The Fabulous Disney Babe
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Kim Irvine-Allison

So, I take Alice to Disneyland a few months ago, and remember that there's work being done on King Arthur Carrousel - I pop over for a look and find flat earth.  Whoa!  I thought they were just going to make it ADA compliant and fix up the canopy - what happened?

Rumors ran rampant all over the Disney nut sections of the Internet.  They'd taken off the canopy and found the mechanism in dire need of restoration (True) .  They were replacing the entire carousel - er, "Carrousel" (False).  All sorts of scenarios were trotted out, examined and dissected.  Rich Langhorst was kind enough to sit down with me yesterday and tell me how it all came about.  According to Rich , it started as a small project - simply replacing the canopy and adding the chariot and ramp - but became something much bigger when it was discovered that the gears and drive motors were in need of repair and/or restoration - and Rich noted that restoration was very, very important to his team, many of whom were there to have breakfast and enjoy their handiwork before the park opened to guests that day.  "The biggest challenge," he said, "was to restore - not tear down and rebuild." 

Rich Langhorst and Roberta Brubaker - a long-time Disneyland Cast Member

What the guest sees, he added, they remember - if they just tore down and replaced the Carrousel, they'd be taking away people's memories - not an acceptable option to him - so he and his team went to work on the restoration.   In the twenties, there was no AUTOCAD.  Everything was done by hand.  King Arthur Carrousel is a masterpiece of the carousel-builder's art - in this case, William Dentzel - just about all of the parts were hand-made - Rich and his team had to "reverse-engineer" parts, do "as-built" sketches, and dig up the hand-drawn plans from the Carrousel's original construction.  New drawings were created, parts, pieces, gears, machinery and structural pieces examined and documented.  They were determined to retain the original crative intent, while enhancing the experience for guests who could not get onto a carousel horse.  Some parts were farmed out, but the majority of the restoration work was done in Disneyland's own machine shop.  I would dearly love to see that place.  Gold leaf and paint were meticulously spplied by hand. 

There's a new, 10 horsepower motor with computerized control.  Now, every time the Carrousel stops, it does so - on a dime - exactly where it started up.  This was added to enable the wheelchair ramp to be used, but will also be handy when a child rides while their grownup waits at the gate - no more searching - mom's right where you left her.

The wheelchair ramp with the "chariot" in the background

The nice thing, Rich told me, about the accessibility is that it's seamlessly themed  -  there's no interruption of Show involved.  The ramp, which is decorated with a unicorn - (someone's family crest) is lowered, the person in the wheelchair crosses on to the platform, while other people find and mount their horses, and the bench seat on the chariot lifts so that the wheelchair can be safely attached to the chariot.  When not in use, the bench on the chariot lowers so that people who are not in wheelchairs can sit there as well.

The unicorn on the other side of the ramp

Four horses were removed to make way for the chariot, which can seat four across as a regular chariot.  The horses will be refurbished, one at a time, by cast member Doug Price.  That's Doug's sole responsibility at Disneyland.  I want his job.  The horses are rotated so that there's always a full Carrousel of fresh, beautiful horses.  And don't worry - Jingles is still there, hidden Mickey on his saddle and all.  Here's Cynthia Harriss on Jingles, the lead horse on the outside of the Carrousel just behind the chariot. 

Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss