Have you ever imagined what it would be like to walk in the footsteps of Walt Disney himself during and after Disneyland was built? Now you can with a new pocket sized guide entitled “Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland” which aims to answer the question, “What would it be like to walk through Disneyland with Walt by your side?”

The 128-page paperback takes readers land by land through the Anaheim theme park, offering anecdotes, history and trivia from Disney Imagineers as well as early concept art, sketches and schematics of many rides and attractions.

“From a process standpoint, it offers a bit of a peek behind the curtain of how we turn concepts into reality,” said Alex Wright, an Imagineer who gathered tales from his co-workers for the book. “In a way, there’s no one person who can tell you all these different stories. We have so many different disciplines.”

To research the book, Wright delved into the extensive Disney archives and toured the park with long-time Imagineers Tony Baxter and Kim Irvine. The hard part, Wright said, was deciding what to leave out.

“When it’s Disneyland, there’s always more to tell,” Wright said. “You could have told another 1,000 stories with all the history that’s gone on there.”

Designed to be read in the park, the “field guide” attempts to strike a difficult balance between appealing to first-time Disneyland visitors as well as life-long fans.

Brady MacDonald of Los Angeles Times who reviewed the book for an article offers some of his own personal favorite finds.

Early Concepts Never Realized:

• Walt envisioned live exotic animals roaming the banks of the Jungle Cruise.

• A runaway mine-car theme for Indiana Jones Adventure incorporating the Jungle Cruise boats and the Disneyland Railroad.

• A walk-through Pirates of the Caribbean wax museum — the water and boats weren’t added until after construction started.

• A Casey Jr. Circus Train roller-coaster thrill ride — retooled within weeks of opening day into a gentle kiddie ride.

Trivia Tidbits:

• The New Orleans Square train station depot taps out Morse code of Walt Disney’s opening day dedication speech.

• The Latin motto on Mr. Toad’s coat of arms reads: “Speeding with Toad is always absurd.”

• Walt liked to take pre-opening morning drives in a Carnation milk truck along Main Street U.S.A.

• Steven Spielberg recorded the rumbles and clanking of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for the mine-car chase scene in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”

The Truly Odd:

• Uprooted orange trees were planted upside down during the construction phase of the Jungle Cruise to represent missing foliage.

• Walt gave his wife, Lilly, a petrified tree for their wedding anniversary. (She donated it to the theme park, where it still resides in Frontierland.)

• Visitors in the Star Tours queue may hear an intercom page for Egroeg Sacul (George Lucas backwards).

You can get the book on Amazon for $9.95. I’m hoping it is available at the park itself as I’ll be there next Thursday and Friday. And as this Disney fan is always hungry to learn the in-and-outs of the park, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this little gem one way or another.

Related: Book your dream Disney vacation at Expedia.com!

If you have been to Disneyland a number of times as I have, you have no doubt crossed the path of a feline or two. Cats at Disneyland? You bet! And they are not a part of the collection of animatronic figures located at the park. They are the real deal. So, how did they get there in the first place?

Back in the early days of the park, Disney was having issues with mice. They initially attempted to deal with the problem by leaving hot dogs laced with cyanide out for the rodents in hopes they would eat the hot dogs, travel down to the River of America to drink and fall in. The next morning, a boat would skim them off the top. If any were found floating during the day, they would be picked up by the canoes. This was somewhat effective for a while until a little boy ate one of the hot dogs and fell ill.

So Disneyland brought in about fifty cats and set them loose in the park. Cats are still there today, but typically hide during business hours. It is reported that many Disney cast members leave food out for the cats and have even given them names. And while they may not always fit with the theming of particular areas, they deal with the rodent population and so they have become permanent residents of the magic kingdom.

Regarding cats showing up in areas where they look out of place – I once saw a cat wandering about in Storyland – a land of miniatures. The cat looked like a giant next to all the miniature sized villages and scenery as you could imagine. I attempted to capture it on film but he/she darted away before I could aim and focus.

I did snap this one sitting across the Rivers of America on Tom Sawyer Island.

I wished I would have had a larger zoom so I could get a closer shot. But there he/she is, sitting and appearing to be watching the ducks swimming by (real as well).

While the cats have always been wild by nature, reports confirm that they are becoming more tame. One report by a guest states that the last time they were waiting to ride the Indiana Jones attraction, they spotted a cat sitting in the queue licking it’s paws. The people around were all reaching down for the cat and he/she didn’t even attempt to run away.

While they do a great job controlling the rodent population, they can sometimes cause problems as well. For example, they have even stopped the Big Thunder Rail Road on several occasions by tripping senors and confusing the computers. It is also reported that when Disney Imagineers began to build the walk through attraction in Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, they found almost 100 cats living there.

Nuisance, helpful or even entertaining, cats have seemed to find a permanent home in the Magic Kingdom. If I were a cat, I couldn’t think of a better place to be!

Related: Book your dream Disney vacation at Expedia.com!

I’m a huge fan of Disneyland, the original theme park and as such am as much interested in its history and secrets as visiting it in person. I have visited the park a total of eight times as of the writing of this post and yet there are still places I have not been and secrets that have not been revealed to me.

One of these places is Walt Disney’s apartment. I bet most people that love and visit the park don’t even realize that Walt Disney had an apartment there and it remains to this day. In fact, everyone who comes to Disneyland probably walks right past it without even realizing it. So where is this special place in Disneyland? Right above the Fire Station which is to the left of City Hall.

This was one of the original structures built when Disneyland was under construction in 1955 and Walt used to spend a lot of time there seeing it was quite a drive from his home to where the park is located. After Disneyland was opened and even up to his death, the apartment served as a retreat for Walt who spent alot of time at the park.

It is a small studio apartment comprising about 500 square feet. It is decorated in period style, the period being turn of the century which is what Main Street represents. If you look at the window just above the firehouse, you will notice a lamp that is constantly lit symbolizing that Walt is there in spirit watching over the happiest place on Earth. There is also a back porch that is adjacent to The Jungle Cruise, which lies directly behind the left side of Main Street as you are walking into the park. It of course is heavily camouflaged by trees but you can still hear the sounds of the jungle clearly from the porch.

If you want to get a glimpse into this very special place, I found a virtual tour of the apartment at The Orange County Register that includes audio commentary by Tim O’Day. I also came across an account of a someone who had won the experience of actually having dinner in the apartment. If you love Disneyland and the trivia that surrounds the park, you’ll definitely enjoy these two archives depicting it.

During my last visit to the park, a cast member (that is what Disneyland calls their employees) told me that there was a rumor circulating that Disneyland was considering offer tours of the apartment as part of a special package but I have yet to see any evidence of that.

Another piece of trivia is that there used to be access to the apartment up the fire pole that runs from the apartment down to the firehouse. During Disneyland’s early years a small boy climbed up the pole and stuck his head up into the opening and there was Walt relaxing on the couch. I’m sure Walt was friendly to the youngster but the access was sealed up after that.

Author’s Note: This was originally published on my personal blog, however I thought it would be better suited for this site.

Related: Book your dream Disney vacation at Expedia.com!