Disney S California Adventure

It won't be signed Willy Wonka, but there's a new golden ticket going around. For the first time in a decade, Disneyland has opened membership to its exclusive Club 33, the secretive, members-only restaurant hidden in New Orleans Square. Members will also be able to relax in a new private pad at Disney's California Adventure: 1901, named for the year Walt Disney was born. Disney officials announced that a limited number of memberships would be offered in honor of Club 33's 45th anniversary and the completion of a major, five-year expansion project at California Adventure.

The opening day of Disney's California Adventure has begun. Characters from the "Newsies" film and musical danced on stage Friday as company Chief Executive Bob Iger lauded the changes to the park. “We believe the transformation over the last five years, culminating in Buena Vista Street and Cars Land, created a totally new experience and deserves a grand opening,” Iger said. The Disney California Adventure park, next door to Disneyland, opened in 2001 and has had underwhelming returns, even by the admission of company executives.

When Walt Disney Co. looked to revamp its troubled retail stores in 2008, Chief Executive Robert A. Iger sought advice from the company's largest shareholder, a foremost expert on the consumer experience. Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs had lured theme-park-size crowds to his company's stores with daring architecture, no-pressure sales staffs and displays that enticed customers to come in and play with the tech world's sexiest toys. Though Disney sold its chain four years earlier, its name was still on the stores.

Disney is opening its new Cars Land attraction at California Adventure on June 15. Reporter Hugo Martin explains in the video that Disney is hoping the 12-acre Southwestern-themed expansion will make California Adventure more of a destination than just a stopover on the way to next-door Disneyland. Cars Land is the center of Disney's a $1.1-billion investment in California Adventure. The video features photographs that give an early look at the attraction.  Read the full story here.

The opening day of Disney's California Adventure has begun. Characters from the "Newsies" film and musical danced on stage Friday as company Chief Executive Bob Iger lauded the changes to the park. “We believe the transformation over the last five years, culminating in Buena Vista Street and Cars Land, created a totally new experience and deserves a grand opening,” Iger said. The Disney California Adventure park, next door to Disneyland, opened in 2001 and has had underwhelming returns, even by the admission of company executives.

Just a month after saying it had no plans for new summer deals, Walt Disney Co.'s California Adventure theme park said Tuesday that it will offer a promotion throughout the summer months. Under its new promotion, the year-old theme park is offering adult admissions at the children's price of $35 through Sept. 3 for Southern California residents. Children ages 3 to 9 accompanied by a paying adult get in free.

Hundreds of people invited to the Walt Disney Co.'s California Adventure theme-park theater for a movie premiere were turned away because too many showed up for the screening. Disney officials said they were simply overwhelmed by response to the premiere of the movie "Spy Kids" in the Anaheim park's 1,400-seat Hyperion Theater. The movie opens nationwide March 30.

The state issued two citations -- one of them serious -- and fined the Disneyland Resort $18,350 Wednesday in the death last spring of an employee who fell 60 feet while working inside a theater at California Adventure. Stage technician Christopher Bowman, 36, died in May, having never regained consciousness from head injuries he suffered when he tumbled from a catwalk in the Hyperion Theater. He had been prepping the "magic carpet" special effect for the Aladdin show when he fell in late April.

The most innovative attraction at Walt Disney Co.'s new California Adventure may be the simulated hang-glider ride over the natural and man-made wonders of the Golden State. Soarin' Over California is estimated to handle 1,250 riders an hour--but on busy days that means as many as half of the park's visitors won't be able to get on. It's just one example of what is looming as a major issue for the new park: overcrowding. California Adventure park, set to open Feb.

Two major businesses in Walt Disney Co.'s California Adventure have abandoned operations at the park, raising more concerns for the Disneyland Resort amid sluggish attendance and dimmed prospects in the near term. Disney spokesman Ray Gomez said Wolfgang Puck Food Co.'s upscale seafood eatery, Avalon Cove, was shutting down Monday because it had not met the expectations of either Disney or Puck. It is the first defection of a tenant since the park opened in February. Also, Robert Mondavi Corp.

It won't be signed Willy Wonka, but there's a new golden ticket going around. For the first time in a decade, Disneyland has opened membership to its exclusive Club 33, the secretive, members-only restaurant hidden in New Orleans Square. Members will also be able to relax in a new private pad at Disney's California Adventure: 1901, named for the year Walt Disney was born. Disney officials announced that a limited number of memberships would be offered in honor of Club 33's 45th anniversary and the completion of a major, five-year expansion project at California Adventure.

It took Mother Nature hundreds of millions of years to build and shape the sandstone mesa in America's southwest region. It took Disney's rock-work art director Zsolt Hormay about two years to build a smaller version as part of the $1-billion expansion at Disney's California Adventure. The 125-foot-tall mountain range will be the most visible landmark in the 12-acre expansion, dubbed Cars Land, scheduled to open in June. Much of the expansion is being built on a former parking lot. Disney officials announced Thursday that a team of artists is wrapping up construction of the peaks, hoodoos and canyons, painted in bands of red, white and pink.

When Walt Disney Co. looked to revamp its troubled retail stores in 2008, Chief Executive Robert A. Iger sought advice from the company's largest shareholder, a foremost expert on the consumer experience. Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs had lured theme-park-size crowds to his company's stores with daring architecture, no-pressure sales staffs and displays that enticed customers to come in and play with the tech world's sexiest toys. Though Disney sold its chain four years earlier, its name was still on the stores.

A few weeks ago, Disney introduced a new costumed character at its theme parks in California and Florida. He did not arrive alone. Duffy the Disney Bear debuted at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim and Epcot Center in Orlando with an army of merchandise. Park souvenir shops began stocking three sizes of stuffed-plush bears and accompanying Duffy costumes, key chains, magnets and more. Additional souvenirs are on the way: Disney says it will have nearly three dozen Duffy items for sale in its parks within the next year.

Disneyland Resort ticket prices Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure One day, one park: $68, ages 3 to 9; $76, ages 10 and up One-day Park Hopper: $91/$101 Two-day Park Hopper: $146/$161 Three-day Park Hopper: $165/$186 Park Hopper tickets allow visits to both parks each day. Other ticket options, hotel packages and annual passes are available. ? Brady MacDonald

Walt Disney Co., burdened by a $60-million write-off for its cable networks and an accounting wrinkle involving ESPN, reported a 7% drop in earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter, driving its stock down after the news leaked out half an hour before the close of trading. The media and entertainment conglomerate posted a profit of $835 million, or 43 cents a share, for the three months ended Oct. 2. For last year's fourth quarter, Disney earned $895 million, or 47 cents. Revenue fell slightly to about $9.7 billion from nearly $9.9 billion.

Since California Adventure made its debut six years ago, billed as Disneyland's hipper, edgier younger sibling, the entertainment colossus founded by Walt Disney has wandered far from the Orange County city where he launched his first park in 1955.

Until now, the scariest thing at Walt Disney Co.'s California Adventure theme park -- at least for company executives -- has been the sluggish attendance figures. With the unveiling this week of its newest thrill ride, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Disney hopes to change that. Dogged by complaints that it was built "on the cheap" with too few big attractions, California Adventure continues to fall short of meeting its original projections of attracting 7 million visitors a year.

Disney unveiled plans today for the largest expansion in the history of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, provided updates on its $1-billion expansion of Disney's California Adventure and said it would modernize the popular Star Tours ride at its domestic parks. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo chose the D23 Expo in Anaheim, the first-ever gathering of Disney devotees, to announce the ambitious new project in Orlando, Fla., that will nearly double the size of Fantasyland.

Disney's California Adventure is poised for a $1-billion makeover that's designed to give the troubled theme park the main thing it lacks -- an emotional connection to keep people coming back. The sweeping overhaul will transport visitors to the California of the 1920s, when Walt Disney first arrived in Hollywood. In the same way that Disneyland's Main Street evokes Disney's hometown of Marceline, Mo., a refocused California Adventure will follow the young animator's journey to Los Angeles.