February Opening for Disney’s New Park

Walt Disney Co.’s second theme park in Anaheim, set to open Feb. 8, will boost attendance 50% and fulfill a decades-old dream of making Disneyland more like the Disney World “destination resort” in Florida, park executives predict.

The complex, which includes the new California Adventure theme park, a luxury hotel and a dining and entertainment strip, “will redefine the Southern California vacation experience for millions of tourists each year,” Paul Pressler, president of Disney’s parks and resorts unit, said Monday.

California Adventure, Disney’s distillation of the state’s mystique, will include the 750-room Grand Californian Hotel, which will open Jan. 2. The Downtown Disney entertainment center, between the new park and Disneyland, will open Jan. 12, Pressler told an international travel trade show in Dallas.

Officials didn’t rule out earlier partial or trial openings for the additions. Disney had said that the complex would open in early 2001, but had not specified opening dates previously.

Pressler noted that the expansion is the largest in Disneyland’s 45-year history, creating 7,000 jobs.

Disneyland also has worked with Anaheim to revitalize the aging and rather tawdry district around the park. The city is spending $500 million to renovate and expand the Anaheim Convention Center, modernize its streets and line them with about 15,000 new trees and shrubs and overhaul the area’s sewer and power systems to support additional hotels the city hopes will be built.

A Different Marketing Strategy

The new attractions will dramatically change how the company markets Disneyland. For example, Disney will no longer offer one-day theme park admissions to Australians who buy vacation packages through United Vacations, a travel company affiliated with United Airlines.

“They’ll be selling just 3-day and 4-day passes,” said United general manager Helen Williams. “The message is definitely not that this is something you can do in a single day.”

Disneyland remains the No. 1 vacation destination for Australian families, but has lost market share over the past five years because so many travelers already have been there.

“They really needed this,” Williams said. “It’s been so long since they really added anything major.”

Disney expects the expansion to add 7 million theme park admissions a year in Anaheim, where annual Disneyland attendance has been running more than 13 million. That compares with more than 40 million annually at Disney World’s four parks.

For Disneyland and the region’s tourism industry, the number of multi-day stays is expected to increase visitor spending by more than $1 billion. Visitors spent nearly $6 billion in Orange County last year, county tourism officials said.

California Adventure will open at a time when Americans’ desire for new experiences is at a nine-year high, but it has become harder than ever to get away from workplace demands, said travel analyst Peter Yesawich. He said those facts bode well for Disney as it promotes Anaheim as a quick getaway for domestic travelers.

Demand for unusual dining, shopping and night life is up sharply and now exceeds the demand for parks, which has stayed constant, Yesawich said, citing an annual leisure-travel study just released by his marketing firm, Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown.

So for the complex to succeed, it will be important for Downtown Disney to be a strong draw, he said. The entertainment district includes a House of Blues nightclub, jazz and Latin-music clubs and restaurants like one from the Patina chain founder Joaquim Splichal and another from Ralph Brennan, whose family runs Commander’s Palace and other noted New Orleans restaurants.

“Interest is growing faster in pampering experiences at spas and on cruise ships these days than in theme parks,” Yesawich said. “But the way they’re going to wrap the new park--with the dining and night-life experiences--should help offset any impact.”

The new park has three California-themed sections: Paradise Pier, Disney’s take on a beach carnival; Hollywood Backlot, with movie- and television-themed rides and restaurants; and Golden State, a distillation of the state’s culture, mystique and natural setting.

The project sits on 55 acres in what previously was the main parking lot for the 85-acre Disneyland. The company also has an option to buy a nearby undeveloped 52.5-acre parcel, which could be developed into another amusement park or water park. It’s currently used to raise strawberries.

In Florida, secret land purchases allowed Disney to assemble a parcel of land that now totals 48 square miles and contains four theme parks, a cruise line, three water parks and five 18-hole golf courses.

In Anaheim, founder Walt Disney “ran out of money or he would have bought more” land, said Harrison “Buzz” Price, a consultant who picked the site where Disneyland opened in 1955.

Price said he began studying the prospects for building a “second gate” in Anaheim as early as 1961 for Walt Disney.