Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel is no ordinary hotel… it’s grand! On this day in 2001, the lavish resort hotel opened its golden gates for the first time, allowing guests to stay within Disney’s California Adventure park. The hotel celebrates California’s turn-of-the-century Craftsman movement, capturing the artistic exploration of California’s coastline, its Monterey pines and redwood …
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On this day in 2000, the Riverside Building at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, was dedicated. This $95 million project, designed by renowned architect Aldo Rossi, remains home to ABC West-Coast operations. Rossi’s work includes everything from schools and studios to museums and shopping centers. Although Aldo designed hundreds of buildings, in 1997, …
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A sophisticated evening theatrical spectacular, an all-new themed approach to adult programming, and unique dining experiences for tastes of all ages headlined Disney’s newest seven-night eastern Caribbean cruise vacation, which first departed on this day in 2000. Matt Ouimet, then Disney Cruise Line president, said at the time, “This [itinerary] is a direct result of …
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In 1993, young entrepreneur and former bartender Liliana Lovell founded the Coyote Ugly Saloon. The wild and fun bar was an instant success with its female bartenders singing, dancing, and comedically hustling drinks. The famous watering hole gained national attention in 1997 when a story about the saloon was published in GQ magazine. Shortly after …
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Music from Sir Elton John and one of the world’s oldest tales was the magic combination that made Aida an immediate hit and an international sensation for the stage. Disney’s Broadway version tells the tale of a Nubian princess who’s forced into slavery and ends up falling in love with a soldier boy named Radames. …
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Tarzan, a Walt Disney Pictures film released in 1999, is based on the story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. In the animated movie, Tarzan—an infant—is left an orphan on land near uncharted rainforests off the coast of Africa when his parents are killed. A female Gorilla, Kala, finds him and takes him …
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Elton John and Tim Rice collaborated on 19 new songs for Disney’s stage musical Aida, which officially opened—after several preview performances—at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago on this day in 1999, the first stage musical Disney produced that was not based on an animated movie. The stage show tells of a tragic love triangle …
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Look up above in your browser. It used to read d23.disney.go.com. The go.com part has an interesting story. In 1998, after Disney acquired 43% of Infoseek, the popular web search engine, it combined Disney’s existing network with Infoseek and launched the new Go network. The goal of the Go network was to blend both Disney …
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The Disney Wonder was built in the year following completion of the Disney Magic. With the first ship, a long and meticulous process of design and re-design eventually produced a perfect specimen of sleek function and nostalgic glamour. Like its predecessor, the Disney Wonder construction took place in the celebrated Fincantieri shipyards in Italy, known …
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It was on this day in 1999 that the Hollywood Pictures film The Sixth Sense started making cents for Disney — lots of cents, in fact (for a time it was the company’s highest-grossing live-action film). As a distinguished child psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) routinely treats troubled kids, but he’s never had a …
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