10 Things You Didn't Know About Disneyland

I LOVE Disneyland!

You have no idea. How. Much.

There pretty much isn't a day that goes by that we don't talk about Disneyland. We've been to Disneyland five times over the past eight years, and every trip has been different!

Sometimes I think we know everything there is to know about it because we love it so much, but there's actually a lot of hidden secrets we didn't know about!

And I bet you don't know these things either.

(Unless you're a Zomerman) :)

 
1) High up in the Matterhorn is a basketball court for cast members to shoot some hoops during their breaks.
 

2) Disneyland is home to feral cats!

I know this is true because I've seen some: one trying to get food from guests at the Hungry Bear Restaurant and one sleeping in between the tiny houses on the Storybook Land Canal Boats. But there are many rumors as to why the cats are there...

At the Hungry Bear Restaurant!

--Years ago, more than 100 were discovered living inside Sleeping Beauty Castle.
--They first showed up at Disneyland shortly after it opened in 1955, and rather than spend time chasing them away, park officials decided to put the cats to work.
--Park officials decided in 1955 that feral lurkers from Orange County wouldn't be treated as nuisances; they made them employees. Renovation of the Sleeping Beauty castle two years later quantified the problem: more than 100 cats were found living in the unused portion. Evil fleas then riddled the area, as well.

Well, whatever the story, I do know one thing for sure about those cats. They are very friendly!


3) At least three babies have been born at Disneyland.

You had better LOVE Disney if you were one of these luck three... and you have a good excuse to go to Disneyland of your birthday each year :)

 

4) The buildings on Main Street U.S.A. are decorated to look like they have three floors, but it’s just an optical illusion!

The buildings aren’t nearly tall enough for three stories, but the designers wanted them to appear bigger. The ground-floors are nine-tenth scales, the second floors are seventh-eighths, and the third floors are five-eighths.

 

5) If you buy a Mickey balloon in the park and later in the day it pops or flies away, you can get a replacement for free.

Well, as long as you have the receipt. How nice is that, though? You don’t have to spend another ten dollars!

 

6) George Lucus was on the old version of Star Tours

This is a very popular rumor which I’m not sure is actually true... At the end of the ride, just as the Starspeeder is about to crash into a fuel truck, a nan in the control booth ducks down, then stands up and picks up the phone. He really does look like George Lucas... but is it actually him, or just a man in costume?

 

7) The telegraph in New Orleans Square isn’t tapping out gibberish.

When you’re waiting for the Disneyland Railroad in New Orleans Square, there is a telegraph on the other side of the tracks. It continually taps out parts of Walt Disney’s opening day speech in a variant of Morse code used by railroads

 

8) George Lucas is mentioned in the Star Tours waiting line.

When you enter the line, you can hear the loudspeaker ask of an “Egroeg Sacul” to come to the booth. That’s “George Lucas” spelled backwards.

 

9) Opening day as a disaster.

Disneyland was built in only 365 days. Maybe they should have took a little more time...

-Asphalt that was poured just hours before opening hadn’t fully dried so women’s spike heels were sinking in Main Street U.S.A.

-VIP passes were counterfeited
-Double the expected number of people showed up
-Rides broke down.
-There was a plumbers’ strike so Walk Disney had to choose between drinking fountains or bathrooms (He chose bathrooms, thank goodness...)
-There were bare patches of dirt around the park, so Walt had his gardeners replant weeds from the parking lot and label them with long, horticultural-sounding names.

 

10) Real animals on the Jungle Cruise?

Originally, Walt wanted to put real animals on the Jungle Cruise, but (thankfully) zoologists convinced him that they would all be asleep during park hours.

Walt did win in one aspect, though. In the early days of the park, live alligators were kept in a pen near the turnstiles. They were removed after a while though, because they occasionally escaped into the lagoon. I would NOT want to be around when that happened!!



There you have it! Ten things you didn't know about Disneyland.

What's that? You want a bonus? Well, this one isn't true any more, but it's still really cool... :)

11) For short time, if you yelled "Andy's coming!" When around Toy Story characters, they would stop what they were doing, hit the ground, and act like toys.

I know! That would be awesome!! However, they don't do this anymore. People have come up with all sorts of different reasons for this like they can't do it because it scares little kids or several character actors got hurt falling.

However, I have a theory of my own and snopes.com confirmed it. Since this meme went viral, at least fifty people shout out "Andy's coming" within an hour and a half, opposed to when the characters would only hear it one or twice a day. Can you imagine if they still had to fall? They wouldn't be able to do meet and great!