In my youth, I heard a lot of weird stories about Disneyland. For instance, I was told that the facades for the buildings on Main Street were salvaged from actual old buildings and brought to Anaheim by Walt to give it that authentic look and… Read More »Disneyland Stories, Fact or Fiction
Although Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room was originally sponsored by United Airlines, in 1973 the sponsorship was taken over by Dole. This brought the addition of Dole Pineapple flavored treats to the little bar in front of the attraction. So, as the Tiki Room celebrates… Read More »Behind the Tiki Bar at Disneyland’s Enchanted Tiki Room
It’s hard to believe but Sunday, June 23, will mark the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland. Crowds were wowed by the world’s first Audio-Animatronics show in a place where the birds sing words and flowers croon.
Inspiration for the Tiki Room came from Walt Disney’s earliest days of animated filmmaking, as he looked for a way to animate in three dimensions. He was fascinated by an antique, miniature mechanical songbird that he had purchased in New Orleans and thought if someone could animate this figure a century before, it should be possible to do it using modern technology.
The resulting Audio-Animatronics technology developed for the Enchanted Tiki Room would eventually lead to such iconic Disney theme park attractions as “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” “it’s a small world,” Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and others.
“The Enchanted Tiki Room continues to delight thousands of guests every day, some 50 years after Walt originally introduced us to Jose, Michael, Pierre & Fritz,” said Jon Storbeck, vice president of Disneyland Park. You might enjoy reading about the experiences of one of the attractions original VIP Hostess or The Disney Blog columnist Linda’s experience shadowing Walt Disney on the press preview.Read More »Enchanted Tiki Room Turns 50 This Sunday
Disneyland’s newest stage show, “Mickey and the Magical Map” features several great songs from classic Disney animated films, and it introduces a completely original song for the show, “Journey to Imagination.” In this new video Adam Watts and Andy Dodd, two thirds of the award… Read More »Composing the Theme Song for ‘Mickey and the Magical Map’
You’ve heard the rumors, Disneyland guest favorite giant turkey legs are really snipped from the leg of an Emu. That’s not true, but what is true is that the lovely, simple, yet delicious pork shank has made its way to Disneyland to give the old… Read More »Move over Turkey Leg, the Pork Shank is in Town
Editor: Please welcome back guest author Zoë Periale with her review of Disneyland’s newest stage show:
Mickey and the Magical Map is a new show in Disneyland’s Fantasyland Theatre. Many people will know this location to previously house The Princess Fantasy Faire, Snow White: An Enchanting Musical, or one of it’s many other previous shows and events. Upon taking your seat in the theater the first thing you’ll see is naturally, the stage. When not in use a large cloth reminiscent of Yen Sid’s sorcerer’s hat from Fantasia’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice covers what soon will be revealed as the map itself. Surrounding the map and it’s cover are large panels of gold trimmed cartoonish wood as well as multiple buckets of paint.
When the show begins, you are quickly introduced to the main characters. Yen Sid, the Sorcerer who presides not only over the map and his workshop, but as Mickey’s Mentor. Mickey Mouse himself in his classic Sorcerer’s Apprentice robes, as well as a cast of characters called map makers. The story of the show goes as this; Mickey once again is getting ahead of himself, frustrated at simply being an apprentice. Desiring to paint the map like the other map makers, he is not yet allowed as he has not learned the secret of the map; which is the key to graduating from his apprentice role. Chaos ensues as once again, Yen Sid puts too much faith in Mickey and leaves him alone with the map and a paint brush. As seen in the Fantasia Short or even the Junction Point series of video games, Epic Mickey, our curious hero can’t be trusted alone with anything that may be magical.Read More »Mickey and the Magical Map Now Performing at Disneyland
Construction for Disneyland’s original Tomorrowland didn’t even start until December 1955, that left them just 6 months to pull it all together. If you visited the early incarnation of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland you would have encountered a number of exhibits that were essentially corporate brochures realized… Read More »RetroLand: 1960 Tomorrowland Spaceman and Spacewoman
As they say on ABC’s hit show “Once Upon A Time,” magic has a price. If the magic you want to experience is one of Disney’s theme parks, that price has just increased… again. This time with tax and fees it now costs more than $101 to buy a one day, one park ticket to Disney World. Disneyland is a little cheaper at $92 (no sales tax on theme park tickets in California). With attendance at both resorts still very strong, I’m not surprised by the move.
At Disneyland the cost to buy a one park, one day adult admission is now $92 while 9 and under is $86. The adult price is a 5.7% increase. If you want to hop between the two gates at Disneyland you’ll have to pay $137 for an adult (a 9.7% increase) or $131 for a child. With a stiff increase like that, Disneyland must want to discourage park hopping.
At Walt Disney World an adult one day, one park admission is now $95 and 9 and under is $89. Disney World wants to encourage you to stay longer, so a 5 day one park per day pass only went up five dollars to $265 (9 and under is $244). That’s a much more reasonable $53 a day admission price. Read More »What’s Behind The Disney Parks Ticket Price Increase