Hidden Gems at Disneyland

This post is a little different. With the help of people over on the Lines app chat, here is a list of cool hidden things at Disneyland. No food and minimal hidden mickeys involved! I will list the username of the person who added the information on the chat if it wasn't me.

Disneyland Park

• General
1. Some of the little popcorn people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAqD_mKuj04
2. The feral cats in DL are believed to have been released there on purpose for natural pest maintenance. They are fed and taken care of by Cast Members There's estimated to be about 200 cats on property. They do trap neuter release so they don't get too many and have adopted out kittens. They have 5 discreet feeding stations around the park. Visit disneylandcats.wordpress.com
• Main Street
1. Check out the bricks at the water fountains by the lockers at DL. They are all mismatched. They were tested out by Imagineers before they made a decision on what to use in the park and they kept their "test bricks"!
2. You can ride in the Lily Belle train car. 
3. You can ride the tender behind engines 1&2 on DLRR-ask at Main St (also where you ask for L Belle which Must be 1st thing in Morn). -ralfrick
4. The light that Walt would turn on in the Firehouse window when he was residing there is always on now since Walt's spirit is always present in the park.
5. Vanilla scent is pumped through vents on Main St., during the holidays it's peppermint. 
6. Main St. is set in 1910 and Tomorrowland in 1986- both Haley's comet years 
7. All the names on the windows were people who helped build DL.
8. Here's a bit about Oscar, the namesake of Oscar's Choice on the menu at Carnation Cafe. He's worked for DL since 1956- 55 years now! http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/01/54-54-years-and-still-cookin-at-disneyland-park-and-still-cookin/
9. Steve Martin worked at the Magic Shop on Main St.
10. Imagineers talking about some of the buildings on Main St: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XhnFHNHuDc
11. Listen in the alley by the lockers on Main Street in DL & you'll intermittently hear the goings-on of the "occupants" behind the windows up above! -milehighminnie
12. Pick up phone in Marketplace on Main St to listen in on the party line conversations. -poesers
13. If you've been in a Barbershop quartet - tell the Dapper Dans! If they're not too busy they'll let you sing with them, and give you a card naming you an honorary member of the Dapper Dans - I have one and it's awesome. -drsambojones
14. The draw bridge entering Sleeping Beauty Castle actually works. It has only been operated twice. Once on opening day in 1955 the second when they reopened the updated Fantasyland in the 80s. Sorry I forget the exact year. -seanyred  In 83' it was lowered for opening of new FL :-) -wggierhart
• Tomorrowland
1. You can ride in the front of the monorail- just ask! 
2. Main St. is set in 1910 and Tomorrowland in 1986- both Haley's comet years 
3. History of Autopia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLiE0D3V-Hw
4. The 2 geese from Am Sings not used in Splash are in ST queue-look at feet of the robots in baggage/security area. -ralfrick
5. Zurg figures on Buzz have hidden targets in ctr of chest. -ralfrick
6. Madame Leota is seen on new ST in baggage area -jasonindisney.com
• Fantasyland
1. Look at the window over Snow White. The Queen moves the curtain aside and you can see her every so often. 
2. Touch the apple at snow white entry. - ralfrick 
3. Try to open door on left at top of castle walkthru. - ralfrick
4. Cars on Casey Jr were benches removed from carousel. -ralfrick 
5. Didn't remember exact details on the carousel so I looked it up: it was built in 1875 and was purchased for DL. They refurbished, expanded, and altered it a bit. Added horses from other carousels. Walt wanted all jumpers so new legs were carved for the non-jumpers and the benches were removed and placed on Casey as @ralfrick said! 
6. The mad hatter hat shop next to Alice ride has a cheshire cat image that appears in the mirror behind registers -jasonindisney.com 
7. A fun thing to notice is how each building exterior in fantasyland is themed to the ride. Way cooler than WDW's circus tent look (although not in new fantasyland!)
8. On the carousel, Jingles the horse dedicated to Julie Andrews has her initials and Mary Poppins logos on the saddle. She's on outside & found right after the bench. -moorparknay15
• Toontown
1. Some of the buildings in Toontown are interactive.
2. I read that if you ring the doorbell at the Camera Shop in Toontown, the window flashes.-BACI
3. One of our favorite things to do is gather around the fountain near Mickey's house in Toontown and play the hidden instruments. There are four round buttons on the ground that play fun sounds when you jump on them. -nan4disney
• New Orleans Square
1. The beeping at the New Orleans Square train station is Walt's opening day speech being typed in Morse code. 
2. The crack (from a gunshot) in the glass on HM that now looks like a spider in the glass in ballroom scene is neat. 
• Adventureland
1. John Lasseter worked as a Jungle Cruise skipper. 
2. Pull the bamboo support and rope in the Indy queue!
3. Palm tree at Indy FP machines known as Dominguez Palm after family that owned that part of property-building is built around it. Ron Dominguez ultimately got a Main St window. -ralfrick
• Frontierland
1. The jumping fish in the pond near big thunder ranch are left over from the old Mine Train attraction- as is the tunnel behind. 
2. You can ride in the wheelhouse of the Mark Twain and ring the bells/whistle. 
3. The Columbia is a full-scale replica of Columbia Rediviva, the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe.
4. The petrified tree stump by the river was an anniversary gift from Walt to Lillian. 
5. A bunch of the buildings at BTMRR's mining town were taken from the old Mine Train attraction. 
6. I loved the pumpkin carvers, they are amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsgY1ega6Fc Only at Halloween time ;) 
7. The Halloween tree (dedicated to Ray Bradbury in 2007 based on novel he'd written) located in front of mailbox in Frontierland is decorated every Halloween season with jack o'lanterns, orange & yellow lights. -moorparknay15
• Critter Country
1. A lot of the AA characters on Splash were taken from America Sings which was in the Innoventions building.
2. 3 heads from country bears in Pooh. Above & behind you as leaving Heffulumps scene. -ralfrick

Disney's California Adventure Park

• Buena Vista Street
1. Really cool videos of Imagineers talking about details at DCA. BV St.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsoxaEdhm-A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ3iwkSx5dw 
2. The citizens of Buena Vista St. are cool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSjOueUWLVk 
3. And don't forget to pick up a BV St. newspaper.
4. I want a citation from Officer Blue on BV St.!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3kNnIPcvz4
• Condor Flats
• Grizzly Peak
• Paradise Pier
1. Seach "midway mania tips" on youtube to score more points. -ralfrick
• Pacific Wharf
1. Blue Sky Cellar showcases upcoming or recently completed additions to DLR.
• Cars Land
1. Cars Land details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uSeyi0Dxgk
• a bug's land
• Hollywood Land
1. Tower of Terror drops 40 feet below the surface. 
2. The zoetrope (spelling?), the character quiz, and the thing where you can voice over a disney clip are lesser known attractions in the Animation building at DCA. 
3. When Boo is clubbing Randall at the end of Monsters Inc (ride) and he keeps changing colors/patterns, one of them is the Haunted Mansion wallpaper. -tayalltheway
4. And there's a hidden Mickey on Randall too -wggierhart

Downtown Disney/Hotels

1. There's a hidden Mickey on the sidewalks along DL Dr. It is just south of access rd that is between Paradise Pier Hotel & big lot south of hotel. Go to google satellite view & zoom in; it is actually labeled "Hidden Mickey Anaheim CA"! -ralfrick

Ariel's Grotto

Time to round out the restaurants we tried inside either of the parks! Ariel's Grotto is not anyone's favorite restaurant. The food had the reputation for being just alright. However, it is a wonderful restaurant to visit if you need princesses at a meal (I think it's the only princess character meal at DLR.) It is also a good choice for a slightly lower budget World of Color (WoC)) meal if Carthay Circle just isn't for you. Please note- there are NO characters at the WoC meal. When we visited in October 2011 there was no Carthay Circle and since it was a crowded Columbus Day weekend, we wanted those VIP WoC Fast Passes (FPs)! So our flight landed in the morning and we spent an evening in Disney's California Adventure (DCA) Park, including a dinner here.

Every now and then, they change up the WoC menus, so no guarantees that what I ate is what you get now. Here is a link to the World of Color dinner menu.

Ariel's Grotto is located in the Paradise Pier area of DCA, right off the bridge.

http://www.yesterland.com/images-caladventure/avaloncove_strollers.jpg

There is both indoor and outdoor seating, the outdoor being right on the water!

http://disneylandjoy.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/ariels-grotto.jpg

http://cdnfiles.hdrcreme.com/1351/medium/v61mq4ekuw.jpg

We chose outside since the view is so pretty of Paradise Pier. It was dark when we were there so the view looked something like this:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/e7/2f/82/view-from-the-table-at.jpg

For our first night there, the view alone got us pretty excited for the trip to come!

The WoC menu at Ariel's Grotto has very limited choices and included bread, a choice of 2 different antipasto towers (I think there was 1 additional choice for kids), an entree selection out of maybe 6 choices, and a dessert platter. We started off with this flower looking bread:

http://i1.disneyfoodblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/WoC-bread.jpg

http://i1.disneyfoodblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/WoC-bread.jpg

It was pretty good. Nothing super exciting there, although I did enjoy having the different butters and toppings! Rating: 3/5.

I'm pretty sure this was the antipasto tower we had, since I know we had meats and most likely seafood. I think there was some cheese too and we pretty much skipped over the rest:

http://s3-media3.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/dk1wKOtlFi212DDMNr1pXg/l.jpg

It was OK. The meats were pretty good. It's what you would expect, again, nothing exciting here. Rating: 2/5.

For the entree, we both went with the tri-tip. The choices were pretty lackluster and this was really the only one that looked good to us.

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/e0/a5/b9/ariel-s-grotto.jpg

You know, I wasn't expecting much, but it was pretty darn good! I mean, yeah, it's meat and potatoes with veggies. Whoop-de-doo, right? But the meat was cooked nicely. It was medium and I can't remember if we got to request that or not, but that's how I like it! It was moist and pretty flavorful for essentially plain beef that is not a "steak" per se. The potatoes had cheese and were good! The veggies- meh. But I'm not a veggie person already. Rating: 3/5.

On to the desserts- the part I was the most excited about! No choices here, just a mixture of items!

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6121/5983514796_08d09825d6_z.jpg

Ooh, Aaah. So pretty! I loved the touch of the white chocolate film strip that reminds you of the show you will see with your VIP FPs later! Disclaimer: neither I nor my boyfriend enjoy dark chocolate. That level of richness is just gross to both of us. The lava cakes and brownie things were that bitter chocolate flavor that we just can't stand. The macaroons tasted very fake fruity and had that meringue texture-the bad kind. If that texture bothers you, which it does for us. The fluffy mousse-type things also had that gross fake flavor to me and almost no texture. I think the little cup was tiramisu.. and we both hate all kinds of coffee. The berries.. meh. Fine fruit, but I wanted dessert! So all in all, all the desserts on this platter were just plain gross for us. But I know other people enjoy it! When it comes to desserts, we enjoy more of the basics. I cannot imagine this platter going over well with kids, either! Rating: 1/5.

So all said and done, the dinner was OK, just like I expected. We were there for the FPs, and we got them, and they worked out great! It is not a priority at all to return. The entree was good, but very basic and plain, and the other stuff ranged from OK to the gross desserts, in our opinion. I would rate the restaurant a 3/5. Love the view, but the food is just not very good and you do pay a lot to eat there. If we were interested in princess character meals I'm sure we would rate it higher, because it does have decent food for a character meal restaurant!