Disneyland Park

Despite the blog's title, I haven't discussed too much nomenclature (yet!). Partly this is because I'd like to use a lot of sources to talk about name changes through time, inconsistencies in naming, or what have you. The source base I've gotten through so far is broad, but not yet terribly deep. Nevertheless, I'll still try to address nomenclature from time to time. Today, we'll start at the top!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Disneyland is not an approved term in my thesaurus. One function of a thesaurus is disambiguation, and since Disneyland can refer to several things, Disneyland exists as a lead-in to more descriptive terms: Disneyland (television), Disneyland Park, and Disneyland Resort.

I remember when I first heard sustained use of Disneyland Park in the late 1990s. It certainly left a bad taste in my mouth! I remember a February 1999 thread from alt.disney.disneyland about this very topic. I didn't recall seeing Disneyland Park used much in earlier times, but for several reasons I now accept its utility (though Disney's California Adventure Park has never warmed my heart).

For starters, being able to distinguish Disneyland Park from the Disneyland Resort proved immensely helpful to me as a Guest Relations Cast Member. Especially in 2001, Guests would arrive and have no idea what was what. They might think "Disneyland" had just expanded and everything new was all part of "Disneyland." I don't know what they did after I explained that they were at the Disneyland Resort, and there were now two theme parks, including Disneyland Park. They might have gone off as confused as ever, but at least I knew I was as specific as possible. Perhaps a detail-oriented person in their group would recall that the nice man at the Information Booth had kept repeating "Disneyland Park." (I think I was also one of the few Cast Members that would never shorten "Disney's California Adventure," no matter how much of a mouthful that was to say.) So, it served as a useful point of distinction.

As I've been doing this thesaurus research, I've also found that it has historical precedent (though not terrifically strong) and was used even before Opening Day. But as Werner Weiss notes in that Usenet thread, and as I have found so far, Disneyland Park is used to differentiate the park from the Disneyland Hotel. The earliest source I've yet seen for this is a March 19, 1955 Los Angeles Times article about construction of the Disneyland Hotel, which is described as "adjoining the new Disneyland Park." The other early mentions I have in that vein are in the big souvenir newspaper insert a couple of days before Disneyland opened (when it's clear which Disneyland we're talking about, there's no reason to be verbose!) and the 1960 edition of "Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland."

It then seems to go into hibernation for a time; the next mention I've found (thanks to VintageDisneylandTickets) is the January 1993 guidebook. There are many mentions of just Disneyland, and the logo certainly has no "Park" attached to it, but some text has begun to refer to it as Disneyland Park. The references to it since then have increased in intensity. It now has a very specific legal usage (Disneyland is an adjective modifying Park) and always has the registration symbol. If the 1990s is indeed when this usage took off, I might have a source who can shed further light on this. I will, of course, pass along whatever I find.

One thing I can say conclusively is that it has always been known colloquially as "the Park." Newspapers, guidebooks, Disneylanders (both people and the publication) and other sources refer to it that way. It is still used in conversation today. Sometimes I'll say "I'm going to the Park" when I'll be visiting Downtown Disney or Disney's California Adventure as well, but I'd never use "the Park" to refer to that other park! The use of "the Park" is certainly strong amongst Cast Members and Annual Passholders; heck, I even had a co-worker here in Maryland ask me something about the Park (well, maybe "the park"), and he's never even been there!

Does anybody out there have feelings one way or the other on the use of Disneyland Park? Do you talk about "the Park" with your friends? Is there anything like this in Walt Disney World, or do people refer to the parks by some variant of their proper names?