For anyone who knows me, they know that I have a certain curiosity with all things Disney. As you probably have already inquired, even if you don’t know me personally, is that I like Disney (I say as I’m writing on a Disney themed blog). But it originates deeper than just going to the parks and loving the movies. I’m a Disney history buff to my core. I spend my off time reading biographies and books having to do with the creation of Disneyland, Disney World, certain attractions, and one of my favorite topics the life of Walt Disney. So, it comes as no surprise that during my last trip to Disneyland that I participated in a Disney backstage tour.

Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps is a 3-hour guided tour that takes guests around Disneyland park showcasing the life and history of Walt’s Disneyland and everything having to do with the creation and innovation behind the park while Walt was alive. I was thriving the entire tour, perking up when I knew some of the Disney trivia that was talked about and mentally making notes of the things that I didn’t know!

WARNING this post may contain spoilers to what happens during the tour and some of the information you will learn while on it. I say this because I know some people like to go in blind to certain experiences and I want to preserve the magic for those looking to do the tour. I won’t give away everything, however, I want this to be a very in-depth look at the tour mainly so then I can look back and remember my experience and all that I learned.

So, without further ado let’s take a walk in Walt’s Footsteps….

Main Street USA

Like Disneyland itself, our story starts on Main Street USA. After checking in at the Disneyland Tour Gardens kiosk for check-in (which is located on the left-hand side of the Main Street train station right next to City Hall) and filling out our lunch order we anxiously waited for the beginning of our tour.

Once everyone in our tour group was checked in and our time slot started the tour took off! Normally during this tour, you are equipped with audio devices so then you can hear your tour guide more clearly, however, due to the weather (it was very rainy) we had to get up close and personal with our tour guide Maddie to make sure we didn’t miss a word she said. The first stop on the tour was the Main Street fire station where we learned more about the childhood history of Walt and the dreamer that he was.

Maddie explained that Walt’s childhood home Marceline, MO really shaped him and made an impact on his life even though he only lived there for 4 years. But those 4 years were enough to really develop him and his imagination into the man he would become. After this, we were then taken to the Main Street Flag pole where a bronze plaque with the opening day dedication speech resides. We were then read off the opening day speech and explained the triumphs and turmoils of the opening of Disneyland.

On July 17th, 1955, Disneyland opened its gates to 28,000 people more than half of the amount they were planning for thanks to counterfeit tickets. Unbeknownst to Walt, that wasn’t the only bump in the road on this date. So much went wrong that it is commonly referred to as Black Sunday. Some of the hiccups of opening day included:

• Lady’s high heels sinking into the pavement because it had just been laid days beforehand.
• Ride’s broke down throughout the park, with Fantasyland having a brief gas leak
• An orange farmer was charging people to climb up his latter and jump the fence into the park

Once Walt got word of what had happened and the newspapers and press released their scathing reviews on Disneyland you would have imagined he would be frightened. But ever the optimist, Walt took these comments as a lesson on how he could better improve the park and make it better!

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The last stop on our trip down Main Street USA was the “Hub”. Many Disney fans are familiar with Disney’s hub and spoke design, with one central location and spokes promenading out towards the different lands. However, what most people don’t know, is that another draw to each land is the different landmarks or “weenies” that each host.

The “weenies” are used to lure people to each land, like a dog to a weenie. The following were considered that main weenie for each land during Disneyland’s opening

• Fantasyland = Sleeping Beauty Castle
• Frontierland = The Mark Twain Riverboat Smoke Stacks
• Tomorrowland = Rocket Ship
• Adventureland =?
  • Adventureland was the only land to not have a weenie because Walt believed that the mystery of it would be exciting and compelling enough to draw people in

Fantasyland

While making our way down Main Street, we reached our next destination, Sleeping Beauty castle. Did you know that the movie Sleeping Beauty wasn’t even released yet when Disneyland was opened? Walt hoped that guests would inquire about the princess behind the castle and go see the movie when it came out, offering some free publicity to his next project. The castle was currently under construction during our trip (only to open a few days after we left) so we took the left-hand path up the castle to reach the heart of Fantasyland.

Once in the main plaza of Fantasyland, we learned that the oldest attraction at Disneyland has been up and running since before opening day. Can you guess what this attraction is? King Arthur’s Carousel is the oldest attraction in the park, having been build in 1922, and is an authentically restored carousel coming from Toronto, Canada.

Some opening day attractions in this land include

• King Arthur Carousel
• Mad Tea Party
• Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Snow White’s Scary Adventures
• Casey Jr. Circus Train

After learning out the success of Fantasyland, we were able to ride one of the rides here! I won’t spoil it because it can change based on the weather. After our ride, we made our way to Frontierland to learn more about Walt’s young adulthood experiences and the adventures that he went on during this time in his life.

Frontierland

Once crossing over into Frontierland from Fantasyland via Big Thunder Trail, our tour guide pointed out that we were one of the lasts tours being able to complete this specific tour route. In lieu of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge opening in a couple of weeks (it has opened since then) they were changing the tour route in order to avoid the crowds headed over to the area via the Frontierland entrance.

In Frontierland, we learned all about Walt’s later teenage years and his patriotism which was very prevalent throughout his life. When World War I broke out, Walt desperately wanted to join the war effort, so even though he wasn’t old enough, he forged his birth certificate and went over to France to become a Red Cross Ambulance driver. However, when he got to France the war was over, so he and a buddy would sit and dream about what they would do once they got home. Their adventures centered around going down the Mississippi River together like Huckleberry Finn which led to the inspiration for Tom Sawyer Island and the Mark Twain Riverboat.

Once Walt returned back home from the war he found that his friend had gotten married and their plans to travel fell through. However, not too long after Walt met his wife Lily working at his first studio in California and they fell in love and got married. Something super interesting I learned was that days before Disneyland would open, Walt & Lilly actually celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary at the Golden Horseshoe . They threw a huge party inviting friends and family to come visit the park before it would open to the public

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Walt & Lily also loved to travel with one of their favorite places to travel was New Orleans which was the inspiration behind the first land expansion at Disneyland.

New Orleans Square

As stated, New Orleans Square was the very first new land to be added to Disneyland and is home to 2 original attractions, Pirates of the Caribbean & the Haunted Mansion that Walt personally worked on before his death.

Our tour guide explained the early ideas for both these attractions and how they drastically changed in concept and development throughout time. Both of these attractions were intended to be walk-through attractions with wax figures, however, with the development of technology that they used at the 1964 World’s Fair (which we will get to very soon), these projects soon got a major upgrade and turned into the attractions that we know and love today.

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After talking about the concepts behind these rides, our tour guide talked more about Walt’s love of trains and how when creating Disneyland he knew that he was going to have a full-scale one surrounding his park. At this point in the tour, we hopped on the Disneyland Railroad and got to experience one of Walt’s favorite attractions.

Tomorrowland

Even though the train has a stop at the Toontown depot, we continued all the way to the Tomorrowland station and learned more about Walt’s fascination with the future and innovation.

Soon after Disneyland opened, Walt knew that he needed to keep growing and expanding the park in order to keep people coming back. At this point in time, there were no thrill rides at the park so in 1959 the first major expansion in Disneyland was developed with the creation of the E-ticket attraction. This included the creation of 3 new attractions in Tomorrowland which added the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Submarine Voyage, and the Monorail to the land.

With the success of these attractions and the construction of New Orleans Square on the horizon, Walt was asked to contribute attractions to the 1964 Worlds Fair. Not only was this a good opportunity for Disney to play around with different concepts and technology, but all of these projects were fully funded by the sponsors that requested them.

• Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – General Electric
• It’s a Small World – Pepsi Cola (For UNICEF)
• Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln – The State of Illinois
• The Magic Skyway – Ford Motor Company

The 1964 World’s Fair and the creation and development of the attractions that Walt and his Imagineers created for this event left such an impact. Not only did the fair yield 4 attractions, some that we still know and love today, but the technology that they developed for it crossed over into other attractions at the park. For example:

• The Omnimover system from the Magic Skyway attraction helped Disney re-imagine the Haunted Mansion from being a walk-through attraction into an actual ride that used this track.
• The boat ride from It’s a Small World also helped change Pirates of the Caribbean form being a walk through into a boat ride.
• The Carousel of Progress and Mr. Lincoln Audio-Animatronics helped shape the life like Audio-Animatronics we know today

After talking about the impact that the World Fair had on Disneyland our group headed over to Adventureland to get an up close and personal look at one of the very first uses of Audio-Animatronics and learn about their significance in Disney Parks history.

Adventureland

Once heading into Adventureland, we were told all about Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room and the significance behind this attraction. What many people don’t know is that the Tiki Room was the first attraction to use audio-animatronics in the park and was developed based on a little knick-knack Walt and Lily found on one of their trips. Walt and Lilly loved to antic shop and on one of their travels, they found this little mechanical bird that would talk when wound up. Walt brought the toy back home to his Imagineers knowing they could do better.

From this concept, all Audio-Animatronics were developed and thus a new era of innovation would begin in the creation of Disneyland attractions. At this point in the tour, we were also able to sit in on the show and see for ourselves the Tiki Room birds in action.

Lunch at Jolly Holiday and Apartment Tour

What’s nice about this part of the tour is that the group is split in half, so while one half of the group gets lunch and can relax a bit, the other half of the group gets to go up and see the apartment. This is done because Walt’s apartment is so small and can only accommodate a certain number of people.

LUNCH

One of the amazing things about this tour is that lunch was included! Lunch is served at the Jolly Holiday Bakery on Main Street USA which serves sandwiches, soups, salads, and sweet treats. The restaurant has a special reserved section for tour participants and it was nice to be able to sit down, relax, and enjoy our meal without having to worry about finding a spot. Among our many choices, we got to choose upon the following menu items for our tour lunch:

• Entrée (Sandwich/Salad)
• Side (Fruit cup/Chips)
• Drink (Bottled water/Coke products)
• Dessert (Chocolate Chip Cookie/Matterhorn Macaroon/Mickey Sugar Cookie)

Along with the meal guests ALSO get a commemorative pin that is EXCLUSIVE to this tour

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Apartment Tour

The biggest highlight on the tour (and one of the main reasons why guests take this specific tour) is an exclusive look of Walt Disney’s personal apartment above the firehouse on Main Street.

As a Disney fanatic, I was ecstatic to be able to tour this sacred space and see for myself how Walt lived when visiting the park. I don’t want to spoil this part of the tour (even though it is the part that I have the most information written down on) so I’m not going to go as in depth with this segment. However, I’ll just say that being here fulfilled every expectation I had and I had chills while being here, but some cool things I learned about the apartment include:

• Lillian designed the apartment in a Victorian theme, filled with lots of florals and a rich cranberry color
• There are couches on either end of the apartment that were pull out twin beds, Walt and Lillian each had their own and you could tell who’s was who’s because they had pictures of their moms by each of their respected beds
• There used to be a fire pole in the apartment where they could slide down into the fire station, but one guest realized that he could climb it and shimmed their way up into Walt’s Apartment, so now the top half is not connected anymore
• Walt’s Famous Grilled Cheese Maker is still in the little kitchenette
• Walt always kept the gas light on in his apartment when he was staying there to let people know, and they keep it on 24/7 now as a tribute to him

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OVERALL REVIEW

So, there you have it a Walk in Walt’s Disneyland! This tour was so educational, and I loved every second of it. The only complaints that I had were that it was sometimes hard to hear during the tour, but that was due to the weather and the fact that we couldn’t use the audio devices. I highly recommend this tour to anyone who loves learning about the history of the Disney parks, the life of Walt Disney, or if you just want to try something new at the Disneyland Resort.

The cost per person is about $109 and can be booked over the phone with Disneyland Reservation Systems at (714) 781-8687 lines open at 10 am EST/ 7 am PCT and can be made 30 days in advance! There are usually two time slots available for the tour per day as well. If you would like more information about dates and times check out the official website here.

Even though this was an extra cost to an already pricey trip, it was so worth it! Not only did I get to partake in amazing tour that I’ll always remember but I got lunch (I’d say a $20ish value) and a pin out of it as well!

This concludes my review/informational post on this tour! How did you guys like this? Would you be interested in more in-depth reviews/ look at other events and tours? During my College Program last year, I had the opportunity to do the Dolphins in the Depth Tour as well as Wild Africa Trek, while my information isn’t as fresh as this tour was I’d love to do a review on both if that is something ya’ll would be interested in. Comment down below or DM me on Instagram to let me know your thoughts/opinions. Thanks for following along guys.

Until then, Keep Moving Forward

-Kacey