Silent Sunday in the Park
Hidden Mickey Monday: Paradise Pier Hotel
Our Hidden Mickey this week comes from the Paradise Pier Hotel at Disneyland. As with many other resorts, the carpets are many times a great place for Mickey to hide. Here you can spot him in the Paradise Pier hotel hallway carpeting. There is a classic Hidden Mickey on the right and the design also reveals a couple others.
Hidden Mickey Monday – Grand Californian Hotel
Our Hidden Mickey this week comes from Disneyland’s Grand Californian Hotel. If you stay at one of the hotels across from the Grand Californian then you will walk past this sign many times.
As you walk past – take a close look at the tree on the left side of the sign.
Hi Mickey!! Did you spot him?
We love Hidden Mickey‘s. Where have you spotted him at the Grand Californian?
King Arthur Carrousel at Disneyland
Last year on our trip to Disneyland the Carrousel was under refurbishment. As I was waiting for my family I began to read some of the interesting signs posted on the construction walls and learned a lot about Walt and the Carrousel.
Walt loved to take his girls to Griffith Park to ride the Carrousel and as he sat on the park bench dreaming about his future park you can be sure that a Carrousel would be one of the cornerstones of his park. As plans for Disneyland began to unfold, Walt sent out a team to find a carrousel that would work for his park. One was found at a park called Sunnyside Beach Park in Toronto, Ontario. The 
Carrousel was built in 1875 and was used by the park since 1922.
As the team began to refurbish the carrousel, Walt decided he only wanted jumping horses so any other type of animal was removed and horses were added, acquiring them from Coney Island and other parks across the country. One other thing you will notice about the horses is that they are all white, Walt noticed the popularity of the white horse on the carrousel and had all horses painted white in the mid 70’s, but don’t worry they all still have their own name. A complete list of the horse’s names can be found at city hall.
Today you will find a carousel at all Disney locations:
- Disneyland Resort – King Arthur Carrousel and King Triton’s Carousel at California Adventure
- Walt Disney World Resort – Prince Charming Regal Carrousel at the Magic Kingdom
- Tokyo Disney Resort – Caravan Carousel
- Disneyland Paris – Le Carrousel de Lancelot (sounds fancy huh)
- Hong Kong Disneyland Resort – Cinderella Carousel
- Shanghai Disney Resort opening in 2015 will have a Fantasia themed carousel
Disney indicates that one in every five park visitors take a ride on the Carrousel, are you the one? Which one is your favorite?
Disney Parks from Largest to Smallest
As we walked around the Walt Disney World Property the last few days, I began to think about just how big each park was. Maybe it was because I was laying hardwood flooring the day before we went to the park so my legs were feeling it, but these parks are big. But how big?
Can you list out all the Disney Theme Parks in the world from the largest park down to the smallest park? As you think, be sure to separate out each of the parks.
I’ll give you one hint here and list out the resort area size along with the parks that make it up.
- Walt Disney World – 25,000 Acres
- Made up of Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom
- Disneyland Resort Paris – 4,800 Acres
- Made up of Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Paris
- Disneyland Resort – 510 Acres
- Made up of Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure
- Tokyo Disney Resort – 494 Acres
- Made up of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySeas
- Hong Kong Disneyland – 311 Acres
- Made up of Hong Kong Disneyland
That’s a big hint, now could you separate out each park and list them out in order from largest to smallest?
- 500 acres – Animal Kingdom (Walt Disney World)
- 300 acres – Epcot (Walt Disney World)
- 154 acres – MGM – Hollywood Studios (Walt Disney World)
- 126 acres – Disneyland Paris
- 126 acres – Tokyo Disneyland
- 123 acres – Hong Kong Disneyland
- 122 acres – Tokyo DisneySea
- 107 acres – Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World)
- 85 acres – Disneyland
- 72 acres – Disney’s California Adventure (Disneyland)
- 62 acres – Walt Disney Studios Paris
How many did you get right? Be sure to hop around for more trivia!
