Women Who Make the Magic: Experiencing Disneyland's Newest Tour

Last Friday, Disneyland launched its newest guided experience, Women Who Make the Magic, a tour highlighting the many women whose creativity and determination helped shape the park.

After ensuring the tour earpieces were all functioning properly, our guide, Mayela, invited us to travel back in time to begin the story. Ragtime-style versions of familiar Disney melodies played softly through our tour earpieces, setting the mood as we walked to the main entrance of Disneyland.

As the Disneyland Railroad pulled into the station nearby, Mayela began with the story of Flora Disney, Walt’s mother. A strong Midwestern woman, Flora designed the family home that her contractor husband, Elias, would build. She also nurtured young Walt’s imagination, encouraging his creativity and dreams from the very beginning. Her quiet influence helped lay the emotional foundation for the wonder guests experience at Disneyland today.

The tour also highlighted Lillian Disney, Walt’s wife and creative partner. Lillian began as an ink artist at the Disney Studio and famously persuaded Walt that his newest character should be named Mickey. Her influence extended well beyond the studio’s early years. Even after Walt’s passing, Lillian continued shaping the Disney legacy through philanthropy, most notably helping bring the Walt Disney Concert Hall to life.

With those early influences in mind, we continued down Main Street, where the tour shifts from Walt’s personal story to the many women who helped bring Disneyland itself to life. a few of whose stories stood out along the way. Legendary Imagineers such as Harriet Burns, Alice Davis, and Mary Blair each left an unmistakable mark on the park. Burns became the first female Imagineer, Davis designed costumes that still define attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and "it's a small world," and Blair’s bold artistic style shaped some of Disneyland’s most beloved visual moments.

Next, the tour highlighted a remarkable family legacy within Imagineering through Leota Toombs, her daughter Kim Irvine, and granddaughter Ali Irvine-Wheeler, three generations whose creative work can be found throughout Disney parks. Their story points forward, hinting at how women’s creativity has long been and continues to be part of the magic that inspires generations.

The tour also celebrates more recent trailblazers like Martha Blanding, whose remarkable 50-year career at Disneyland began in 1971, and she became the park’s first full-time Black tour guide. As we walked toward the next stop, her Disney Legends acceptance speech played through our headsets. Hearing her reflect on the challenges she faced and her mother’s words of wisdom in the midst of them was a particularly moving moment on the tour.

From there, the tour expands beyond Disneyland’s berm, bringing in the stories of other women who shaped Disney Company history, including Retta Scott, Disney’s first credited female animator, and the women of Ink & Paint and the enduring impact of Mary Poppins.

This tour is designed to carry guests smoothly through the hustle and bustle of Disneyland, making it easy to hear the stories and stay connected as we move from place to place. Guests are provided with earpieces, which allowed us to hear Mayela clearly while also enjoying period-appropriate music and historic audio clips to accentuate the stories.

Unlike some other Disneyland tours I’ve taken (like the Railroad tour, the Horticulture tour, or the 70th Celebration tour, Women Who Make the Magic didn’t include a collectible takeaway like a poster or pin, though we were treated to a delightful bakery item at the conclusion. As part of the tour, we rode the Story Book Canal Boats and, in the evening, tour participants were invited to a reserved spot for the fireworks at the top of Main Street behind Partners, a lovely location that afforded a decent view of the Paint the Night parade as well. Watching the lights of the parade pass by while reflecting on the stories we had heard throughout the afternoon felt like a fitting finale.

I hesitate to share the tour’s biggest highlight, as its surprise is part of the delight - stop reading here if you want to experience it firsthand.

For those who prefer to know all the tour’s offerings (at least as presented on March 6), one of the tour’s most delightful surprises came at the façade of "it's a small world." Mayela unveiled a treasure from the Disneyland archives: one of the dolls that normally parades during the clock’s chime. Each guest had the chance to take a photo with it, and seeing this unique piece of Disney history up close, while taking in the stories of the women who helped bring it to life, provided a lovely keepsake.

From Walt’s mother, Flora, who nurtured his imagination, to Lillian Disney’s creative and philanthropic contributions, and on to the pioneering Imagineers and today’s leaders, The Women Who Make the Magic tour does more than recount history; it honors their achievements and celebrates the ongoing influence of women shaping Disney magic.

The cost for Women Who Make the Magic is $110 per person and it’s offered several times daily, typically two in the morning and two in the afternoon. The tour currently shows availability until May 8, 2026.