Spring Break - Thursday

On Thursday, we arrived at Disneyland and took a three-hour guided tour of the park called "A Walk in Walt's Footsteps". The guide wore a headset and microphone attached to an iPod, while we wore headphones and radio packs. She could talk to us without shouting and we could hear everything clearly. She would play recorded quotes from Walt or various Disney songs while we walked around the park, and was a veritable fount of information and Disney trivia. She took us past landmarks that had specific history or meaning where Walt was concerned, and we went on a couple of rides as a group and had dinner together at the end. It was very cool.

Here's the "Partners" statue at the hub of Main St. - the original plans had Mickey holding an ice cream cone.

We rode the Jungle Cruise together. Originally Walt wanted live animals on the riverbanks, but decided they would probably be sleeping during the daytime and no one would see them. Bad idea.

We had a private viewing of one of the original Tiki Room flowers from the early 1960's. Her name is Ophelia. She's retired now.

This is Don's sandwich. Everybody got a Disney character name on their lunch. His was kind of obvious. ;>

This is a tiny courtyard opposite Sleeping Beauty's castle where they hold weddings. (Little, tiny weddings.)

This is the actual Disney family crest. It is positioned at the front of Sleeping Beauty's castle right over the entrance. I hadn't heard it was the Disney crest - but Amanda had.

This is the fountain next to Snow White's wishing well to the right of Sleeping Beauty's castle (otherwise known as My House). The statues of Snow White and the seven dwarfs were sculpted in Italy of Italian marble. When the statues were finished and delivered to Disneyland, they didn't have the heart to tell the sculptor that Snow White wasn't supposed to be the same height as the dwarfs . . . so they put her at the top of the waterfall to give the illusion that she is taller.

This is Jingles, the carousel horse (or the back of Jingles, rather). She has the distinction of being the horse that represents the one Mary Poppins rode in the scene when they all jumped into the sidewalk chalk drawing. She has an umbrella on her right . . . flank? hip? whatever, and a crest with a drawing of Mary Poppins and some other things from the movie which are covered by the girl who was riding her at the time - I didn't want to freak her out so I didn't ask her to move her leg. Julie Andrews herself had ridden this horse the day before this picture was taken when they had some kind of special Mary Poppins ceremony.

This is a model of Sleeping Beauty's Castle which is on display in the Opera House at the entrance to Main Street. We enjoy looking for Hidden Mickeys while we're in the park, but if you crouch down and look inside the opening at the entrance of this castle, you'll see . . .

. . . a hidden Walt! Cool, huh?

At the end of the day, we went to California Adventures to see a show and then we went to Downtown Disney and saw a movie at the AMC theatres ("Leatherheads"). The movie was okay, but our day at the parks was AWESOME. More Spring Break on Friday!