The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (36 page)

T
his is a must for its visual beauty and emotional punch.  Like all attractions in the southern portion of
Fantasyland
,
Pinocchio’s Daring
Journey
is closed during the
Magical Fireworks
but reopens after the fireworks show ends. 
Did You Know?
  According to
Disneyland
lore, Guests used to steal the little yellow bow tie from one of the donkeys, but it’s now securely attached to the donkey figure. 
Did You Also Know?
  Similarly, Guests used to try to steal the gold “Conscience” badge from
Jiminy Cricket
.  However,
Jiminy
is now reputedly protected by a sensor that plays a loud admonition to keep your mitts to yourself if you trip the sensor beam by reaching for the badge.
Did You Also Know?
  From 1955 to 1963 this site housed the
Mickey Mouse Club Theater
, and from 1964 to 1983 the
Fantasyland Theater
.
Hidden Mickey Alert:
  You have to strain your neck a bit, but try to catch a glimpse of the three large pieces of popcorn on the floor in front of the
Pleasure Island
popcorn stand; they form a familiar silhouette! 
FastPass:
  No.  Like all
Fantasyland
attractions,
Pinocchio’s Daring Adventure
is not connected to the
FastPass
system.  However, with lines short except on the most crowded days (e.g., Christmas Day and summer weekends), there’s no need for a
FastPass
.
Kid’s Eye View:
  Now that they’ve remodeled it, it’s much better, but it’s a bit scary for kids, as
Snow White
is.  I still like it. 
Teen’s Eye View:
  I remember this scared me when I was young, but that is because of the movie.  Someone who likes the movie would enjoy this [attraction] as it’s almost identical.

Pixie Hollow

[
FastView:
  Tinker Bell
and
Pixie Hollow
fans should add this
magical
mini-land to their itinerary.  This used to be
Ariel
’s meet-and-greet, and, well before that, was the site of
Monsanto
’s
House of the Future
.
]

One of the newest attractions in
Fantasyland
,
Pixie Hollow
is located southwest of
Matterhorn Mountain
, along
Matterhorn Way
.  This experience, an enhanced meet-and-greet area, replaced
Ariel’s Grotto
in August 2008.

G
uests once queued in a watery grotto to meet
Ariel
, the
Little Mermaid
herself, who was seated in a giant seashell to sign autographs and pose for photos.  Now that the
Little Mermaid
has her own large dark ride in
Disney California Adventure
, it made sense to
Disney
’s
Imagineers
to evict
Ariel
from her
Disneyland
digs and introduce a fresh attraction.

Pixie Hollow
is tied to the recent animated
Tinker Bell
films that delve into the world of
Disney
fairies in greater detail than ever before.  No longer merely
Peter Pan
’s sidekick, or the little sprite whose sparkling wand opens
Disney
’s classic television programs and
Disneyland
’s fireworks shows,
Tink
now has a story, goals, challenges, and friends of her own.

Tink
’s computer-animated movies are
Tinker Bell
(2008),
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
(2009),
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue
(2010),
Tinker Bell and the Pixie Hollow Games
(2011),
Tinker Bell:  The Secret of the Wings
(2012), and
The Pirate Fairy
(2014).

Guests
who want to meet
Tinker Bell
and her friends now queue in
Pixie Hollow
, sometimes for more than an hour, amidst giant forest plants and mushrooms, for the opportunity to meet
Tink
,
Fawn
,
Iridessa
,
Rosetta
and
Silvermist
.  Lyrical Celtic music plays over unseen speakers, and jets of water from nearby fountains occasionally arch over your head.

If you or your child is a fan of the fairies, it will be worth the wait.  Be sur
e to keep hydrated and wear sunblock and a hat if the line is long.  If no one in your party is particularly interested in the pixies, this is an attraction you can skip.

Some children are shy when it comes to meeting characters in person, even their favorites.  If your little one balks when you reach the antechamber where a friendly Cast Member feeds Guests into the meet-and-greet area, never fear–there’s an exit path to your left.  You and your child can make a graceful exit before the point-of-no-return.

Like most character greeting areas,
Pixie Hollow
opens later than and closes prior to the park’s operating hours.  Check online, with a Cast Member, or refer to the park’s
Entertainment Times Guide
for the
Pixie Hollow
operating hours during your visit.

In 2013, as part of its
Limited Time Magic
program,
Disneyland
(and
WDW
) declared April 15 – 21
Fairies Week
, and
Terence
the
Pixie Dust-Keeper
visited
Pixie Hollow
. 
Did You Know?
  This is the site where
Monsanto
’s famous plastic
House of the Future
stood from 1957 – 1967.
Did You Also Know?
  Who voices the
Pixie
crew in the
Disney
films? 
Tink
: 
Mae Whitman
. 
Fawn
: 
America Ferrera
/
Angela Bartys
. 
Iridessa
: 
Raven-Symonѐ
. 
Rosetta
: 
Kristin Chenoweth
/
Megan Hilty
. 
Silvermist
: 
Lucy Liu
. 
Terence
: 
Jesse McCartney
.
Did You Also Know?
  On September 21, 2010,
Tinker Bell
received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. 
Night Vision:
Pixie Hollow
’s luminous fountains are breathtaking at night.  Swing by to admire them on your way to or from the castle. 
FastPass:
  No.  Like all
Fantasyland
attractions and all character meeting areas, no
FastPass
is offered.  In the democratic spirit of
Disneyland
, anyone who wants to meet the
Disney Pixies
has to queue up and wait their turn.  For the shortest lines, hit this attraction when it opens, usually around 9 am.  Even on less crowded days, the queue builds quickly. 
Kid’s Eye View:
  I’ve never been there.  I don’t feel like waiting in line, plus it’s not really my style.

Sleeping Beauty Castle/
Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
  (
Opening Day
Icon)

[
FastView:
 
The walkthrough is for
Sleeping Beauty
fans, but everyone needs to visit the original
Disney
castle.  (Mobility-impaired Guests can experience a “virtual” tour of the walkthrough.) 
Disney
fans will recognize the
Disney
crest over the castle’s entrance arch.
]

In 2008,
Disney
released a 50
th
Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD of its 1959 animated masterpiece
Sleeping Beauty
.  This is the first
Disney
film I ever saw, and is still among my favorites.  I was three years old and living with my family in Germany, where Dad was a U.S. Army Sergeant, when he took my little brother and me to see a re-release of
Sleeping Beauty
.  I was scared of
Maleficent
, but mesmerized by the film’s rich colors, music and motion, and became a life-long
Disney
fan on the spot.

As
a fan of
Sleeping Beauty
, I naturally purchased the 50
th
Anniversary DVD in 2008, and was particularly thrilled by the extras showing a facsimile of the old
Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
and indicating that soon, the castle would be open to Guests once more.

I still remember my disappointment upon finding that
one couldn’t enter and wander through the
Cinderella Castle
in
Walt Disney World
.  That was a magnificent trip for our family.  It was 1976.  I was eight years old, my brother seven, our sister four.  Every image that we had pored over in the
Walt Disney World
brochure prior to our trip came to life upon our arrival, exceeding even our wildest expectations in every way. 
Space Mountain
,
Pirates of the Caribbean
, the
Haunted Mansion
, the
Hall of Presidents
–everything was even more stunning in person than the colorful brochure photos.

Only
Cinderella Castle
disappointed.  It was tall, lovely, graceful and three-dimensional, but sealed off to the public.  You couldn’t go inside and wander through it.  For all its beauty, it was as inaccessible and ultimately as flat as a painting in a fairy tale book.

Thirty years later, in 2006, I would experience a similar disappointment, though tempered with an adult’s lower expectations, when I walked through the main arch of
Disneyland
’s
Sleeping Beauty Castle
and saw that, although one could enter shops on the castle’s ground floor and in its courtyard, one couldn’t really enter the castle and wander through its interior.

What was it with
Disney
and castles that were only façades, only symbols? 
Walt
and his
Imagineers
had such vision, imagination and virtuosity; didn’t they realize that children of all ages wanted castles that were not only glorious from the outside, but actually had stairs, corridors and chambers to explore?  Particularly for my generation and prior generations who grew up watching the
Disney
fairy tale films and live-action medieval gems like “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and “Prince Valiant,” we wanted a genius like
Walt
to create
immersive
castle environments.

Hence my delight upon learning via the
Sleeping Beauty
DVD extras that
Sleeping Beauty Castle
had once been open to Guests, and soon would be again!

The castle was always going to be the park’s
central icon, both figuratively and literally, as evidenced by its prominence in
Herb Ryman
’s original rendering of the park under
Walt
’s direction.  In that 1953 illustration, the gigantic castle dominates its surroundings.

The castle that was actually built
is more slender and ladylike in its stature, more a princess than a grande dame, more palace than fortress.  As the world knows, it was based on a reversed and scaled-down interpretation of Germany’s famous
Neuschwanstein
(“new swan stone”) castle. 
Walt
named his palace
Sleeping Beauty Castle
because his newest animated feature,
Sleeping Beauty
, was then in pre-production, and
Walt
, a savvy businessman as well as creative genius, never missed an appropriate marketing opportunity.