When you think of Fantasyland today, what do you think of? You probably picture Peter Pan’s massive clock tower, King Arthur Carousel welcoming you into the land, and waiting for the Evil Queen to appear in the window above Snow White’s Scary Adventures. People who have visited Disneyland California’s Fantasyland after 1983 have all had these experiences, but anyone who visited before that time may have a completely different vision of what the land looks like.

Opening Day

On July 17th, 1955, Disneyland opened for the first time to the public and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle’s bridge was lowered. People piled in, running from each attraction, massive queues being formed. When describing Fantasyland to his sister Ruth in a letter, Walt described it as:

“Here you will find the Sleeping Beauty Castle, a number of fantastic rides — everything here will be based on the idea of Fantasy. We will recreate portions of Snow White, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, which will be known as Walk Throughs and Fly Through, in the case of Peter Pan.”

— Walt Disney

Although Walt always wanted it to be an immersive storybook experience, as the park continued to be built, he realized he couldn’t quite afford the storybook village he was wanting. In order to save money but still have a theme, him and the imagineers decided to go with a Renaissance Fair theme style, with tents and bright colors. The theme was overall successful when the park opened, however the layout was what caused problems in the end with it. There was also an issue with the ever-changing neighboring lands, and Fantasyland being stuck in a medieval, non-progressive time period.

Image from: https://disneyland.livejournal.com/537799.html

Beginning in 1955, the attractions included in Fantasyland were: Snow White and her Adventures, Canal Boats of the World, Mickey Mouse Club Circus, Mickey Mouse Club Theater, King Arthur Carousel, Mad Tea Party, Mr.Toad’s Wild Ride, Peter Pan’s Flight, and the Casey Jr. Circus Train. There was also Skull Rock near the back of the land, with the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship Restaurant. Dumbo’s Flying Elephants was added in August of 1955. One of the first new attractions to be added to this list is the Skyway in 1956, and the Alice in Wonderland ride in 1958.

Image from: http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2012/6/21/new-fantasyland-1983.html

As you can see in the image above, the main attractions in the land are congested right at the entrance, meaning when lines got longer during peak times in the day, it was hard to move around at all without getting mixed up in it. The rides had a fair-like exterior, and many of the interiors of the rides that are still around today did not look like they do now. The Snow White attraction has seen many changes over the years as it was terrifying at opening, as well as the Alice in Wonderland attraction. Many of the main characters in all of the film-inspired rides were nowhere to be seen, as the idea was that you were Snow White, Peter, or Alice as you rode the ride. Many guests didn’t understand this concept though and complained that they didn’t get to see their favourite characters, so this was also a change that happened for each ride at different times.

The Renaissance theme was becoming outdated, the congestion was bad, and the whole land needed a face lift. Although Walt adored the idea of Fantasyland, he was never quite happy with how it turned out. By 1983, imagineers felt it was time to finally give it the update it deserved.

In 1983, a commercial was put out by Disneyland that announced there would be a new Fantasyland opened. It didn’t show any of it, but rather showed an image of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle reopening, playing songs from Snow White, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio in the background. The opening of New Fantasyland was the only other time that the drawbridge was lowered on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

Image from: https://d23.com/this-day/new-fantasyland-opens-at-disneyland/

New Fantasyland had a Bavarian-style, storybook village feel to it. All of the colorful tents were taken away and new wooden architectures were added to make you feel like you were a part of the European tales that Disney retold so often. The layout of the land was changed too to accommodate for the congestion that occurred before then.

King Arthur Carousel was pushed back, as well as Dumbo the Flying Elephant in order to open up the entrance more. The Mad Tea Party was moved from the center to more to the right to be closer to the Alice attraction. Mr.Toad’s interior got a makeover to allow for a longer ride time and updated scenes. Snow White and her Adventures was renamed to Snow White’s Scary Adventures so that guests new they would be entering a scary experience, however that ride continued to change throughout the years to make it less scary anyway. Dumbo’s Flying Elephants was also renamed to just Dumbo the Flying Elephant. The Mickey Mouse Club Theater was renamed to Fantasyland Theater. And finally, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey was added to the left of the entrance. New Fantasyland and all of the updates that came with the park throughout the 1980s are closer to what we see today, although we did lose many attractions like the Skyway throughout the years. Some remnants of old attractions are still around if you look hard enough.