dip, the secret weapon of the Toon Patrol, is part of an evil plan to wipe out all the toons in Toontown.

​

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is also whistling into Toontown in 2022.

​