DISNEY ADVENTURE IS LOT OF HISTORY.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - Like proud parents, designers for The Walt Disney Company showcased the California Adventure theme park Wednesday as work crews hammered, landscaped and painted final touches in preparation for the February grand opening.

What was once a parking lot next to Disneyland now holds an inspired and remarkably detailed vision of California's geography, history and spirit into 55 acres of rides, restaurants and hotels.

``We're trying to celebrate the dream of California,'' lead designer Barry Braverman of Glendale-based Walt Disney Imagineering said during a media tour. ``People have been coming here for centuries, drawn by the great climate, the freedom, the opportunity and the sense that anything can happen here.''

Disney hopes 7 million people will visit the $1.4 billion park in its first year, further boosting the bottom line of the Burbank-based media giant's parks and resorts division. Strong theme park attendance drove the division to record earnings last month, helping Disney report a 77 percent boost in net earnings despite losses in its struggling consumer products and studio businesses.

Set to open Feb. 8, California Adventure is the first in a series of new resorts, including Tokyo DisneySea , slated for late 2001, a second park in Paris in 2002 and one in Hong Kong by 2005.

Ticket prices for California Adventure will be the same as Disneyland, $43 per day for an adult, $33 for children.

The California Adventure park shares a main entrance with Disneyland but offers unique attractions intended to keep people around for several days. Downtown Disney, for example, brings live entertainment bars and restaurants in the style of Universal CityWalk.

``This is a very nice time for turning Disney from a one-day adventure to potentially a destination resort,'' said Jeffrey B. Logsdon, an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. in Los Angeles. ``At the same time, situation-based entertainment has become so popular in Southern California that clearly this will be a great magnet for the locals.''

California Adventure allowed Disney to redesign its Pacific Hotel, now called the Paradise Pier Hotel with 502 rooms, several restaurants and convention space.

For sheer grandeur, the new, craftsman-style Disney's Grand Californian Hotel anchors the park with its 750 luxury rooms. The hotel was built around Disney's famed monorail, which zooms through a ground-floor opening.

Visitors can enter the park from the hotels but the main entrance leads them through a scaled-down Golden Gate Bridge and onto an elaborate titanium sculpture of the sun, which towers over the park's hub. For visual effect, satellite-guided mirrors reflect sunlight onto the sculpture throughout the day, according to Braverman, who, after five years of design and construction, highlighted the park's finer touches with obvious delight.

California Adventure features three main theme areas, including the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, where palm trees and shops line an asphalt street resembling a production lot. The ABC Soap Opera Bistro puts diners on the sets of their favorite soaps, with waiters as the actors.

The Superstar Limo ride is expected to be popular, leading people on an It's a Small World-like journey through stylized scenes of Malibu, Rodeo Drive and the Sunset Strip, past animatronic statutes of celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg and Drew Carey, en route to a moment of fame.

Nearby, a 2-acre working farm of citrus, avocados and artichokes honors the state's agricultural history, while a small vineyard, gourmet restaurant and wine tasting area mark the Mission-style Golden Vine Winery, sponsored by Robert Mondavi wines.

Pacific Wharf, modeled after Cannery Row in Monterey, puts authentic sourdough bread and tortilla factories on display.

A large lagoon sits at the center of the Paradise Pier theme area, home to the California Screamin' roller coaster, a Wolfgang Puck's seafood restaurant, a carousel and arcade.

``We tried to create the ultimate vision of a California beach park,'' Braverman said.

A theater will show a 22-minute movie on California history from the perspective of the state's immigrants.

Grizzly Peak Recreation Area, in the park's third area, features a plaster and steel mountain shaped like a grizzly bear, through which a water ride moves.

Resembling the Sierra Nevada, the area features mature redwood trees and authentic recreations of Gold Rush machinery. Visitors complete their journey through the park at a desert-theme air base where an indoor ride, Soarin' over California, simulates a hang-glider ride over Yosemite Valley, San Francisco Bay and other parts of the state. Each ride puts 87 people in their own simulated glider, 45 feet above the projected images.

``It's pretty impressive and we're anxious to get inside,'' Tom Allen, 45, of Corona said as he stood outside the construction wall Wednesday, looking at a map of the California Adventure park with his wife and 9-year-old daughter, Melissa.

His wife, Tracey Allen, figured that the family, which was on an outing to Disneyland on Wednesday, would probably buy extended, multiuse yearly passes for both parks. ``We've been watching it grow over the last year and every time we come it just gets bigger and bigger.''

SEE IT REAL SOON

Disney's California Adventure will open Feb. 8 on 55 acres across from Disneyland. The park is divided into three sections: Golden State, Paradise Pier and Hollywood Pictures Backlot.

Rides will include the Grizzly River Run, a whitewater raft adventure; California Screamin', a roller coaster that catapults riders from zero to 50 mph in less than six seconds; and Mulholland Madness, a minicoaster running past images of Mulholland Drive from Hollywood to Malibu.

The Soap Opera Bistro will offer dining amid re-created sets from ABC soap operas, including ``General Hospital'' and ``All My Children.'' Other food and beverage spots will include Wolfgang Puck's, Andre-Boudin Bakeries, Mission Tortillas and Robert Mondavi Winery.

The Grand Californian, a new 750-room hotel built in the California Craftsman architectural style, will become the first hotel located inside a theme park.

Downtown Disney, with elements of Universal CityWalk and Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, will open in January, separating the California Adventure and Disneyland.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 5 -- color) Featuring rides such as the Grizzly River Run, California Screamin' and Mulholland Madness, in addition to restaurants and luxury hotels, Disney hopes to cash in with its new California Adventure. The Anaheim-based theme park, which sits on a former Disneyland parking lot, is scheduled to open in February.

(6 -- 7) Lead designer Barry Braverman goes over the layout of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area of the California Adventure theme park. Below, an rendering of ``Downtown Disney,'' which will include shopping, dining and entertainment.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

Box: SEE IT REAL SOON (See text)