CLUB DISNEY MAKES ITS PLAY TO ATTRACT KIDS.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

If the reaction of Dana Hagberg and her 2-year-old son Nicholas was any indication, Club Disney in Thousand Oaks is getting good reviews.

``I thought it was great,'' said Hagberg on Thursday. ``Everything seemed to be a lot of fun.''

Nicholas, clutching his mother's hand, was too tired to do much else but nod in agreement.

The three-story attraction is Walt Disney Co.'s latest attempt to reach the pocketbooks of families with children.

Hagberg brought Nicholas to the brightly colored attraction Thursday as part of a ``soft opening'' this week for invited customers. The general opening will be Feb. 21.

Club Disney, with an $8 admission fee, offers a variety of play areas, including Mickey's Circus, Pooh and You, Jungle Climber, the Mouse Pad, the Shadown Chamber, the Maddening Maze, the Wizard Lab and the Curiosity Castle. Children may dress up in costume, hear stories, paint, climb, surf the Internet and find other activities.

The multilevel, mission-style building, with 30-foot ceilings and 24,500 square feet of floor space, also will be the scene of children's birthday parties. There are separate areas for parties, such as the 101 Dalmatians Bow Wow Bash.

A cafeteria will seat 100, and a gift shop is stocked with arts and crafts.

Children must remove their shoes at an admission area, where customers are supplied with bar-coded wristbands to assure that each child leaves with the parent or teacher who brought the youngster.

Staffing will range from 50 to 75 ``cast members'' at the club in The Promenade at Westlake shopping mall.

``The basic idea in the design was to get parents and children participating in these activities together,'' said spokeswoman Andrea Borda. ``We are ecstatic by the response so far.''

Borda did not indicate whether Disney will export the Club Disney concept to other locations. Retail consultant Mark Kissel of Rockville, Md., predicted Disney will.

``What's ideal about this concept is that you can take it to Seattle or Minneapolis or Boston,'' he said.

Kissel said Disney may have changed its expansion strategy after strong local resistance forced it to withdraw a plan for a Disney America project in northern Virginia several years ago.

``This is just speculation, but Disney may have decided at that point that it made more sense to concentrate on smaller projects like this that won't require such a massive effort,'' he said.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Computers star in one part of the new Club Disney at Thousand Oaks.

(2--Color) Preschoolers explore sets and hear a story in a Pooh and You attraction at Club Disney.

David R. Crane/Daily News