Paradise Gardens Park

Paradise Gardens Park
Disney California Adventure
Theme	A Victorian Era seaside amusement park
Opening date	February 8, 2001 June 23, 2018 (as Paradise Gardens Park)
Closing date	January 8, 2018 (Half of the land)
Replaced by	Pixar Pier (Half of the land)

Paradise Gardens Park (formerly known as Paradise Pier) is a themed area at Disney California Adventure based on Victorian boardwalks that were once found along the coast of California. Despite the name and presence of a nearby man-made lake, Paradise Pier is not actually a pier, but merely a waterside area of the park. The former California Screamin' sprawled across much of the area, with various other attractions and forms of entertainment surrounding it.

A new attraction, Toy Story Midway Mania!, opened on June 17, 2008. The attraction is the first in a series of theming upgrades to the land and park as a whole, with the boardwalk's Victorian influences becoming more prominent and introducing a new unseen carnival owner character named Gustav Tinkerschmidt in some of the safety spiels. This was followed by changes to the Sun Wheel to become Mickey's Fun Wheel and new Games of the Boardwalk in 2009. In 2010, World of Color and Silly Symphony Swings were added. To complete the makeover, Disney opened Goofy's Sky School and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure.

Part of Paradise Pier was re-themed as Pixar Pier in mid-2018.

Attractions and Entertainment

• Golden Zephyr
• Goofy's Sky School
• Jumpin' Jellyfish
• The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure
• Operation: Playtime! - featuring the Green Army Men
• Silly Symphony Swings
• World of Color

Former attractions and entertainment

• Disney's LuminAria
• Disney's Electrical Parade
• Maliboomer
• Mulholland Madness
• Orange Stinger
• S.S. Rustworthy
• Sun Wheel
• Rockin' the Bay Concert Series
• Lilo and Stitch's Luau
• Rockin' California Screamin
• Original Games of the Boardwalk
• Golden Dreams
• Instant Concert - Just Add Water!
• California Screamin'
• Games of the Boardwalk
• King Triton's Carousel of the Sea
• Mickey's Fun Wheel
• Toy Story Midway Mania!

Restaurants

• Bayside Brews
• Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta
• Corn Dog Castle
• Don Tomas
• Hot Dog Hut
• Paradise Garden Grill
• Paradise Pier Ice Cream Company

Shops

• Boardwalk Bazaar
• California Scream Cam
• Embarcadero Gifts
• Midway Mercantile
• Point Mugu Tattoo
• Seaside Souvenirs
• Treasures in Paradise

Re-Imagineering and Expansion

When the park first opened in 2001, Paradise Pier originally resembled a modern seaside amusement park, similar to that of the Santa Monica Pier, or Santa Cruz Boardwalk. As part of the Disney California Adventure $1.1 billion expansion project, Paradise Pier was re-themed to evoke the charm of Victorian era seaside amusement parks of the 1920s. The first change was the addition of Toy Story Midway Mania!, which opened on June 17, 2008. The boardwalk games were then re-themed to incorporate more familiar Disney characters (completed on April 7, 2009), and the Sun Wheel was transformed into Mickey's Fun Wheel with a new color scheme, new lighting effects, and a "pie-eyed" Mickey Mouse face replacing the original sun face (completed on May 4, 2009). Following these changes, the "Route 66" area was completely re-themed, with the "S.S. Rustworthy", and "Dinosaur Jack's Sunglass Shack" being completely demolished. The Orange Stinger underwent extensive re-theming to become Silly Symphony Swings, based on Walt Disney's short film "The Band Concert". Silly Symphony Swings opened on May 28, 2010. Cosmetic changes have also been made to California Screamin': the Mickey Mouse silhouette was altered to represent a sunburst pattern, with the large Paradise Pier sign that once sat below now hanging above the loop.

Walt Disney Imagineering created World of Color, a new nighttime spectacular featuring fountains and projection effects, for Paradise Bay. An area on the northern waterfront was repurposed into a viewing area for the show, known as Paradise Park. World of Color premiered on June 11, 2010, and plays nightly.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure—which replaced Golden Dreams—opened June 3, 2011. As of November 2010, Mulholland Madness was closed and reopened July 1, 2011, as "Goofy's Sky School", inspired by Walt Disney's 1940 short film Goofy's Glider. On the other side of Paradise Bay, Maliboomer was removed and replaced with a park.

In 2018, Paradise Pier was partitioned. All attractions within the California Screamin area were rethemed to Pixar Pier, while the rest remained untouched as Paradise Gardens Park.

Gallery

The former Maliboomer logo.

The Little Mermaid attraction.

California Screamin