When you think about water at Disneyland, what comes to mind? Probably the castle moat, Paradise Bay, and maybe the Grizzly River Run? Well, it might surprise you to learn that the Disneyland Resort has a lot more than that going on, from massive rocky waterfalls to sneaky rivers winding beneath your feet. Let’s take a look at the Disneyland Resort’s water features.
Note: I didn’t include fountains in this post, as I wanted to focus on more “natural” water features. But there are fountains scattered throughout the parks and Downtown Disney as well!
BAYS & PONDS – THE BIG WATER FEATURES
These are the most obvious water features you probably picture in your mind across the resort. But even these vary wildly; no two look the same. The largest at the resort is Paradise Bay, holding 16 million gallons at capacity. This bay serves as the stage for World of Color.
Over in Disneyland, smaller ponds fill in the landscape. Most of them are remnants of long-gone attractions. The Frontierland pond is what’s left of the Mine Train route.
And the Fantasyland one is the former home of several boat attractions.
The other two ponds in Disneyland are homes to current attractions. Toontown’s pond houses Donald’s Boat:
And Tomorrowland’s lagoon provides the environment for the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage.
Ultimately, each of the resort’s larger bodies of water serves or served an important functional purpose. With real estate at the resort being so valuable, it makes sense that Imagineers would only use that much space for water if it was multifunctional.
RIVERS
Rivers are truly EVERYWHERE at the Disneyland Resort, so there’s no one-size-fits-all purpose for them. The first “river” you probably think of when picturing the resort is the castle moat. The moat helps add to the realism of the castle, complete with a functional drawbridge. But what you might not know is that this river spans far beyond the castle; it reaches to Tomorrowland’s entrance to the east, and all the way down to the Jungle Cruise.
Speaking of the Jungle Cruise, our next category of rivers would be “ride rivers”. These serve as functional tracks for outdoor or partially outdoor attractions, thus making them visible water features to non-riders exploring the park. The Jungle Cruise river:
Rivers of America:
the soon-to-be Tiana’s Bayou Adventure loop (formerly Splash Mountain):
Storybook Land river:
It’s A Small World river:
And Grizzly river all fall into this category.
And then finally, there is one river I couldn’t connect to any functionality. It barely trickles through Critter Country, so there’s no way it supports any attraction. It’s not large enough to create any sort of visual separation or have a dramatic effect. It’s just a delicate little rocky creek, hanging out in a quiet corner of the park.
WATERFALLS
And finally, there are the waterfalls. If you count mountainous attractions like Grizzly River Run or the Matterhorn as one single waterfall, there are 8 scattered throughout the two parks. The smallest ones assist with forced perspective illusions. One, in Cars Land, emphasizes how far away the mountain tops are.
The other, in Fantasyland, helps with the illusion that Snow White’s statue is higher up than it is, making her size compared to the dwarf statues a little more logical.
Some of the waterfalls are important functional parts of their attractions. In the Jungle Cruise, the waterfalls set the stage for the infamous “back side of water” joke, and help make the animatronics look more lifelike.
And in Fantasyland, the waterfall covering Triton’s castle helps keep the illusion that his home is underwater while still keeping it visible to passing boats.
The two mountain attractions with waterfalls, the Matterhorn and Grizzly River Run, need waterfalls to bring water back down to their bases.
That means they serve as much of a functional purpose as they do decorative.
In addition, there are a few waterfalls that seem to just be there for aesthetic purposes. These are the gorgeous waterfalls along the Rivers of America:
The rocky waterfall within the Rise of the Resistance queue:
And the waterfall at the Tomorrowland lagoon.
I couldn’t find any proof of this in my research, but I wonder if these three also serve a sound muffling purpose. The Rivers of America one, for instance, may mask sounds from Galaxy’s Edge. But I don’t know that to be true – just something I thought about!
Disneyland’s water features are critical to its visual identity. Beyond practical purposes of serving as ride tracks, they add visual contrast to some lands, help create illusions in others (a beach boardwalk doesn’t make much sense without being on the water!), and in the end, contribute to Disneyland’s beauty. It may sound unimportant at face value, but Disneyland being a “pretty” place is a critical factor to its success and magic, and its water plays a huge role in achieving that beauty.