Updated April 13, 2026
***Looking for Disneyland Resort hotel secrets? Check this out!
And, find Part II of this post now here!
Disneyland is so much more than rides and food and that’s a big part of why I love the parks.
We’ve discovered some unique treasures over the years and I know we have many more to learn.
If you’re planning a Disneyland trip, start with this post. It covers everything you need to know. And here’s my 2026 crowd calendar that shows you the days to avoid. Finally, check out discounts for tickets and hotels both on and off site with my preferred travel partner here.
Ok, I’ve detailed several unique finds, below, so you can share in some of the fun, too!
Let’s go!
Houdini’s Hidden Message
Hear a real recording from famous magician, Houdini, inside the Magic Shop on Main Street.
Just pick up the old phone on the wall and listen! Here’s what it looks like.
While you’re in the shop, look for actor Steve Martin’s photo on the wall. He used to work in this shop. Here’s more about this treasured store on Main Street.
Peter & Wendy’s Tree
Located to the right of the castle, don’t miss finding where Peter and Wendy carved their initials.
This little gem is tucked away behind Snow White Grotto, up a couple of steps and facing the brick. If you listen closely, sometimes you can hear Peter Pan’s Flight nearby!
Here is what to look for:
And here is where to find it:
Train Locator Map
One of my favorites!
Find all you need to know about how you can locate the trains in real time at Disneyland in thispost.
Ride in Front of the Monorail
It’s easier than you think! Ask a cast member upon arrival to see if there’s room.
Here’s more about this.
You’ll get to see the driver’s seat and have a great view of theride.
Here’s the seat:
And here’s the view:
Check out this video to see what it looks like in the front of the monorail.
Find the Evil Queen in Fantasyland
Of course she’s lurking near Snow White.
Look for this unique animatronic above the Snow White’s Enchanted Wish attraction located in Fantasyland. She peeks out behind the curtain occasionally surprising guests.
Hidden Mickeys
More common than they used to be, Hidden Mickeys are everywhere. The rumored first published sighting was in 1989. WDW’s Eyes and Ears magazine (for cast members) noted several within the parks and news spread quickly. Mickeys of all shapes and sizes can be found subtly worked into the design of rides and other attractions.
We love to search for these while at the parks and often in real life, too. In fact, my children pointed out one on the Vatican hymnal at mass recently. Oops.
***This Mickey can be found on Casey Jr. Circus Train in Fantasyland.
Walt Disney’s Apartment
As Disneyland was being constructed, Walt kept an apartment on site to keep track of progress and have sleeping options nearby. It’s still at the park today, preserved in beauty and used to be available to see on park tours such as the Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps. (I’ve been on this one and it’s fantastic!)
You can locate the apartment easily, as it sits just above the Disneyland Fire Department. A lamp sits in the window, always lit, as a reminder to the great man who built Disneyland.
The day Disneyland opened, Walt watched the crowds walk in from the window you can still see today. Young Mouseketeer, Sharon Baird, was there.
She says, ““On the opening day of Disneyland, we (Mouseketeers) were in Walt Disney’s private apartment above the Main Street Fire Station when the gates of the park opened for the first time. I was standing next to him at the window, watching the guests come pouring through the gates.
When I looked up at him, he had his hands behind his back, a grin from ear to ear, I could see a lump in his throat and a tear streaming down his cheek. He had realized his dream. I was only twelve years old at the time, so it didn’t mean as much to me then. But as the years go by, that image of him becomes more and more endearing.”
Find this apartment and more Disney history by taking my easy, one hour scavenger hunt along Main Street. It’s fun!
The Little Man of Disneyland
The story goes…….Patrick Begorra lived in the orange orchard that existed prior to Disneyland’s existence. Donald and Mickey came along one day and told Patrick of their plans to build the park. Discussion ensued and a flight to the studios even occurred to show Patrick all that was ahead.
After resistance, Patrick finally encouraged the build as long as he could keep a tiny, modest home in the park. They offered him the castle. He declined and kept his home a secret, coming out only at night.
Now you can find Patrick’s home and it’s nothing short of adorable.
Buy the Little Golden Book from Amazon before your trip, read it, and then find his home during your visit.
Here is the book:
Here is where to find the house in Adventureland, near Indiana Jones:
You’ll have to look a bit, behind those trash cans, but you can spot it if you look into the roots of the trees.
A close up of his door:
Don’t all fictional characters at Disneyland have a personalized door mat?
The Secret Path at Disneyland
There is a secret path in Critter Country that most tourists don’t know about. As you’ll see in the pics, it looks like “cast member only” territory. If you walk through it, you’ll find a nice little eating area, a quiet bridge and a good photo op in front of Splash Mountain.
The only problem with this area is that it has a few steps at one point. 🙁
If that works for you, take a look at the map I’ve drawn to find it and also a few photos from the actual path.
Start at the Harbour Galley Restaurant and head towards the right.
Follow this path to Fowler’s Inn, which is just decor.
Pause for a view into the Rivers of America. Disneyland seems so quiet from this far back.
Stop for a moment if you want to enjoy a picnic or just a place to sit and relax. I LOVE this part of the park at night because it’s rarely crowded. When the Mark Twain is docked next to it, the glow is so pretty.
Peek over at people who just flew down the hill at Splash Mountain. They’re always laughing and happy. Makes me happy!
Take a photo in front of Splash Mountain. Great shots here!
See? So quiet and peaceful.
Exit the path here and you’re a bit closer to the entrance of Splash Mountain and the Hungry Bear Restaurant.
Wasn’t that fun?
The Secret Path at DCA
With Ariel’s Undersea Adventure on your left, head toward the huge water wheel and veer right instead of left when you arrive at it. Follow the path around to end at the other side of theattraction.
Here’s a map:
Ride the Lilly Belle
The Lilly Belle is an old Disneyland treasure that used to be open to the public on a very limited basis. Currently, it’s only open to guests during the Disneyland Railroad Guided Tour.
Named after Walt Disney’s wife, the train car was built in 1928 and made with the finest appointments and details at the time.
If you’re lucky enough to go on this tour and ride the Lilly Belle, you’re in for a treat. You’ll take a round trip run through the park and the Cast Member aboard will explain the story of this train car.
You will be able to sit down in lovely seats and see things like Walt Disney’s “smoking jacket” and other artifacts.
Pilot Mark Twain’s Boat
Mark Twain’s Riverboat can be “piloted” on occasion. Not a lot of people know this, but it can happen.
How did I make it happen? I asked nicely. (And, got lucky.)
Here are some tips on how to do it:
- Wait until the dock is nearly empty and the boat is filled with guests. Kindly ask a Cast Member if anyone has been selected to pilot the boat. Don’t ask in front of other guests. Avoid putting the Cast Member on the spot.
- Ask early or late in the day. If the answer is “no”, ask if you can return for another chance and if he or she has a suggestion on what time might be more likely than others. Be sincere and polite with absolutely no inkling of entitlement. This experience is not part of your theme park admission. It’s unique and cast members appreciate seeing how much guests value it.
- Only four people can do this at a time, so be prepared to ruin someone’s day if there are five in your group. Just kidding. But, know your limits.
- Ask for a certificate if they’re still handing them out. It’s a fun keepsake!
- A while back, I piloted the boat and shared all about it in this post.
Ask to Hold the Wand on Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
Typically handed out only for those little ones nervous about the attraction, a glowing wand is kept at the entrance of Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.
It lights up during the ride to keep children “safe” from Ursula and the rest of the mean sea critters. Please respect this one and only ask if you truly have a small child that is nervous.
The Goat Trick
If you’re a fan of being dizzy (who are you people?), try this when you ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad:
After the second major hill, you’ll descend down slowly and take a right turn once the speed increases. The goat pictured below will be there to greet you. Keep your eyes on the goat as you turn the corner and for as long as you can afterwards, until he’s out of sight.
A terrible dizziness will come over you, caused by the inner ear and g-forces and some sort of voodoo that I don’t care to mess with in my old age. (I get vertigo just by standing up too quickly. I don’t need to sign up for it by staring at a goat.)
But, for those of you who enjoy this kind of thing, sit as far back in the ride as you can. It’s most effective in the back of the train.
Become the Screamer of the Day at the Monsters Inc Attraction in California Adventure
This fun event is a bit unpredictable, but when it happens, it’s adorable.
Simply put, children gather right after park opening to participate in a “scream contest” to open the ride. Sulley is most often there to see guests during and shortly after the contest.
One child is chosen on days when the contest is held. That child will win a certificate for that day that entitles them to unlimited rides on Monster’s Inc. Mike and Sulley to the Rescue! with front of the line access every time.
Check out this cutie who won recently.
Get a Message from Millie or Molly at California Adventure
The Citizens of Buena Vista Street (Millie and Molly, Fifi the Photographer, Donna the Dog Lady and Officer Blue) are becoming more and more popular. I ADORE each of them.
Millie and Molly are bike messengers and can be found handing out messages from Mickey and friends. If you see one of these lovely ladies, stop, say hello and ask if they have a message for you. They’ll take it from there.
Here is one of the messengers, Mollie:
Here’s the message:
Also, Officer Blue can write you a “citation”. Ask him for one. 🙂
More to Discover!
Want more to do? Check out my Totally Free at Disneyland post. There are a few overlaps from this one, but new options, too.
Want to test your skills? Follow my Disneyland Scavenger Hunt to find Walt-related stops on Main Street. The hunt takes about an hour and will show 10 significant stops on Main.
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It’s noticable that another fairy tale, legends and other story telling theme park, 2/3 years older (!!!) then Disneyland, namely Efteling in The Netherlands, does have all these similarities !
Strange little situations, commemoratives and details are all over the park, and happen to be noticed only by people who have visited it already many times.
One kind of the “hidden findings” are mice. Not ‘Mickeys’ .. lol … no, Anton Pieck mice. Anton pieck was the first illustrator-designer who worked for the park, and as he used to drop a mouse or two in many of his illustrations, they started apprearing all over. They are sculpted grey mice, exact lifesize, but in all kind of storylike poses and situations. Many are animated. The number of those mice all over the park is staggering, and I believe even the design department lost track of counting them. There are fairy tale scenes where they appear with dozens in one room. Even when most are hidden at first glance. Going a step further, the park installed them as well in their hotel rooms .. lol … where some corner of the room would have a mouse hole with the mouse in it ! My best guess of the total number of those mice is between 1000-2000 … lol
Similarly, spiders going up and down a tread are hidden in story scenes as well. Not in the thousands, but at least worth a hunt to find then. They crawl up and down all day.
There exist secret paths in the park, who do not connect to any main attration, but lead to silent sitting spots. Whether it be with some waterside druide stones, or a whitches’ log circle.
Signboards very often hold jokes. Like the central first aid station which has not just the sign board “First Aid” (Hand painted) but also a sculpted sign consisting of a broken leg with bandages… 🙂 Quite some safety announcement panels are written in rhyme instead of legal wordings, many hand painted in kaligraphy.
Etc etc etc
For the longer time visitors, who do not rush to attractions anymore, all those are tremendous fun.
I’m surprised you don’t have any mention of the Main St. windows on here. However, not so much fun for little kids, but older ones or history buffs would certainly enjoy it!
Many of the windows above Main Street, the proprietors are significant people in Disneyland Park or Disney World history. It would be fun to look them up online ahead of your trip and read about their history, then find the windows on your visit.
While I worked in Disneyland Marketing in the 90’s, I saw the retirement of both Renie Bardeau and Charles Boyer, original Disneyland photographer and illustrator/designer respectively. I love to make sure I look at their windows when I visit the park.
The Dominquez family had orange groves on the site for over 60 years before Disneyland. When the family sold their 10-acre property to Walt Disney, there was a condition that Walt had to hire their son Ron. He started as a ticket taker on opening day in 1955 and retired as a vice president in 1994. His window is above the Market House in Disneyland. Of course I didn’t know Ron personally, but he was vice president when I was an outdoor vending cast member in the late 1980’s. I always remember being trained on how to manage the Mickey balloons in the perfect “canopy” while selling on Main Street, because Ron was known to appear on occasion and check the vendors had it right!
Cool stuff.
Hi, Anne.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I loved every word you wrote. Such cool history that you got to be a part of!
I’ll make a note to add info on Main Street windows asap.
Thank you, again.
Yay, this is a wonderful article!
I actually made a 1960s Disneyland replica brochure filled with fun facts like this!
I could have really used this at the time! lol How cool, great job! 🙂
Shawn
My son asked for the Death Certificate, and the man at the door was extremely rude to him. My son came back in tears. This is the only time EVER that something bad has happened to us at Disneyland. We wanted to talk to someone about it, but didn’t know what to do. Everything else was wonderful. The cast members were incredibly nice, and the place is spotless! Disneyland has to be one of the cleanest places on Earth! On the same trip, my boy lost his cell phone. We didn’t know until we returned home (Yakima, WA), so I called the Disneyland main phone number. They transferred to their lost and found department. They told us that on an average day, between the two parks and large outdoor plaza, they find around 200 cell phones every day! The lady I talked to took a description and some other information, and two weeks later it arrived home! It was sent by two-day express mail, which was very nice.
Great article. The only thing to point out is that the crest on the castle is actually the crest for England with the three lions that represent courage because that is where Aurora is from. The Disney family crest has three fleur-de-lis in the middle of it that represents purity. The Castle Heraldry Shoppe inside the castle only 30 feet away, which was in Disneyland from 1994-2017, had a printout of the Disney family crest on display. I asked them about the inconsistency between the story and the real crest and he said that it is a Disney myth that just keeps getting shared year after year, even by Disney itself, much like the myth of the petrified tree and that it was a gift for Lillian, which was a story Walt came up with.
I started researching Disney history in 2006 and have had two books published about it. My most recent book is 700 pages containing over 3,700 fun facts and trivia about Disneyland and Disney Movies. I am always hard-pressed to find new information I don’t already know. From you I learned about the wand on Ariel’s Undersea Adventure and about the telegrams in California Adventure 🙂 Thank you for that. Keep on writing.
http://www.DisneyGuy.org
Interesting. Thank you, Joshua!
The heraldry shoppe is gone now. 🙁 It changed to a Christmas store earlier this year. Here’s a current look at it:
https://www.facebook.com/475776189186696/posts/1662289127202057/
As of last summer, we were told by a CM that they are no longer allowed to point out the Eyore sign in IJ ?
I see this article is posted from 2016…what is still relevant?
It’s all relevant. As noted at the top, the last time to was updated was March 2018.
Thanks for sharing these! Can’t wait till I come back to my happy place to find them!
In the past when you got tickets for the Lily Belle does the whole party have to be present? We are going later this year and are hoping to ride but we will be a family of 8. Thank you for everything you do girl!!
Not when I toured it last time, but it could change. I’ll try to see it as soon as it’s available again so I can update everyone.
As of April 2017 – we checked for the Buena Vista newspapers – however, the staff said they no longer have it! 🙁
Hi haven’t seen them lately, either. 🙁
I fortunate enough to catch the Max, Buff and Melvin, on my last trip! At first, I was upset they had taken CBJ out (I hadn’t been in 20 something years) but true to Disney form, I saw those guys hangin’ out in the Heffalump room. Great list of off the map attractions!
Glad you found them. Love those weirdos!
The secrets and stories of the parks are actually one of my favorite parts of Disneyland. I believe that these items truly set the Disneyland Resort apart from any other theme park in the world, Disney or otherwise.
Thank you for sharing photos of all these items Casey!
My favorite, too, Gavin!
I heard that in California Adventure they give out newspapers in the Buena Vista area. Do they still do that? Also where could I find those?
They do! You can find them sometimes in Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe (Starbucks) and also near the big map in Carthay Circle (near the wait times). Cute, free souvenir!
Do you ask someone or would they be lying around?
The newspapers are in a stand by the map on the wall like a regular newspaper distribution. In Fiddler Fifer, they’re sitting on the counter along the windows.
Thank you so!
do they still give out the Maps after the Jungle Cruise? When/Where can you find Millie or Molly? My kids would love this so I’m trying to figure this all out! 🙂 sorry for so many questions!
Maps at the Jungle Cruise are still available, but they occasionally run out. Millie or Mollie can be found on Buena Vista Street wandering around. They don’t have specific locations.
You KNOW that I love the Red & White lightbulb 🙂
My favorite is the trail along Rivers of America.
I didn’t know about the Wand on Ariel’s Undersea Adventure…very cool…now I need to kidnap, errr, find a little person to take on the ride so I can take a photo of it…it counts as a Disney Light!
Sending Hugs and Light!
Love this post. Is there a way to specifically get a message from a messenger? Like a birthday message for my son. Thanks
It’s not currently in use. Guests tore the box out and it hasn’t been replaced. I’m hoping it is soon. I’ve left messages for lots of people there before. I’ll update this post as I learn more.
I’m not sure exactly how it was done but last year when entering Disneyland California on my Birthday I was given a Happy Birthday button by a cast member at the gate. While waiting in line for fast passes (I wish I could remember her name she does the great shows with Goofy the Five and Dime) was riding around on a messenger bike calling my name. I was oblivious to the fact she was calling me personally but was so cute and persistent and actually approached me asking if I was Shannon when I surprisingly answered yes she handed me a hand written birthday message from her and Goofy. I’m 43 years old and felt like a little kid so excited to have such a special gift.
Millie or Mollie, the bike messengers. Love them both!!!! They’re in this post, at the bottom.
Love all the info in this post! The kids loved that Molly had a message for them from Anna and Elsa! We definitely felt like we had insider info. And Molly was so fun to chat with.
You (and 4 friends) can ride in the Monorail’s “nosecone” with the pilot. It’s first come-first serve, so it’s easiest to score these great seats on a quiet day. AND asking at Tomorrowland increases your chances of getting the front seats, since all passengers must disembark in Tomorrowland, but they don’t have to get off at the Downtown Disney station. The view during the ride is great from the nosecone and the cast member pilots are friendly. Riding in the Monorail tail (caboose?) is second best.
Hi, I have to say I thought I knew everything about Disneyland. In fact, we are slow at work so to pass time a co-worker has been quizzing me on Disney trivia until your website I was at a 100%. I didn’t know about the “secret path”, the light bulb or the gate on the jail in Pirates. So Awesome! Thanks for posting
Yay! I love learning new things, too.
If you look at the mountains in Toontown you can find the Mountains have an area that make DI which means Disney Imagineers. If you can’t find it ask a cast member kindly about it and see if he/she will show it to you. It was created as a nod to the cast members
I love this! There is one to ad. On Indiana Jones where you pass the skeletons on the left there is a skeleton leaning against the wall and he’s wearing Mickey ears. I’m not sure if you can get a picture of it. You have to be pretty quick to see it.
I’ve seen it. Never can get a good photo! Love this!
oooh this is so fun! My husband and I have been annual passholders for nearly a decade and thought we already knew all the secrets! But I got 3 pieces of new info here! I can’t wait to surprise him next time we go with my new trivia 🙂
Thanks for the map of the hidden path. Someone mentioned it on a forum in regards to extra seating at the Harbour Galley and I did not know what they were referring to. We will definitely have to go down that trail on our upcoming trip.
I’m looking forward to spending 8 days in Disneyland in September. My first trip to Disneyland was in 1970 with my three children. This year I will be spending my 75th Birthday at Disneyland. Where else but Disneyland would I want to celebrate this special day.
I’m not sure what you mean by moderation.
Loved this article, my family and I go to Disneyland about once a week and we are always looking for new and fun things that will keep our trips fresh and exciting. We are going to spend 5 days at the Grand California this summer, I would love to see any other ideas you have for those of us who are Disney veterans. Keep up the good work!
I update this post as I find new stuff. Stay tuned and check back often!