Wednesday, December 08, 2021

Meet Me At Pelican’s Landing



Where the heck is Pelican’s Landing at Disneyland?!? If you zoom into this July 1960 image, you can see the FUTURE home of this newly christened section of the Park, approximately where the Keel Boat is located.



This is what happens when you haven’t been to Disneyland in six years; they change, add, and subtract to the Park. I was recently notified by one of my faithful readers that the area near the Harbour Galley restaurant and Fowler’s Inn had been turned into a seating area for those who are eating. Just to be clear, it’s not a new restaurant, but rather a place to take your food and park your derrière. At least Joe Fowler’s tribute was kept, as the nearby Inn still bears his name.

More closeups from the July 1960 shot: a trio of Tom Sawyers (or are they Huck Finns?) are ready to take another batch of guests across the Rivers to Tom Sawyer’s Island:



The entrance turnstile to the rafts:



Here are two consecutively shot images taken from the Mark Twain’s journey around the Rivers from June 1965:





And one from April 1963 with the Mark Twain in the background:



See more Disneyland Rivers of America photos at my main website.

3 comments:

Janey said...

Wow! Six years!? A mighty lot sure has changed. But as for Pelican's Landing, it wasn't A LOT of change. Disney just gussied up the old smoking area and expanded the small seating area near Harbor Galley to a staircase down to that old smoking area, with some added signage of nautical info about knots and such, and a few stationary pelicans. I'm always thankful for more seating! It can be especially difficult sometimes to find seating at the nearby French Market.

As always, LOVE the old photos! It's such a perfect window into the past.

-Janey

Anonymous said...

Hello Dave, thanks for these historic pics.

I have heard that the new seating is set to be reserved at a premium charge during the "Fantasmic" show, which is set to resume in 2022.

I don't know if they plan to have it be reservation only all the time, or just during shows.

Just one more way to monetize every square inch of the Park.

JG

Daveland said...

Hi Janey: Yes, six years, and it's looking like it could be longer! Ha! Other than the revised DLRR layout through Frontierland, I can't say that there’s really anything new there that would get me back any time soon. But yes, more seating and areas to relax are definitely needed.

JG: The premium charge for Fantasmic! makes total sense. I wondered why the Disney Corp. would put $$ into a seating area that wouldn't be selling food.