The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (15 page)

Disneyland Park

Disneyland Park
:  Attractions, Gear, Grub and Characters by Land

Dis
neyland Entrance Area

After you pass through the
Disneyland Main Entry Turnstile
, you’ll find yourself in a small main entry plaza below the
Disneyland Railroad
’s
Main Street Station.

In the early morning and early evening (p
eak arrival times), this area can be a bottleneck.  Not only is this a popular place for Guests to gather and plan their day or evening, it’s also a place that confuses dazed and thrilled first-time Guests.

This is where
Disneyland
’s famed, delightful, but at times overwhelming hyper-stimulation begins:  There’s probably a band playing; the air is heady with the fragrance of flowers; there seem to be a million people milling about; there’s a train whistle blowing; there’s the shocked sensation of “oh-my-gosh-we’re-really-here!” etc.  Unless you arrive at a time when attendance is light, you’ll want to pick a less crowded, more comfortable spot to gather with your family and friends and decide what to do first.

Y
ou might see
Disney
Cast Members wearing red shirts and carrying electronic tablets, randomly selecting Guests for a brief survey.  This is part of
Disney
’s constant effort to ensure that Guests have the happiest possible experience.  There are no prizes or compensation for participating, but the surveys are brief and the reward is having your opinion heard.

Sometimes a white-clad marching band play
s lively tunes to welcome Guests to
Disneyland
.  Their hats are plumed, red plumes for the musicians, a pure white plume for the band leader.  This is the
Disneyland Band
, and they’ve been going strong since 1955.  They were only supposed to perform during the park’s opening weeks, but proved so popular that they never left.  Their crisp white formal marching regalia and cheerful music (which includes
Disney
classics and popular tunes of yore) will sweep you back to a simpler time.

Hear that train whistle?  Glanc
e up at the
Disneyland Railroad Main Street Station
and you are likely to see one of the park’s five-eighths scale narrow gauge trains pulling into or gliding out of the station, steam rising from the smokestack.  The trains are named after former Santa Fe Railroad executives and one
Disney Legend
,
Ward Kimball
, one of the studio staffers credited with sparking
Walt’s
fascination with building and driving trains. 
Kimball
accompanied
Walt
to the
Chicago Railroad Fair
and
Henry Ford
’s
Greenfield Village
in 1948, both sources of inspiration for
Disneyland
.

Each train
carries Guests around the entire park, stopping at stations in
New Orleans Square
,
Mickey’s Toontown
, and
Tomorrowland
before returning to
Main Street
, a journey of about 25 minutes.  Known as the
Grand Circle Tour
, this is the longest ride in the park and is comfortable and fun for Guests of all ages and abilities.

A
board the trains, pre-recorded narration explains the park features you pass, and there are plenty of surprises along the route, like glimpses of woodland creatures, and a Native American chief astride a horse along the
Rivers of America
, and stunning views of the
Grand Canyon
and
Primeval World
Diorama
s designed by
Disney Imagineers
.

On the hill below the
Disneyland Railroad Main Street Station
is a flower bed in the shape of
Mickey
’s face and head.  The colors and designs of the flowers change seasonally, about nine times during the year, but they’re always fragrant and breathtakingly lovely.  Chris Nichols of
Los Angeles Magazine
(LAMag.com/AskChris) reported in the February 2013 edition that the flowers include “white and sweet purple alyssum” arranged in a style inspired by Renaissance knot gardens.  (England pioneered the knot garden during the time of Queen Elizabeth I.  The
Imagineers
know a good idea no matter where–or when–they find it.)

Many
Guests gather in front of the flowers, with the
Disneyland Railroad Main Street Station
and its iconic clock tower above and behind them, for a group photo before heading into the park.  Because this is such a perfect picture spot, you’ll often find an official
Disneyland Photographer
at hand; he or she can photograph your party, and will give you a
PhotoPass
that you can bring to the
Main Street Photo Supply Co.
later in the day so you can purchase prints.

If you
’re already in the mood to shop, there’s a
Newsstand
to the extreme left of this main entry area, near the
West Entrance Tunnel
.  Here you can purchase small souvenirs, postcards and disposable cameras.

If you have letters or postcards to mail, there
’s a
Disneyland Mailbox
near the
Newsstand
.  Although it’s a charming thought,
Disneyland
doesn’t have its own post office.  Items deposited in the
Disneyland Mailboxes
located throughout the parks are collected each day by
Disneyland
Cast Members and processed by the
Anaheim
Post Office.

Once all the photos are taken, postcards mailed, and your party
is assembled, you are ready to enter the park proper.  All you have to do is choose an entrance.  Both the
West
and
East Entrance Tunnels
are lined with colorful attraction posters and both lead to
Main Street, U.S.A.

According to sociological research, given a choice, most people tend to flow to the right.  My
on-the-spot observations during many trips to the parks support this (and who am I to argue with sociology?).  Upon arrival, most Guests seem to flow through the right (that’s the east) entrance tunnel, which means on crowded mornings and evenings it can be a bit of a madhouse; this is one pressure point in the park where people obliviously bump into each other, and cut each other off, so tempers might fray.

Th
e eastern tunnel on the right leads you directly to a small souvenir stand, to rest rooms, an ATM Machine, the
Main Street Bank
(which used to be one of the designated spots where you could have your
Annual Pass
photo taken and receive your
Annual Pass
, but is now the home of the
Disney Gallery
and
Disneyana
) and the
Opera House
, where Guests can view a treasure trove of park memorabilia and where Guests are entertained by an
Audio-Animatronic
(
AA
)
Abraham Lincoln
.

The tunnel on the left, the
western tunnel, is more popular with exiting than entering Guests, so it tends to be the less crowded route if you are entering the park in the morning, even on busy days.  This tunnel leads to another small souvenir stand, the
Disneyland Guided Tours
building (formerly the
Disneyland Police Station
), the
Disneyland City Hall
(where you can report problems, request information, purchase
Disney Dollars
, exchange foreign currency, and pick up your
Birthday Button
if it’s your birthday), rest rooms, and the
Disneyland Fire Station
above which
Walt
resided when he was in the park; there is still a lamp lit in his memory at all times in the
Fire Station
’s center window.

Pick a tunnel,
either tunnel.  Both routes lead you to the nostalgic beauty of
Main Street, U.S.A. 
Welcome to the happiest place on earth!

The Lands Within Disneyland

Adventureland

Adventureland At-a-Glance

Attractions:
 
Enchanted Tiki Room
,
Indiana Jones Adventure
(FP) (S),
Jungle Cruise
,
Tarzan’s Treehouse

Gear:
 
Adventureland Bazaar
,
Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost
,
South Seas Traders

Grub:
 
Bengal Barbecue
(L, D, S),
River Belle Terrace
(B, L, D, S) (technically in
Frontierland
, but with an
Adventureland
entrance),
Tiki Juice Bar
(S),
Tropical Imports Fruit Cart
(S)

Adventureland Introduction

To the left of
Main Street, U.S.A.
and the
Hub
, lies
Adventureland
, one of the original regions of the park.  Befitting its theme of mystery and the exotic,
Adventureland
’s entrance is nearly hidden among foliage and shadows.  It’s easy to stroll past it and instead notice the much more obvious, timbered
Frontierland
gate.  But once you locate the
Adventureland
arch of flaming torches, drums, skulls, bones, thatch, tikis, and tribal masks, you’ll never miss it again.  Its very appearance touches a chord of adventurousness in even the most conventional visitor.

When
Adventureland
first opened in 1955, the exotic skulls and masks were already in place at the entrance, but the foliage was sparse.  It took years for the vegetation to flourish and swarm, to cocoon the entry way under another layer of mystery.  The construction of the
Enchanted Tiki Room
in 1963 further screened
Adventureland
from view.

Entering
Adventureland
leads you onto a crooked, crowded street flanked by South Pacific, African, Arabian, and Indian architecture—the architecture of a thrillingly ancient and exotic world.  You feel like you’re in a marketplace in a far-flung land, where anything can happen–and probably will.  You’re swept up in a flow of Guests who are all moving in different directions, crushed elbow to elbow, as you would be in, say, a Marrakesh bazaar.  The only time this street
isn’t
a mob scene is when the park first opens, or just before it closes, or on a drizzly off-season weekday.

Walt
loved traveling and encountering new landscapes, people, and customs.  In addition to numerous trips to Europe, he and his animation team were also enchanted by a lengthy good will trip to South America in the 1940’s, an adventure which resulted in two films–
Saludos Amigos
(1942) and
The Three Caballeros
(1944)–and included a boat trip through the jungle which in part inspired
Disneyland
’s
Jungle Cruise
.  [For more about that goodwill trip, download, buy, or rent
Walt & El Grupo
(2008).]

Walt
visited Alaska and was so struck by the beauty of the land and its inhabitants, both human and animal, that he hired documentary filmmakers to visit Alaska for a year, capturing footage that ultimately became the Academy Award-winning documentary
Seal Island
(1948) and launched
Disney
’s acclaimed and profitable
True-Life Adventure
series.

Walt
and his studio essentially invented the modern nature documentary, revealing, celebrating, and sometimes anthropomorphizing the natural world.
Disneynature
continues to craft influential–as well as visually breathtaking–nature documentaries, like
Earth
(2009),
Oceans
(2010),
The Crimson Wing:  Mystery of the Flamingos
(201),
African Cats
(2011),
Chimpanzee
(2012),
Wings of Life
(2012), and
Bears
(2014). 
Disney
also draws upon wilderness tales and characters (Kipling’s “Jungle Book” and Burrough’s “Tarzan,” for example) for some of its fictional animated adventures.