50 Ways to Leave Your Living Room (in Honor of Disneyland's 50th Anniversary)

Part two: 25 opening-day features that remain at Disneyland

You can make a new plan, Stan, but much of Walt Disney's original plans for Disneyland remain intact fifty years after he debuted his landmark park. The enduring vitality of the Magic Kingdom (now duplicated four times around the globe) and its appeal across cultures and generations are a testament to Disney's farsighted genius. Here's a list of twenty-five Disneyland features that are more or less the same as opening day in 1955.

1. Disneyland Railroad
   Originally called the Santa Fe & Disneyland Passenger Train
2. Horse-Drawn Streetcars
   Originally called the Disneyland Street Railway
3. Autopia
   Originally called Autopia Freeway. In addition to the standard vehicles, the ride used to include "police cars."
4. King Arthur Carousel
5. Peter Pan's Flight
   Originally called Peter Pan ride
6. Snow White's Scary Adventures
   Originally called Snow White ride
7. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
8. Dumbo the Flying Elephant
   Originally called simply, Dumbo
9. Casey Jr. Circus Train
   Originally called Casey Jr. Train Ride
10. Mad Tea Party
11. Mark Twain Riverboat
12. The Golden Horseshoe Stage
    The legendary Wally Boag starred in the original show as Pecos Bill and helped secure a spot in the "Guinness Book of World Records" for the longest running stage show in history (over 50,000 performances).
13. Sleeping Beauty Castle
    The iconic centerpiece of Disneyland.
14. Refreshment Corner
    Originally called the Coca Cola Bar, the soft drink company remains a sponsor today.
15. Ice Cream Parlor
    The shop originally featured Carnation Company products. Today, Main Street's two ice cream concessions offer Nestle products and Nestle is the parent company of Carnation. The Carnation Café maintains the Carnation name within Disneyland.
16. Plaza Inn
    The Main Street, U.S.A. restaurant was originally called the Plaza Pavilion.
17. Costumed characters
    Although they look a bit primitive by today's standards, Mickey and the gang were on hand for opening day.
18. Main Street, U.S.A.
    While individual shops have changed through the years, the character of the land at the front of the park has remained whole. Disney designed the street to represent small-town America at the turn of the last century--about fifty years before the park opened.
19. Dedication to cleanliness
    Before Disneyland, amusement parks were often dingy and blighted places. Part of Walt's inspiration for building Disneyland was his aversion to the filthy parks to which he took his daughters.
20. A place where adults and children can enjoy doing things together
    While there are kiddie-centric rides in A Bug's Land, and the California Screamin' coaster is largely geared to thrill-seekers, most of Disneyland's attractions are still designed for people of all ages. Again, the seed for Disneyland was planted when Walt would sit on park benches by himself at amusement parks while his daughters enjoyed the rides. He wanted to design a more communal experience.
21. Parking trams
    Disney replaced the 100-acre surface parking lot with Disney's California Adventure and built a parking garage, but it still uses trams, originally called "elephant trains," to deliver guests to the front gate.
22. Landscaping
    Disneyland has always been as much a botanical gardens as an amusement park.
23. Themed lands
    Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Main Street, Adventureland, and Fantasyland were all there on opening day.
24. Disneyland Hotel
    It didn't actually open until a few weeks after the park, Disney didn't originally own it, and it's changed considerably through the years, but the Disneyland Hotel established the notion of the property as a destination resort.
25. $1.00 admission
    Okay, that has changed in fifty years. To be fair, $1 (50¢ for children) got guests into the park in 1955. They had to purchase additional tickets to go on the attractions.

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