LAYOUT
The park is divided into realms, which radiate like the four cardinal points of the compass from Central Plaza, and well-concealed backstage areas. The public areas occupy approximately 85 acres (344,000 m˛). Upon entering the park, you first proceed down Main Street, U.S.A., to reach Central Plaza. At the center of The Magic Kingdom and immediately North of Central Plaza stands Sleeping Beauty Castle, which provides entrance to Fantasyland by way of a drawbridge across a moat. Adventureland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland are arrayed on both sides of the castle.
It is here, also, where the duality of Disneyland is first experienced. Main Street, Disneyland, U.S.A. gives way to a magic kingdom where timeless and imaginary characters, settings, and stories come to life in fully-immersive and permanent physicality.
PARK ADMISSION
Visiting Disneyland is an expensive affair, with admission for a family of four running well over $200. Prices below were accurate as of October 2006:
Parking: $11.
Single park one-day admission: $53 (ages 3-9), $63 (ages 10+).
Single day park-hopper admission: $73 (ages 3-9), $83 (ages 10+), $68 (Southern California resident ages 3-9), $78 (Southern California resident ages 10+).
2-day park-hopper admission: $96 (ages 3-9), $116 (ages 10+).
3-day park-hopper admission: $119 (ages 3-9), $149 (ages 10+).
4-day park-hopper admission: $139 (ages 3-9), $169 (ages 10+).
5-day park-hopper admission: $149 (ages 3-9), $179 (ages 10+).
Discounts are hard to find, but California residents (bring a driver's license or utility bill to prove residency) will receive a small discount, and booking tickets online through disneyland.com may also save some cash. AAA occasionally offers its members discounts, and seasonal discounts such as the "buy a day, get a seasonal pass" offer occur during non-peak seasons.
For those who are planning a multi-day vacation to Southern California including mutiple attactions including Disneyland, you can also save significantly by using CityPass. For only $235, you receive a 3-day park-hopper ticket, 1-day at Universial Studios, 1-day at Sea World, and 1-day at the San Diego Zoo. This makes for a wonderful week long vacation and a very attractive price with about $90 off standard prices.
Note on purchasing tickets online: Many tickets sold online through auction websites such as eBay or Craig's List are usually partially used multi-day park-hopper tickets. While this is a very common activity, it is actually prohibited by Disney as the tickets are non-transferrible. Additionally, this can be risky since you don't know for certain how many days they actually used on the ticket. While there are mechanizims in place to help protect online purchasers, often the damage is already done since purchasing at the gate is more expensive then in advance through authroized methods such as the Disney website, AAA or Disney Stores.
FASTPASS
In 1999, in an effort to offset the long waits for the most popular attractions, Disney implemented a new service named Fastpass [11]. At attractions featuring Fastpass, a guest can use their park admission ticket to obtain a Fastpass ticket with a return time later that day printed on it. If the guest returns to the attraction at their return time, they can wait in a shorter line and typically be on the attraction within ten minutes. Initially, only a few attractions offered this service, but its popularity has meant that the list of Fastpass equipped attractions has changed over time.
DISNEYLAND RAILROAD
Consisting of five oil-fired and steam-powered locomotives, in addition to three passenger trains and one passenger-carrying freight train. Originally known as the Disneyland and Santa Fe Railroad, the D.R.R. was presented by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway until 1974. From 1955 to 1974, the Santa Fe Rail Pass was able to be used in lieu of a Disneyland "D" coupon. Laid to three-foot gauge, the most common narrow gauge measurement used in North America, the track runs in a continuous loop around The Magic Kingdom through each of its realms. Each turn-of-the-19th-Century train departs Main Street Station on an excursion that includes scheduled station stops at: Frontierland Station; Toontown Depot, the gateway to Fantasyland; and, Tomorrowland Station. The Grand Circle Tour then concludes with a visit to the "Grand Canyon/Primeval World" dioramas before returning passengers to Main Street, U.S.A.
DISNEYLAND MONORAIL SYSTEM
One of Disneyland's signature attractions is its monorail service, which opened in Tomorrowland in 1959 as the first daily-operating monorail train system in the Western Hemisphere. The monorail guideway has remained almost exactly the same since 1961, aside from small alterations while Indiana Jones Adventure was being built. Four generations of monorail trains have been used in the park, since their lightweight construction means they wear out quickly. The most recent generation, the Mark V, was installed in 1987 when more modern trains built by Ride & Show Engineering eliminated the old ALWEG Buck Rogers-style trains. The next update will be in 2008, when the Mark VII trains are slated to be installed. The monorail shuttles visitors between two stations, one inside the park in Tomorrowland and one in Downtown Disney. It follows a 2.5 mile (4 km) long route designed to show the park from above.
The original destination of the monorail was the Disneyland Hotel. With the creation of Downtown Disney in 2001, the new destination was Downtown Disney, instead of the Disneyland Hotel. The physical location of the monorail station did not change, however the terminal was now separated from the hotel by several Downtown Disney buildings, including ESPN Zone and the Rainforest Café.
MAIN STREET VEHICLES
All vehicles that are found on Main Street were designed to accurately reflect turn-of-the-century vehicles, including a double-decker bus, a horse-drawn streetcar, a fire engine, and an automobile. They are available for one-way rides along Main Street, U.S.A. The horseless carriages are modeled after cars built in 1903. They are two cylinder, four horsepower (3 kW) engines with manual transmission and steering. Walt Disney used it to drive the fire engine around the park before it opened, on most mornings. It has also been used to host celebrity guests and used in the parades.
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