Disneyland Park

Disneyland Park is the original theme park of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Orange County, about 40 kilometres southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The resort also includes Disney California Adventure Park, the Downtown Disney District and three Disney hotels.

Walt Disney wanted a clean, themed park where parents and children could enjoy the same rides. He bought orange groves in Anaheim and opened Disneyland on 17 July 1955. It was the first park built by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and built under his direct supervision.

Main Street, U.S.A. leads from the entrance to Sleeping Beauty Castle, the park's centrepiece. Around it are themed lands including Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, New Orleans Square and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, which opened in 2019. Classic attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, the Matterhorn Bobsleds and Space Mountain are among the best known.

Evening fireworks and parades take place on many nights. The Disneyland Railroad circles the park with stops at several lands, and the monorail links Tomorrowland with Downtown Disney.

Tickets are dated and prices change by day. Park Hopper tickets add access to Disney California Adventure across the plaza. Lightning Lane options for shorter waits cost extra.

Disney bought a 160-acre site near Anaheim in 1953, and the park inside the berm now covers just over 100 acres split into nine themed lands. Opening day was rough: about 28,000 people turned up to the dedication, only about half of them invited, the rest with forged tickets or over the fence, rides broke down, restaurants ran out of food and the Mark Twain Riverboat was overloaded. The day became known as Black Sunday.

The park recovered quickly and has had more visits than any other theme park, about 757 million by December 2021. In 2025 it welcomed 17.4 million guests, second worldwide after Magic Kingdom in Florida. The single-day record of 82,516 people was set on 16 August 1969, days after the Haunted Mansion opened.

Look for small details on Main Street, U.S.A. Above the Main Street fire station is the private apartment Walt Disney used, which still exists but is closed to the public. Club 33, a private members-only club, is in New Orleans Square. Mickey's Toontown, added in 1993, is the gentlest land for young children, built in a 1930s cartoon style around rides such as Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, and Fantasmic!, is the night show in Frontierland. Changes are coming: the DisneylandForward plan, approved by the Anaheim City Council on 7 May 2024, allows new rides, shops and restaurants on land the resort already owns.