On Oct. 5, 1955 the Disneyland Hotel opened as the first major hotel in Orange County, California. Opening nearly 3 months after Walt’s original park, the hotel offered 104 rooms and a helipad on the roof. Fifty-five years later the Disneyland Hotel boasts 969 magically themed rooms, luxury suites, the wildly popular “Goofy’s Kitchen” restaurant, ball rooms, and lots of modern amenities guests in 1955 could only dream of. Currently, the Disneyland Hotel is undergoing a major renovation which will include a new courtyard, reimagineering of the whimsical pool area, and renovated rooms.
Here are some interesting facts posted by the Disney Parks Blog about the historical hotel:
- The Disneyland Hotel was originally owned and operated until 1988 by the Wrather Corporation — by entrepreneurs and personal friends of Walt Disney, Jack and Bonita Wrather. The Walt Disney Company purchased the hotel in 1988.
- Prior to the opening of the Disneyland Hotel, less than 100 hotel rooms were available in Anaheim.
- The Bonita Tower (currently called the Wonder Tower) was the first hotel building in the United States to use a solar heating system.
