July 4 (UPI) — Seventy years after Walt Disney opened the Disneyland park and resort, California’s “Happiest Place on Earth” welcomed it’s billionth guest this week.

Andres Robles, an 11-year-old boy from Arizona who is visiting Disneyland to celebrate his eighth birthday, and his parents, Alejandra and Jose, were selected as the honorary billionth guests to have visited the West Coast House of Mouse, the Disney Parks Blog reported.

The Disneyland park, located in Anaheim, Calif., opened in 1955 and is credited with launching the American theme park industry, which now includes Disney parks on three continents — including in Orlando, Fla., Paris and Tokyo.

“The Robles family visit is just one of the many lifelong memories that that’s been created here at Disneyland Resort,” the blog post said.

“Reaching this milestone just days before the 71st anniversary shows that Walt Disney’s dream lives on today: Disneyland continues to be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world,” it said.

The Robles family participated in an unveiling of a sign updating the “population of Disneyland as 1,000,000,000,” with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck joining them for the ceremony.

The family also got a VIP guided tour of Disney’s first park — Disney World, in Orlando, would not open for more than a decade and a half — which included Disney’s private apartment and a preview of the newly opened “Soarin’ Across America” attraction, the blog post said.