Arthur's Blog: We'll Be Discussing the Vast New Addition of Cars Land to Disneyland on Sunday's Travel Show

When the California Adventure Park opened at Disneyland in Anaheim several years ago, it bore with it the hopes of the Disney organization that Disneyland might become a two-park destination encouraging more visitors to spend two or more days at Disney's west coast location.
Those hopes were quickly squashed. Though California Adventure was mildly interesting, it failed to boost attendance to the extent that Disney had planned. So Disney turned to another idea: the use of Disney's Cars franchise to provide the theme for an expansion of California Adventures. Though Disney Pixar's Cars movie wasn't as initially successful financially as the studio's previous releases (think Toy Story; Monsters, Inc.; and Finding Nemo), the subsequent sale of Cars toys, apparel and licensed items was encouraging.
So Disney transformed the 12-acre parking lot of California Adventure into a vast new expansion of that park's appeal -- increasing the square footage of Disneyland by as much as 20%. It opened earlier this month, and it has been a colossal hit. People brought sleeping bags to spend the night outside the new park on the day before its opening, so they could be first in line at 5 a.m.
Travel writer Jason Cochran has visited the new Cars Land theme park, and his interview on the subject will start near the top of the first hour of this Sunday's Travel Show (noon to 2 p.m. E.S.T., streamed live on wor710.com and preserved in a podcast (click on "The Travel Show" on the list of programs appearing at the very bottom of the main menu). Jason has an extraordinary facility for being able to discuss the broader travel consequences of a popular event in travel and to provide insight into travel trends.
I spoke with Jason yesterday, a day after the recording of his interview, and was impressed with the remarkable gamble (more than a billion dollars) that Disney has risked to expand its California theme park. According to Jason, not simply the theme park but the surrounding community of Anaheim has now been greatly expanded and improved to make a much more enjoyable stay out of a visit there.
So I hope you'll tune in. Jason's interview will start at 1:06 p.m. E.S.T. on Sunday, and he'll also be describing the various rides and exhibits that make an intriguing, car-focused, highway-focused, attraction out of Disney's new Cars Land. In the meantime, if you'll google the words Cars Land on your computer, you'll be able to see several videos of the individual attractions that make up Cars Land.
Never let it be said that Frommers.com is only interested in profound travel subjects and not in the popular entertainment that draws so many people into the world of travel.