I thought this accounting might be helpful to people contemplating taking this tour. As you will discover as you read my report, much of this tour could simply be done on your own...very little access was given to "behind the scenes" locations. If you already have reservations for this tour and you want to be surprised, don't read this as I have gone into detail and it might spoil it for you. It is a little long...
My sister an I have annual passes to Disneyland, so we decided to take advantage of the passholder's preview of this walking tour (I believe it will be available to anyone later this month). The tour was $49 per person, which included the tour, lunch and a special pin. It sounded great - however it turned out to be fairly disappointing. We picked up our tickets at guest services outside the main gates and met the tour guides at a designated spot near the entrance to the park. One cast member took our lunch order - you have a choice between a turkey and bacon sandwich, a roast beef sandwich, or a chicken caesar salad sandwich. I chose the chicken caesar and my sister chose roast beef.
We were then greated by our very nice and personable tour guide who asked us to go enter through the turnstiles so we could begin the tour. He stopped us near the flowers that make up mickey's head and described how the red bricks on the ground at the entrance was Walt's idea of a "red carpet" and the arched tunnel you go through to enter the park are "curtains" ... signaling the beginning of the show.
We were then directed towards the "Walt Disney Story" where we watched a clip of video (I believe the same footage from the ABC special that aired earlier this year) and a look at a replica of Walt's office (all of this can be viewed by any guest at the park). Then we went to the Fire Station on main street, where Walt had an apartment built for his family...unfortunately, we were only allowed to look at it from Main Street... not allowed to go in (why did I pay $50 for this again?).
We then crossed Main Street again to go to the cinema..where the guide told us Steam Boat Willie was the first synchronous sound cartoon...and then outside where he discussed the use of perspective, etc to make main street look longer when you are entering the park, and shorter when you are exiting...pretty basic info.
Next, we walked to the Tiki Birds, where we waited 20 minutes outside for the show to end, and our group was let inside. We looked at the birds in their "sleeping" state, sat down as the rest of the guests entered, one person in our party "woke up" one of the birds...and then we all snuck out of the show. We didn't even get to see the show!
Then we walked to Club 33... which I though would be the highlight of the tour. We were supposed to be allowed into the lobby of Club 33, which we were...but it was completely underwelming. I thought that by lobby, they meant we would be allowed upstairs to see the hallway and lobby area up there. However, we were only allowed inside the main doors, into a space about 10x8 (maybe) at the foot of the staircase. We could only see the staricase (which curves, so you can't even see the top of the stairs), and the elevator. For anyone who is interested, the wallpaper is a pinkish maroon, there is a french replica iron and glass elevator and a wood podium where people check in for their reservation. Soooo disappointing. It was only about 10:30am, and no guests there for lunch yet...I don't know why they won't let 15 people a day take a peek upstairs.
After this, we took the train from New Orleans (you can see the remains of the original Frontierland station behind you as board the train) to Tomorrowland (along the way, you will pass the "roundhouse"...you will have to be looking behind you...where the trains are kept on the bottom and the monorails are kept on the top. This was built because Walt himself retained ownership of both the trains and monorails).
In tomorrowland we looked at Autopia, which is the only remaining original tomorrowland attraction.
We then walked to King Triton's grotto...where you can see the remains of the foundation of the House of the Future. An old attraction that was a plastic house of the future that guests could look into. When they decided the attraction was too dated, they had a wrecking ball try to destroy it, but the ball bounced right off the plastic house! Workers had to disassemble the house piece by piece.
We then walked to the hub of disneyland, with the Walt Disney/Mickey statue and read the message at the bottom.
Then we looked at the castle and was told that Walt stood firm on his desire to have the spires of the castle in gold leaf (Roy wanted gold paint). When Roy went on a trip, Walt had it done in gold leaf and Roy was livid. Walt told him that the one unfinished spire was his... To this day the one spire is unfinished and is a symbol that Disneyland will never be finished.
Next, we went into Fantasyland and stood by the carousel (which is being refurbished) where our guide described the origins of the ride (Coney Island I believe) and how it was transformed from a merry-go-round into a carousel. Walt's wife's favorite horse is a white one with a gold tooth which rides on the outside.
We then made our way through the Snow White grotto where you can see that Snow White is the same size as the dwarfs. The artist had worked off a box of Snow White character soaps which were all the same size in the box...so he didn't realize his mistake. By placing Snow White high up in the area, she appears to be larger.
We then walked through frontierland, at the petrified tree that Walt gave his wife as a gift.
Next, we entered the Gallery...which was designed as a family apartment for Walt, but was never used. The dining room is the room with the fireplace....you can notice that there is a doorway (blocked by art) that led to the kitchens at Club 33 which would have provided the food. The hallway outside this door was the main entranceway. The door at the end that is cast members only is where people would have entered the apartment. There were a couple of other doors at the other end of the apt. which led to the kid's rooms (now offices...we were not allowed in), and a smoking room (not allowed in).
Our lunched were laid out with our names on them in the patio area of the gallery. We sat where out names were... there were only tables of 4. If you are a party of 2, you are seated with others, parties larger than 4 were split up. My sandwich was good (my sister didn't like the roast beef), although it would have been nice to have chips or fries as a side. We were given cans of soda and cups of ice (nice, so that the ice doesn't water down your drink), and a dessert of pecan pie. I don't like pecan pie, so I wish there had been a choice of dessert...it was a waste to see them throw away the untouched pie. There are wetnaps to wash up and your special pin and a comment card are next to your food. After lunch, you can go.
Overall, it was a pleasant way to spend a morning in the park... but as I said before, anyone could get a trivia book on Disneyland, or look Walt up on the internet and get alot more information than was on this tour. I felt that I knew more about Walt than our tour guide did (although he was very nice)...and none of the information he gave out was new to me. All of the sites were places you could see with your admission to the park, excepting the lobby of Club 33, which was disappointing. The lunch was worth about $10, and the pin about $6...but I don't think the actual tour is worth the remaining $33. I hope this will help someone, I love Disney and was really looking forward to this tour. I wish I had not wasted my money.
My sister an I have annual passes to Disneyland, so we decided to take advantage of the passholder's preview of this walking tour (I believe it will be available to anyone later this month). The tour was $49 per person, which included the tour, lunch and a special pin. It sounded great - however it turned out to be fairly disappointing. We picked up our tickets at guest services outside the main gates and met the tour guides at a designated spot near the entrance to the park. One cast member took our lunch order - you have a choice between a turkey and bacon sandwich, a roast beef sandwich, or a chicken caesar salad sandwich. I chose the chicken caesar and my sister chose roast beef.
We were then greated by our very nice and personable tour guide who asked us to go enter through the turnstiles so we could begin the tour. He stopped us near the flowers that make up mickey's head and described how the red bricks on the ground at the entrance was Walt's idea of a "red carpet" and the arched tunnel you go through to enter the park are "curtains" ... signaling the beginning of the show.
We were then directed towards the "Walt Disney Story" where we watched a clip of video (I believe the same footage from the ABC special that aired earlier this year) and a look at a replica of Walt's office (all of this can be viewed by any guest at the park). Then we went to the Fire Station on main street, where Walt had an apartment built for his family...unfortunately, we were only allowed to look at it from Main Street... not allowed to go in (why did I pay $50 for this again?).
We then crossed Main Street again to go to the cinema..where the guide told us Steam Boat Willie was the first synchronous sound cartoon...and then outside where he discussed the use of perspective, etc to make main street look longer when you are entering the park, and shorter when you are exiting...pretty basic info.
Next, we walked to the Tiki Birds, where we waited 20 minutes outside for the show to end, and our group was let inside. We looked at the birds in their "sleeping" state, sat down as the rest of the guests entered, one person in our party "woke up" one of the birds...and then we all snuck out of the show. We didn't even get to see the show!
Then we walked to Club 33... which I though would be the highlight of the tour. We were supposed to be allowed into the lobby of Club 33, which we were...but it was completely underwelming. I thought that by lobby, they meant we would be allowed upstairs to see the hallway and lobby area up there. However, we were only allowed inside the main doors, into a space about 10x8 (maybe) at the foot of the staircase. We could only see the staricase (which curves, so you can't even see the top of the stairs), and the elevator. For anyone who is interested, the wallpaper is a pinkish maroon, there is a french replica iron and glass elevator and a wood podium where people check in for their reservation. Soooo disappointing. It was only about 10:30am, and no guests there for lunch yet...I don't know why they won't let 15 people a day take a peek upstairs.
After this, we took the train from New Orleans (you can see the remains of the original Frontierland station behind you as board the train) to Tomorrowland (along the way, you will pass the "roundhouse"...you will have to be looking behind you...where the trains are kept on the bottom and the monorails are kept on the top. This was built because Walt himself retained ownership of both the trains and monorails).
In tomorrowland we looked at Autopia, which is the only remaining original tomorrowland attraction.
We then walked to King Triton's grotto...where you can see the remains of the foundation of the House of the Future. An old attraction that was a plastic house of the future that guests could look into. When they decided the attraction was too dated, they had a wrecking ball try to destroy it, but the ball bounced right off the plastic house! Workers had to disassemble the house piece by piece.
We then walked to the hub of disneyland, with the Walt Disney/Mickey statue and read the message at the bottom.
Then we looked at the castle and was told that Walt stood firm on his desire to have the spires of the castle in gold leaf (Roy wanted gold paint). When Roy went on a trip, Walt had it done in gold leaf and Roy was livid. Walt told him that the one unfinished spire was his... To this day the one spire is unfinished and is a symbol that Disneyland will never be finished.
Next, we went into Fantasyland and stood by the carousel (which is being refurbished) where our guide described the origins of the ride (Coney Island I believe) and how it was transformed from a merry-go-round into a carousel. Walt's wife's favorite horse is a white one with a gold tooth which rides on the outside.
We then made our way through the Snow White grotto where you can see that Snow White is the same size as the dwarfs. The artist had worked off a box of Snow White character soaps which were all the same size in the box...so he didn't realize his mistake. By placing Snow White high up in the area, she appears to be larger.
We then walked through frontierland, at the petrified tree that Walt gave his wife as a gift.
Next, we entered the Gallery...which was designed as a family apartment for Walt, but was never used. The dining room is the room with the fireplace....you can notice that there is a doorway (blocked by art) that led to the kitchens at Club 33 which would have provided the food. The hallway outside this door was the main entranceway. The door at the end that is cast members only is where people would have entered the apartment. There were a couple of other doors at the other end of the apt. which led to the kid's rooms (now offices...we were not allowed in), and a smoking room (not allowed in).
Our lunched were laid out with our names on them in the patio area of the gallery. We sat where out names were... there were only tables of 4. If you are a party of 2, you are seated with others, parties larger than 4 were split up. My sandwich was good (my sister didn't like the roast beef), although it would have been nice to have chips or fries as a side. We were given cans of soda and cups of ice (nice, so that the ice doesn't water down your drink), and a dessert of pecan pie. I don't like pecan pie, so I wish there had been a choice of dessert...it was a waste to see them throw away the untouched pie. There are wetnaps to wash up and your special pin and a comment card are next to your food. After lunch, you can go.
Overall, it was a pleasant way to spend a morning in the park... but as I said before, anyone could get a trivia book on Disneyland, or look Walt up on the internet and get alot more information than was on this tour. I felt that I knew more about Walt than our tour guide did (although he was very nice)...and none of the information he gave out was new to me. All of the sites were places you could see with your admission to the park, excepting the lobby of Club 33, which was disappointing. The lunch was worth about $10, and the pin about $6...but I don't think the actual tour is worth the remaining $33. I hope this will help someone, I love Disney and was really looking forward to this tour. I wish I had not wasted my money.
