Disneyland Secrets

By Mary Beth Adomaitis

Mary Beth Adomaitis

Mary Beth holds a Bachelor's Degree in Communications and Journalism and has held several roles in the media industry.

Disneyland secrets and myths are abundant on the Internet these days. However, once you differentiate between the facts about Disneyland and the fiction surrounding the park, you will find out just how rich of a history there really is at this Southern California theme park.

Deciphering Between Secrets and Myths

There are many places online and in person where you can find tidbits or secrets about Disneyland theme park. These mysterious pieces of information have to do with a variety of aspects surrounding the park including:

Construction of the theme park
Owner Walt Disney
Rides and attractions
Disney characters
Food that is and is not sold
Park maintenance and upkeep
Theme park employees

Not every story is accurate or legitimate and you must heed caution before believing everything you read or hear. There are as many true secrets as there are urban legends.

Disneyland Secrets: True Tidbits You May Not Have Known

Tom Sawyer Island has a Missouri zip code. On the day the park opened, the governor of California annexed the property to the state of Missouri, where the Mark Twain character lived.
Alcohol is not sold at the park except at a private, exclusive restaurant known as Club 33. However, if you head over to California Adventure, you can have your pick from a variety of beer and wine.
You cannot buy chewing gum at Disneyland. Because of patrons' tendencies to spit or throw out the gum wherever convenient, officials feel there is less litter to contend with by not selling it.
Coke, not Pepsi. Coca Cola has a contract with The Walt Disney Company to sell only its products in its parks. Disney receives the products for free and receives full profit from the sales.
Walt Disney had an apartment built for him above the park's Main Street fire station. After he died, a light was permanently placed in the apartment window for all to see. Also, the apartment, which isn't open for public viewing, has been kept intact.
Several years ago, the Southern California park had a rodent infestation. To solve the problem, officials brought in cats to hunt the pests. To this day, the cats' offspring could be seen wandering the park at night.
On the Jungle Cruise attraction, during the Lost Expedition section, there is a crate behind the gorillas that reads, "WED Expedition." WED stands for Walter Elias Disney (Walt Disney's real name).
Mickey Mouse never appears in two places at the same time at Disneyland.

Hidden Disney Characters

Many of Disney's classic animated characters are hidden in secret places throughout the park. The trick is to find them.

The Winnie the Pooh character Eeyore is hiding in The Temple of the Forbidden Eye on the Indiana Jones Adventure ride.
Donald Duck's face can be seen on the back of one of the chairs on Haunted Mansion.
On Pirates of Caribbean, several Disney characters are hidden throughout the ride including Tinkerbell, Goofy, Briar Rabbit, Blackbeard, and Pluto.
Dumbo is hiding on the wall of the first cave on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
The wicked queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs can be seen every 30 seconds peeking out of the turret on top of the Snow White ride.
There are hidden Mickey Mouse ears all over the park, at least one in each section of the park and one on each ride.

Disneyland's Urban Legends

The following Disneyland secrets, or in this case urban legends, have turned out to be false.

Walt Disney's body was cryogenically frozen. This is a myth because he was cremated two days after his death on December 17, 1966.
A patron's head was severed after standing up on Space Mountain while it was in motion. This was proven untrue; it was a test dummy's head that was knocked off during a test run of the ride.
Alligators roam the tunnels beneath Disneyland. This is a myth, however, there used to be rats that were in the tunnels, until officials brought in cats to solve the rodent problem.
Men with long hair are not allowed inside the park. While this is untrue now, there was a time in the 1950s and early 1960s when this was true because of the park's dress code.
Park employees are not allowed to have facial hair. Again, this used to be true up until 2000 when Disneyland officials changed the rules of allowing staff members to have beards, mustaches or long hair.

References

These secrets and myths are only some of all of the treasures hidden at Disneyland. There are several books and videos available in which you will find even more fun facts: