As a child, I would read "The Art of Walt Disney" cover to cover and savor the story of the man, the mouse, and the creation of
Disneyland. Visiting this museum is like living inside that book!
We spent 4 1/2 hours there and it was not enough. (But that was all I could ask my 5 year old to do
). We arrived early, not knowing how long traffic through downtown San Francisco would be. We took a short walk down to the shore of the bay to take some piccies of the Golden Gate bridge. We entered at 10am, opening time. One tip, pictures are not allowed except for one spectacular glass hallway through which you have a great view of the Golden Gate, so do bring (but don't use) your camera.
I certainly could have spent 8 hours there and not do the same thing twice. We got to gallery 4 by lunchtime and were told we had only been to 4 out of 10 galleries. So we went downstairs to the cafe for lunch. Warning about the cafe, they only serve one sandwich, one soup, and one salad, and they really have nothing for kids (not even a bagel!). However, the food (Wolfgang Puck) was very good. I had a tuna/mustard sandwich and my husband had the chili, both excellent. My 5 year old ate a cupcake and the banana I had with me as a snack.
In the afternoon, we picked back up again in gallery 5. My son especially liked the interactive items in each gallery, such as: a moviola of Snow White that he could crank and display; the various headsets / phones / touch screens that he could hear; synchronizing sound effects to an early Mickey cartoon; and of course Disney cartoons playing around every bend.
My husband, who is not really a Disney fan, still enjoyed the historical nature of the museum and reading about a visionary such as Walt.
I loved so many things and even after being a student of many a Walt Disney autobiography and many Disneyland historical books, I learned stuff too!! Certainly something for everyone.
The top three items I really, really loved was:
- Seeing Walt's real miniatiure locomotive, the Lilly Belle, took my breath away. How many film clips have you seen with Disney or some movie star riding that train! and here it was right in front of you.
- The Disneyland of Walt Disney's imagination miniature model. This model, specially commissioned for the museum, has a miniature of many of your favorite rides! The Phantom Saucers. The Mine Train Ride. Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan. Alice in Wonderland. A Disneyland that never existed at one time, but maybe the "perfect" Disneyland of Walt's dreams.
- The latest interactive technology on touch tables displaying scenes from all things Disney. Touch shuffle to load an entire table of new scenes. Touch a scene to find related videos, songs, piccies of that object. For instance, touching Robin Hood, brought up the trailer for the film, the film poster, etc. You get the idea. I could have spent all day just in this room!
Anyway. Go! If you are on this forum, you are probably a Disney Fan so leave yourself all day to visit! It was a dream come true!!!