I've met a couple of people in their nineties who are perfectly comfortable in the digital age, much like mr.Barstow apparently. These are awesome people whose mad skillz outclass many a 50 year old.
Starting a commercial venture at that age puts to shame every middle aged person thinking that they're too old to start something new.
A hero indeed.

Steve Martin wrote the following letter to the filmmaker:

“At age eleven I worked at Disneyland. I sold guidebooks at the park from 1956 to about 1958. I am as positive as one can be that I appear about 20:20 into your film, low in the frame, dressed in a top hat, vest, and striped pink shirt, moving from left to right, holding a guidebook out for sale.”

from: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/steve-martin-in-disneyland-dream.html

I didn't think I would sit all the way through this but this is a great piece of social history from the people... I know that some of it is a little contrived but that made me like it even more... instead of just saying 'look' it created an interesting narrative. So cool!

Like you, I'm from Connecticut. What great fun seeing this. We went to California when I was four. My parents had hoped to take me to Disneyland. But we were there just a few months before the park opened. It was seven years before we went back...this time with my younger sister and brother. We had a delightful week in the Magic Kingdom. Your film brings back such great memories...when you were on the river cruise I was waiting for the shooting of the hippo. Apparently he was "acting up" on the day we were there too!

Enhance!

¡Just awesome!

I'm only 32 but the movie still brought back memories of some rides that existed in my youth but that I think aren't around any more (though my last visit to Disney was to the Florida park).

I loved this! I know it's a different era but my trip from 1998 is still vivid in my mind.

So, I assume we can take it that visitors in the 1950s found the rides and exhibits genuinely exciting? And to what extent were the constructors pushing the envelope of what could / had been achieved in amusement terms?

Were people in the 1950s easier to please? Has the gap between everyday life and the kind of heightened, fantastical experience offered by Disneyland etc widened or shrunk in the 50 years since?

With Universal's Harry Potter world about to open, I wonder how they will meet the expectations of visitors. And are those expectations pitched higher or lower than in the 1950s relative to the forms of entertainment and technology people were used to experiencing?

Wow I hope that makes sense, and I hope people have some ideas.

5onthe5 asks if people were easier to please in the 50s. I'd say yes. Not because the people were necessarily simpler, but there was less competing excitement. TV was black-and-white, with only three or so channels. No computers in the home, no Chuck E. Cheese for the kids. I was born a few years after the Barstows went to Disneyland and didn't get there until the late 60s, but I had a lot of fun there as a kid. So you have kids living in bland suburbia, the parents have to to pinch pennies on Dad's salary, they haven't flown in a plane before, so Disneyland was going to be pretty exciting, even with the rides back then. Mr. Barstow played up the excitement because that's his sense of humor, but I'm sure the kids had a great time.

BTW, by the fourth time I went to Disneyland I just wanted to go on the fast rides. Also, like the Barstows I visited Knott's Berry Farm as a kid, and found it real boring, so not everything was exciting back then. Disneyland really was, though, as primitive as it may seem.

That was just absolutely delightful. What a beautiful family - I'm so happy they had the chance to have this magical experience. I want to go back in time and be neighbors with them, in a time when I'm sure there was much less cynicism and people were closer to one another.

This is a great experience you have shared and a rare taste of Americana. Awesome job.