Disneyland’s Cultivating the Magic Tour brings you the history of Disneyland’s landscaping designs. Tour groups gather at a gazebo just beyond the west (left as you enter) tunnels to Disneyland’s Main Street USA where you receive an audio receiver and earpiece enabling you to clearly hear your guide even in the busiest parts of the park.
Appropriately Alice in Wonderland’s “All in a Golden Afternoon” played as the tour began. Throughout the tour, various Disney tunes accompanied our walk and carried the theme.
After introducing herself, our guide Dianna (previously a Storybook Canal boat host) discussed the various ways plants have had featured roles in classic animation – whether advising Alice on her adventures in Wonderland or indicating the fading chance of redemption for an arrogant young prince and informed us that we were going to discover their role within Disneyland storytelling.
Over the next two hours, we strolled through Disneyland, making stops along Main Street USA, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland, Galaxy’s Edge and ToonTown. Most of the tour focused on Disneyland’s early days and the choices of horticulturist Bill Evans (a Disney Legend) as it was established. As Diannam shared stories of tight deadlines and even tighter budgets, Evans began to sound more and more like the Enterprise’s miracle worker engineer, Scotty. His contributions have been honored with a window on Main Street and on the tour we learned why part of the window reads “Freeway Collections”
Remember that joke in the Jungle Cruise where the skipper says they will point out a few of their favorite plants along the rivers as they begin pointing to a few plants while simply stating “there’s one and there’s one. Oh and there’s another over there”? Well, the highlight of Disneyland’s Cultivating the Magic Tour turns that moment on its head. We boarded a Jungle Cruise boat just for us. Our skipper delightfully welcomed us but, once underway, Dianna took over the narration, truly highlighting the variety of plants along the rivers – the numerous types of bamboo, the plants native to regions represented in the attraction and others that were selected to support the story like the elephant ear plants found along their bathing pool. She explained that an existing Eucalyptus grove led to the attraction’s location. Initially, Adventureland was planned for the eastern side of Disneyland but Eucalyptus trees provided a natural camouflage of Main Street USA keeping guests focused on the animals and other jungle elements. It is hard to imagine rows of orange trees once stood where it feels like a jungle has always existed.
Dianna pointed out numerous special trees throughout the park including the endangered dawn redwood, the treasured Bodhi tree, a stately palm tree known as the Dominguez palm, and a few others. She pointed out the ways various garden color palettes support the story being told in their vicinity whether the cool, polar tones found at the base of the Matterhorn or the succulents that line the queue of the Submarine Voyage reminiscent of undersea plants.
Our tour concluded in Mickey’s Toontown under the Dreaming Tree inspired by a large cottonwood tree that Walt Disney would sit under in Marceline, Missouri. As a young man, he sat under its shady branches to draw or create stories entertaining his sister, Ruth. We were presented a postcard with embedded seeds that we could plant at home. Since I’d been told at check-in that our commemorative take-way wasn’t available and would be mailed at a later date it was a nice substitute. (UPDATE: it arrived!)
Cultivating the Magic was a delightful exploration of Disneyland’s history focusing specifically on the natural beauty placed there by creative horticulturists and was another reminder of the variety of skills and talents that come together to make it such a special place. Dianna’s storytelling and humor held my attention even as the usual magic of Disneyland did its best to distract me even when Merida or Captain Hook & Belle wandered by. It exhibited the truth behind a famous quote from Walt Disney – “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them” even to create a wild densely forested jungle where an orange grove once stood.
For more information or to book a tour, visit Disneyland.com.