R – “Resort”
Remember, for nearly half a century, Disneyland was just… Disneyland. Walt’s little theme park, its neighboring parking lot, and the historic Disneyland Hotel. As we already discussed (see, “D”), in 2001, the original theme park gained a new neighbor when Disney’s California Adventure was constructed right on its parking lot. But there’s more!
The opening of California Adventure was merely the big finale of a substantial, multi-year expansion that also included the Mickey & Friends parking garage, two hotels (Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel), and the new, public “Downtown Disney District” filled with shopping and dining. (These projects also coincided with a substantial public-private partnership that reigned in the runaway urban sprawl of the area surrounding streets to form the tidy, uniform “Anaheim Resort District.”)
Suddenly, Disneyland was both the name of a beloved theme park and the name of the larger, multi-park property that it was just one part of. To differentiate, the theme park was officially renamed Disneyland Park while the larger property became the Disneyland Resort.
The hope, of course, was that Disneyland would be transformed from a “local’s park” catering mostly to those within a 250 mile radius into a multi-day, multi-park global destination akin to its younger sister, Walt Disney World (which, by the ’90s contained four theme parks, two water parks, and more than two dozen hotels). Thanks to the staggering underperformance of Disney’s California Adventure, that didn’t exactly happen.
A lot has changed since the Disneyland Resort debuted in 2001, including the logo at the top of this entry, which didn’t last long; just as people didn’t like Disney’s California Adventure, they didn’t like the modernized and corporate “Disneyland Resort” logo that came with it. In the matter of a few years, the property reverted to the classic Medieval “Disneyland” typeface for both the park and resort.
In any case, Disneyland Resort today remains made of three components – Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure Park, Downtown Disney, and three resort hotels: the Disneyland Hotel, the Pixar Pier Hotel, and the Grand Californian Hotel, all cozily situated on the land Disney has been able to cobble together and graft onto its original 1955 purchase.
S – Showbuildings
As a reminder, dark rides are generally indoor, slow-moving attractions where riders pass by theatrically-lit scenes. Believe it or not, the earliest dark rides date back to the late 1800s. Back then, dark rides were often called “Old Mills” or “Tunnels of Love,” sending guests drifting through dark caverns occasionally lit by the brand new incandescent lightbulb. Over the decades that followed, waterwheel-driven flumes gave way to gravity-powered carts, then electrically-powered rides.
When Disneyland opened it featured dark rides typical of the era – the Opening Day Originals you’ll find in Fantasyland (see, “F”)! Beautifully simple, those Fantasyland dark rides send guests through simple, blacklight scenes, moving past painted flats and simply-animated figures. That paved the way for more complex dark rides of the ’60s – like Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean – then on to the technological thrill ride / dark ride hybrids of the ’90s like Indiana Jones Adventure and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and onward to the trackless rides of today.
Even though dark rides come in all shapes and sizes, they have something in common: showbuildings.Another trick borrowed from Disney’s filmmaking origins, showbuildings are essentially soundstages (just as you might find on a studio backlot) that contain Disney’s dark rides. In fact, a view of Disneyland from above shows these gargantuan industrial warehouses that aren’t exactly beautiful or charming. It’s a view that’s intentionally absent from within the parks, where Imagineers go to extensive effort to hide showbuildings from view… unless you know where to look.
For landlocked Disneyland in particular, an aerial view unveils dozens of showbuildings – nearly all cleverly set just outside of the berm. Covertly, most of the “action” at Disneyland happens outside of the berm, on the other side of the Disneyland Railroad that encircles the park! On Indiana Jones Adventure, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and “it’s a small world,” you pass either over or under the railroad to access the hidden showbuilding each actually takes place in… So if you want to put on your detective hat, see if you can figure out when and how!
(Fun fact: Disneyland’s Fantasyland alone contains six dark rides. When Disney’s California Adventure opened in 2001, the entire park had just one – a ride often regarded as the worst ride to ever be found in a Disney Park, the Declassified Disaster: Superstar Limo. The ride was so bad, it closed before California Adventure’s first birthday even though Disney didn’t have any plans to replace it. In other words, it was determined that California Adventure as a whole was stronger with no dark ride at all than with Superstar Limo.)
T – Temple of the Forbidden Eye
Given that it’s this author’s favorite ride, we have no choice but to dedicate “T” to the Disneyland-exclusive E-Ticket that defined the ’90s. Suffice it to say that the Modern Marvel – Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye was a legacy product of the “Ride the Movies” era we’ve already mentioned – an attraction built on a scale never seen before at the time, and still pretty agreeably an anchor among the pantheon of Disney Parks’ best attractions.
The premise is simple: deep in the lost jungles of southeast Asia, famed archaeologist Indiana Jones has made a most remarkable discovery: the river temple of the lost god Mara. According to local legend, pilgrims around the ancient world would trek to this sprawling complex to seek an audience with Mara, who was said to grant visitors one of three gifts: either timeless youth, earthly riches, or future sight. In a “Chamber of Destiny” in the heart of the temple, visitors would face three locked doors – each corresponding to one of Mara’s gifts. With Mara as judge and jury, one of the three doors would unlock, ushering visitors into a Hall of Promise – home to either the Fountain of Youth, the Chamber of Riches, or the Observatory of the Future.
But of course, there’s a catch… Each of the three Halls of Promise is said to be presided over by a carved stone visage of Mara himself… and one look into Mara’s dark and corroded eyes would see worshippers forfeit their gift and instead be cursed to the Gates of Doom forever… “A chilling tale, indeed,” the smarmy voice of a British narrator of sepia-toned BBC news coverage intones, “but not chilling enough to cool the hot pursuit!”
Which brings us to today – the 1930s, of course. Thanks to Indy’s discovery the so-called “Temple of the Forbidden Eye” has become a tourist destination, drawing would-be adventurers from around the globe. When you and I arrive in Adventureland, it’s as “nouveau riche” Europeans drawn to this remote jungle outpost by the black-and-white news media’s promise of exotic wonder… and perhaps, youth and beauty, immense wealth, or future sight, should we happen to stumble upon it. If we do, it’ll be thanks to Indy’s faithful sidekick Sallah, who’s assembled an army of troop transports left over from the Great War, ready to whisk us into the Chamber of Destiny. “When you enter the Chamber of Destiny,” he pleads, “look not into the eyes of the idol. That would be dangerous; very dangerous.”
Passing ancient booby traps (thoughtfully decommissioned by Indy himself), we pass through corridors, caverns, rotundas, and chapels all strung with excavation lights and “Maraglyphs” warning us to avoid the god’s eyes… and then, it’s our turn. Strapped into lumbering Jeeps, we turn the corner and enter the Chamber of Destiny for ourselves… As one of the three doors begins to glow, our fate is sealed. Will water sweep across the rusted doors, ushering us into the Fountain of Youth? Will the great golden vault unseal, leading to the Chamber of Riches? Or will the fabric of time be cleared away, leading us into the Observatory of the Future? “Already I am envious of the wonders that await you,” Sallah promises, “if you avoid the Eyes of Mara, that is…”
U – “U-Ticket”
Disney Parks haven’t used letter-based ride coupons since 1982, but the term “E-Ticket” is still used to describe the biggest and best of the company’s major, landmark, anchor attraction (see, “E”). That is, until 2020, when Imagineering introduced a ride that’s arguably something more. Totally on our own, we have invented the term “ultra E-Ticket” or “U-Ticket” to describe Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – a ride that is so elaborate and immersive, even the most seasoned Disney Parks enthusiasts are known to have their minds blown by its scale and scope.
If you’ve been on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance before, we’ll selfishly point you toward our Secrets of the Resistance Special Feature. But given that – by nature of reading this – it’s probably your first time visiting, we will not spoil anything about the ride except to say that it’s basically a showcase of every trick Imagineering has pioneered in the last twenty years, and to explain the basic premise…
In short, Rise of the Resistance is deeply tied to the storyline that permeates the entire land (see, “G”). To recap, the First Order has arrived on Batuu and commandeered the village of Black Spire Outpost. Though it may seem odd that a galactic evil has selected this impoverished, remote planet on the edge of wild space as its next conquest, there’s a reason: word has spread that the dwindling faction of good guys – the Resistance – has set up an outpost on Batuu, and Kylo Ren is determined to ferret them out. Unbeknownst to him, the Resistance’s camp is set up far outside of the village, among the rusted weaponry discarded in the forests and spires beyond.
That’s where we come in. Queuing in the network of ancient tunnels that the Resistance has hastily turned into a command center, recruits receive their instructions. With the First Order rapidly encroaching, General Organa (for those of you stuck in the past, Princess Leia) has advised the Resistance to abandon the outpost on Batuu and rendezvous at a new Resistance base on the planet of Pacara.
As the newest Resistance recruits, we’re meant to board a Intersystem Transport Shuttle that’ll ferry us to the new base. Rey’s order is simple: “It is vital that the location of the Pacara base remain secret.” And with that, this showcase of Imagineering’s chops begins, offering effects so impressive (and occasionally, bamboozling) that it might not be until days later that you begin to ask yourself how each element worked. (Come back here then – we have the answers, including the attraction’s astounding layout.)
Disney often likes to say that its rides aren’t rides, but attractions, and that things like the queue and preshow all contribute to an experience that’s much more than just the two or three minutes you’re actually strapped into a vehicle. But on Rise of the Resistance, it’s undoubtedly true. This is an experience, not just a ride.
V – Virtual queue
If you’re reading this as you prepare for your first trip to Disneyland, then I have bad news: you missed the days of FastPass. Developed in 1999, FastPass solved the then- (and still-) growing problem of ballooning wait times at Disney Parks by offering guests the opportunity to wait in “virtual queues” instead of physical ones. Disney’s most popular rides were equipped with FastPass distribution kiosks where guests would simply scan their admission ticket and receive a printed “FastPass” telling them to return during an hour-long window later in the day for a shorter wait for and priority access to the ride.
Over the decades, FastPass became synonymous with Disney Parks… and more to the point, a service worth celebrating. After all, even as other theme parks introduced “pay-to-skip” systems, FastPass remained free and available to all – “too good to be true,” as it turns out. The 2020 pandemic and the multi-month closures of Disney Parks gave Disney the opportunity to do the unthinkable: to get rid of free FastPass forever. We chronicled the full story of Disney’s lines and line-skipping services in a Special Feature, The Waiting Game.
Long story short: in FastPass’s place rose the “Lightning Lane Pass” (originally, Genie+). It’s a “service” that… well… does the same thing, but for $30+ per person per day. The phone-based Lightning Lane Pass is – predictably – a downright depressing endeavor. Not only does it equate to having to pay to recreate the formerly-standard experience, but it means that if you don’t buy in, you end up with an actively worse experience than used to be standard – one spending all day waiting in slow-moving “Standby” queues as guests you paid extra stream past you in the Lightning Lane.
Even worse, Disney purposefully pulled each park’s most popular ride (at Disneyland, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance; at California Adventure, Radiator Springs Racers) out of the Lightning Lane system, requiring an additional, a la carte upcharge for one-time priority access. It also leaves you with your nose in your phone all day running the battery-debilitating Disneyland app, so buy a snap-on battery pack, too. Basically, Lightning Lane is detested by both casual visitors and hardcore fans… but it’s a jaw-dropping new revenue source for Disney – especially at a time when it’s fighting losses in its studio division and getting no closer to its streaming division becoming profitable. In other words, the chances of free FastPass returning are close to zero.
W – Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI)
In the early 1950s, Walt Disney began to get serious about his plans for what would become Disneyland. His wife Lillian and his brother Roy were not impressed. You can imagine why. At that time, the only “amusement parks” people knew were free-to-enter seaside boardwalks or suburban picnic parks, conjuring images of nauseating carnival rides, unscrupulous midway games, and roaming hordes of unsupervised teenagers causing mischief. Walt’s wife Lillian reportedly asked: “Why would you want to get involved with an amusement park? They’re so dirty and not fun at all for grownups.”
One of Walt’s answers lay in the idea that his park wouldn’t be built by “carnies,” but by filmmakers. Walt began to poach animators, background painters, and other artists from the studio, reassigning them to the Disneyland project. The business-minded Roy stepped in, insisting that if Walt wanted to pursue his cockamamie plans for an amusement park, he needed to start a new company that wouldn’t risk the Disney name. The result was “WED Enterprises” (WED for Walter Elias Disney). Actually, it wasn’t until 1965 – ten years after Disneyland opened – that Walt Disney Productions officially purchased WED Enterprises, folding the firm into the larger corporate structure.
In 1986, WED Enterprises was renamed Walt Disney Imagineering – adapting the portmanteau of “imagination” and “engineer” that Walt had used to describe the creative team at WED. Today, Imagineering is the design-build firm that develops and constructs Disney Parks attractions.