The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (32 page)

Mad Tea Party
 
(
Opening Day
Attraction)

[
FastView:
 
Breezy, sometimes queasy, spinning, winning fun.  Eat after you ride, not before.
]

Inspired by
Alice in Wonderland
,
Disney
’s 1951 animated feature, the
Mad Tea Party
now sits just to the south of the
Storybook Land Canal Boats,
southwest of the
Matterhorn
entrance, and north of the
Alice and Wonderland
attraction.  The
Tea Party
launched on the park’s
Opening Day
in 1955, was an instant hit, and has continued its mad whirl ever since.

A thrill ride well before the screaming steel coasters of today’s amusement park
s, this attraction looks a lot tamer than it is.  You sit in giant teacups painted in trippy, candy-colored hues and patterns reminiscent of
Wonderland
.  Paper lanterns in the same colors sway in the breeze above you.  At night, the paper lanterns are lit and glow with an otherworldly beauty.

The mechanics of the
attraction are straightforward, but potent.  18 giant teacups are positioned on three platforms (six cups per platform).  When the tea party begins, the platforms spin around each other, and the cups spin around each other as well.  A wheel in each cup gives party-goers the opportunity to make their cup twirl, all to the tune of
A Very Merry Un-birthday
.

That’s a lot of rotation
and stimulation for anyone to take, and there is, understandably, substantial lore about Guests young and old who have hurled during or immediately following their teacup ride.  Are these merely urban legends?

I
’ve spent a lot of time near the
Mad Tea Party
, in queues for
Alice in Wonderland
, the
Matterhorn Bobsleds
, and
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
, at different times during the day and in different seasons.  Yet I’ve never seen a single
Mad Tea Party
rider toss their cookies, or even lurch toward the nearby castle Rest Rooms.

I
might therefore dismiss the queasy stories as mere hype, but given the frequency with which they appear in guide books and reference works related to
Disneyland
, there
must
be something to them.  So, teacup riders take note:  avoid food and beverages before crashing this party, and don’t let your comrades go wild spinning the teacup’s wheel.  If you have sensitive children, frail seniors, or anyone prone to motion sickness in your group, this is a party they’ll want to skip.  You also want to make sure everyone who does ride is secured within the teacup.

T
his attraction makes for great pictures.  The colors, the lamps, the motion, the riders’ laughter are all great photo elements.  Capture some shots or videos of your friends and family on their teacup voyage, and treasure the pictures forever.

If you
’re under a time crunch, this is an attraction that you can safely skip unless someone in your party is wild to ride the teacups.  Because this attraction is on the south side of
Fantasyland
, it might be closed during the evening’s
Magical Fireworks
show. 
Did You Know?
  The
Mad Tea Party
’s present location is not its original locale.  It used to be in the center of the
Fantasyland
village, where the
King Arthur Carrousel
now stands.  The carrousel was always visible through the
Sleeping Beauty Castle
main arch, but was originally much closer to the castle; the courtyard layout was heavily congested.  When
Fantasyland
was renovated in 1983, the
Tea Party
moved next to
Alice in Wonderland
, thematically a more appropriate spot, and a move that created more space and better Guest flow in the courtyard area. 
Mad T Vision:
  If you’re an
Alice in Wonderland
fan, check out the psychedelic
Mad T Party
in
Hollywood Land
at
DCA
. 
Night Vision:
  The
Mad Tea Party
is stunningly lovely under the colorful glow of the paper party lanterns. The air is also cooler, and you might be less likely to feel nauseated in the chill night air, as opposed to the baking heat of a typical Southern California day.
FastPass:
  No, but that’s the case for all
Fantasyland
rides, and except for holidays and peak summer days the line shouldn’t exceed 15 minutes to half an hour.  You can gauge your willingness to wait by your need to ride the teacups and how brief the ride is (less than two minutes).
Kid’s Eye View:
  I haven’t been on this in a long time, but I think it’s more fun if you ride it with your mom, or your dad, somebody special, and just have fun and act silly.

Matterhorn Bobsleds
/Matterhorn Mountain
(S)
Must be 42” or 107 cm tall to ride.

[
FastView:
 
Unique to
Disneyland
, the
Matterhorn
(the very first tubular steel roller coaster) still packs plenty of thrills.  Ride the “A” track (left track) for a wilder ride.  Wave to the mountain climbers, and beware the
Abominable Snow Man
!  And, yes—there
is
a basketball half-court hidden inside the peak.
]

Call me an airhead, but I had visited
Disneyland
several times before I noticed that there were red-and-white bobsleds darting in and out of the caverns and waterfalls of
Matterhorn Mountain
.  “Are there
people
in those bobsleds?” I asked my sister.  She patiently explained that yes, the
Matterhorn Mountain
is more than a pretty landmark; it’s a roller coaster as well.

It was a dreamlike experience, standing at the base of this soaring icon and seeing bobsleds racing around and through it.  The riders were uniformly laughing and shouting with joy.  Although the bobsleds seemed to descend the mountain in level, graceful, shallow swoops rather than insanely steep plunges, the
Matterhorn Mountain
looked so tall that it was several more visits before I actually worked up the courage to board a bobsled.  My curiosity about the mysterious caverns and the periodic roar of the
Abominable Snowman
finally won out over my fear of heights.

It only took one
exhilarating (if bumpy) ride to hook me. 
The Matterhorn Bobsleds
immediately became one of my favorite
Disneyland
attractions.

One of
Disneyland
’s most iconic and frequently photographed landmarks, the
Matterhorn
was the park’s first “mountain” and housed its first roller coaster.  In resolving the challenge of running twisting coaster tracks through winding glacial tunnels (wood not being malleable enough to shape and bend) the
Imagineers
, ever innovative, created the world’s first tubular steel roller coaster.

A 1/100
th
scale replica of the Swiss Alp’s real Matterhorn (German for “Meadow Peak”),
Disneyland
’s
Matterhorn Mountain
stands 147 feet tall.  Sculpted with caverns, ridges, and waterfalls, planted with alpine trees, and capped with painted snow, it looks authentic and draws the eye from almost every land in the park.  To enhance the Swiss flavor,
Disneyland
hired trained alpine climbers, who scaled the peak while garbed in hats, bright red shirts, and
lederhosen
.  The climbers in their colorful garb, picked out clearly against the snowy white peak, paradoxically lent both a greater sense of authenticity and a greater sense of dreamlike mirage.

Walt
’s fascination with Germany and Switzerland are evident in many of his creations, in ways both subtle and obvious.  He visited both countries and made films about or inspired by them, drew upon their folklore for his animated features, used a Germanic script in his
Disneyland
signage.

With specific reference to his
interest in the Swiss Alps, it’s worth noting that in 1936
Disney
released an animated
Mickey
short called
Alpine Climbers
, so the subject was in
Walt
’s mind even then.  In 1955
Disney
released
Switzerland
, a documentary, and in 1958 the live-action feature
Third Man on the Mountain
.  In retrospect, it was only a matter of time before
Walt
and his team found a way to work the Alps (or at least one Alp) into his original
Magic Kingdom.

In 1958
Walt
tasked his team with designing and building the
Matterhorn Mountain
in time for the June 1959 expansion of
Tomorrowland
.  The
Monorail
and the
Submarine Voyage
would be launched, and the park’s first mountain would be unveiled.

The mountain had to be beautiful, but i
t wouldn’t be static, simply something for Guests to look at and admire.  It was to contain tracks on which “bobsleds” would race each other into and out of glacial caves, up and down ridges and dips, and under waterfalls, finally arriving safe and sound at the mountain’s base.

This was a serious engineering, as much as artistic, challenge.  Previously, roller coasters had wooden tracks, but wood couldn’t be curved enough to produce the fluid, snaking
pathways the
Matterhorn Bobsled
’s demanded.  The ever-inventive
Imagineers
, instead of scrapping the plan, solved the problem by developing the first-ever tubular steel coaster tracks.

The site chosen
for the mountain was an underutilized eyesore, a little mound formed by dirt cast-off during the
Sleeping Beauty Castle
moat dig.  Anything would’ve been an improvement.  As the
Matterhorn
took shape, with its complex configuration of thousands of girders, it was clear that this was going to be something special.  This book lacks the space for a detailed treatment of the
Matterhorn
’s fascinating challenges, design, and construction.  For more information on this topic, I recommend that you read
The Disney Mountains:  Imagineering at its Peak
, by
Jason Surrell
, one of the many books listed in the “Resources” section at the end of this book.

The
Matterhorn Mountain
and its
Bobsleds
were successful from the beginning.  Guests loved, and still love, the thrill of the near-vertical, near-pitch-black ascent within the mountain, from the base toward the peak, then the wind-in-the-hair rush of darting into and out of the mountain, the sudden curves and dips, the spray of the waterfalls, and the excitement of racing another bobsled where the tracks run parallel to each other.

At the end of the ride, the sleds splash
-down in alpine lakes, an artistically pleasing finale with the added engineering benefit of slowing the bobsleds to a speed safe for coasting to the exit platform.

Like many classic
Disneyland
attractions, the
Matterhorn
has had its tweaks and enhancements over the years.  From 1961 to the mid 1970’s, a 24-foot tall Christmas star adorned the mountain’s peak during the holidays.  Interior work in 1978 enclosed the
Matterhorn
tracks in the more genuine cave-like setting that we know today, as opposed to earlier views of bare beams and girders.  At the same time, the
Abominable Snowman
was introduced as an instantly popular through-character that seems to be stalking Guests.  When
Disneyland
’s
Skyway
ceased operations in 1994, its aerial path through the mountain was sealed.

Very small children, or
Guests with bad backs, weak hearts, or no head for heights are advised not to ride the
Bobsleds
.  The warnings are posted clearly, as they are at all of
Disneyland
’s more thrilling attractions.  But even if you can’t ride the
Matterhorn Bobsleds
, you can still appreciate the beauty of the mountain, with its alpine flowers and trees and its graceful snowy peak.