Alice in Wonderland's Curious Signage

There's nothing quite as Fantasyland-ish as an eyeful of Wonderland leaves. That's a nicely-designed sign, too. Although, sometimes these ride descriptions get a bit too literal...

Is it really necessary to point out that the ride vehicles are oversized caterpillars? I honestly don't think anyone in line is expecting to board a normal-sized three-inch-long caterpillar...at least, I certainly hope not. Ah, well, it's a fun bit of signage nevertheless.

Photo by Lana Whitham

Lighting the Path for Alice

Fantastic flower lampposts tower above the queue for the Alice in Wonderland dark ride. Originally, the entire exterior was given over to the giant leaves and flowers inspired by the film. The real trees and hedges were worked into the scene as part of the 1984 remodeling.

Ordinarily, the clash of scale between the living trees and the giant make-believe flowers could be jarring, but it works well here. The ride's exterior becomes a transition between the outside park and the loud, colorful scenes waiting inside the show building. Wonderland is a dream world, so it makes sense for the exterior to represent a state of mind halfway between awake and asleep...or am I reading too much into it?

After all, the Alice ride's design--like so much of Disneyland-- is the result of Imagineers making the best possible use of limited and awkward spaces. It's a two-story indoor-outdoor adventure because part of it has to squeeze above Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. When talented people are tasked with that kind of design puzzle, we wind up with wonderful landscapes that might never have been dreamed up otherwise.

Hooray for awkward spaces!

Down the Rabbit Hole

Disneyland has seven black-light dark rides (Alice, Snow White, Mr. Toad, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Roger Rabbit and Pooh), but only one of them turns its first moments into a kinetic bit of outdoor storytelling for non-riders to watch. The rabbit hole entrance to Alice in Wonderland has been swallowing up caterpillars ever since its debut in 1958.

Originally, the winding, slow motion "fall" took place in complete darkness, and that's the version I grew up with. When the ride got a massive redesign, the downhill tunnel was lightened and decorated to resemble the film scene. In the newer rabbit hole, you can plainly see you're only descending a few feet, but back when it was dark and I was five, I thought we were going waaaay underground. Disneyland is incredibly awesome when you're small and you believe everything. And it's awsome in a different way when you're grown up and still love the magic of good storytelling.

If you'd like to take a quick trip to Wonderland, Rocketsummer23 has posted one of the best videos of the entire ride I've ever seen--and taken before the upper safety fences were added! See if you can spot the caterpillar's slippers on top of the giant outdoor mushroom toward the end.

Alice in Safety Land

The Alice in Wonderland ride's awful-looking safety railings and camouflage tarps have been uglifying the attraction's exterior since their unfortunate installment in 2010. The good -- very good -- news is that the fences are due to be replaced by a (hopefully) classier-looking alternative sometime in 2013.

This used to be a bright, open, whimsical fantasy garden with a graceful vine-path winding about overhead.

It's sad to realize most first-time visitors assume the fencing and tarps have always been there.

For 2010 reactions and a video of how gross the railings look on-ride, click Here.

To see how amazing this ride looked without the fencing, click Here.

Can't wait for remodel, which is also rumored to include several upgrades to the ride's interior! At least one of our crew is rooting for the Walrus and the Carpenter to get a scene this time.

Alice in Wonderland remains one of Disneyland's best rides. Fingers crossed that the exterior will soon look more like its wonderful, spectacular old self!

The Mad Tea Leaves

The Mad Tea Party and the Alice in Wonderland leaves -- can you get any more "Disney" than this?

In the park's early years, the teacups sat by the carousel, far from the whimsical fantasy foliage of the Alice in Wonderland dark ride. As part of the 1980's Fantasyland renovation, the Mad Tea Party found a new home directly in front of Alice.

The two rides, combined with the White Rabbit's house (home to the Mad Hatter shop) and the March Hare's house (part of the Tea Party) formed a terrific Alice mini-land within Fantasyland. The gigantic, swirling leaves of the dark ride's exterior now extended over to the teacups, tying everything together.

Time Machine Day: Alice in Wonderland 1967

Caterpillars twist their way down the outdoor finale of Disneyland's Alice in Wonderland ride, circa 1967, as seen through the lens my childhood Polaroid Swinger Camera!

This is the original version of Alice before the remodel -- the version with the Upside Down Room, Oversized Room and hallway of Screaming Doors. In this version, the track did not re-enter the castle at the end; it twisted back and forth all the way to ground level, then simply did a U-turn to the unload zone.

Alice In Wonderland - Before the Safety Fence

Alice in Wonderland is a Disneyland treasure, and my favorite black-light dark ride.

This photo was taken a couple of years ago, before the safety fencing was added to the upper outdoor section of track. The meandering downhill vine-path used to provide a visual thrill, as the caterpillar cars would seem to be heading right off the edge of the track before turning in another direction. It was like a gentle wild-mouse ride.

The dark ride portions are still great, but the safety fence has muted the visual fun of the outdoor descent. The good news: the outdoor track's about to get a major overhaul including a new, permanent re-work of the fencing. Hopefully, the new look will blend the fence more naturally into the whimsical setting and bring more fun back to the outdoor track.

One more pre-fence view, this one from 1994: