The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (44 page)

Fantasy Faire
, near
Sleeping Beauty Castle
, offers the
Royal Hall
, an elegant fairy tale setting where children can meet
Disney
Princesses
such as
Ariel
,
Aurora
(
Sleeping Beauty
)
,
Belle
,
Cinderella
,
Jasmine
,
Merida
,
Mulan
,
Pocahontas
,
Rapunzel
,
Snow White
, and
Tiana
.  In the
Royal Hall
, you can chat briefly with the
Princesses
(unlike the masked characters, “face” characters like the
Princesses
are allowed to speak with Guests), snap photos, and get autographs from their royal highnesses.  The line can be long, but for
Princess
fans it’s worth the wait.

Mickey
moved to
Fantasyland
in 2013, when he began appearing in
Mickey and the Magical Map
at the remodeled
Fantasyland Theatre
.

Fans of all things medieval
used to be able to catch
The Sword in the Stone Ceremony
, which was performed periodically throughout the day near
King Arthur’s Carrousel
, next to the sword which is sunk in the anvil. 
Merlin
, the famous magician of the Arthurian legends, and young
Arthur
’s tutor in
Disney
’s 1963 animated film
The Sword in the Stone
, invited Guests to try to remove the sword from the stone.  The ceremony has been discontinued, but at
Disneyland
, anything can be revived at anytime.

Ch
aracters you might encounter in and around
Fantasyland
, usually near their attractions, include
Pinocchio
,
“Honest John” Foulfellow
,
Gideon
,
Jiminy Cricket
,
Geppetto
, the
Evil Queen
from
Snow White
,
Cinderella
’s
Fairy Godmother
,
Aurora
’s nemesis
Maleficent
,
Peter Pan
,
Wendy
,
Captain Hook
,
Smee
,
Alice
, the
Mad Hatter
, the
White Rabbit
, and the
Queen of Hearts
.

Most of these characters are masked, and cannot speak with
Guests.  Only unmasked “face” characters like
Alice
or
Wendy
, for example, can speak.  The masked characters, though they can’t utter a word, are talented and well trained and do an outstanding job of communicating with Guests, especially children, through gestures and pantomime.

Adults should be vigilant when their children are interacting with masked characters, since
the masks and bodies of the heavy costumes give characters blind spots and trouble stopping or moving on a dime.  Make sure your child is clearly visible to and in front of the character.

Also,
Guests (especially first-time Guests) sometimes go wild with excitement and mob the characters like bobby-soxers mobbing Frank Sinatra, or modern tweens mobbing One Direction.  So make sure your child doesn’t get swept up in a stampede.

M
asked characters have a Cast Member to guide and assist them, and this Cast Member generally sets up a queue if the character is going to pose for photos and sign autographs.  Listen to the Cast Member and follow all instructions patiently.  Long queues pose one of the park’s potential pressure points, with the tiger coming out in even normally mild-mannered parents who want to be sure their little one gets their chance to see
Alice
or
Jiminy
or the
Evil Queen
.

Above all, if you have a particularly rambunctious or mischievous child, make sure you have a discussion with them before the
y interact with any characters.  Explain that the characters have feelings, and even though it’s
Disneyland
and there’s a lot of make believe, it is never safe or appropriate to hit, kick, trip, or otherwise negatively interact with a character.  The tales are legion of the mistreatment that masked characters have suffered at the hands of Guests, particularly wee ones, and some skirmishes have even led to injuries and lawsuits.

But potential perils aside, for most
Guests, young and old, the moment when they encounter their favorite
Disney
character in the park is the moment that they most remember long after the trip is over.  It’s one of their
Disneyland
dreams come true!

Frontierland

Frontierland At-a-Glance

Attractions:
 
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
(FP),
Big Thunder Ranch
,
Fantasmic!
,
Frontierland Shootin’
Exposition
,
The Golden Horseshoe Stage
,
Mark Twain Riverboat
,
Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island
,
Sailing Ship Columbia

Gear:
 
Bonanza Outfitters
,
Crockett & Russel Hat Co.
,
Pioneer Mercantile
,
Silver Spur
,
Westward Ho Trading Company

Grub:
 
Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue
(L, D),
The Golden Horseshoe
(L, D, S),
Rancho del Zocalo
(L, D, S),
River Belle Terrace
(B, L, D, S),
Stage Door Café
(L, D, S)

Frontierland Introduction

Located
northwest of the
Hub
,
Frontierland
was one of the park’s original lands, and continues to bring to life the excitement of the old American West.

Walt
was captivated by the legends and “hard facts” of pioneer life.  Even in its very early incarnations, when it was thought the park would be located on a few fewer acres in Burbank,
Disneyland
’s designs always included elements of the old West.

With the purchase of the
Anaheim
parcels,
Walt
was able to expand his plans for the frontier elements of the park into a full-fledged
Frontierland
.  He wanted to completely immerse Guests in a highly stylized and exciting three-dimensional Western world, as if Guests had been drawn into a Western film.

Walt
loved transportation, no matter the era, and just as there would be futuristic vehicles in
Tomorrowland
, he wanted
Frontierland
to bustle with canoes, keel boats, rafts, riverboats, stage coaches, horses, and mules, all conveyances that our frontier ancestors would recognize from their daily lives.

Frontier vehicles and architecture alone wouldn’t be able to revive the old West to the degree that
Walt
wanted.  There would have to be frontier folk as well, including Cast Members in western garb, saloon performers, cowboys (both noble white hats and villainous black hats), backwoods heroes in the
Davy Crockett
mold, the dashing
Zorro
fencing with villains on the decks of the
Mark Twain
and racing across the
Frontierland
rooftops, riverboat captains, and Native Americans inhabiting an elaborate
Indian Village
.

Walt
had a genuine admiration for pioneers that survived and thrived in the dangerous wilderness of the west, as well as bringing polish and civilization—eventually—to the frontier.  His admiration of the old West was shared by most citizens of the United States in the 1950’s.

During that time period, w
esterns were the most popular genre on television, by far, and there were dozens of successful western programs on TV, just as in the 1970’s the sitcom ruled the airwaves, and in the new millennium we seem obsessed with the supernatural and police procedurals.

Disney
made its contribution to the western craze by creating and broadcasting western shows, most significantly
Davy Crockett
, a three-part presentation on the original
Disneyland
television series that starred folksy actor
Fess Parker
in the title role. Viewers went wild over the program–it was “water-cooler TV” and “must-see TV” even before those terms were coined.

Davy Crockett
launched the 1950’s coonskin cap mania, since
Davy Crockett
wore a coonskin cap.  10 million coonskin caps sold in a matter of months, and over 3,000
Crockett
products were marketed, earning close to
half a billion dollars
, a merchandising coup for
Disney
.  Children can still purchase coonskin hats (not real raccoon skin) at the
Pioneer Mercantile
.

When
Disneyland Park
opened on July 17, 1955,
Fess Parker
, in full
Crockett
regalia, was on hand as a special Guest and performer.  Not surprisingly, one of the hot sellers at
Frontierland
shops was the coonskin cap.  Today’s
Pioneer Mercantile
shop was once aptly called
Davy Crockett’s Pioneer Mercantile
and the
Davy Crockett Arcade
and
Davy Crockett Museum
prior to that.

From the beginning,
Frontierland
was pretty wild, even wilder than
Walt
intended, or wanted.  Former Guests and Cast Members have reported that in addition to planned, staged gunfights on the main drag, and the variety shows in the
Golden Horseshoe
,
Frontierland
saw plenty of unscripted, sometimes dangerous drama.

The
Mules
of the mule rides could be skittish and difficult, sometimes refusing to move, or snapping at Cast Members and Guests (you know the old saying, “stubborn as a mule?”).  Horses, ponies, and mules relieved themselves wherever and whenever they wanted.  The gorgeous, horse-drawn
Stage Coaches
sometimes flipped over, hurling passengers left and right when the horses were spooked by loud sounds, and there was a fear that someday there’d be a similar accident with the horse-drawn
Conestoga Wagons
.

The
Conestoga Wagons
were pulled from the park in 1959, though a wagon facsimile known as
Conestoga Fries
peddled McDonald’s French fries along
Big Thunder Trail
until 2008.  The
Stage Coaches
were retired in 1960.  The stubborn
Mule Packs
kept carrying Guests, at times reluctantly, through the frequently redesigned
Frontierland
landscape, until the 1970’s.

Today’s
Frontierland
is much safer than it originally was, but it’s as musical, comical, surprising, and wild as ever. 
Frontierland
covers the most acreage in the park, and can be reached via paths from
Main Street
,
Fantasyland
,
Adventureland
, and
New Orleans Square
.

Cutting through the
River Belle Terrace
restaurant will take you from
Adventureland
into
Frontierland
in seconds.  (This tip will help you avoid being crushed in mobs of Guests on the park’s most crowded days.)

The most direct route from the
Hub
is the main
Frontierland
entrance which overlooks a placid pond and flies historical U.S. flags. It’s designed to look like the gate of a rough-hewn, ponderosa-pine frontier fort.