Sleeping Beauty Castle was decorated for park's 15 years old birthday
Disneyland Park is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, USA, 28 miles from Downtown Los Angeles, and is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Disneyland Park has become one of the world's most famous locations and also one of the most visited sites. An estimated 515 million visitors have visited the park since its opening on July 17, 1955. A worldwide celebration in commemoration of Disneyland's 50th anniversary began on May 5, 2005.
Monorail Blue travels over the currently closed Submarine Voyage lagoon in Tomorrowland.
Walt Disney and his brother Roy already headed one of Hollywood's more successful studios founded in 1923, long before the idea of a park even began to form. Walt's original concept was of a permanent family fun park without the negative element which traveling carnivals often attracted. He developed the idea during his many outings with his daughters Diane and Sharon, when he realized that there were no parks with activities that parents and children could enjoy together.
Famous statue of Walt and Mickey, called "Partners", stands at the end of Main Street
The Parade of the Stars in Disneyland from 2004 (closed in early 2005).
While many people had written letters to Walt Disney about visiting the Disney Studio lot and meeting their favorite Disney character, Walt realized that a functional movie studio had little to offer to the visiting fan. He then began to foster ideas of building a site at or near his Burbank studios for tourists to visit and perhaps take pictures with Disney characters set in statue form. His ideas then evolved to a small play park with a boat ride and other themed areas. Walt's initial concept, his "Mickey Mouse Park," grew bigger and bigger into a concept for a larger enterprise which was to become Disneyland. (source wikipedia)