Historical Tour of Disneyland
October 2007
Members from L to R: Claudia Mc Craine (HC President), Denise Kane (PAT Secretary-Treasurer), Mickey Mouse, Melissa Marquez (PAT President), Michelle White, Jennifer Miller (PAT Vice-President), and Sara Durben.
Sara, Melissa, Claudia, Jennifer, and Michelle were so happy to be the folks who introduced Claudia to Mickey Mouse.
This was Claudia's first trip to Disneyland.
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We have several members this year who are huge Disney fans. We decided to do an historical tour of Disneyland and signed up for the "Walk in Walt's Footsteps" tour. The tour was much different than we anticipated, but we had a great time nonetheless. The best part about the trip was that Claudia had NEVER been to Disneyland but had always wanted to go. It was a real treat to be the ones to take her to such a magical place for the first time. She even bought a sweatshirt.
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Miss Pumpkins (top left) was kind of sad this day, it seemed, but the decorations around the park were so wonderful (bottom right). Only Sara had seen the park at Halloween before our trip. Along the walking tour, (bottom left) we were told how the imagineers accomplished certain things--such as how they make the castle appear to be so much larger than it really is. It is all illusion...smoke and mirrors really! The information was rather interesting and we did actually learn quite a few interesting things.
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We spent so much time walking from one place to another on our tour, but we had more fun during the long walks than when we were at the individual tour destinations.
Tim and Sara really filled in the blank spots in the information we were given on the tour with Disney information they knew from all the reading they have done over the years. Of all the people we knew, they had the most knowledge of Disneyland and Walt Disney himself. These two spend at least 2 or 3 days a month, maybe more, at Disneyland.
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Club 33: Disney's exclusive VIP Club. We were taken inside the entry room of this exclusive club, but we were not allowed on the stairs and this is literally as far as we were allowed to go. The elevator was an interesting story. Walt Disney had seen the elevator in a hotel in Paris and asked to purchase it. He was denied the request so he sent his imagineers to the hotel to draw it and learn all they could about the elevator. Once they felt they had enough information, they returned to Dinseyland and built an exact replica for Club 33. It really was a beautiful elevator. Beautiful craftsmanship....we could see why he loved it.
The Golden Horseshoe is the longest "daily" operating theater in the nation. No other theater in the United States operates multiple shows each and every day of the year--and they have been doing so since 1955. We were unable to see a show, but the history of the theater was interesting to learn.
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Jennifer and Melissa loved this ride!
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Jennifer and Melissa had a wild ride on the Roger rabbit ride in Toon Town! These images were taken by Michelle who was in a car behind them. The cars spin and spin so the fact that we got so many clear images was shocking! This was such a fun day and the eight of us who went are planning to go back again before the end of the semester! We will keep you posted!