Disneyland

Blending elements from "Drumline," "Stomp" and "Glee," the new music-centric " Mickey's Soundsational Parade " opening at Disneyland on Friday delivers on its fun and energetic party premise without feeling forced or contrived. There are no show stops with false interactivity, no overtly clever design features that feel more manufactured than creative and no painful attempts to appear hip by playing on fleeting contemporary cliches. Instead, "Soundsational" manages to be whimsical and imaginative, with moments that are at times quirky, weird and flat-out crazy.

Don't miss the Toontown roller coaster, somebody said. Don't bother with Toontown, somebody else said. Don't risk the Matterhorn with a first-grader, somebody said. Don't miss the Matterhorn with a first-grader, somebody else said. "Absolutely," I said. When you tell a Southern Californian that your 6-year-old is about to visit Disneyland for the first time ? and that you haven't been there since Captain EO was fresh from the academy ? the advice comes flowing like the whitewater that I imagine courses down Splash Mountain.

Your report on the Disneyland dress-code controversy struck a familiar chord. Last fall, I was referred to the park by a local "job shop" for a temporary structural-engineering position. Toward the end of the interview, I was informed that shaving off my mustache would be a condition of employment. I expressed some surprise, inasmuch as I remembered that Walt Disney had one in every photo I had ever seen. I learned that several employees whose joining the company predated the rule were "grandfathered," but new employees, permanent or temporary, had to comply.

This column is being brought to you live from Disneyland, where I've been covering the park's marathon 30th birthday party since it began at one minute past midnight Wednesday. (No, that's too Game-of-the-Weekish. Try something with a little more emerging-national-trend in it.) It was 30 years ago when Walt Disney gambled his made-in-movies fortune on what experts said was a foolish idea: a theme amusement park built in the middle of the distant Anaheim orange groves.

Disney has unveiled plans to roll out a revolutionary new digital reservation system at its four Florida theme parks allowing visitors to pre-book rides, shows, parades, restaurants and character meet-and-greets months before a vacation. So when will this latest dose of pixie dust spread to Disneyland and other parks in the theme park chain? Disney officials won't divulge an expansion timeline, but mouse-watchers say the new MyMagic+ vacation management system rolling out this spring at Walt Disney World could debut at Anaheim's two theme parks as early as next year.

For most people, fireworks are a special treat — loud, luminous displays to savor on Independence Day or New Year's Eve. But for some who live near Disneyland, where fireworks blossom in the skies above Sleeping Beauty's Castle almost every night, the rockets' red glare has worn out its welcome. Residents have added double-paned windows and extra insulation to soundproof the walls. Juanita Driskell, a retired teacher who has lived a few blocks from the Anaheim theme park for nearly three decades, is so accustomed to the fireworks that when the crackling and hissing starts around 9:30 p.m., she just cranks up the volume on the television.

Half of Southern California travelers plan to visit at least one theme park this year, according to a recent poll by the Automobile Club of Southern California . If Disneyland is the destination, here's a hotel deal from Red Lion Hotel Anaheim with some nice freebies and a nice price: $79 a night. The deal: This offer would work well for families with young children who don't want to worry about driving back and forth to the park. The hotel is a block or so from Disneyland, and a resort shuttle stops at the front door.

More than 300 million visitors have gone through Disneyland's gates--including kings, queens, presidents, sultans, astronauts, princesses and miracle babies. Richard M. Nixon--an Orange County native son--has certainly been the most frequent presidential visitor (right). Former Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev may be the most famous person never to visit the park. In 1959, he expressed a desire to visit Disneyland but his request was nixed by U.S. government officials.

It looks like Abraham Lincoln. It moves like Abraham Lincoln. And it quotes Abraham Lincoln. But historians say it still doesn't sound like Abraham Lincoln. After a four-year absence, Walt Disney Co. pulls the curtain back today on a new high-tech version of Lincoln for its "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" show at the Opera House on Main Street in Disneyland. The animatronic Lincoln, incorporating cutting-edge technology that gives the mechanical man nuanced, lifelike facial expressions and lip movements, first premiered debuted at the 1964 World's Fair in New York.

Some say Walt Disney's spirit still roams the Anaheim park and the words he spoke during Disneyland's early days still seem fresh: "The way I see it, Disneyland will never be finished. It's something we can keep developing. . . . I've always wanted to work on something alive, something that keeps growing. We've got that at Disneyland."