Unauthorized Fun: Lunar New Year Zodiac Tour

Last-minute inspiration, ACTIVATE!

I'm not joking about the above, by the way. I didn't have any idea what to write about this week until...sometime around mid-day on Friday. Yeah. But then I remembered that we just had the Lunar New Year, which has become a bona-fide Thing at the Disneyland Resort in recent years. The “official” celebrations can be found in California Adventure, where all the cool kids go for their multicultural fix, but this installment of Unauthorized Fun takes place on the other side of the Esplanade.

It's not because of Disneyland favoritism...at least, not entirely. It's mainly because there are just more animals over there.

The concept behind this unofficial tour is pretty simple: Cycle through the entire Eastern Zodiac by seeing a Disneyland attraction for each animal...one where said animal shows up, in case that wasn't clear. Just to keep things interesting, I decided to see if I could find a different attraction for each, because honestly? You could check off practically the entire list from “it's a small world” alone, and while that might be fun for me, because I adore that ride...most people are going to start squirming around halfway through the second go-around.

Since we just embarked upon the Year of the Dog, I'll set things up so we end there. Here's what I came up with!

Source Materials: The Wildest Life in the Wilderness

Gather 'round, boys and girls, and I'll tell you a True Anecdote^TM from the life of the Disneyland Dilettante.

I think most children discover the joy of roller coasters as soon as they're tall enough to get on one, pretty much. Call it age four. But I? I was a bit of a coward during my early childhood. I wasn't afraid of being thrown from a roller coaster car—I was bright enough to know that wasn't a real risk—but of being scared, of finding the bumpy motion too much for my peace of mind. I had nothing to fear but fear itself.

When I was about eight years old, I finally mustered up the courage to try out Disneyland's coasters. And loved them, of course. But there was a snag: I had a little sister who looked up to me. I had convinced her that roller coasters were too scary, and she didn't trust the sudden turnaround. “It's okay,” I told her. “They're actually not scary,” I opined. Nope. No sell.

“At least try this one,” I said finally. “You'll like it...it has animals on it.”

That did the trick. Roller coasters became, finally, fun for our whole family, because one coaster had the right carrot for the youngest member thereof. The ride in question? Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

The wildlife presence on this ride is probably part of the draw for a lot of people. One of the main reasons people visit real wilderness areas is the hope of encountering animals they don't get to see every day. Big Thunder is far from the only ride at Disneyland to heavily feature wild animals, but it's one of the only ones to offer a mostly realistic, straightforward take on them. These animals are not cartoon characters, they're not space aliens, and they're not being pointed out to us by a sarcastic college student. They're just...present, adding interest to an already exciting landscape.

But you know, it is a fast, bumpy ride, and some of the critters are more noticeable than others. It's entirely possible that you've missed some of them, reducing the quality of your experience.

But that's why I introduced Source Materials to this blog—to catalog and perhaps provide an explanatory look at these details from the outside world that add detail to the world inside Disneyland.

So let's talk animals!