Big Changes are coming to the Disneyland Hotel, an institution that has changed, and changed and changed again so many times it could make your head bellhop spin. This time, the Neverland Pool is being expanded to cover the area now occupied by the Lost Bar and adjacent grassy paradise. The new section of the pool will feature a phenomenal double water slide, with a replica of the old “Disneyland” sign on top, and a course that will take plungers through the shells of iconic Disneyland monorails! It’s going to be rad.
But what will be lost is beyond sad. The waterfalls at the foot of the Bonita tower are, to paraphrase Disney parlance, Flowing Away Forever. Le sigh. They’ve certainly been an iconic part of the Disneyland Hotel for as long as I’ve known the place - they were installed in 1978 when I first moved to California! In a hotel always full of evolving features and activities, they were (imo) the most Disneyland-like in their creation of a themed environment. I’ll be so sad to see them go.
Also getting the axe are the Cove Pool and the Koi Pond. In fact, the koi have already been removed - but to where remains a mystery. Some say they’ve moved to The Huntington Library, but other evidence points to a darker destiny for the koi.
In any event, a rendering of the new layout reveals there’s nothing but a new grassy paradise planned for the area where the waterfalls and koi once reigned.
My apologies for any of you getting repeats of these updates through facebook or evite, but I don’t want to leave anyone out - because everyone on the LoT is invited, but I don’t have everyone’s email address or facebook friendship. So I’ll be bumping this thread every few days with a Countdown to 55/50 photo spread of the Disneyland Hotel - so you can get a fun run through its history as we lead up to the big event in July.
A rare color shot of the original Disneyland Hotel sign. It will be swell to have a replica back on the property.
Arriving by Monorail was a unique and stylish way to get to the Disneyland Hotel - with regular service starting in 1961 (and stopping in 2001, even though the station didn’t move - - just the hotel did.)
Arriving by helicopter was another stylish way to get the hotel in the early ‘60’s - when there was regular service between The Disneyland Hotel and LAX.
World of Color may be all the rage at the Resort this season, but Disneyland’s original fountain show was right here at the Disneyland Hotel. Performances finally came to a halt in the early years of the 21st Century. I guess they’ll finally get around to removing the facility when they demolish the waterfalls.
Jack and Bonita Wrather and family posing in front of the first guest room tower to be built at the Disneyland Hotel. Um, the outdoor elevator to the Top of the Park Lounge was built on the wrong side to allow the proper name of the hotel to be displayed. That was soon fixed with an addition to the Sierra Tower in the mid-sixties. Two more guest towers followed in the seventies, and the center of activity at the hotel moved west.
It’s dizzying how many different incarnations the hotel has had ... but I daresay that despite how cool the monorail water slides will be, the new version of the Disneyland Hotel will feature its least variety of features and activities ever. Worse yet, all the guest rooms are being “hermetically sealed.” There will no longer be sliding glass doors opening toward the bustling quad, nor any opening windows, nor any balconies.
We can only ponder the fate of the Wrather/Marina/Presidential Suite where the Fifty Five Fifty Party will take place. Its character and charm relies heavily on access to the great outdoors of the Disneyland Hotel quad vortex of fun. Just one more reason not to miss this fabulous party. After all, the magnificent Wrather Suite could be flowing away forever, too. And don’t forget to say farewell to the waterfalls while you’re here!
