New Orleans Square

On July 24, 1966, the mayor of New Orleans came to Anaheim. Victor Schiro had made Walt Disney an honorary citizen of his city in 1959, and now Walt returned the favor by asking him to help dedicate a piece of New Orleans on the banks of the Rivers of America (Disney Parks Blog). Walt joked that the land had cost as much as the Louisiana Purchase. Wikipedia notes that, before adjusting for inflation, it cost more: about $18 million for roughly three acres. It was the first new land added to Disneyland after opening day, and the ceremony was Walt's last major public appearance in the park. He died that December (Wikipedia).

The research had started almost a decade before. A 1957 memo listed books on Mardi Gras, the pirate Jean Lafitte and New Orleans architecture. Walt's own fascination went back further. On trips to New Orleans and Paris he had bought antique mechanical birds that sang when wound, and his team studied how they moved. The Disney Parks Blog traces the Tiki Room's birds, the pirates and the ghosts back to those toys (Disney Parks Blog).

The square opened with shops and restaurants. Its two great attractions came after Walt was gone: the pirates three months later, and the ghosts in 1969.

Attractions

Years are from Wikipedia unless another source is linked.

Pirates of the Caribbean

It began in the late 1950s as a walk-through wax museum of pirates. After the 1964 World's Fair, where Disney's teams learned to move crowds by boat and to build far better Audio-Animatronics figures, the plan became a boat ride with a story. Walt showed it off on television before it was built. In a five-minute segment of his 1965 tenth-anniversary special he walked viewers through the story with scale models (AllEars).

Walt worked on it extensively but did not live to see it. He died on December 15, 1966, and Pirates of the Caribbean opened on March 18, 1967 (D23; AllEars). AllEars calls it the last attraction he personally oversaw. D23 calls it one of the most elaborate uses of Audio-Animatronics figures Disney ever attempted. Its song is "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)."

The ride became a film series, and the films came back to the ride. In 2006 Captain Jack Sparrow was added to the Disneyland and Florida versions (D23).

The Blue Bayou Restaurant opened with the ride in 1967 (Wikipedia).

The Haunted Mansion

The house was finished long before anyone moved in. Construction began in 1961 and the exterior was complete by 1963. Then it stood empty for six years, while the Imagineers were pulled away to the World's Fair (Disney Parks Blog). D23 adds that the designers could not agree on what to put inside. Walt is said to have settled one question early: he would keep the outside tidy, and the ghosts could take care of the inside (D23).

While it waited, a sign out front invited ghosts to apply for leases, with a warning: "Please! Do not apply in person!" (Disney Parks Blog). A walk-through was considered and dropped because it could not move enough people. The answer was the Omnimover, a chain of cars the Imagineers named Doom Buggies. Paul Frees narrates. The house is said to hold 999 happy haunts, with room for one more (D23).

The Haunted Mansion opened on August 9, 1969. It was the first major Disney attraction to open without Walt's direct supervision, though he had reviewed the early ideas. Twenty tombstones outside honor the Disney Legends and Imagineers who built and kept it (Disney Parks Blog).

One ghost went missing. The Hatbox Ghost appeared when the ride opened, then vanished. He came back in 2015 for the park's sixtieth anniversary (Disney Parks Blog). Since October 5, 2001, the house has been redressed each fall and winter with characters from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (D23).

Club 33, dining and shops

Club 33

At 33 Royal Street is the park's private club. Walt planned it after seeing the enclosed VIP lounges at the 1964–65 World's Fair; he wanted somewhere to host sponsors, dignitaries and celebrities away from the crowds. The name comes from the address, and D23 says the many other stories about it are untrue. Set designer Emile Kuri, who had dressed Mary Poppins and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, designed the rooms (D23).

Walt died about six months before it opened. D23 gives the opening as June 15, 1967; Wikipedia says May 1967. When it opened, it was the only place in Disneyland that served alcohol. A 2014 remodel roughly doubled its size and moved the entrance to the Court of Angels; it reopened that July (Wikipedia: Club 33). It is connected to the apartment that was being built for the Disney family above the square, and its kitchen was meant to serve both (D23).

Places to eat

Years are from Wikipedia unless another source is linked. The square's shops have turned over many times, from Lafitte's Silver Shop (1966–1988) to L'Ornement Magique (1998–2013) and today's Port Royal Curios and Curiosities. The Disneyland Dream Suite, once the only public overnight room in the park, has since become the 21 Royal private dining experience (Wikipedia).

New Orleans Square in pictures

The 1961 photo of the Rivers of America in the Orange County Archives shows the Chicken Plantation restaurant on the ground where New Orleans Square was later built (Commons).

Fun facts: New Orleans Square

1. Walt joked that New Orleans Square cost as much as the Louisiana Purchase. Before inflation, it cost more (Wikipedia).
2. Mayor Victor Schiro made Walt an honorary citizen of New Orleans in 1959, seven years before the square opened (Disney Parks Blog).
3. The Imagineers began researching New Orleans as early as 1957 (Disney Parks Blog).
4. Pirates of the Caribbean began as a plan for a pirate wax museum (AllEars).
5. The Haunted Mansion's exterior stood finished and empty for about six years (Disney Parks Blog).
6. Twenty tombstones outside the Mansion honor the Imagineers and Disney Legends behind it (Disney Parks Blog).
7. The Hatbox Ghost vanished soon after opening day in 1969 and came back 46 years later (Disney Parks Blog).
8. Club 33 has its own harpsichord, painted with a scene of the 19th-century New Orleans harbor (D23).
9. The Blue Bayou's address is 31 Royal Street, next door to Club 33 (D23).
10. Club 33's dues were reported at $20,625 a year for individuals in 2025, after a $65,000 initiation fee (Wikipedia).

Quotes

"Please! Do not apply in person!"

— The sign outside the unfinished Haunted Mansion, inviting ghosts to apply for leases (Disney Parks Blog)

"One of the most elaborate uses of Audio-Animatronics figures ever attempted by Disney."

— D23, the official Disney fan club, on Pirates of the Caribbean (D23)

"…always room for one more."

— The Haunted Mansion's standing invitation (D23)