50 Fun Facts About Disneyland Trivia for Kids

In which California city is Disneyland?

Anaheim. Walt hired researchers to find the best place for his park, and Anaheim came out on top; it was then a small town about 25 miles from Los Angeles.

What was on the land before Disneyland was built?

Orange groves and walnut trees. Walt bought 160 acres of the farmland, and once the park opened, hotels and houses soon replaced the farms around it.

What was Walt Disney doing when he first got the idea for Disneyland?

Watching his daughters on a merry-go-round. Walt sat on a bench while the girls had all the fun, and wondered why there was no place parents and kids could enjoy together.

Walt Disney first planned to build Disneyland across the street from what?

His movie studio, in Burbank. Walt pictured a little park for visitors to the studio, but his ideas soon grew far too big for the plot.

How long did it take to build Disneyland?

About one year. Walt borrowed against his own life insurance to help pay for it, and the park opened just a year and a day after building began.

Which TV network showed Disneyland's opening day live and helped pay for the park?

ABC. The network put money into the park, and in return Walt made it a weekly TV show called Disneyland, where he gave viewers early peeks at what he was building.

Why was Disneyland's very first day nicknamed 'Black Sunday'?

Rides broke down and food ran out. About 28,000 people turned up, roughly twice as many as were invited and many of them on fake tickets, so the brand-new park was swamped on a very hot day.

Walt Disney said Disneyland would grow as long as the world had what?

Imagination. 'Disneyland will never be completed,' Walt said, and he was right: it opened in 1955 with five lands and by 2025 it had nine.

Which small Missouri town, Walt Disney's boyhood home, is usually named as the model for Main Street, U.S.A.?

Marceline. Walt lived on a farm there as a small boy, and Main Street is his rosy memory of such a town, though other places from his past also claim the honour.

What did Walt Disney keep on the second floor of the Main Street firehouse?

His own private apartment. It was a snug hideaway with sofas that pulled out into beds, where Walt could rest and have family over during his visits to the park.

What trick makes the buildings on Main Street look taller than they really are?

Forced perspective. Each floor is built a little smaller than the one below it, so the street seems grander than it is, and the castle at the far end plays the same trick.

What are the little Mickey-shaped details tucked secretly into rides and walls called?

Hidden Mickeys. They began around the 1980s as an inside joke among Disney's park designers, and hunting for the three-circle shape has since become a game for guests.

Which real castle in Germany is the best-known model for Sleeping Beauty Castle?

Neuschwanstein. It was one of several castles the designers drew on, and the park's castle opened in 1955, four years before the film Sleeping Beauty reached cinemas.

How do guests walking up Main Street get into Fantasyland?

Across a drawbridge over a moat, then through the castle. The drawbridge really works, but it has been lowered for guests only twice, on opening day in 1955 and again in 1983.

Which spinning ride is found at all six Disney castle parks around the world?

Dumbo the Flying Elephant. The spinning teacups miss out at one park, and Disneyland's Dumbo was rebuilt in 1990 with elephants first made for the Paris park.

Which movie scene inspired the spinning teacups ride?

The Unbirthday Party in Alice in Wonderland. Riders spin their own giant teacup, so how dizzy the ride gets is entirely up to them.

On Peter Pan's Flight, what do you ride in?

A flying pirate ship on a rail. The ships hang from a track in the ceiling, not the floor, so you really seem to soar over London and Never Land.

What do you see on the Storybook Land Canal Boats?

Tiny models of places from Disney movies. When the ride opened in 1955 its banks were bare and weedy; the miniature villages and castles only arrived a year later.

Which ride is built to look like a famous snowy mountain in the Alps?

Matterhorn Bobsleds. Its smooth, tube-shaped steel rails were a new idea for a permanent roller coaster in 1959, and they have since become the standard way to build one.

For years, who played basketball in a hidden spot near the top of Disneyland's snow-capped mountain ride?

Costumed climbers. The performers hired to scale the peak for guests rested in a cramped area near the top, where a hoop let them pass the time when they weren't climbing.

About how many singing dolls appear in Disneyland's 'it's a small world' ride?

About 300. The dolls, dressed as children from all over the world, first sang at the 1964 New York World's Fair, and the whole ride moved to Disneyland two years later.

Which songwriting team, who also wrote the Mary Poppins songs, wrote 'it's a small world'?

The Sherman Brothers. Walt asked Richard and Robert Sherman for one simple tune that could be sung over and over in many languages as the boats drift past.

Why did Walt drop his plan to use real animals on the Jungle Cruise?

They would sleep all day. Walt was warned that real animals would doze or hide while the boats went by, so his team built mechanical ones that perform for every single boat.

Which waterfall do the Jungle Cruise boats pass behind, joking that it is 'the backside of water'?

Schweitzer Falls. The cruise began as a fairly serious nature tour; its gags and wisecracks only started to arrive in the early 1960s, when Walt Disney asked for more humour.

Which Disneyland ride was first planned as a walk-through wax museum, before it was given boats?

Pirates of the Caribbean. Walt changed the plan after the boats of another of his rides proved a huge hit at the 1964 World's Fair.

Which character from the Pirates of the Caribbean films was added to the Disneyland ride in 2006?

Captain Jack Sparrow. The ride came first, in 1967, and inspired the films; the films returned the favour when Jack and other screen pirates were added to the ride.

Which land is home to both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion?

New Orleans Square. Walt Disney opened it in 1966 side by side with the real mayor of New Orleans, who had come to the park to join him.

Which 1963 Disneyland attraction is billed as the first to use Audio-Animatronics?

The Enchanted Tiki Room. More than 200 robot birds, flowers and tiki statues sing in the show, which was first planned as a restaurant where the birds would serenade diners.

Disneyland's Adventureland Treehouse, reopened in 2023, is based on which Disney film?

Swiss Family Robinson. The treehouse first opened in 1962 with the film's star John Mills looking on, spent about twenty years as Tarzan's Treehouse, then went back to the Robinsons.

What kind of vehicle do you ride on Indiana Jones Adventure?

A military troop transport. The battered 12-seat truck bucks and tilts to feel like a wild drive over rough ground, on a ride Disney made together with Indiana Jones creator George Lucas.

What is the name of the boat that sails around the Rivers of America in Frontierland?

The Mark Twain Riverboat. Disney billed it as the first paddle wheeler built in America in 50 years; its decks were put together at the film studio and hauled to the park.

On which ride do kids get to steer their own little car around a track?

Autopia. Its very first drivers treated it like bumper cars and wrecked most of the little fleet within weeks, so sturdier bumpers and later a guide rail were added.

Which Tomorrowland ride at Disneyland became real transport in 1961, when its track was extended out to a hotel?

The Monorail. When it opened in 1959 it was only a sightseeing loop around Tomorrowland that came straight back to the one station it had.

What powers the Disneyland Railroad trains around the park?

Steam. Two of the engines were built in Disney's own workshops, and the others are rescued antiques, including an 1894 locomotive that once hauled sugar cane in Louisiana.

What do you see from the Disneyland Railroad just before it returns to Main Street?

Dinosaur and Grand Canyon scenes. The robot dinosaurs were built for a car maker's show at the 1964 New York World's Fair and moved in beside the track afterwards.

In Mickey's Toontown, which character's home is a boat instead of a house?

Donald Duck. A boat suits a duck who wears a sailor suit, and his has been part of Toontown ever since the land opened in 1993.

Which ride opened in Toontown in 2023 for the Disney company's 100th birthday?

Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. Surprisingly, it is the first ride-through attraction ever to star Mickey Mouse himself; it opened in Florida in 2020 before coming to Toontown.

On what planet is Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge set?

Batuu. Disney gave the land a planet of its own instead of one from the films, so that visitors could live out a Star Wars story that is theirs alone.

Which log flume ride replaced Splash Mountain in 2024?

Tiana's Bayou Adventure. It follows on from The Princess and the Frog, floating riders past Tiana, Mama Odie and Louis the alligator before the old ride's big final plunge.

Which Disneyland attraction's building stood finished but empty for about six years before it opened in 1969?

The Haunted Mansion. Its makers were called away to work on the 1964 New York World's Fair, and afterwards the designers could not agree on what should go inside the house.

Which snack was invented at Disneyland's Casa de Fritos restaurant to use up old tortillas?

Doritos. The restaurant cut its surplus tortillas into pieces and fried them, guests loved the chips, and Frito-Lay began selling them across the country in 1966.

What happens at Disneyland each day before sunset?

The American flag is lowered with a ceremony. Security staff have carried it out every day since 1955, even with no guests to watch while the park was shut for 13 months.

Which character usually flies over Sleeping Beauty Castle during Disneyland's fireworks?

Tinker Bell. She has swooped over the castle before the fireworks since 1961, and the first performer to fly the wire was Tiny Kline, a circus star aged 70.

In 2026, which cartoon dog stars in a live show at Disneyland's Fantasyland Theatre?

Bluey. In Bluey's Best Day Ever!, she and her sister Bingo join actors and musicians on stage, and the audience gets to play along with games from the episodes.

What was released along the streets outside Disneyland for its 30th birthday in 1985?

One million balloons. Young volunteers spent the morning filling them, and the release, held on what would have been Walt Disney's 84th birthday, smashed the world record.

Which second theme park opened next door to Disneyland in 2001, on the old parking lot?

Disney California Adventure. The land had been Disneyland's car park for more than 40 years, so a giant multi-storey garage had to be built to make up for it.

About how many visits had Disneyland welcomed in total by the end of 2021?

About 750 million. As the very first Disney park, open since 1955, it has had longer than any other to fill up; its 500 millionth guest walked in back in 2004.

What forced Disneyland to stay closed for 13 months in a row?

The COVID-19 pandemic. The gates shut in March 2020 and stayed shut until April 30, 2021; before that, surprise closures like those after President Kennedy's death and on September 11, 2001, were rare.

Which slow ride closed in 1977 to make room for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad coaster?

Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland. Its trains ambled past lifelike mechanical animals, and its little mining town of Rainbow Ridge was kept as scenery for the new coaster.

Which Disneyland roller coaster, opened in 1977, runs indoors in the dark?

Space Mountain. Because riders can't see which way the track turns next, they can't brace for the drops and turns, which is what makes it so thrilling.