Odd Disneyland Trivia Most Disney Fans Don’t Know
We love Disney trivia here at MickeyBlog. Most of the time, we’ve focused on Walt Disney World tidbits. So, we’re going to add a bit of balance today by offering some strange and interesting facts about the Happiest Place on Earth. Here are a few things you may not know about Disneyland.
One of the Rides Is Older Than the Park
You’re probably wondering how this is possible. After all, Walt Disney was notoriously more than just a visionary. He was also a bit of a control freak. He had a hand in virtually every attraction that Disneyland offering in the days leading up to his death. Why, he even contributed to a few attractions like Space Mountain that didn’t debut until long after his death.
Walt Disney wasn’t afraid to outsource, though. Arrow Development was his favored company. They worked on several integral Disney projects such as Matterhorn Bobsleds, Mad Tea Party, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. One of their stranger tasks involved a carousel.
Uncle Walt loved old-timey classic amusement park attractions. Even though he was constructing something entirely new, a theme park full of multiple themed lands, he liked the idea of a throwback antique ride. It was his tribute to yesteryear, a concept also demonstrated at Main Street U.S.A. and Frontierland.
Disney fell in love with a carousel that had operated since 1922, one that had horse jumpers at all of the stations. He purchased the Menagerie Carousel formerly seen at Sunnyside Beach Party, a place north of the border in Toronto.
The entrepreneur assigned Arrow Development the task of updating and expanding the carousel so that it could serve more guests. More than 30 years after its creation, the carousel became a staple of Fantasyland at Disneyland. It will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2022, something Disneyland itself won’t do until 2055!
Haunted Mansion Used to Have a Live Show
One of my favorite stories about Disney ride creation involves Haunted Mansion. There was a schism about the approach to this ride. Some Imagineers wanted it to be scary, while others wanted to be funny. A few didn’t even want a haunted house attraction at Disneyland, deeming it too derivative.
Ultimately, the diversity of opinion elevated Haunted Mansion into something unique. Rather than pick a side, Imagineers smashed the diverse concepts together, creating a ride that is equal parts silly and spooky. One moment, you’re reading tombstone puns and looking at silly caricatures of how people died. Then, you’re seeing a body hanging from the ceiling, and a Bride’s menacingly stroking a hatchet.
In the earliest days of Haunted Mansion, the ride accidentally skewed far too much toward scary. What happened? Well, you know how Disney has character meet-and-greets throughout the parks? Someone had the bright idea to do one INSIDE the Haunted Mansion. A cast member would dress up like one of the characters shown on the ride and randomly appear next to the Doom Buggies.
You can imagine how much excitement this added to the proceedings. I presume the ride carts suffered more than a few protein spills during these crazed moments when guests got a frightful scare from an actual person. Seriously, just think about this for a moment. Imagine all the times that you’ve ridden Haunted Mansion.
Now, consider how you’d react if someone touched your shoulder. You look over when this happens and see the LIVING DEAD standing right beside you. This is a good time to mention that you’re supposed to be at the Happiest Place on Earth. As you might imagine, park operators quickly reconsidered this decision and permanently mothballed the idea of live interactions at Haunted Mansion.
There’s Only One Place Where Cameras Aren’t Allowed
Disneyland is a place that heartily encourages social media. They’ve set up Purple Walls and other Instagram-friendly places so that guests will feel welcome to share their park experience with all their closest internet friends and followers. While it’s not encouraged, taking pictures behind the scenes at Disneyland isn’t even illegal for guests.
It’s kind of a no-no for cast members, but they’re rarely punished for all but the most serious violations such as when Disney expressly prohibits the sharing of videos/pictures of yet-to-open attractions. There’s one place where taking pictures isn’t allowed, though.
Club 33 is an open secret at Disneyland. It’s a members-only restaurant with a registration fee that costs roughly as much as a Tesla. What do customers get for all that money? Well, they get exclusivity, special park amenities, and a wealth of other incentives. The one thing that they don’t get is a bunch of pictures commemorating their meals. Disney bans the use of cameras or cell phone photography at Club 33.
Photo Credit: DisneyNerds.com
The company wants to maintain the feeling of elitism here while protecting the identities of guests currently visiting the restaurant. To do so, they cannot allow pictures, and that goes double now that people can use their phones to livestream. Imagine the chaos created if a Club 33 diner accidentally revealed that someone like Tom Hanks or Bob Iger was eating there. This explains why so few pictures of Club 33 exist on the web…and any images that you see weren’t supposed to be taken!
One Ride Is the Most Authentic of All
Disney is conscientious with its theming. They want to create immersive environments that enable guests to buy into the illusion being created. For example, when you board Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, the first setting is a magnificent room in a stately mansion, immediately causing you to believe that the title character is wealthy. Little touches like this permeate Disneyland. One of them is more accurate than the rest, though.
When Disney decided to build Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, they populated a list of items that you would see at a dig site. Rather than construct artificial versions of these manufacturing goods, Disney went to the source instead.
Since the days of mining are long in the past, any of the equipment that remains is little more than antiques. Since Disney had use for them, they spoke to owners of mining paraphernalia and worked out purchases. Many of the mining items that you see were at one time working products actually used to dig for gold and other precious minerals!
One of the Rides Was an Insurance Nightmare
Don’t worry, everybody! Disney’s totally safe. I’m talking about something that happened all the way back in 1955…and it was funny! When Imagineers constructed Autopia, cars were still in their infancy, at least with regards to mainstream adoption. Walt Disney loved the idea of giving the common man the feeling of car ownership. To achieve this goal, he wanted the most realistic ride experience possible on Autopia.
Something is different about Autopia today than when it first opened in 1955. There’s now a center rail that forces guests to stay on the correct path. In the early days of Disneyland, no such center rail existed. What happened back then? A bunch of people with little practical experience steering an automobile would arrive at Disneyland, board Autopia, and proceed to crash into each other over and over again.
From Disney’s perspective, the entire situation was a legal nightmare waiting to happen. Lawsuits and insurance claims weren’t as prevalent then, of course, but the minor injuries piled up during the early days of Disneyland. A lot of them were children who would, you know, aim for other cars in a malicious attempt to smash things…just like all kids do. The outcome of this behavior was a LOT of crying children, which didn’t do much to foster the vibe of the Happiest Place on Earth. So, Disney had no choice but to update the ride to include guidance rails.
