Hey Disney friends! I had so much fun crafting the Magic Kingdom Scavenger Hunt that I knew I needed one for Disneyland as I’m headed there this month! *insert “when you wish upon a star” theme here*
If you’re headed to Disneyland too (HOORAY!!), make sure you print out or save this FREE scavenger hunt full of unique items to look out for, along with some fun facts about each one! I tried to include many things from Disney history that are overlooked or not widely known, and some of my favorite Disneyland secrets. You can use them to impress your travel companions, have something to do in line to keep occupied (Parents, this is GREAT for kids!), or just to add a little extra magic to your trip if you’re a frequent visitor to Disneyland.
Here is just a sample from the first page of the 20-item hunt, scroll down for the FREE printable version!
Some helpful hints:
- You can find the items in any order
- They are all things you can spot as you tour Disneyland as usual, adding some extra magic along the way – no need to use this guide as a touring plan (unless you want to!)
- Some items are easier than others to locate… this is so our littlest adventurers can join in the fun!
- I’ve included a few bonus fun facts for some of the items to add a little extra pixie dust!
Grab the printable version HERE for your youngest explorers to use while in the parks, bookmark this page, or screenshot/save the list to your phone for easy carrying!
Have a magical day, Disney friends!
1. Lilly Belle – Disneyland Railroad
In 1974, Walt’s wife Lillian Disney oversaw the redesign of the Grand Canyon Observation Coach for the Disneyland Railroad. The train car was outfitted in Victorian style with rich velour seats and curtains, a floral-patterned wool rug, mahogany wood paneling, and Disney family photos and memorabilia. There is also over 200 hidden Mickeys in the carpet, which was originally from Walt’s apartment over the firehouse. VIPs, dignitaries, and Club 33 members have been the main passengers on this special car. You can see the Lily Belle sometimes being pulled at the end of one of the trains, or step inside it on the Grand Circle Tour (for an extra fee!).
2. Perfectionist Light Bulb – Main Street USA
On a corner on Main Street USA, there is a pattern of red and white light bulbs with a single bulb that is half red and half white, simply to make the pattern repeat correctly. Perfectionists unite!
3. Walt’s Tie – Plaza Hub
You might already know about Walt Disney’s family apartment located over the fire station on Main Street USA where Disney keeps a lamp lit in the window at all times in memoriam. What you might not have ever noticed, however, is a small “STR” on Walt’s tie on the “Partners” statue… it stands for Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs, Walt’s home away from home vacation spot.
4. Golden Spike – Sleeping Beauty Castle
Just past the castle tunnel on your way into Fantasyland, you’ll find a brass marker embedded in the ground. Many mistake this for the geographical center of Disneyland, but actually, it is a survey marker to align the sightline from the castle to the end of Main Street USA. There used to be a matching one at the end of Main Street where the trolley tracks diverge, but it was removed in the 2018 track remodeling when they laid down new brickwork.
5. Viollet-le-Duc Spire – Sleeping Beauty Castle
One of the spires on the castle looks stylistically different than the rest of Sleeping Beauty’s castle, which was designed after Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle. This 22-karat gold spire is a miniature version of the same one added to Notre Dame Cathedral in the late-19th century, designed by Viollet-le-Duc. The spire was a beloved pet project of Walt Disney, approving the expense while his brother Roy was out of town.
6. Jingles the Horse – Fantasyland
The most famous and sought-after horse on King Arthur’s Carrousel is the lead one, named Jingles. She was Walt’s favorite! You can find her by looking for an ornate horse with jingle bells hanging from her breast collar and the talking-parrot umbrella head of Mary Poppins fame on her quarter sheet. She was ceremoniously dedicated to Julie Andrews in 2008, and you can see the initials “JA” with a silhouette of Mary Poppins on the saddle flap, along with the number 50 representing the attraction’s 50th anniversary. (More fun facts about the King Arthur Carrousel can be found here!)
7. House of the Future Foundation – Pixie Hollow
The Monsanto House of the Future stood in Tomorrowland and showcased plastic products and appliances like microwaves that were (in 1957) cutting-edge technology. The structure was so sturdy it made demolition so difficult that they left the concrete base intact, painted it “Go Away Green”, and transformed it into a planter that still stands today. If you have Disney+, be sure to check out the episode “House of Tomorrow” in Season 1 of The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse where this classic attraction is featured!
8. Mushroom Ticket Booth – Alice in Wonderland
Back when Disneyland first opened, there was a general admission base price to enter the parks, and then you would pay for a ticket to ride each ride. Soon they implemented “Value Books” of tickets, eventually labeling attractions letters A-E in 1959, with E-ticket rides being the most popular attractions. The mushroom that stands in front of Alice in Wonderland is the same ticket booth that was used when the attraction premiered in 1958.
9. Skyway Memories – Mr. Toad & Matterhorn
Ever wonder why the queue for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride curves strangely around a planter? It’s because that was where one of the support towers used to stand for the Skyway before it closed down in 1994. There also used to be a chalet that housed the Fantasyland station hidden behind Dumbo (and vegetation), but it was demolished in 2016 to make way for Galaxy’s Edge. One of the original skyway gondolas can be also be seen in the wreckage when you ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds. If you look closely at the Matterhorn, you can still see where the tram used to travel through the Matterhorn if you look closely enough (the holes were patched up in 1996).
10. Casey Jr. Train Recycled Cars – Fantasyland
When the original 1922 King Arthur Carrousel was moved to Disneyland in 1954 and refurbished, the Imagineers removed the wooden chariots to make room for “jumpers” (horses that go up and down). The ornate woodwork from the removed elements was then repurposed for the calliope cars on the Casey Jr Train.
11. Three Rides, One Building – Fantasyland
Because of Disneyland’s lack of physical space, the Imagineers got creative and placed several rides in the same show building to save on space, changing only the facade on the outside of the building. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is on the first floor, while Alice in Wonderland climbs up to the second story to wind around above Mr. Toad. The show building where they reside also includes Peter Pan’s Flight and The Mad Hatter gift shop. Fun fact: Alice in Wonderland was Disneyland’s first ever 2-story attraction.
12. Edible Landscaping – Tomorrowland
“Agrifuture” was the theme of Tomorrowland in 1998, with the goal of creating sustainable communities by making gardens both functional and visually appealing. Consequently, all of the landscaping was changed to entirely edible plants. Today, about 80% of the plants are edible or harvestable (but you’re discouraged from eating anything directly from the landscaping due to the use of pesticides). You can also view the now-historic Agrifuture sign while riding the Disneyland Rail Road and traveling by Autopia.
13. Moonliner III – Tomorrowland
The Moonliner III is a scaled-down replica of the original TWA Moonliner that was a feature in Tomorrowland from 1955-1962. It was designed by John Hench with the help of German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun after his V-2 rocket design, and at 76ft tall, it was the tallest structure in the park (8ft taller than the castle!). The Moonliner was meant to portray what a commercial spaceliner would look for travel in the then-distant 1986. The replica rocket now sits next to the building that housed the Rocket to the Moon attraction.
14. Original C-3PO & R2D2 + Star Wars Easter Eggs – Star Tours
The C-3PO and R2-D2 you see in the Disneyland Park Star Tours are actual props from the original movie, converted into animatronics. While you’re preparing to embark, keep an eye out for a Kermit the Frog droid, an announcement for an illegally parked speeder with a license plate THX-1183 (George Lucas’s first film), and a page saying “Mr. Egroeg Sacul” (George Lucas backward).
15. The Dark Waterway
Disneyland’s dark waterway current circulates south from the Rivers of America, through Fantasyland and the Storybook Land Canal Boats, around Sleeping Beauty Castle, and then past the Frontierland entrance and alongside the Tiki Room before entering the Jungle Cruise rivers. Then the water returns to the Rivers of America via a 37″ underground pipeline near Tarzan’s Treehouse. The color and clarity of this water (called its “turbidity”) have changed over the years. It used to be brown, then green, and now it’s green-blue. All is controlled by Disney so you can’t see the “magic” below the surface.
16. Little Man of Disneyland’s House – Adventureland
This legend of Patrick Begorra (AKA “The Little Man of Disneyland” is a fascinating tale, originally found in a Little Golden Book published in 1955. He was a little leprechaun who lived in the base of a tree in Disneyland, and when they had to take down his tree to build Disneyland, he found a new (secret) home in the base of another tree. Hint: Look near the Indiana Jones attraction!
17. Traveling Under the Berm – New Orleans Square
The Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland has two drops at the beginning of the ride instead of only one like Disney World because you have to get below the train tracks and into a separate show building. The same is true with the Haunted Mansion. The stretching room was designed solely to get everyone down a level in an elevator so they could walk down a long hallway underneath the berm (the raised visual barrier that runs around the perimeter of the park to hide the outside world). Imagineers and guests liked the gag so much that they replicated it in the Disney World version, but with the room stretching up instead of down since there was plenty of space for the show building right next to the stretching room in the Magic Kingdom.
18. Opening Day Speech – New Orleans Square
The telegraph office in the train station of New Orleans Square is tapping out Walt’s opening day speech from 1955: “To all who come to Disneyland, welcome. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.” In 1997, an amateur radio operator discovered that the message had been cut short due to an editing error while transferring the original taped looping message to a digital recording. It has since been restored.
19. Go Away Green – Everywhere
From Club 33 (Disneyland’s exclusive VIP club) in New Orleans Square to any unsightly walls or construction, Go Away Green is the name of the color Disney uses to make objects psychologically disappear from view.
20. Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland Train Tracks – Frontierland
These relics from the past can be seen easily from the decks of the Mark Twain while cruising the Rivers of America. Keep a sharp eye out for tracks leftover from the Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland, which toted its last passenger in 1977. You can also see an abandoned mine shaft from the ride when walking on the path behind Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, it looks like a hole in the rocks boarded up so you can’t enter. If you’re nostalgic for this ride, no worries, the set of Rainbow Ridge from the mine train is now the loading area for Big Thunder. On Disney+, you can also watch an homage to this dearly departed ride in the Mickey Mouse cartoon episode “Nature’s Wonderland”.
Hope you have fun finding all the items! If you’ve completed the whole scavenger hunt or have other parks you’d like me to make a hunt for, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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I had forgotten about the house of tomorrow. It was one of my favorite things! Are used to be one in the parking lot at the Oregon zoo also.