 AT YESTERLAND.COM |
Never Land Pool Pool hours: 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 |
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Over at Yesterland park, you can enter the world of Peter Pan by visiting the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship and Restaurant and Skull Rock. Here at the Yesterland Hotel, there’s another world of Peter Pan. It’s the Never Land Pool, a 5,000 square-foot aquatic tribute to the boy who never grows up and the magical realm he inhabits. |
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Peter Pan can fly. Here at the Never Land Pool, you can fly down a 100-foot-long water slide. Nearby, Captain Hook’s Pirate Ship faces Tick-Tock the Crocodile. There’s also Mermaid Lagoon, a secluded spa, just past eerie Skull Rock. Plenty of lounge chairs face the pool. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010 Entrance gate to the Never Land Pool |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007
Looking across the Never Land Pool |
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Disneyland Public Relations photo, 2005
Enjoying the features of the Never Land Pool |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007
Captain Hook’s pirate ship at the Never Land Pool |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010
Skull Rock at the Never Land Pool |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010
Skull Rock’s eyes |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2010
Never Land Pool water slide |
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Going on rides in the parks is a lot of fun, but it can be tiring. Sometimes it’s better just to relax at the Never Land Pool. |
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Since July 1956, the Disneyland Hotel in California had boasted an Olympic size swimming pool. The heated, rectangular pool served the hotel well as it grew from a small campus of two-story hotel buildings into a sprawling resort complex with 1,174 rooms, including three towers. In 1988, The Walt Disney Company acquired Wrather Corp. to gain control of the Disneyland Hotel—which, despite its name, had never had the same ownership as Disneyland. At first, not much changed at the hotel. But big plans were underway. |
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1999 photo, from the collection of author Don Ballard Disneyland Hotel Marina in 1999, its final year |
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1999 would be the end of the original Disneyland Hotel. Everything east of the first tower (the Sierra Tower) would be demolished to become part of the site for Downtown Disney. Good bye, original hotel rooms, restaurants, shops, and amenities—including the Olympic size swimming pool. That meant the Disneyland Hotel needed a new main pool. A new pool would replace the hotel’s Marina, which had been an unusual feature for a landlocked hotel. Having a pool was more important than having a place to display yachts and to rent paddle boats. Although the Disneyland Hotel had always been a place to have a great vacation experience, it hadn’t provided a strong “Disney experience.” The new pool was an opportunity to make the hotel more “Disney.” The Never Land Pool opened on July 2, 1999 as the new primary pool of the Disneyland Hotel. For almost a dozen years, guests enjoyed swimming, sunning, and watersliding in the Peter Pan-themed paradise. |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2011 Transforming the Never Land Pool into the E-Ticket pool |
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The Never Land Pool had been part of the Disneyland Hotel’s first major transformation. The main purpose had been to give the hotel a smaller footprint. In 2009, Disney embarked on another transformation. This time, the purpose was to give the hotel a new look and a new theme. The towers would be dressed in energy-efficient, sky-blue reflective glass, replacing the old sliding glass doors that opened onto balcony railings. The new theme would make the hotel “a nostalgic, family destination that pays tribute to the early days of Disneyland.” Good bye, Never Land Pool. In late May 2011, walls went up around the Never Land Pool. The pool’s surroundings, including Captain Hook’s Pirate Ship and Skull Rock, were removed. The pool itself, with its distinctive shape, would be reused. |
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Photo by Chris Bales, 2012 The E-Ticket pool |
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On November 14, 2011, the former Never Land Pool reopened as the E-Ticket Pool. Back when Disneyland required guests to use attraction tickets, the highest denomination was the “E” Ticket—and those rides were the best. Replicas of “E” Tickets decorate the tiles along the pool’s waterline. New landscaping, decks, and cabanas completed the pool renovation. |
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Disneyland Public Relations photo, 2011 The Monorail Pool |
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The E-Ticket Pool joined the Monorail Pool and the D-Ticket Pool, which were already open. The focus of the whole pool area is now on a waterslide structure based on the iconic Disneyland Alweg Monorail. After all, the Monorail premiered as one of the first “E” Ticket attractions in June 1959. The structure is topped with a replica of the Disneyland sign that was on Harbor Blvd. from 1958 to 1989—the same sign that inspired the Yesterland nameplate in 1995. |
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Disneyland Public Relations photo by Paul Hiffmeyer, 2012 The Disneyland Hotel pools |
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The Disneyland nostalgia theme of the 2009-2012 Disneyland Hotel renovation brought the end of the Never Land Pool. However, when you think about it, the Never Land Pool, with its Pirate Ship and Skull Rock, actually already had a Disneyland nostalgia theme. The Monorails and the classic Disneyland sign are arguably a much better centerpiece for the Disneyland nostalgia theme. The Never Land Pool reflected the movie Peter Pan more than it reflected early Fantasyland. And the current main pool complex, consisting of the E-Ticket Pool, D-Ticket Pool, and Monorail Pool, offers more to Disneyland Hotel guests than the Never Land Pool. But, somehow, some day, it seems we’ll see the Pirate Ship and Skull Rock again somewhere at the Disneyland Resort. |
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© 2012-2021 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated January 15, 2021 |
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