The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (22 page)

This gentle but imaginative experience is based on the
Pooh
works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard and the subsequent
Disney
films.  It’s a journey through the major adventures of
Winnie the Pooh
and his woodland pals, including much-beloved
Piglet
and
Tigger
, and even second-string characters like
Rabbit
and little
Roo
.

Clever effects give
Guests the sensation of becoming part of the best-known
Pooh
stories, feeling blustery winds, bobbing along rainy streams, and even drifting with
Pooh
into his dreams of
Heffelumps
,
Woozles
and honey.  How many different ways can
Pooh
and his pals misspell “honey”?  Read the many honey jars along the way, and see how many different misspellings you and your children count!

The colorful
, almost psychedelic
Heffelumps
and
Woozles
sequence might be a bit alarming for very young children, but, as one would expect, the ride ends happily, with a birthday party, a joyful
Hundred Acres
gathering that underlines the
Pooh
spirit of camaraderie and fun.

Tony Baxter
and his team of
Imagineers
did a superlative job of bringing the world of
Winnie the Pooh
and his critter pals to life in a way that fully immerses Guests.  It’s like slipping into one of the richly colored
Winnie the Pooh
animated cartoons, or your childhood imaginings of what a visit to the
Hundred Acre Woods
would be like. 
Imagineers
treat the characters with great respect and insight into their individual personalities.

To remain faithful to the
Critter Country
theme while respecting the
Hundred Acres
realm,
Christopher Robin
was left out of the attraction, and the characters’ British origins were downplayed so subtly that few Guests will notice it, although they’d no doubt have felt a dissonance if the British flavor had remained.

Tweens or teens might resist this adventure, considering it too childish, but like all
Disneyland
attractions it’s designed for Guests of all ages.  If you have toddlers, you’ll have the opposite challenge; they’re likely to want to ride repeatedly through the
Hundred Acre Woods
!

The good news
for toddlers’ parents is that the attraction is delightful, and the line is usually short, even on crowded days.  Even when the line looks long, take heart; it moves quickly and efficiently, and there are fun
Hundred Acre
touches along the queue that keep it interesting for Guests waiting to board.

If you have a toddler
or are a
Winnie the Pooh
fan, this is one of the attractions that you absolutely must visit.  If you don’t have a toddler, you can safely skip this one–but why not give it a try?
Did You Know?
  Despite its classic feel, this is one of the park’s newer adventures.  It opened in 2003, replacing the
Country Bear Jamboree
attraction that closed in 2001.
Disneyland
was supposed to get a
Winnie the Pooh
ride as far back as the 1970’s, but plans to introduce it to
Fantasyland
and later
Mickey’s Toontown
didn’t pan out.  Instead of spinning hunny pots,
Disneyland
Guests rode spinning cabs in
Toontown
’s
Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
. 
Walt Disney World
and
Tokyo Disneyland
both built
Pooh
attractions before
Disneyland
’s finally opened in 2001.  But better late than never–and it still opened before the 2005 launch of
Hong Kong Disneyland
’s
Pooh
attraction.
Did You Also Know?
  Don’t worry; there aren’t real bees in the giant buzzing beehive at the exit turnstile, although it sure sounds like there are! 
Hidden Critters
:  The
Winnie the Pooh
attraction was built on the site of the
Marc Davis
-designed
Country Bear Jamboree
(1972 – 2001), and contains a hidden tribute to the former occupants.  Look straight up as you leave the
Heffelumps
and
Woozles
room
and you’ll catch a quick glimpse of three mounted animal heads.  They’re
Melvin
,
Buff
, and
Max
, talking trophy heads (a moose, buffalo, and stag, respectively) that adorned
Disneyland
’s
Country Bear Jamboree
for nearly 20 years. It’s a long-standing tradition for
Imagineers
to hide something from an original attraction, shop, or restaurant in the brand new attraction, shop, or restaurant that takes its place.  For example, when
Star Tours
replaced
Adventure Thru Inner Space
, an image of
Adventure
’s
Mighty Microscope
was hidden in plain sight at the beginning of the
Star Tours
journey.
FastPass:
  No, but the beehive transports (
beehicles
) have three surprisingly roomy rows and the Cast Members are, as always, efficient, so you shouldn’t expect to wait longer than 10 – 20 minutes except on the most crowded days.  Early mornings and evenings offer five-minute or walk-on wait times.
Kid’s Eye View:
It’s cool for little kids because when you ride it, it really feels like you’re in the land of
Winnie the Pooh
. It’s fun and the characters look real; you feel like you’re in the
Hundred Acre Woods
.

Splash Mountain
(FP) (S) 
Must be 40” or 102 cm tall to ride
.

[
FastView:
 
A Guest favorite that’s
p
art silly fun, part scary thrills, with a five-story plunge and a musical finale.  Wear a poncho or bring extra clothes because you will get soaked.
]

This is
Disneyland
’s newest mountain attraction, “new” being a relative term.  It opened in 1989 and quickly became one of the most popular attractions in the park, particularly on broiling summer days.

Every “mountain” in the park offers a unique thrill.  The
Matterhorn
’s bobsleds race through man-made glacial caves on the world’s first tubular steel coaster tracks, a red-eyed abominable snowman growling at bobsledders and popping out at them along the way.  The runaway mine trains of
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
tear through the iconic landscape of the old West, even pausing to experience an earthquake.  The vehicles of
Space Mountain
dart among simulated comets and stars in an otherwise pitch black universe, pitching down sudden drops that induce a sensation of weightlessness.

Splash Mountain
has its own unique charms, and sprang almost fully formed, like Athena, from the imaginative brain of
Imagineer Tony Baxter
.

Anyone who’s even scratched the surface of
Disneyland
history knows that
Baxter
has been one of
Imagineering
’s leading creative lights for the last quarter century.  When he was but a humble
Disneyland
ice cream scooper, his love for and curiosity about the park led him to sneak into the
Pirates of the Caribbean
attraction while it was undergoing test runs. 
Imagineer Claude Coats
spotted
Baxter
and allowed him to ride along as “human ballast” and make comments on the ride experience. 
Coats
became one of
Baxter
’s key mentors.

In the 1970’s
Baxter
was one of the masterminds behind
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
in
Disneyland
, among many other projects in multiple
Disney Parks
.  In interviews he comes across as an extremely creative and determined individual.  Among his most recent successes are the detailed and charming revival of the original
Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
, and the
Captain EO
reprise following Michael Jackson’s demise.  His latest
tour de force
is the new
Star Tours
adventure which opened on June 3, 2011, an adrenalin-pumping 3D triumph.

By 1983
Baxter
had left ice-cream scooping far behind and was grappling with complex challenges.  During one now-famous commute from his
Anaheim Hills
residence to the
Imagineering
office in
Glendale
,
Baxter
was mulling over three key
Disneyland
challenges:  How to rescue the legion of
Marc Davis
-designed
Audio-Animatronic
figures from the past-its-prime
America Sings
; how to boost attendance in languishing
Bear Country
; and how to give
Disney
exec
Dick Nunis
the
Disneyland
flume ride he’d been requesting to keep
Disneyland
competitive with other parks that were ratcheting up their thrill factors.

On this particular commute,
Baxter
had one of those “a-ha” moments when disparate items
magically
connect and solutions are revealed within the problems.  Why not galvanize attendance in
Bear Country
with an exciting
E-ticket
attraction, a flume ride populated by the repurposed, 100-plus
AA
figures from
America Sings
?

Why not, indeed?  Not one to wait, he sprang the idea on fellow
Imagineers
when he reached work; within a few days they had charted the overall story and route of the attraction.  In 1984, new top brass
Michael Eisner
and
Frank Wells
green-lit the project.  (The
Splash Mountain
concept was particularly appealing to
Eisner
’s then-teenage son.)

By spring 1988,
America Sings
sang its last song; by Thanksgiving 1988,
Bear Country
was reinvigorated and launched as
Critter Country
; and on July 17, 1989,
Critter Country
’s new
E-ticket
attraction,
Splash Mountain
, opened with a population of more than 100 of the
America Sings
critters.

When
Splash Mountain
was designed, it was conceived as
Disneyland Park
’s first flume ride.  The dramatic descent would be 52 feet high (slightly taller than a five-story building), and pitched at a steep 47-degree angle.  At that time, that gave
Splash Mountain
the longest flume plunge on the planet.  But
Disneyland
being
Disneyland
, it wasn’t enough to build the longest flume drop.  The mountain housing the flume and the entire attraction had to delight Guests, and had to be driven by an entertaining story.

For inspiration,
Baxter
and the
Imagineers
reached back to the
Disney
film
Song of the South
.  The movie was a creative mix of live-action and animation, and included catchy, clever songs like
Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah
, which won an Oscar. 
Song of the South
brought to the screen American folk tales of the Deep South in an entertaining manner that advanced the art of blending live action with animation.

But f
or all its merits as source material, the film was also problematic. Although its portrayal of African-Americans was relatively progressive for its release year of 1946, and although
Walt
had asked a range of African-American community leaders for their opinions of the script prior to filming, the movie and its opening generated controversy.  One egregious example: The African-American cast members were not allowed to attend
Song of the South
’s Atlanta premiere; Atlanta was segregated and black citizens weren’t allowed in the Fox Theater or most other downtown businesses in 1946.  That’s unthinkable now, but tragically commonplace in that time and place.  This event contributed to a negative pall that hangs over the film to this day.