A Walk in Walts Footsteps Tour (with Lilly Belle Photos)
On Disneylands Birthday, July 17th, I took "A Walk in Walts Footsteps" tour at Disneyland. With my AAA discount, I paid $47.20, which included lunch. For those of you who have looked into going on the tour, the lunch is no longer at the Disney Gallery (soon to close), and it's more of a sandwich and fruit lunch – along with 2 cookies. Still good, but not the same menu as from the past.
I would guess that each tour is a little different (besides that we rode the Lilly Belle, which isn't normally part of the tour).
The tour met at the building next to City Hall:
We received a tour tag to affix to ourselves (a shirt with a button is a good thing to have!)
The tour staff also made up Disneyland birthday buttons for us to wear:
We received headsets to wear, so we could hear Krystal better. She was a great tour guide! I'd read a few reports of the tour over the last few years, and generally the writers don't say much (because of spoilers). I can honestly say, there weren't too many spoilers on my tour! Much of what was said, I'd read or heard before.
We walked along Main Street towards the Opera House. I love that Disneyland still has so much Main Street transportation!
While standing on Main Street, Krystal gave us a run-down on Walt Disney. (i.e. – the impact of living in Marceline, etc.) She talked about the forced perspective, the set design of Main Street, and mentioned Walts love of trains. Inside the Opera House, there is an area dedicated to that (as well as plans for the original Disneyland).
We heard about the first day of Disneyland (restrooms or water fountains?) Again, not a lot new as far as information.
We went into the fire station, below Walts apartment:
We stopped at the Main Street Cinema and discussed animation as it related to Walt. I do wish that Walt Disney World had never changed it's cinema and arcade to shops!
Next stop, Frontierland – originally the largest section of Disneyland. The Golden Horseshoe Revue ran for 30 years, and and is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the longest running musical of all time!
Fess Parkers window: