Main Street, U.S.A.
Based on the stereotypical turn-of-the-20th-century city Main Street, specifically Disney's boyhood home of Marceline, Missouri, Main Street, U.S.A. is home to many shops but is the only land in all of Disneyland without a permanent ride. Walt Disney said, "For those of us who remember the carefree time it recreates, Main Street will bring back happy memories. For younger visitors, it is an adventure in turning back the calendar to the days of grandfather's youth."

Adventureland
This land is designed to be an exotic tropical place in a far-off region of the world. "To create a land that would make this dream reality," said Walt Disney, "we pictured ourselves far from civilization, in the remote jungles of Asia and Africa." Attractions include the "Temple of the Forbidden Eye" in Indiana Jones Adventure, the Jungle Cruise, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room and "Tarzan's Treehouse." (The Tarzan Treehouse is an adaptation of the earlier Swiss Family Treehouse from the Walt Disney film, Swiss Family Robinson).

Frontierland
This land recreates the setting of pioneer days along the American frontier. According to Walt Disney, "All of us have cause to be proud of our country's history, shaped by the pioneering spirit of our forefathers. Our adventures are designed to give you the feeling of having lived, even for a short while, during our country's pioneer days." Frontierland is home to the Pinewood Indians band of animatronic Native Americans, who live on the banks of the Rivers of America. Entertainment and attractions include Fantasmic!, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Mark Twain Riverboat, and Sailing Ship Columbia. Frontierland is also home to the Golden Horseshoe Saloon, a show palace straight out of the Old West. Currently the comedic troupe "Billy Hill and the Hillbillies" entertain guests on a daily basis.

Fantasyland
Walt Disney said, "What youngster has not dreamed of flying with Peter Pan over moonlit London, or tumbling into Alice's nonsensical Wonderland? In ; Fantasyland, these classic stories of everyone's youth have become realities for youngsters - of all ages - to participate in." Fantasyland was originally styled in a fairground fashion, but its 1983 refurbishment turned it into a Bavarian village. Attractions include several dark rides, the King Arthur Carrousel (spelled this way by Disney), and various children's rides.

Tomorrowland
In Walt Disney's words, "Tomorrow can be a wonderful age. Our scientists today are opening the doors of the Space Age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future."

Disneyland producer Ward Kimball had Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, Willy Ley, and Heinz Haber as technical consultants during the original design of Tomorrowland.[3] Initial rides included the rocket to the moon; later, a large fleet of submarines was added. The area underwent a major transformation in 1967 to become "New Tomorrowland," and then again in 1998 when its focus was changed to present a "retro-future" theme reminiscent of the illustrations of Jules Verne. Current rides include the popular Space Mountain and Star Tours, among others.

New Orleans Square
New Orleans Square was among the last additions to Disneyland overseen by Walt Disney himself. Opened in 1966, it is meant to capture the flavor and architectural detail of New Orleans's Bourbon Street. This area contains two of the most popular Disneyland attractions, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, and a private club and restaurant, Club 33.

Critter Country
Critter Country opened in 1972 as "Bear Country," and was renamed in 1988. Formerly the area was home to the Indian Village with actual Native Americans entertaining guests. Today, its main draw is Splash Mountain, a log flume attraction themed after the animated segments of Disney's 1946 movie Song of the South. In 2003, a dark ride called The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh replaced the long-running Country Bear Jamboree, a show featuring singing Audio-Animatronic bears.

Mickey's Toontown
Toontown opened in 1993 and was patterned after "Toontown" in the Disney/Touchstone Pictures 1988 release Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Mickey's Toontown looks like a 1930s Max Fleischer cartoon short come to life. The land is built like the town where Disney characters live.

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.

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.

Disneyland Park was partially inspired by Tivoli Gardens (built in 1843 in Copenhagen, Denmark), Greenfield Village (built in 1929 in Dearborn, Michigan), and Children's Fairyland (built in 1950 in Oakland, California). Disney's original modest plans called for the park to be built on eight acres (32,000 m²) on Riverside Drive next to the Disney Studios in Burbank, California as a place where his employees and families could go to relax.

Early in development, during the early 1950s, it became clear that more area would be needed. Difficulties in obtaining funding caused Disney to investigate new ways of raising money. He decided to use television to get the ideas into people's homes, and so he created a show named Disneyland which was broadcast on the fledgling American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network. In return, the network agreed to help finance the new park.

On the suggestion of researchers at Stanford Research Institute who correctly envisioned the area's potential growth, Disney acquired 160 acres (730,000 m²) of orange groves and walnut trees in Anaheim, south of Los Angeles in neighboring Orange County. Construction began on July 18, 1954 and would cost $17 million to complete. U.S. Route 101 (later Interstate 5) was under construction at the same time just to the north of the site; in preparation for the traffic which Disneyland was expected to bring, two more lanes were added to the freeway even before the park was finished.

Because of financial considerations, Walt Disney was forced to turn to outside financing for his theme park. He first turned to long-time licensee Western Publishing which invested in the park. ABC as part of the deal to broadcast the Disneyland television show also became an investor. For the first five years of its operation, Disneyland was owned by Disneyland, Inc., of which Walt Disney Productions, Western Publishing and ABC each owned shares. After the park was a clear success Western acceeded to a request to sell its share in the enterprise back to Disney. But ABC refused the same request initially, feeling the profit potential of the park was too lucrative to sell. It wasn't until 1960 that Walt Disney Productions acquired ABC's share of the theme park. Disney's displeasure at ABC's actions partly motivated the Walt Disney anthology series moving to NBC in 1961.

In the 1990s, major construction began to transform Disneyland from a theme park into a vacation resort. The Walt Disney Company purchased land surrounding the park that was once the site of low-budget motels and trailer courts and -- on the site of Disneyland's original "Hundred-Acre Parking Lot" -- Disney's California Adventure Park and Downtown Disney opened in 2001. The Grand Californian Hotel, patterned after the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th century, extends into Disney's California Adventure Park and allows paying guests to enter that park through the hotel itself.

Most of the resort's parking today is handled by the six-level "Mickey and Friends" parking garage. With six levels and 10,250 parking spaces, it was for a short time the largest parking structure in the world. Propane-powered trams bring visitors to the entrance plaza between the two parks. There are also some smaller, off-property lots with regular shuttle service to the parks, and most nearby hotels offer regular shuttle service as well.

The park's management team of the mid-1990s was a tremendous source of contention to many Disneyland fans and employees. Headed by executives Cynthia Harriss and Paul Pressler, each with a retail marketing background, Disneyland's focus gradually changed from attractions to merchandising. The leaders came under increasing criticism for a host of cost cutting initiatives and profit boosting schemes.

Under their direction, few new attractions were built and many were closed down. Shops that once carried a variety of items themed to their locations now carried general Disney character products. Themed restaurants and shops were closed and replaced by outdoor vending carts which caused crowds to clog walkways. The decision to remodel Tomorrowland, derided by some fans, was attributable to Pressler, as was the closure of a great many popular attractions within the area. Dewitt "T" Irby, a retired U.S. Army officer hired as facilities manager, was blamed for the destruction of much of the tooling and attraction components in storage in the backstage areas in an effort to streamline operations as recommended by outside consultants.

After nearly a decade of deferred maintenance, Walt Disney's original theme park was showing visible signs of neglect. Paint was peeling off buildings and roofs were literally disintegrating from age, especially the thatched roofs in Fantasyland and Adventureland. Light bulbs, which were once replaced before they burned out, not only were run to burnout but were so numerous as to make the facades they outlined look almost toothless. Fans of the park decried the perceived decline in customer value and park quality and rallied for the dismissal of the management team.