WDW Daily News

Condor Flats opening day description: This high desert airfield pays tribute to the daredevils and dreamers who lead us from the barnstorming age to the space age. From early existence man has looked to the sky with dreams of one day experiencing the thrill of flight. It was in California that many of those dreams were first realized.

Overview: Condor Flats opened as one of the original lands in Disney California Adventure Park on Feb. 8, 2001. The story goes that Condor Flats was the hub of jet testing and rocket research in the early years of aeronautics. When the industry was relocated to Los Angeles, an early test pilot wanted to share the areas significance and created the “Condor Flats Scenic Air Tours” to keep the history of the area available to all. Condor Flats features Soarin’ Over California, a first-of-its-kind simulator that swoops and dips aviators over the California landscape.

Don’t miss: Soarin’ Over California, an innovative FastPass attraction, simulates a flying, hang glider experience over the vastness of the Golden State, wowing guests with a total sensory experience along the way. Aviators on board enjoy the thrill of flight, soaring over iconic California locations such as Yosemite, San Diego and the Golden Gate Bridge, ending with a finale only Disney can create.

Attractions:

Soarin’ Over California

Dining: Condor Flats’ main dining location is Taste Pilots’ Grill, where great food is rocket science. Taste Pilots’ Grill is the only location where hungry aviators can indulge in top-flight hamburgers, chili cheese fries and sound barrier shakes and quench their thirst with liquid fuel, such as fountain drinks, juice boxes and hot cocoa.

Imaginative landscaping: Condor Flats is situated in a desert and features a “wildscape” design where the plants have no sheared hedges or shaped shrubs. Rocks, cacti, palm trees and other drought-tolerant plants accent the desert feel.

Did you know?

Walt Disney Imagineers scouted more than 35 locations for Soarin’ Over California. The locations featured in the film include the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Redwood Creek, Napa Valley vineyards, Point Loma, snow-capped Lake Tahoe, Palm Springs, Yosemite Valley, orange groves in Camarillo, Anza Borrego State Park, San Diego and Coronado Naval Yards, Malibu, Downtown Los Angeles and Disneyland.

The Fly ‘n’ Buy gift shop features a clock that stopped at 10:27 a.m. on Oct. 14, 1947 to commemorate the date and time Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier.

Condor Flats is named after the California Condor, the largest North American land bird, which can fly to speeds of up to 55 mph.

Taste Pilots’ Grill formerly featured a replica Bell X-1 aircraft, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, at the entrance of the restaurant. A smaller version still exists inside the Fly ‘n’ Buy gift shop.

Guests riding Soarin’ Over California not only see the landscapes — they also smell them. The attraction features scents such as orange and pine during the flight.

Cast member tips:

Sharp-eyed aviators can spot a Hidden Mickey while flying over the Palm Springs golf course on Soarin’ Over California.

Condor Flats is the only area in Disney California Adventure where guests can refuel with caramel corn.

The dining area in Taste Pilots’ Grill has a Space Shuttle Main Engine nozzle “hidden” in plain sight. The nozzle provides the propulsion needed to boost shuttles into orbit.

A jet engine near the entrance of Soarin’ Over California periodically simulates testing, giving guests a chance to cool off in the desert.

The queue for Soarin’ Over California pays tribute to California’s aviation history. Guests can learn about famous aircrafts in the “Wings of Fame” section as well as the impact pilots had in the “Legends of Flight” section.

Walt Disney on respecting nature: “Physical America — the land itself — should be as dear to us all as our political heritage and our treasured way of life. Its preservation and the wise conservation of its renewable resources concerns every man, woman and child whose possession it is.”

Overview: Grizzly Peak takes Disney California Adventure Park guests to rugged Gold Rush country. The rocky mountain summit looks like a grizzly bear roaring into the sky, but the beast is much more than a pretty face. The history of the mountain is a combination of legend and Disney imagination. The tale goes like this: A long, long time ago, a coyote met a grizzly bear at the top of the mountain and asked the bear to protect the land. One day, people came to the mountain to chase the grizzly bear down, but the bear held his ground. The coyote turned the grizzly bear into stone so that the bear could never be driven away. Today, some observant mountaineers claim they can hear the bear’s spirit when rafting through the windy caverns of Grizzly Peak.

Don’t miss: Grizzly Peak is the site of the rafting adventure, Grizzly River Rapids, a FastPass attraction that sends guests roaring through rough waters . Guests can also explore Redwood Creek Challenge Trail to earn their Wilderness Explorer badges. In the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, adventurers of all ages can head off into the woods to climb, swing, slide, glide and play.

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Walt Disney looking back on the day he arrived in California, with a cardboard suitcase: “It was July 1923 … With that wonderful audacity of youth, I went to Hollywood, arriving there with just $40. It was a big day, the day I got on that Santa Fe California Limited. I was just free and happy.”

Overview: Buena Vista Street opened June 15, 2012, as part of a five-year expansion of Disney California Adventure Park. It depicts a typical Los Angeles neighborhood where a young Walt Disney lived and worked after arriving in Southern California in 1923. This idyllic version of the City of Angels is captured with quaint “mom-and-pop” shops and markets, a big city department store and corner cafe. The two Red Car Trolleys providing transportation up and down the boulevard are a nostalgic reminder of Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s. The architecture draws on Los Angeles Spanish/Mexican roots, inspired by actual buildings of greater Los Angeles.

Don’t miss: The entrance to the park is a nod to the old Pan Pacific Auditorium, an L.A. landmark built in the 1930s. Carthay Circle Theatre, the iconic center of Disney California Adventure, honors the place where Walt premiered his first feature-length animation “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937. The Red Car Trolley, inspired by the “Big Red Cars” of the Pacific Electric Railway, provides service between Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land. On Cathay Circle guests often pose for photos at “Storytellers,” a bronze statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. It reflects the beginning of a great partnership between the two; a time of great hope and boundless optimism in the life of the up-and-coming filmmaker and his famous creation.

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Walt Disney on respecting nature: “Physical America — the land itself — should be as dear to us all as our political heritage and our treasured way of life. Its preservation and the wise conservation of its renewable resources concerns every man, woman and child whose possession it is.”

Overview: Grizzly Peak takes Disney California Adventure Park guests to rugged Gold Rush country. The rocky mountain summit looks like a grizzly bear roaring into the sky, but the beast is much more than a pretty face. The history of the mountain is a combination of legend and Disney imagination. The tale goes like this: A long, long time ago, a coyote met a grizzly bear at the top of the mountain and asked the bear to protect the land. One day, people came to the mountain to chase the grizzly bear down, but the bear held his ground. The coyote turned the grizzly bear into stone so that the bear could never be driven away. Today, some observant mountaineers claim they can hear the bear’s spirit when rafting through the windy caverns of Grizzly Peak.

Don’t miss: Grizzly Peak is the site of the rafting adventure, Grizzly River Rapids, a FastPass attraction that sends guests roaring through rough waters . Guests can also explore Redwood Creek Challenge Trail to earn their Wilderness Explorer badges. In the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, adventurers of all ages can head off into the woods to climb, swing, slide, glide and play.

Read more

Walt Disney on Hollywood: “Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.”

Overview: Hollywood Land is where the Golden Age of Hollywood and the magic of Disney movies are celebrated with attractions, shows and entertainment that conjure the romance, glamour and sentimentality of the silver screen. As guests stroll along Hollywood Boulevard, they visit a backlot at Hollywood Studios. With a dark turn down Sunset Boulevard, they encounter the ominous Hollywood Tower Hotel, haunted since Halloween night of 1939. Along the way, guests may see live shows with Disney characters and learn how animation works.

What’s new: The Red Car Trolley, part of the five-year expansion of Disney California Adventure Park, transports guests (and performers) from the Hollywood Tower Hotel to Buena Vista Street. In the lobby of the Disney Animation building on Hollywood Boulevard, guests relax and watch excerpts of Disney films on giant screens all around the room. Now with HD projectors, the colors are sharper than ever and more of the images are animated.

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Walt Disney on creating an amusement park: “We believed in our idea – a family park where parents and children could have fun – together.”

Overview: Paradise Pier celebrates the lure of the Pacific Coast, which has welcomed countless visitors to its sandy shores. The pier pays tribute to the classic amusement parks that populated the California coast from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1940s. Paradise Pier features vintage-style rides and games, as well as many Victorian-inspired shops and restaurants and is located at Disney California Adventure Park.

What’s new: The nighttime spectacular “World of Color” debuted a new show for the holiday season, starting in 2013. “World of Color – Winter Dreams” features Olaf from Disney’s popular animated feature film “Frozen.” Guests put their gaming skills to the test with the Fun Wheel Challenge, a smart device, Wi-Fi-based game that lets guests compete against each other to control the lights on Mickey’s Fun Wheel for 30 seconds.

Don’t miss: Paradise Pier features several exciting attractions, including California Screamin’, a FastPass attraction that recalls the style of classic wooden roller coasters of the coastal piers. Toy Story Mania!, located underneath the loop of California Screamin’, “shrinks” guests to the size of a toy and tests their skills in a series of 3D carnival games. It features many of the characters from Disney•Pixar’s “Toy Story” films. An icon of Disney California Adventure Park is Mickey’s Fun Wheel, an extraordinary Ferris wheel with 24 gondolas, some swinging as high as 150 feet in the sky. At night, “World of Color” turns the placid bay in front of Mickey’s Fun Wheel into an animated stage with memorable music and stunning visuals with water, lights and fire.

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