Happy Father’s Day

Enjoy this special Father’s Day preview of Disney•Pixar’s Brave which opens in theaters this Friday, June 22nd!

When guests walk into any Disney theme park, they find themselves in a place apart from the everyday world they leave behind at the turnstiles. At the newly expanded Disney California Adventure® Park, guests begin their journey on Buena Vista Street, a nostalgic look at Los Angeles as it may have appeared to Walt Disney in the 1920s and ’30s when he first arrived in California – a wonderful and inspirational period of his life.

Once on Buena Vista Street, guests may board the Red Car Trolley to take a tour and be transported into Hollywood Land. The tour includes Carthay Circle Theatre, the new and striking Disney California Adventure® Park landmark that stands 89 feet 6 inches tall at the hub of the park. Guests may stroll around the downtown Buena Vista Street area featuring vintage architecture and a dozen shops and restaurants.

Some of Buena Vista Street’s landmarks include:

• The new entry turnstiles of Disney California Adventure® Park which were inspired by the Pan-Pacific Auditorium
• Inside Buena Vista Plaza, guests walk under Hyperion Bridge (the Disneyland Resort Monorail track), modeled on the concrete Glendale-Hyperion Avenue bridge near Walt Disney’s early Hyperion Animation Studios
• Carthay Circle Theatre, inspired by the motion picture palace where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in 1937 and is the home of the Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge
• “Storytellers,” a statue of Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse, found in the central plaza. The statue, which is placed at street level and less monumental than the “Partners” statue in Disneyland® Park, depicts Walt Disney as a humble, optimistic young man, dreaming of achievements to come, standing alongside Mickey Mouse.

Buena Vista Street plays home to various shopping and dining opportunities. Upstairs at Carthay Circle Theatre is the Carthay Circle Restaurant, one of the premiere dining locations at the Disneyland® Resort, with a menu of hors d’oeuvres, salads, soups, California specialty entrees and desserts. Downstairs is the Carthay Circle Lounge, which serves appetizers, wine, craft beer and specialty drinks. Guests can also choose from various quick-service locations like Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Café , Clarabelle’s Hand-Scooped Ice Cream, and Mortimer’s Market.

On your next visit, be sure to explore Buena Vista Street and take part in the adventure of a young Walt Disney and walk along this boulevard of dreams.

The Opening of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure® Park in Anaheim, CA was a star-studded affair to say the least. This VIP event brought many celebrities to the park to experience the new areas and walk the red carpet. As one would expect, no celebrity was bright enough to outshine the real star of the night, Cars Land! 

Many of the celebrities took time to share their thoughts on this new immersive area of Disney California Adventure® Park. Here are some of our favorites:

Radiator Springs Racers is unbelievable. Cars Land is everything you want it to be. – Country music artist Brad Paisley

The expansion makes Disneyland even better, if that’s possible. – Actress Ariel Winter, star of ABC’s “Modern Family”   Luigi’s Flying Tires is the most original ride I’ve ever ridden. Cars Land is just amazing. – Actor Nolan Gould, star of ABC’s “Modern Family”

Mater’s awesome – I loved him when I first saw the cartoon and read the script. – Comedian Larry the Cable Guy

Cars Land is the place to be this summer. – Actor Rico Rodriguez, from ABC’s “Modern Family”

Cars Land is fantastic – the setting is quite unique. – Actor Andy Garcia

I can’t wait to share this with my family. – Tom Staggs, Chairman of Disney Parks & Resorts This is unbelievably exciting. Walt Disney was right – there’s always more we can do. – Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Co. To have a whole land based on the characters we created at Pixar is a dream come true. – John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studio, and Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering

Today, the “car-acters” of Disney●Pixar’s animated film Cars will welcome guests to Cars Land and its three new attractions: Radiator Springs Racers, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi’s Flying Tires.

Radiator Springs Racers

What you thought was a leisurely, scenic tour of Ornament Valley turns into an all-out race for the Piston Cup as guests race side-by-side through the mountain range, around Willy’s Butte and past the plunging waterfall, Radiator Falls – all familiar sights to fans of the movie.

Guests entering the six-passenger convertible will notice their car features a male or female face. The gender of the car is determined by the color of the car – eight in all. The scenic road trip begins through the countryside and town of Radiator Springs. After a stop at Luigi’s Casa Della Tires or Ramone’s House of Body Art, final racing tips will be given by Doc Hudson.

The race begins as the cars are separated onto parallel tracks. Racing nose-to-nose to the finish, the cars will encounter 45 degree turns as they zoom through the desert landscape.

Radiator Springs Racers is a FASTPASS® attraction. Guests must be 40″ high to ride. It is estimated that each vehicle of the attraction will travel approximately 36,000 miles per year – equivalent to more than 14 trips down the original Route 66!

Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree

It’s an old-fashioned “tow-si-do!” Everyone’s favorite tow truck, Mater, has corralled a herd of runaway baby tractors in his junkyard. Step into Mater’s salvage yard and ride trailers hitched to the baby tractors.

As you load into your tractor, you’ll notice that no two tractors are the same. All 22 have different markings, mouths, and eye colors. They also have license plates with letters that represent initials and birthdays of key contributors to the Cars Land project. However they do have one thing in common: They all LOVE to dance!

The minimum height requirement for Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree is 32 inches.

Luigi’s Flying Tires

“Uno for the money, due for the show, tre to get ready and quattro to go!” Cars characters Luigi and Guido play host to a “Festival of the Flying Tires” at Luigi’s Casa Della Tires.  When the music starts, tires float and dance in the grand tradition of a celebration that first started in Luigi’s hometown of Carsoli, Italy.

Guests board oversized Fettuccini-brand tires, accommodating up to two adults and one child, or one adult and two children. Guests steer by shifting their body weight , bumping into other tires as they float across Luigi’s 8,000-square-foot Italian garden and tire storage yard. For extra fun, try to catch one of the inflatable balls scattered throughout the attraction.
Nostalgic Disneyland® Park fans will recognize the attraction as a descendant of the Flying Saucers attraction, which operated in Tomorrowland from 1961 to 1966. 6,714 air vents keep the tires floating approximately two inches above the ground! The minimum height requirement for Luigi’s Flying Tires is 32 inches.

Guests will now enter the newly expanded Disney California Adventure® Park through a completely redesigned entrance. Like never before, the spirit of Walt Disney is present on Buena Vista Street. Immersed in a locale reminiscent of Los Angeles in the 1920s, when Disney first arrived in California, guests encounter the Red Car Trolley, one of four new attractions at Disney California Adventure® Park.

Inspired by Los Angeles’ historic Pacific Electric Red Cars from the 1920s and ’30s, two Red Car Trolley cars operate daily, traveling from Buena Vista Street to the Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror through Hollywood Land. The trolleys make several stops along the way.

Inside the interiors showcase the soft green and cream colors of the time period. Vintage-looking ads hanging inside highlighting food locations and shops inside the park. The Red Car Trolleys are 26 feet long and seat 20 passengers with an additional space for a wheelchair.

Each of the Red Car Trolleys have a number. The 623 car, with “23″ as a nod to the year 1923 when Walt Disney arrived in California, is based on the 600 series of trolleys built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1922. The 717 car is inspired by the 700-750 series manufactured by the J.G. Brill Company in 1925. 7-17 also refers to the birthday of Disneyland® Park, July 17, 1955.

The trolleys are powered by onboard 12-volt batteries that fully recharge at night. The catenary lines running above the cars are just for authenticity – they provide no actual power. If necessary, the trolleys are able to recharge at one of the stops using inductive power transfer, the same technology used to charge your cell phone!

The Red Car Trolleys are rockin’ when the Red Car News Boys roll into town. Inspired by the spirit and style of Disney’s movie and stage musical Newsies, the group performs tunes authentic for the time period like “California, Here I come” and delivers the news from the Buena Vista Daily Bugle. Of course the show wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from Mickey Mouse, the cartoon star who got his start in that period!

More than just “another attraction” in “another land,” the Red Car Trolleys and Buena Vista Street pay tribute to the optimism and opportunity Walt felt when he first arrived to Los Angeles.