Disneyland, the happiest place on earth, has been popular since before it even opened!
Visited by millions of people from around the world each year, the only way to go with this magical place is up.
Find out more about this magnificent adventure park with these 40 awesome facts!
The original Disneyland in Anaheim, California, opened on July 17, 1955.
It only took one year to be constructed with 2,500 laborers, and cost $17 million to build.
The Disneyland location in Anaheim is the only theme park directly supervised and built by Walt Disney.
The idea for Disneyland came to Walt Disney after taking his daughters to Griffith Park in the 30’s and 40’s, and watching them on the merry-go-round.
The bench from Griffith Park where Walt Disney came up with the concept is on display in the park near the entrance of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
In order to gain further inspiration for his concept, he visited other parks such at Tivoli Gardens in Denmark, Efteling in the Netherlands, and Children’s Fairyland in the U.S.
Disneyland California Adventure was built on the site of the original Disneyland parking lot.
In 2013, Disneyland was the third most visited park in the world with about 16.2 million guests visiting.
The earliest documented account of Disney’s plans was in 1948 in a message to a production designer. He referred to his concept at the time as “Mickey Mouse Park.”
Upon opening day in 1955, 28,000 people attended, however half of those purchased forged tickets or snuck into the park by hopping the fence.
When it was originally opened, there were only 18 attractions, 14 of which are still running. Today, there is now a total of 51 attractions!
When it initially opened, admission cost $1 – today it is now a whopping $99!
The most popular Disneyland souvenir is the Mickey Mouse ears. Over 84 million have been sold since the park opened!
There are approximately 200 wild cats that live in Disneyland to help get rid of rodents. All of the cats were spayed and neutered before being re-released back into the park. When the cats can’t survive off of only hunting the rodents, there are feeding stations set up for them around the park.
The longest serving cast member has been working there since 1956. He currently works at the Carnation Café.
Over 700 million people have visited Disneyland since the initial opening.
All of the plants in the Tomorrowland ride are edible to represent the advancement of humanity.
In the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, all of the skeletons used to be real, taken from UCLA’s medical center. Now, there is only one human skull in the ride, which is the one attached to the headboard.
Disneyland employees were not allowed to have mustaches until 2000.
There is a time capsule that was buried at Sleeping Beauty’s castle in 1995 for the 40th anniversary, which will be opened 50 years later in 2045.
Originally, the park was going to be built on only 16 acres of land across the street from Disney Studios in Burbank.
The Matterhorn was the first tubular steel roller coaster ever, the first roller coaster that could handle multiple cars on the track at once, and the first fully themed indoor and outdoor roller coaster. Walt Disney got inspiration for the Matterhorn from Switzerland.
There is a basketball court inside the Matterhorn that is for employee use only. They use it to shoot hoops during their breaks.
Each year, there are 2.8 million churros sold at Disneyland.
Until 1982, guests had to buy individual tickets for each attraction.
The Haunted Mansion is only a front for the actual ride which is underground. When you walk down the portrait hall, you’re actually walking beneath the Disneyland Railroad tracks!
There used to be a tobacco shop as well as a lingerie shop. The tobacco shop closed in 1991, and the lingerie shop only lasted 6 months, closing in 1956.
The drawbridge at Sleeping Beauty’s castle is fully functioning, but it was only been used twice. Once on opening day, and again for the opening of the remodeled Fantasyland.
Walt Disney would sometimes wait in line with park visitors just because he loved spending time with them.
The last ride that was personally supervised by Walt Disney was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
Thunder Mountain took 10 years of planning and 18 months to fully construct, costing $17 million dollars. That’s more time and the same cost as the entire park!
There were only 3 unscheduled days when the park had to close – the day of mourning after the Kennedy assassination, after the Northridge earthquake in 1994, and on 9/11.
There are more than 100,00 lightbulbs outlining the buildings on Main Street.
Since opening, there have been 3 babies born in Disneyland.
When visiting the park, you are never more than 30 steps from a trashcan.
There are 11 Disney parks around the world in 4 countries – so technically, the sun never sets on Disneyland.
George Lucas attended the opening day of Disneyland at 11 years old.
Originally, Disney wanted there to be live animals on The Jungle Cruise, but most of the animals were nocturnal and they would have been asleep during the park hours.
The coins that are thrown into the water by It’s A Small World are donated to a charity that grants kid’s wishes who have life-threatening illnesses.
The total miles driven by the monorail trains is equivalent to more than 30 round trips to the moon.
