Intro 0:03

Please stand clear of the doors. por favor, mantangse a las puertas. Please stand clear of the doors.

Alicea 0:23

Hello everyone, I'm Alicea.

Nathan 0:25

And I'm Nathan.

Alicea 0:26

Welcome to episode 226 of Adventures and Mouse capades. This week we are taking a little tour, two, actually, around the happiest place on Earth. While we were in Anaheim for spring break and between absolutely incredible culinary experiences, we covered those last week, we largely just took the opportunity to enjoy some relaxing park time. That's right. It is possible to have a slow and relaxing few days in the parks, which was partially by choice and partly because Nathan is still recovering from a knee replacement, and I'm still getting back up to speed after open heart surgery last year.

What Disneyland Guided Tours Are

Nathan 1:06

But we persevered. We stopped for drinks and snacks frequently, as you must, and instead of lots of rides, took some time to partake in two guided tours around Disneyland, A Story of Celebration, 70th Anniversary guided tour, and the Women Who Make the Magic guided tour. So we're going to talk about those tours today and share a few other things that we got up to around the parks. Yeah.

Alicea 1:35

So uh what are guided tours?

Nathan 1:38

Well, a guided tour, at least in the Disney or Disneyland, to be more specific uh context, is a small group experience, usually 10 to 20 people, although I think most of the ones we've done have been under 10. Yeah. Where a Disney guide leads you through a curated, kind of like tour, if you will. Through parts of Disneyland and or California Adventure, sharing insider stories and coordinating rides, attractions, or special locations as part of the experience. Think of these as part history lesson, part storytelling immersion, and part VIP light park day.

Alicea 2:18

Yep. They are led by a dedicated tour guide, a specially trained cast member.

Nathan 2:24

These are plaids.

Alicea 2:25

Yes, these are plaids. Um there is a pre-planned itinerary that is focused on a specific theme. They are usually a couple hours long, usually around two hours or so, depending on the tour. And it is a separately ticketed experience. It is not included with park admission, and there's an additional fee for the tour. It usually includes uh reserved or expedited attraction access for one, maybe two storytelling and historical context. There is strategic pacing, so less waiting, more flow. And there are occasional backstage logistics or unique viewpoints, and that will vary by the tour.

Nathan 3:09

Right. And by availability.

Alicea 3:10

Yes.

Why Tours Feel So Special

Nathan 3:11

Yep. So what makes them so special? Well, the first thing is what Alicea just mentioned in storytelling that goes really deep into Disney level storytelling. Guides explain why things are the way they are, not just what they are. And this can include Walt Disney's original vision, especially there in the Disneyland park, hidden design details or imagineering tricks, park history and the evolution of a given space or an attraction over time, and how storytelling, music, and architecture all work together.

Alicea 3:46

And horticulture. Indeed. Um, this is a curated experience. Instead of just wandering around, you do follow a thoughtful narrative arc. Attractions are chosen to reinforce the theme that you're learning about, and transitions and pacing are handled just for you.

Nathan 4:04

And then these are all about convenience and comfort as well. Many tours include less time in lines, reserved viewing or seating, they have scheduled breaks, and they use headsets for easy listening. So you have a little earpiece that hangs off your ear and you can hear what your guide is saying very easily. I will offer a pro tip as a hearing aid user, these don't necessarily work with your hearing aids if you have the kind of hearing aid that hang off kind of like the back of your earlobe, which is pretty standard because those microphones are kind of you know on the top of or behind your ear, and these are meant to sit on top of your ear. So the pro tip that I have is to use a little Bluetooth transmitter dongle. You can find these on Amazon, and they just plug into the headphone jack on the little device that uh you carry around with you, and then you can pair that with a set of AirPods or whatever else that does work for you as a hearing aid listener, and you can hear what the guide is sharing. It was really, really fantastic. And this is kind of the first tour where I've tried doing that, and it's honestly the first tour where I really felt like I understood and couldn't really hear what was going on. So, pro tip there.

Tour Options And VIP Pricing

Alicea 5:25

Now, what type of tours are available? We did go over this in one of our earlier um episodes, but give you a quick rundown right here. Offerings do vary by the season, uh, and they change often as well. Right now, the options that you can do are uh the Disneyland Railroad Guided Tour. This was episode 175 from last spring break. We did this last year. That was fun. That was really awesome.

Nathan 5:50

That was really awesome.

Alicea 5:51

Uh Disney's Happiest Haunts, the Villain's Trail Guided Tour. I would love to do this. This is only around spooky season, obviously. Um, and it includes both parks. This is one of the few that actually does both Disneyland and California Adventure. Yeah. Next one is a story of celebration, the 70th anniversary guided tour. Spoiler alert, we did this one.

Nathan 6:14

We did. And then we also did the next offering on the plate, which is Women Who Make the Magic Guided Tour. So stand by and you'll hear more about that in a little bit. And then, of course, we must mention there's also Disneyland Resort VIP tours. These are multi-hour private experiences where you're ushered around the park hitting whatever attractions you want. This is rent a plaid for a day. You get to skip the line, you get to do whatever you want to do within reason. These are expensive. These are between five and eight hundred dollars an hour. There is an hourly minimum, i.e., I think it's like six or seven hours minimum. Um yeah. A couple these, yeah, these are several thousand dollars. Where the other tours are typically in the $120, $140 range. Depends on dates and demand and all the rest of that good stuff.

Alicea 7:14

We've also done a tour called Walt's Main Street Story. That was episode 100, if you would like to listen on that. We got to tour Walt's apartment above the firehouse, which was That was so cool. So cool. And and Sterling was with us for that, and they really enjoyed that too. Yeah. Um, there used to be a similar tour called Walking in Walt's Footsteps. Neither of these are on the schedule right now, but we expect something to pop back up after the 70th anniversary wraps up later this year. Yep. There also used to be um a tour about the horticulture of Disneyland, um, which is really, really interesting, believe it or not. Um, but I don't see that one on the schedule at any time.

Nathan 7:58

It is not. Yeah, it's not on there right now.

Alicea 8:00

So I think they swapped that with the women who make the magic guided tour. Got it. Because that's a newer one.

Nathan 8:07

Yes, it is. Yeah. In fact, we discovered while we were down there that we actually know somebody who helped uh on the back end put that whole thing together. So that was kind of cool. And we won't talk any more about that because they asked us not to. Yep.

Alicea 8:24

Let's talk about the first tour we did, which was a story of celebration, 70th anniversary guided tour.

Nathan 8:32

Yeah, the little blurb on this says for seven decades, Disneyland Park has been a beacon of celebration from the tennial celebration in 1965 through the 50th anniversary's happiest homecoming on earth. Disneyland has invited guests to celebrate milestones, imagine endless possibilities, and embrace new stories. And that tradition continues today with the Disneyland Resort 70th celebration. Join us for a captivating tour through this history. I can read copy. I should be a voiceover guy. Um, yeah. No. Nope. Anyhow, moving on.

Alicea 9:11

For this tour, our tour guide was named Murray, and he was a retired middle school teacher and administrator.

Nathan 9:19

He was awesome.

Alicea 9:20

He was awesome. I think he he's been a cast member for like four and a half or five years, is what he said.

Nathan 9:26

Yeah.

Alicea 9:26

Yeah. He was great, though.

Nathan 9:28

He was really, really cool. Yeah. We had we had good chats.

Alicea 9:32

This was a two-hour-long tour, and a couple of the, I guess, extra perks that you get for this is you do get uh to go on a ride. It was Runaway Railway, or you get a lightning lane for it, is what happened. You also get a dedicated spot near the flagpole for the Paint the Night Parade. Actually, it wasn't near the flagpole. It was, I believe, special viewing um up in the railroad area.

Nathan 10:02

Oh, I thought it was across from the railroad.

Alicea 10:05

You meet at the flagpole. Oh, and they bring you up to yeah. They bring you up to the railroad area for perfect viewing there. We had a dinner reservation that we could not miss that evening. So we were unable to take part in this. We still have not seen the Paint the Night parade. You also get a popcorn while you wait, the special Paint the Night popcorn.

Nathan 10:29

Yes. Ooh, fancy.

Alicea 10:31

Yeah, it is fancy. It's like it's it's the colors. It's like the Oh, that's right. The the blue, the pink, and the orange.

Nathan 10:39

Just the colors I want my popcorn to be.

Alicea 10:41

Fancy. I think it's like sweet popcorn or something. I don't know.

Nathan 10:44

Oh boy, my favorite. Anyhow. Anyway. It's uh yeah. We didn't able we weren't able to do that. And that's we were very bummed.

Alicea 10:55

They gave us an extra lightning lane, I believe, though.

Nathan 10:58

They did, yes. That was very nice of them. And they didn't need to do that.

Alicea 11:02

Yeah. Well, one of the things that we learned was Mr. Walt Disney in his wanting to keep the park clean based on seeing other amusement parks and them not being very clean, wanted to have a lot of trash cans, a lot of places for people to um dispose of their stuff rather than just throwing it on the ground because they couldn't find a trash can.

Nathan 11:27

And we've always heard this. Yes and you've it's the famous like, oh, it's a it's 30 steps between trash cans, or at least 30 steps between where you are in the nearest trash can. So I guess that would be 60 steps between trash cans. Right, right, right.

Alicea 11:42

All within visibility. There's a reason for this. It's the number of steps that it took for Walt to finish a hot dog. Gotta throw that wrapper away somewhere, I guess. So yeah.

Nathan 11:57

There you go. Everything comes back to hot dogs. Yeah.

Alicea 12:03

Uh one of the other things that we learned was the opening of Disneyland was on television. There were 90 million people that watched the opening of Disneyland on television.

Nathan 12:15

Yeah. I knew it was broadcast on television.

Alicea 12:18

Yes.

Nathan 12:18

I didn't realize it had like half the country tuned in.

Alicea 12:22

That is a staggering number.

Nathan 12:25

Yeah.

Alicea 12:25

It may not seem like that much now, although it actually is. It does seem like a lot now.

Nathan 12:30

It's huge now.

Alicea 12:31

But back then.

Nathan 12:33

Yeah.

Alicea 12:34

Yeah. Crazy, crazy. I mean, this was in 55.

Nathan 12:38

Yep. 90 million people in 55. Wow. Another cool thing we learned is about the gas lamps on Main Street. And I never honestly really realized it. As you were progressing down Main Street from the railway station towards the castle, it is actually an evolution in time through a few decades around the turn of the century. It starts out in the late 1890s or, you know, around the turn of the century. And you'll notice that the lamps, at least there in Disneyland, are actual gas lamps. Well, as you get down towards the castle, I think it's the second half of Main Street. Those lamps are electric. That is really cool.

Alicea 13:24

Yeah. So it's going from gas lamps to electric lamps, showing the progress just of technology. And also the whole horse-drawn carriages and motor cars. Right. That kind of shows that evolution as well.

Nathan 13:37

Yep. Yep.

Alicea 13:39

The main street theater. Hopefully everybody has gone in there because it's kind of cool.

Nathan 13:43

It is.

Alicea 13:45

It started out showing uh the Gertie short, so the dinosaur Gertie that they have over in Hollywood Studios.

Nathan 13:52

I never knew Gertie was an actress. That's awesome. Good for her.

Alicea 13:55

Yeah, yeah. She's the first animated, like one of the first animated um.

Nathan 14:00

No, she's real. She's I've seen her in Hollywood studios.

Alicea 14:04

I've eaten her cookie too. Oh, that sounded really dirty. Sorry. Moving on. Uh-huh. Um. Also in the theater was Phantom at the Opera with Lon Chaney.

Nathan 14:14

Yes.

Alicea 14:15

That's really cool.

Nathan 14:16

I had heard something about a tie-in with Phantom on something somewhere. I don't remember where I heard that within the last year. Uh, and there was like a big licensing deal and all the rest of that stuff that was involved. And then I forget who it was, but like some studio exec that Walt had been friends with eventually, you know, passed away, and that other entity was kind of like, and we're done with you using all of that IP. So yeah. Lon Cheney was a Disney princess. Nope. Oh, okay. All right.

Alicea 14:56

Um one of the neat things of this audio tour is as we were walking in between place to place, they were playing old commercials through the earpieces. Yeah.

Nathan 15:08

Sometimes it was music, but then there was one section where it was Disneyland radio commercials through the years, like through the decades, starting about with like in the mid-50s when it opened. Yeah. And you could you could really tell the production value and the style and everything else as it moved from the 50s to the 60s to the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. Yeah. I just sound like a radio DJ there.

Alicea 15:30

Anyhow. That was really neat. Um, there was a couple that I actually recognized. I'm like, oh my gosh. Uh-huh.

Nathan 15:36

Uh-huh.

Alicea 15:38

Of course, we talked about the tiki room a little bit. Yes. Um, one of the things I love about this is we we went to the tiki room on another day, and Sterling was like, Yes, we're going to the tiki room, which kind of surprised me. I was like, oh, Sterling actually wants to go to the tiki room. We have done things right.

Nathan 15:58

Yes, I am starting to read a book all about how the tiki room came about. So um hoping to turn that into an episode at some point in the future. We'll we'll see how that goes.

Alicea 16:10

The tiki room was originally designed to be a dinner theater.

Nathan 16:13

Yeah. Yeah, that was one of the original concepts. And uh Walt's initial take was like, you're you're gonna have birds sitting over the dinner table. That's not gonna work out well. And the imaginary is like, no, no, no, no, they're gonna be animatronic. He's like, oh.

Alicea 16:32

No, that's where they that's where the idea came about. Like yeah, why have real ones when we can do this new fangled thing?

Nathan 16:39

Anyhow, I don't want to go more into the tiki room. That's definitely gonna be uh an episode at some point. But uh yeah, it was it was really cool. Just it is the one attraction, the one thing at Disneyland that has Walt's name on it. And we'll talk about that more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In an episode coming sometime this year.

Alicea 16:59

And of course, we talked a little bit about Bob Gurr, who's a very very well-known imagineer. And I did not realize this. I learned all sorts of wonderful things on this tour.

Nathan 17:09

Yeah, this is why we love these tours, by the way. You learn all sorts of tidbits.

Alicea 17:14

All the Main Street vehicles are period correct manual transmissions. And all of the vehicles were designed by by Bob Gurr. He designed all of them.

Nathan 17:25

Yep.

Alicea 17:25

I mean, I knew that he had designed the Autopia vehicles, um, but I didn't realize he had like specifically designed the Main Street vehicles. So that was really cool.

Nathan 17:34

It's almost like anything that had wheels Bob Gurr was involved in. It was really interesting. I mean that and so much more, but yeah. We actually have a Funko pop of Bob Gurr.

Alicea 17:45

Yes, we do. We have two. Tried to get him to sign it, but he wasn't there. We tried.

Nathan 17:52

We tried.

Alicea 17:53

Yeah. Speaking of Autopia, the first Autopia car was completed three months before opening date.

Nathan 18:01

Yeah. The first one.

Alicea 18:03

The first one. Yeah. We also learned all of the vehicles were inoperative within the first three days of opening.

Nathan 18:14

There was no center rail to guide. Yeah. And um, yeah, it got a little bumper car-ish. And uh they were able to like repair and things like that, but um fun. Yes. Fun times. We, as part of this tour, got to take a little trip on the train, which was very, very fun.

Alicea 18:36

I always like riding the railroad.

Nathan 18:38

Absolutely. This is, of course, the Disneyland Railroad, it is a 5'8 scale uh railroad. These are were used in specific like mining and and other uh uh things. So just because it's a 5-8 scale doesn't mean it's like not a real thing.

Alicea 18:54

Yeah.

Nathan 18:54

Um, but it's pretty cool because like the olden the oldest engine, it's pretty cool because like the oldest steam engine that they have there, Disneyland, is engine number three. It was built in 1894 and it's still running. Like that's that's I don't make them like that anymore, that's for sure. Now it's been worked on a little bit over the years.

Alicea 19:19

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Nathan 19:21

Yeah.

Alicea 19:21

But they have five engines, and four of them are named after presidents of the Santa Fe Railroad.

Nathan 19:28

Yes.

Alicea 19:29

I don't have the names of those, sorry.

Nathan 19:31

It's okay.

Alicea 19:31

I'm I'm sure I can figure them out.

Nathan 19:34

Or people could look online and there.

Alicea 19:36

Um the last one is named the Ward Kimball is uh named after uh named after an imagineer.

Nathan 19:46

Then after the train, we got to take a ride on the Mark Twain. This is the paddle boat, paddle wheel boat that is there on uh the river in the middle of Disneyland. And I don't know that I'd ever been on the Mark Twain before.

Alicea 20:04

I don't think I have. I've been on one of them. It may have been the one in Disney World.

Nathan 20:10

I think we've been on the one in Florida. I don't think we had been on this one either. Uh or before. I don't think we'd been on this one though. Got it. It's really fantastic. You can see the two steam engines, and or at least the pistons that are that are steam driven that turn the paddle. And I was like, yeah, I kind of geeked out and took a bunch of pictures, like, oh, that's so cool. It was really neat. Yeah, yeah. And of course, through all of this, you're not only getting the narration from the boat, uh, but you're also getting the narration from your tour guide to give you extra stories, extra behind the scenes. For example, the Mark Twain, I mean, it's named after Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens, right? Like it's one of Walt's favorite authors. I had no idea that Mark Twain is actually like a nautical term that they used on river boats that meant, hey, you've finally reached a depth of two fathoms and it's safe to use the paddle again. Like that's that's cool.

Alicea 21:22

Yes. We also learned that the maiden voyage of the Mark Twain was on Walt and Lillian's 35th anniversary.

Nathan 21:30

Indeed. And this was like three weeks before the park opened or something like that.

Alicea 21:34

Yeah, yeah.

Nathan 21:35

Um, things were not ready. Main Street wasn't even paved yet.

Alicea 21:40

And on opening day, the Mark Twain. Well, there's a lot of gawkers on there, and it took on water.

Nathan 21:47

Yes, people were running from side to side to see things around the river, and that didn't work out so well.

Alicea 21:55

One of the last things that we learned about was that Fantasyland was originally. Designed like a medieval fair. So they had like the canopies outside of every ride, and it just like looked like a Renaissance fair, if you will.

Nathan 22:11

Right, big tents and things like that.

Alicea 22:13

There's a huge refurbishment done in 1983 where they actually moved a bunch of the rides and replaced all the tent structures. They updated all the ride facades and kind of changed them to match where the rides were from. So like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Peter Pan kind of had this uh British feel to the outside of it, kind of like I don't know what you would call that. Like Elizabethan Victorian, whatever. Yeah.

Nathan 22:45

Yeah.

Alicea 22:46

Pinocchio has kind of an Italian feel to it, and Snow White has a German feel to it.

Women Who Make The Magic Tour

Nathan 22:51

Yeah. And then we ended our tour over by Small World, which was actually the last attraction that Walt Disney actually personally dedicated. And that was really neat to see as well. So, you know, this is just a really fantastic chance to hear some stories, to get some background, to just get some really interesting and fantastic uh uh uh details. You may have heard some of them before, you may have heard uh uh new things on this day. You get to have uh a guide at your beck and call. If you have random questions about history or anything else, they will either have the answer or get you the answer. Uh it's I highly recommended these things. Not every trip needs to be go, go, go, go, go, do, do, do, do, do, especially as we get older and more broken. We are finding different ways to enjoy the Disney parks. And uh tours like this are a big part of that for us. Next up, we enjoyed the Women Who Make the Magic Guided Tour. This was the next day. We didn't do both of these on the same day, and this was really, really fascinating.

Alicea 24:09

Yes. The copy says, Discover how trailblazing women began their journeys at the Walt Disney Company, made lasting names for themselves, and contributed to the unparalleled legacy of Disney storytelling at Disneyland Park.

Nathan 24:23

For this two-hour tour, Giorgio was our tour guide, and it included a treat at the end. We got a Matterhorn macaron. Macaron? Macaron, I don't know. One of those other watch, yeah.

Alicea 24:37

It was a coconut cookie, basically.

Nathan 24:39

There you have it. Uh, and this also included a nighttime show spot, typically, although on the day we were there, the nighttime shows weren't running because the park was closing early. So it was a lightning lane. Yep. This was a really cool tour because it focused at least the first maybe half of it on a lot of the window dedications on Main Street, specifically on the women who were instrumental in helping design, implement, and make really cool things happen there at Disneyland and for the Disney company. And, you know, we've heard some of these stories before, but it's so easy to just walk down Main Street and be focused on, you know, trying not to run over a little kid, or I've got to duck in here to see if they have that sweatshirt I really want, or hey, that's a really cool display that they have in one of the windows. Folks, take your time, look up. Those second story windows are telling a lot of stories. Yes, they really are. Honoring some very, very important and very, very cool people in the Disney ecosystem.

Alicea 25:53

And we started out learning a little bit about Walt's parents, which I hadn't really heard very much on before. I mean, I heard Elias' name, but I didn't know about his mom, Flora.

Nathan 26:07

Yeah.

Alicea 26:07

Um, like I didn't know she was an architect, like a very well-known architect. Yes. Very, very um, I don't know, accomplished. Yes, extremely accomplished.

Nathan 26:18

I knew that his dad, Elias, was a basically a contractor. I had no idea that his mom was the architect that was designing everything that his dad built. And she was running all the books for the business, plus running the household. Yeah. Like, whoa. She did a lot.

Alicea 26:36

Yeah.

Nathan 26:37

We, of course, also honored Walt's wife Lillian, who started off as a secretary in the ink and paint department there at Disney Studios. And of course, heard how Lillian helped steer Mickey into life. Not necessarily his look, but uh, let's not go with Mortimer as the name.

Alicea 26:56

Yeah. Yep. So she chose Mickey and it made sense.

Nathan 27:01

Yes. And she has not just a window dedicated to her, she really has a whole kind of porch uh up there right on the flagpole circle. Uh over on the right hand side, as you're facing towards the castle, there's a very elaborate porch uh that is all about everything that Lillian focused on and uh was influential uh about there in the the Disney uh not just the park, but for the company as well. And it that was dedicated, I think, just a couple years ago.

Alicea 27:38

Last year.

Nathan 27:39

Last year, yeah.

Alicea 27:40

July, yeah, July of last year, they dedicated the window on their anniversary.

Nathan 27:45

It's really quite stunning.

Alicea 27:46

Yeah. And in 97, Lillian set aside 50 million to help build the new symphony hall in Los Angeles.

Nathan 27:57

Yes, the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Which uh, and that was right before Lillian passed away. Uh she unfortunately uh uh didn't make it until this uh opened in 2003. But I do remember being in the LA area not too long after it opened. I never got to go in the hall. It is stunning. It's a Frank Geary design, it's just absolutely iconic. And it is beautiful from the outside. I've seen some pictures of the inside. Someday, someday, that is a concert hall I would love to attend something in.

Alicea 28:32

Or even just go tour it.

Nathan 28:34

Yeah, absolutely.

Alicea 28:36

We learned about all sorts of ladies who have made the magic for Disney. Um we're not gonna d- we're not gonna dive through every single one of them. Um just a couple couple ones that we just want to bring forward. I think one of them is is Alice Davis. She was an expert pattern maker. She's actually known for making women's lingerie at first. And she was hired by Mark Davis for um the skirt work for Sleeping Beauty because Sleeping Beauty or Aurora, she twirls around and they wanted to get the look right for her dress.

Nathan 29:17

And that just blew up. She worked on all of the costumes for Small World. She helped institute rules around costuming, especially for the animatronics, because you know, as those things are moving, things wear out. Uh, and she came up with this rule that if you're gonna do a uh costume for an animatronic, you're making two right off the bat to help things, you know, have a spare, figure out how to repair things, those kind of things. And that really helped out because not too long after uh the ride opened there on Pirates of the Caribbean, there was actually a fire in the burning uh uh port scene there, ironically. And uh a bunch of those costumes in that scene were damaged, but they had spares.

Alicea 30:07

Yep. So she worked on It's a Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean. There's actually a quote saying, She went from sweet little children to dirty old men overnight. So her dupe policy saved the day.

Nathan 30:22

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. We also heard a little bit about Leota Toomes, who was a uh a model maker. Uh, she contributed to a lot of uh attractions that made the uh the the world's fair there in 1964 that Disney was so uh involved with. Um she is also the uh the original Madame Leota there in Haunted Mansion. She has a tombstone there in Florida, and last week, right after we did this tour, uh the week prior to that, and then we were home, and I think it was like Tuesday or something like that, they actually dedicated a brand new honorarium window to Leota tombs there in Disneyland.

Alicea 31:07

So it wasn't just Leota, it was also her daughter, Kim Irvine. So the window has both Leota's name and Kim's name on there. And Kim's done a bunch as well for Disney. Um she did the, I think, reiteration of Madame Leota in the haunted mansion as well.

Nathan 31:24

And her daughter, Kim's daughter, I forget her name, is a current uh Disney employee. I think she's in Imagineering, if I am remembering correctly. So this is a a the third generation of Madame Leota is uh is working in the parks still and making the magic happen.

Alicea 31:43

We also learned about Ruth Shellhorn, who's a landscape architect. So as you're walking around Disneyland, yeah, you have her to thank for all the walkways and um all the landscape architecture. It's changed a little bit over the years, but she is the person who made this look the way it did to make it easy to get around and navigable and all that good stuff.

Nathan 32:11

Right. And her design principles influenced the design of pretty much every other Disney park and a lot of other uh theme parks that came after. Like her principles of how you lay things out and make things accessible and themed and all the rest of that stuff. So and what blew my mind is she was hired like three months before Disneyland opened. Like, shouldn't you have been thinking about some of this stuff a little earlier?

Alicea 32:37

Yeah.

Nathan 32:38

I guess not.

Alicea 32:40

We also learned a lot about the um tour guides of Disneyland. The very first one was uh ambassador of Disneyland, and she was introduced on the world of color way back when by Walt Disney himself. And um, they also talked a bit about Martha Blanding, who was the first black tour guide. And she was actually recently um made a Disney legend, and we got to be there at well, we were there 24?

Nathan 33:10

Yes, at D23.

Alicea 33:11

At D23 in 2024, yes. And got to see her at the Disney Legend ceremony.

Nathan 33:17

That was really, really cool. And I was listening to another podcast. I know there's other Disney podcasts out there, but the Hyperion Adventures podcast of maybe a month ago now. Uh they had an episode that Martha and uh another co-writer kind of uh put a book out. And go listen to that episode on the Hyperion Adventures podcast because Martha is just a ball of energy and anecdotes. And just her story is is truly, truly inspiring of uh just overcoming some of the cultural uh uh racism. I'm not gonna uh sugarcoat it, that uh, you know, pushed through and you know, starting out as a tour guide and uh moving up through merchandising and a as a buyer, and then you know, running uh programs like D23 and stuff like that before she retired. She had like a 50 plus year career with Disney, and uh uh she has amazing stories about even just getting through the interview. And it was uh yeah, highly recommended. So Martha Blanding, Hyperion Adventures podcast. There is a book that she just came out with as well. Highly recommended if you want to do a little bit deeper dive on some really important women uh around Disney.

Alicea 34:44

Yeah. They closed this out with we got to see one of the one of the clock tower statues. Yeah. I don't know if that's what they're called. Um, one of the original ones from It's a Small World.

Nathan 34:58

Yeah.

Alicea 34:59

I forget which one it was. They had they gave it a specific name. Um it's one of the dancers.

Nathan 35:07

Yeah. And uh it's surprisingly large.

Alicea 35:12

Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan 35:13

But they actually had it had it out on stage uh with a couple uh uh plaids around it and undercover. Yeah. And they uh uncovered it uh there over by a small world, and we got to take pictures with it. So we have some really cool pictures and uh one with Alicia standing next to it for scale. And like it's like half Alicia's size. Like it's not it's not a small world.

Alicea 35:40

Yeah, it's it's it's up to my chest. Yeah.

Nathan 35:42

Yeah.

Alicea 35:43

It's it's cool. We also got to go, we did get to go on a ride on this tour, and I was hoping it'd be It's a Small World. Um, but it was a storybook canal boat.

Nathan 35:54

Yes. We didn't do small world. I really kind of wanted to.

Alicea 35:57

I was thinking we would just because of the ladies that did all the work on It's a Small World.

Nathan 36:02

Yeah. Yeah. So we'll just have to go back. Okay. Okay. Well, uh that those are the the the tours. You know, you learn so much on these tours. You're spending a couple hours. So it depends on your style. If you're the kind of person who, you know, you've only been to Disney, this is your one trip to Disneyland, you know, a tour probably isn't for you. But if you've been there a bunch, if you're looking for something that's not necessarily go, go, go and super rides and all the rest of that stuff, then you know, these are some offerings that give you some extra special uh uh little bit of pixie dust on top of your park day.

Other Park Highlights And Shows

Alicea 36:45

Yeah, I love doing these tours. It is an additional cost, but we learn so much. And I just I love the history of it all. Maybe I should read more books because I really do learning it, like learning about the history.

Nathan 36:56

Do you read?

Alicea 36:57

Even read, bro? Yeah, I do, but it's usually light and frivolous stuff.

Nathan 37:03

Dragons and whatnot.

Alicea 37:05

They're not light or frivolous, but yes. Anyway. Um We did do some other stuff while we were at the party. Yeah. We only got on a couple of rides, um, but they were good ones. Yes. And we got to see the new Walt Disney Animatronic.

Nathan 37:24

Yes, this was cool. So uh we went over and just had some time. We're like, let's go do great moments with Mr. Lincoln. Like, why not? And so we did. And right before we went in, we had heard, hey, this is the last showing of this show for the day. And then they were turning it over to do the uh uh the the Walt Disney story right after that. And I was like, oh, well, I guess we'll just stay around. Yeah. And so we did Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, which I also don't know if I had done before. Oh, really? I don't think so. I had done the um the show that's in the American Pavilion in Epcot before. Uh, and I know I'd done Hall of President several times, but I don't think I'd done Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln before.

Alicea 38:16

I've I've done this one before, and I think I think it was one of the days that I was just there by myself or something like that. Um because I had to see it. This was the very first, you know, this was the famous Lincoln animatronic, and it is ridiculously impressive.

Nathan 38:29

Well, it's it is not the original.

Alicea 38:31

No, but it's been I know it's been done, but it's pretty much what it did.

Nathan 38:36

Yes.

Alicea 38:37

Because it stands up and it's just like, holy cow.

Nathan 38:40

Yeah, it it's really, really impressive. Uh and then we spent maybe 15 or 20 minutes touring around the history and art gallery there, which was absolutely fascinating. They had some of the original concept drawings from Disneyland.

Alicea 38:56

The maps of all the iterations that it was before Disneyland.

Nathan 39:01

Yeah, even when it was gonna be up in Burbank originally, like some of those original designs. It was really neat to see a lot of that. Um, some of the original animatronics uh for uh uh the tiki room were in there. Tiki room pirates. Yeah, a bunch of stuff was was in on display uh from history, uh Disney history there. And then we got to see the uh the Walt Disney story. What did you think?

Alicea 39:29

I thought it was great. I mean, I know there was a lot of flack when it first came out, people saying it didn't look like Walt, but these were also people that zoomed way in on this thing. Right. It didn't exactly look like him, but I don't know, just based on a lot of the other animatronics that we've seen, especially in the Hall of Presidents, it is very difficult to make an actual likeness for an animatronic.

Nathan 39:55

Yeah. No, I thought I thought they did really well. I I I enjoyed it. I thought the story was great, walking you through his his story. Yeah. And highly recommended. Actually, I recommend seeing both.

Alicea 40:09

Yes.

Nathan 40:09

Yeah.

Alicea 40:10

And Sterling had their performance at the Hollywood Backlot stage in California Adventure. That's that was really cool. Just to see the kids up there. We actually saw a couple of performances from other um groups that were up there throughout the week, too. That was that was neat.

Nathan 40:26

Yep. This is where uh concert bands and choirs and things like that, or in Sterling's case, uh uh uh theater group will get on stage and they did a a bunch of short performances and uh yeah, it was it was a lot of fun. It I mean, it is something special to be able to say that you've performed at Disney.

Alicea 40:44

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Nathan 40:46

Yeah.

Alicea 40:47

And um we went over to check out Bluey.

Nathan 40:51

As you do.

Alicea 40:52

Well, Nathan, you still haven't seen an episode. You said you were gonna see an episode and you haven't yet.

Nathan 40:57

I have failed. I apologize. I apologize.

Alicea 41:01

This is a really, honestly, a really cute show. Yes. And it has a kick-ass live band.

Nathan 41:08

Yes, the music is incredible. It is, yeah. Kudos to Disney for still investing in live entertainment, at least at Disneyland, where you have stuff like this going on, you have real shows going on. Not that there's not unreal shows going on elsewhere, but you get my point. Yeah. Um, Streetmosphere has been back for a few years, or a couple years at least, there in Disney California Adventure. We have the citizens of Hollywood, um, you know, Disney World, Florida. Guys, Bubby, hey. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. Please bring these people back. It makes such a difference to have live entertainers, streetmosphere, all the rest of that stuff happening in the park. It is what makes Disney parks magical and it separates them from the six flags and and the other things that that are out there that you're competing against. Just do it. Just do it. And look at what Epic uh Universe is doing. Like there's a ton of people on stage there.

Alicea 42:11

I hope they keep that up.

Nathan 42:12

Uh that too, yeah. 100%. 100%.

Alicea 42:16

Well, you and Sterling went over to DCA on Tuesday to ride the wheel of death, as I call it.

Nathan 42:24

Yes, Mickey's fun wheel. No, it's not Mickey's fun wheel, it's the Pixar Pal-A-Round. Yes. Of course, on the the swinging side.

Alicea 42:31

The swinging side, yeah. Yes. I don't get nauseous on rides. This one, I got nauseous on, which is a very novel feeling for me. I did not like it. And Kaitlyn did not like it either when we did this. So you guys get to do this.

Nathan 42:45

And I do often get nauseous on rides, and this one doesn't bother me at all.

Alicea 42:50

So weird.

Nathan 42:51

So weird. Yeah. We did uh, yeah, Sterling and I did the Wheel of Death, and then we did Maider's Junkyard Jamboree. And oh, that was so fun.

Alicea 43:01

I love rides like that. I really do. They're they're just little filler rides, but they make me giggle.

Nathan 43:06

Yep, yep, yep, yep. You joined us. We tried to go do Radiator Springs racers. This is always interesting. It was like a hundred-minute plus wait. But if you were willing to spend the money for the lightning lane, because that's a single ride, you know, you've got to pay for attraction. It was an instant redemption. Yeah. And and not like two or three or eight hours out. It was like right then. So especially in our state, and we had other things to go do that day. Um, we said, okay, great, we're we're gonna pay for it. And then we we we went right in line and and then the ride broke. Yep.

Alicea 43:45

Yes, we are part of the problem. We buy the lightning lines.

Nathan 43:49

Sorry, everybody. So instead we went over to do uh Luigi's was it Luigi's Rollicking Roasters? Yes. Yes. This

Alicea 44:01

We hadn't done this before.

Nathan 44:03

No, we hadn't done this one. It was so much fun. And that queue is incredible.

Alicea 44:09

It is. It is. It's funny. Um, so they have all these different tires in the queue and they all have different names, but they're all the Fettuccini Alfredo tires. They all have the the name of the tires on the top of it. Right. And it's all Fettuccini Alfredo.

Nathan 44:25

Yeah. There's two or three different like tread designs, but they all have Fettuccini Alfredo like embossed on the side. Yeah. Even if they say that they're from some other manufacturer on the label. So it's just come on. There's one level of detail you could have gone into. But speaking of details, like in the office there in the shop, they had the automotive table of the elements on the wall. So it had the normal things like iron and nickel and copper and zinc and gold. But then it had, and this was full. This was a full periodic table.

Alicea 45:00

Yes, that's why I took a picture of it. I'm like, there's gotta be some stuff in here. I we were going by too fast. I couldn't really see anything, so I just took a picture.

Nathan 45:07

We have beepium, speedium, swervium, rumium, petroleum, and uternium, among others. It was very, very cool.

Alicea 45:20

And there's also a menu from the Wheel Wheel Motel, the cocktail menu.

Nathan 45:25

It was up uh pinned up on a corkboard.

Alicea 45:27

Yes. This is another one. I'm like, this looks fun, and took a picture of it. Well, we have the type of cocktails here are the Cartini, the Floody Mary, the obviously the sidecar. Yes. The engine and tonic, Carsmopolitan, Mojito, like T-O-W, Mohitow, uh, my tie rod, chrome de mint, and engine block Russian.

Nathan 45:53

Yeah.

Alicea 45:54

The level of detail and and imagineering that goes into these queues, you guys. You just you gotta look.

Nathan 46:01

The level of puns and dad jokes. I love it.

Alicea 46:06

We finally got to go on Radiator Springs Racers in the evening at dusk. That was great.

Nathan 46:12

That is the right time to do that ride when the lighting kicks in. We got to see the Shaboom show because we were walking over there and we needed to wait all of like 45 seconds for the right timing for sunset, and watched all the neon uh turn on along the street there. And the music pop on. Yeah, so good. So good. And we did red uh web slingers, which I still don't know what the heck I'm Nah.

Alicea 46:38

I just finger guns, pew, pew, pew. Yep. Um, some of the other rides we got to do, we was uh this was like later on throughout the week. Yeah. Rise of the resistance. Get on the blue line if you can, it's the best.

Nathan 46:52

Yes. The we won't spoil it. Just red is okay. Blue is best.

Alicea 46:59

Yes.

Nathan 46:59

Yes.

Alicea 47:00

We had the A show. Yes. I was not expecting that. I was I was for sure thinking that we'd have the B show.

Nathan 47:06

There's three gun turrets. They had all been moving because they just did the refurb here, right? In in California? And now only one of them was working. Only one of them was working.

Alicea 47:15

That's that's all right. That's all right. We still got the other things. That was good. Come on, guys. You could do it.

Nathan 47:21

Uh we did Haunted Mansion. Um what else did we do over the week?

Alicea 47:26

We uh Mickey’s run away railway.

Nathan 47:29

That took two tries because it went down as soon as we got in the line there, too.

Alicea 47:33

Tiki Room.

Nathan 47:34

Tiki Room, yep, we did that. We did that. We tried to see and visit with Wall-E and Eve, uh, who had been doing like four Wednesdays. I think this was the fourth of four Wednesdays for the month of April. Yeah, in April. And um it um it was a it was a basically two-block line outside the hotel, and they had shut the line right before we got there, and it was like already two hours long. So uh that wasn't gonna work out. So we decided to go to the Palm Breeze bar and uh instead.

Alicea 48:07

Yeah, I mean the cast member at the end of the line said you could always walk into the lobby and look at them, and then like you can't you can't get your picture with them or anything, but you can see them. And I'm like, well, I'm gonna go do that. So Sterling and I went over there, did that. I walked past them to go to the restroom and came back. And the cast members there were like, come on, hurry up, hurry up. Um, so I got a really quick video of them. Yeah, they're cute as heck.

Nathan 48:36

They're big too.

Alicea 48:37

They are big and they and and they're making, you know, they're noises like Wall-E was saying, Wall-E and and Eve and and stuff.

Nathan 48:44

They'll turn to look at you. Yes.

Alicea 48:46

Yeah, it was I hope they they keep these out and have them out more often. Um very cute.

Nathan 48:54

Yes. Um, what do we know? It snowed at home while we were in California on spring break, so that was nice to miss. It was a really good trip. Yeah. It was a much different pace than we have been taking in the past. We have taken in the past. I mean, we've done Disneyland open to close. Yes. Uh that's not us anymore. And especially this trip, we were just a lot slower physically. We just weren't weren't hitting it that hard.

Wrap Up And How To Reach Us

Alicea 49:22

So there's there's a couple things I wish I could have done. Like I I really would have liked to just hang out at Galaxy's Edge a little more. I love doing that. I just love the ambiance of that area. Um, even if I just like sit down and bring my Kindle and just read for a while. I I just I feel very happy in that area.

Nathan 49:42

Yeah.

Alicea 49:42

I like it a lot.

Nathan 49:44

Well, now you can get a a a pink milk.

Alicea 49:46

Oh, yeah, I got a pink milk. That was good. Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan 49:50

And of course, Sterling and I on our way out of the park, we got an exit churro. Yeah, as you do. It's important. It's important. Well, speaking of exit churros, that's the end of our episode. Yep. We'll be back next week with more fun stuff. In the meantime, just remember we're not affiliated with Disney or their subsidiaries. All of what you have heard are our personal opinions and suggestions based on our own experiences. But remember, we are affiliated with fun, snacks, and questionable decisions. And exit churros. Exit churros for sure.

Alicea 50:26

We recommend working with a travel advisor or contacting Disney directly to plan your perfect vacation. And if you love this episode, please take a moment and give us a rating and review. It helps other Disney fans find us, and it's just a nice thing to do.

Nathan 50:40

Absolutely. If you have questions or suggestions, or would like to be interviewed on our show to share your Disney experiences, please reach out, send us an email to podcast at ourMousCapades.com.

Alicea 50:52

You can follow us on socials. We are at Our Mouse Capades on Instagram, Facebook Threads, and YouTube. And please share us with your friends and your family.

Nathan 51:01

Thanks for listening. We'll be in your ears next week.

Intro 51:06

Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye bye.