The Disneyland Hotel: Part 3 - The Old Marina Buildings

We're going to continue with the "Disneyland Hotel" theme of the last several weeks. Today, we will be taking a look at the old Disneyland Hotel Marina buildings that are still standing today. They have been outlined in yellow on the postcard below (again, courtesy of Don Ballard....thank you!!!) In addition to these, there are two more buildings that can't be seen in this photo because they are blocked by the hotel tower.


Those two hidden buildings can be seen here in this 1968 concept art from Don Ballard's website and book, showing the then-proposed Marina area.

Here is the artwork again, but I've circled the structures that are still standing today. The buildings circled in red and green are currently restaurants, and the building circled in blue had a very large addition made to it in 1980 as a part of Seaports of the Pacific shops expansion, and is now part of the hotel's video arcade.

Below, is the green circled building which is Croc's Bits 'N Bites (Hosted by Nestle.) The menu here consists of fast food.....Burgers, Fries, Chicken Nuggets and Nestle ice cream treats.

Just to the right of this structure is the larger building which was circled in red. When this restaurant first opened back in 1969, it was called the Shipyard Inn. Today, it is called Hook's Pointe and features a variety of fresh seafood entrees.

Here's a vintage aerial shot showing both structures. Note the red phone booth in the lower right hand corner that is also visible in the current shot above (it looks as though it was moved just a few feet closer to the building at some point.) The long structure with the rusted metal roof is now the Lost Bar. We'll see a current shot of it in just a minute. The building in the bottom left corner is the same one that is circled in blue in the concept art above. When the hotel added The Seaports of the Pacific Shops, a "pagoda top" was added to the roof of this building.

Here's another shot of Hook's Pointe, taken from the other side of the building (what used to be the Marina side.)

And here's yet another vintage aerial shot.

This next photo was taken standing where the hotel's Marina used to be located and also the future site of the hotel's new water slides.

Compare the shot above with the one below from Don Ballard's collection. On the left is the former Shipyard Inn (Hook's Pointe) and on the right is the structure that we saw with the Pagoda added to the roof. Also note that the sliding glass doors and balconies have all been eliminated from the Sierra/Dreams Tower. This is part of an ongoing renovation to all three towers.

Let's move on now to the remnants of the old Seaports of the Pacific Shops. In recent years half of this building was converted into a very large glassware shop called Euro Gifts & Collectibles by Arribas Bros. (They also run the glass blower shops on Main St. and in New Orlean's Square and have a small stand in Downtown Disney.)

This is the south side of the glass shop, which we saw in my "Hotel Waterfalls" post. The path on the left leads down to the area with the waterfalls and cave.

This photo was taken from inside the shop, looking out at the waterfalls. Just look at that beautiful old tree (soon to be grass) outside the window!

Here we see the exterior again. There is a water feature around the base of the building.

Water spews out of these sculptures and into a pond. The pond then spills over into the waterfall area below it. Once again, I highly recommend going to see this area before it all goes away!

Continuing around the building, we end up at the rear entrance. This half of the building has been converted into a video arcade.

Now moving around to the north side of the building, we see the section that has been converted into The Lost Bar.

Here's a vintage publicity photo from Daveland for comparison.

And a couple more current shots.

Note the interior of the glass shop in this next photo compared to above. The shop has already been permanently closed and it's stock has been cleared out. Just to the right of those windows is another entrance to the arcade. This section of the arcade dates back to when the Marina was built and once again, is the building we saw with the Pagoda addition on the roof. It may not be too recognizable now from the outside, but the inside is all wooden posts and beams with a wooden "deck" floor.


And of course, I have to mention the mini-Jungle Cruise remote control boats that sits next to these structures. For more photos of these, click here for my Adventure Thru Inner Jungle Cruise post from 2009. I gave the post that title because the people in the boats very much reminded me of the little people in the "miniaturized" Atomobiles of Adventure Thru Inner Space.

Now for some good news and some bad news.....but mostly bad. As mentioned in previous posts, the hotel waterfall area, the Koi ponds and the old Dancing Waters arena are all going to be removed and replaced with pretty much nothing. The old Seaports of the Pacific shops (the glass shop, the arcade, and the Lost Bar) and Croc's Bits 'N Bites are also all slated for demolition. If you look at the concept art below from Disney, it shows a building simply marked, "Restaurant and Bar" in the exact same spot as the Shipyard Inn/Hook's Pointe building. I asked a cast member from management yesterday if that building was going to be removed and a new one built in it's place. Unfortunately she did not know for sure, but she did know for sure that the other structures would all be removed.

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The one little ray of hope here, is that maybe this 40 year old building will be allowed to remain standing. Disney has announced that the new "restaurant and bar" will be done in the style of the old Tahitian Terrace from Adventureland. If done correctly, this could be a truly wonderful addition to the hotel. Of course, I would rather see something like that return to it's former location in Adventureland, but still....there is potential here for something great. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

The Disneyland Hotel: Part 2 - Koi Ponds & Dancing Waters

Today we're back at the Disneyland Hotel. This time we'll be taking a look at the area just west of the waterfalls. Here's that postcard again, courtesy of Don Ballard. The area circled in orange is the hotel's Koi Ponds and the area circled in yellow is the site of the former Dancing Waters arena.


We'll look at the Koi ponds first. In the photo below, we're standing between the Wonder Tower and the hotel waterfalls, looking towards the Koi ponds.


The kids in the center of the photo above, are looking into the tiled pool of water seen below. Gotta love that brown tile from the seventies! The water from that pool spills over into the lower pond. There is a gate that can be seen straight ahead which leads to a platform hanging out over the water. I'm assuming this was used for feeding the Koi?

We're a little further down the path now and there are Koi ponds on both sides of the walkway. The sunken waterfall area that we saw in my last post is straight ahead at the end of the path. Remember, all of this is going to be replaced with......as Chris Jepsen commented after that last post, NOTHING! It will actually be replaced with grass, but yeah.....NOTHING!

This is the view just to the left. That building in the background is another section of the old Seaports of the Pacific shops, which we'll take a look a closer look at in my next post.

Here's a view from the opposite end of the pond. That path to the right of the railing is off limits to guests. Again, I'm assuming this was used to feed the Koi.

The Jacaranda trees are in bloom again.....really they are! Hey, what's going to happen to all these trees? Oh wait, I forgot....they'll be replaced with grass. That sign on the railing reads, "Please Do Not Feed The Koi Fish Or Throw Any Objects Or Coins Into These Pools. Thank You."

And here they are up close and personal, the Koi fish. I was told by a hotel CM that they were all packed up a few weeks ago and taken to the Huntington Library in Pasadena. Well, not all of them. She said there were a few that were hiding and that still remain in the waters. I don't blame them. If this was my home, I'd want to stay behind too! I hope they won't be forgotten by the time the bulldozers come in.

Just next to the Koi ponds are the remnants of the old Dancing Waters Show. Although I never stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, I remember going over to the hotel many times in the evening to watch the water show. I really can't believe this all still exists. Those square panels that are being taken over with vine growth look like they might actually be the square fiber optic light panels used during the show....or maybe they're just what the panels were mounted to. Those light panels can be seen doing their thing (here) over at the blog, Westcot 2000, along with an article from a 1992 Disneyland Line about the conversion of the show from "Dancing Waters" to "Fantasy Waters." At this time, the show went from being manually run by two cast members to being completely automated.

Most of the water jets have been removed, but up until a couple years ago, a small fountain of water shot up continuously from this pool.

Here's another postcard courtesy of Don Ballard showing the Dancing Waters back in their heyday.

I'm ending the post today with this photo from a 2008 trip to Tokyo. This was a "dancing waters" show at Tokyo Dome City. The music that was used for this show included the theme from "Gone With The Wind" and music from "The Wizard of Oz."

Part 3 of this series focuses on the former Hotel Marina and it's shops and restaurants.....oh, and also the Hotel's Jungle Cruise-themed remote control boats! To view that post, Click Here.

The Disneyland Hotel: Part 1 - Waterfalls and Caves

Well, it's official. Disney has announced that the waterfall area at the Disneyland Hotel will be removed and replaced with grass. They have said that the waterfalls use too much water and electricity (Hello...what about the brand new World of Color???) Anyway, I thought I would go visit this area one more time before it disappears forever.

I have fond memories of going to the hotel with friends as a teen, when we didn't have the money to go into Disneyland. Annual passes did not exist back then, so we couldn't just go into the park anytime we wanted to! We would hang out at the Hotel, walk around the waterfall area, look in the shops and sometimes buy a ticket for a round-trip on the Monorail (they would lock you in the rear nose of the train and the door would NOT be opened when it reached the Tomorrowland station. To a huge Disneyland fan, it could've been considered a form of torture.)

Speaking of the Monorail, let me begin this post with concept art from Disney for a planned water slide area at the hotel.

Disney has announced that this will be a new addition to the existing pool area at the Hotel. The top platform is supposed to be reminiscent of the Hotel Monorail station with a replica of the old Disneyland signage above. The slides will include recreations of original monorail cars, which guests will actually "slide through" on their way down.

The postcard below is borrowed and used with permission from Don Ballard. Check out his blog and his website. I highly recommend his book, Disneyland Hotel, The Early Years 1954-1988, which can be purchased on his website, and he is currently working on addendums to his book which will be filled with additional info and images that he has aquired just since writing his book.

The following concept art from Disney shows the placement of the waterslide area (almost direct center.) It will be connected to the existing Neverland Pool, which will retain it's current shape, but it too will be getting a make-over. If you look to the south of the waterslide area, you will see a grassy area just in front of the soon-to-be Frontier Tower (formerly the Bonita Tower and currently the Wonder Tower.) This is the spot where the Hotel waterfalls have existed for the past 31 years.

Here's another postcard courtesy of Don Ballard, that shows the location of the waterfalls (circled in red.)

Now, let's take a closer look.

There are multiple paths that lead down to, and actually underneath the waterfalls.

There are some smaller waterfalls as well. That building in the background is a remnant of the old Seaports of the Pacific Shops at the Hotel. We'll take a closer look at that building in a future post.

There is also a "hidden" cave located in this area.

Let's go in!

It's kind of like Tom Sawyer Island! It even smells a bit like the caves on Tom Sawyer Island if you know what I mean!

The next shot is from the same angle as above, but was taken with a flash.

Another interior shot......

....and again, with a flash.

Exiting the cave......

This section of the Hotel property really is beautiful. It's a shame Disney feels a need to get rid of it.

Here's the view from above.....

....and here's how it looks at night.

I'm not sure when this area is scheduled to close. I have been given different information each time I've asked a CM. If you've never seen these waterfalls, or haven't seen them in a while, you might want to go check them out before they're gone forever.

In part two of this series, we'll take a look at the Hotel's Koi Ponds and Dancing Waters. Click here to read that post now.