Disneyland vacation packages and other great offers on top California tourist attractions

Say You Want to See What

Disney's "NEW" California Adventure

Will Look Like…

There’s a Map For That!

Spring is here and yipeee for that! We just aren’t wired for rainy, cloud-filled days around here. No, we love the warm sunshine. Spring in SoCal is unlike any other place on earth with cool ocean breezes at the beach and warm sunshine everywhere else. Spring reminds the locals how lucky they are to live here… and now we’re happy you’re here too!

The most significant news of note is the massive expansion of Disney’s California Adventure Park now well underway. This is a multi-year, $1.3 billion expansion that has been years in the planning. With so many new attractions opening during the next three years, including 2010, we thought it would be great to run an update on the expansion‘s status and what you can expect to see opening this year. As Kathy Westervelt, SoCal’s Managing Editor, began to make some calls to our friends at Disney Publicity for status information, we quickly realized a couple of pages simply wouldn’t provide our readers with anything of value. So, we determined the spring issue should be treated as a Special Edition, exclusively covering where the expansion project stands today, and what’s coming in the future. And there’s plenty to report…

Debuting this year is World of Color, a spectacular nighttime water show that takes place in the Paradise Pier lagoon. World of Color will most certainly raise the bar in water-based entertainment. Powerful fountains blast hundreds of colorful water jets high into the night sky to create the world’s largest projected water screen. Starring in World of Color are your favorite characters from Disney classics such as “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Lion King” and “Pocahontas,” along with Disney® Pixar films “Toy Story,” “WALL-E” and many more. Beneath all that water are miles of plumbing, electrical and lighting that will create larger-than-life projections, lasers, fire, fog, surround sound, and stunning images that will challenge the imagination. World of Color adds a new dimension to Disney’s stable of wonderful shows and entertainment.

Also debuting this year is Silly Symphony Swings, which takes its name from Silly Symphonies, a series of 75 animated short subjects produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. Silly Symphonies is most known for its use by Walt Disney as a platform for experimenting with techniques and characters to advance the art of film animation. Silly Symphonies also provided Walt an ongoing venue to try out new technologies that would play a critical role in his plans to eventually produce full-length animated feature films. In 1932, Herbert Kalmus, had just completed work on the world’s first Technicolor camera. He approached Walt, convincing him to consider re-shooting the black and white version of Flowers and Trees with his three-strip Technicolor camera, thus ushering in the first use of color film. Flowers and Trees astounded audiences and was a run away success. Flowers and Trees would win the first of Walt’s 32 personal Academy Awards for Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1932. We want to thank our friends at Disney Publicity as well as the amazing Disney artists for providing SoCal with the beautiful artists renderings used in the feature.Because we wanted to give you the full scope of the exciting changes and expansion at California Adventure, we decided to slightly shorten our Calendar of Events in this issue. Not to worry, there are still a lot of events for your family to choose from! For the full listing, visit our website, WelcometoSoCal.com, and click “Mark Your Calendar.”

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, be sure to download our Walkee® iGuide to Disneyland iPhone app. Walkee® is an interactive map of Disneyland Park. You can also see line wait times, add pictures, read historical facts, set up your itinerary and more. Walkee® iGuide to Disneyland version 1.4 is due out soon with even more exciting features. To download your Walkee®, search Walkee in the iTunes App Store.

If you are in need of attraction tickets or a hotel room at a great rate, WelcometoSoCal.com is a one-stop site for all things SoCal.

As always, I love to receive your emails, and this issue is no different. Email me at jim@welcometosocal.com. I return all my emails promptly; well, within a day or two anyway…

Have a great time!

Warm Regards,

Jim Kirkwood

Publisher

SoCal Magazine