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Photo by Allen Huffman, February 2001 |
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Has it really been 20 years already? Well, almost. The grand opening of Disney’s (now Disney) California Adventure was February 8, 2001. Let’s visit the park during its opening month through historical photos.
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It’s February 2001 at Disney’s California Adventure. Welcome to the newest Disney park. It’s been less than three years since Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened April 22, 1998. Tokyo Disney Sea will open later this year on September 9, 2001, with Walt Disney Studios Paris coming soon after on March 16, 2002. Disney is on a roll opening new parks. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 C A L I F O R N I A, here I come! |
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You enter the park through a giant postcard. When Disneyland Park opened in 1955, it had five lands, including Main Street, U.S.A. Disney’s California Adventure of 2001 has just four lands:
But it’s not that simple. One of the lands, Golden State, is divided into six mini-lands, called districts:
The whole park is supposed to be about California, the state that’s nicknamed the Golden State. Yet three lands are separate from Golden State, the land. Let’s take a stroll to all the lands and districts. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 California Zephyr, now leaving from Information Station |
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Your first land is Sunshine Plaza. The highlight here is the California Zephyr. Even though the train doesn’t move and the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego has been reduced to an information kiosk, it may still be the most charming feature of the land. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Grizzly Peak Recreation Area |
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We begin our visit to the six districts of Golden State with the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area. Experience the grandeur of California’s mountains and the deliciousness of California’s churros. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Bountiful Valley Farm, Presented by Caterpillar |
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Our next district is Bountiful Valley Farm. Here, you can watch fruits and vegetables grow, admire Caterpillar tractors, and let your kids get drenched in a water play area. The big attraction here is It’s Tough to Be a Bug, a 3D movie that’s been playing at Disney’s Animal Kingdom since the park opened in 1998. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 San Andreas Shakes and Fresh Fruit at Bountiful Valley Farm |
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Throughout the park, attractions and eateries are named after places in California. Puns are everywhere. If San Andreas Shakes makes you think of earthquakes, that’s intentional. Signs promote the shakes as delicious to a fault. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, February 2001 Cocina Cucamonga (where Lucky Fortune Cookery is now) |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Lucky Fortune Cookery (where Cocina Cucamonga is now) |
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Our next Golden State district is Pacific Wharf. At an outdoor seating patio, a small, but popular, Mexican restaurant and a large, but less popular Asian restaurant face each other. How do you suppose the park could deal with these disproportions? We’re halfway through the districts of Golden State. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Condor Flats |
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You might have seen pictures of the wide-open high desert airfields of California where aviation history was made. Condor Flats is supposed to represent such an airfield, but, to tell the truth, this cramped district is completely unconvincing. It feels more like a mountain valley. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, February 2001 Soarin’ Over California |
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The good news about Condor Flats is that it’s home to the park’s breakout star attraction, Soarin’ Over California. The outside is a hangar for large aircraft, but the inside simulates hang-gliding—which has nothing to do with large aircraft. Oh well. Doesn’t matter. The attraction is exhilarating, highly repeatable (even though it’s a film), and shows off California brilliantly. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Golden Dreams |
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We’re now at the Bay Area district, which is San Francisco without hills. Here, a reduced-size replica of the Palace of Fine Arts serves as the landmark entrance to Golden Dreams. You’ll experience scenes of the history of California presented by Whoopi Goldberg as Queen Califia. The 70mm movie is grand and well worth seeing—once. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Golden Vine Winery |
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Back in the Bay Area district, the Dreams were Golden. Here in our final Golden State district, the Vine Winery is Golden. At the Golden Vine Winery district, Robert Mondavi Corporation operates an actual vineyard, several wine tasting bars, wine tours, reserve tasting opportunities, the Wine Country Market delicatessen and wine shop, the Vineyard Room fine dining restaurant, and the Seasons of the Vine movie theater. | |||
Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Paradise Pier skyline, with the Maliboomer as its highest point |
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That takes care of Golden State. Now we’re at our third land, Paradise Pier, dedicated to the ”Golden Age” of amusement parks. From the inconsistent theming, it’s hard to tell when that was. Paradise Pier wraps around all of Paradise Bay, except directly in front of the Bay Area district. So it’s less of a pier and more of a shore. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Paradise Pier entrance past Wolfgang Puck’s Avalon Cove fine dining restaurant |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 The wooden planks and garish stalls of the amusement pier |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, February 2001 Bee body seats of the Orange Stinger |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Mulholland Madness, the wild mouse coaster behind the big map |
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There’s one more land—Hollywood Studios Backlot. When you first step onto the land’s Hollywood Blvd., it seems you’re on a city street. But as you head further, you’ll discover it’s all just a movie backlot, with fake facades, soundstages, and scattered moviemaking junk. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, February 2001 Kuzco and Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove on Hollywood Blvd. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Steps in Time, the first show at the Hyperion Theater |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Hollywood & Dine, a food court honoring classic Los Angeles restaurants |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 A crashed spacecraft at Muppet*Vision 3D |
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In an attempt to bring movie studio authenticity to this land, there are barrier sawhorses and all sorts of messy studio artifacts. We’ve now scrolled through the lands of California Adventure. It’s time for a parade whose route includes all of them. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, February 2001 California deity Eureka as a sun-worshiping beach beauty |
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Eureka! - The California Adventure Parade is packed with inventive elements—and is completely devoid of Disney characters. |
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Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, February 2001 Mickey and Minnie on vacation |
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Speaking of Disney characters, they’re not entirely absent from this park. You won’t find Mickey in his red pants or Minnie in her polka dot dress. Those are their work clothes. Here at Disney’s California Adventure in February 2001, they’re on vacation. |
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Disney California Adventure unveiled its newest land, Avengers Campus, when it reopened June 4, 2021, after the COVID-19 shutdown. That gave the park eight lands—and no districts:
All Disney parks change substantially during their first 20 years, but, arguably, Disney California Adventure changed more than any of the others. Pieces of the park from 2001 have survived, but even those pieces have been largely re-imagined. Disney California Adventure has become an outstanding Disney park. |
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© 2021 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated December 26, 2021 |
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, Curator of Yesterland, February 5, 2021
