This Land Exit Survey series has taken us inside the old west, a Jules Verne novel, a land made of Cars and… France. There’s been many different stops along the way, most of them pretty adventurous, so what better time to go to (checks notes) Missouri? Small town America is just one thing Main Street symbolizes though. In this post, we’ll break down Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A.’s offerings as well as give our thoughts on what it stands for and does for the rest of the park.

Theme parks are made up of sub-sections, generally called lands. Many of these lands are spectacular, some are far from it. In this series, we cover individual lands one post at a time and answer some questions about them. In this case, we’re taking the land you enter into when coming to Disneyland. While this isn’t quite the deep dive into lands that we’ve done before, I’ll provide the basic information about the land as well as my opinion on a few questions. We’ll also use these posts to talk about theme throughout the area and within the park. All of the posts in this series will use close to the same questions. Let us know in the comments if there are questions that we should add!

Here’s what we’ve covered so far:

• Disney California Adventure: Grizzly Peak, Cars Land and Buena Vista Street
• Disneyland: Mickey’s (old) Toontown, New Orleans Square, and Critter Country
• Magic Kingdom: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland and Liberty Square
• Epcot: Future World West and France Pavilion
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Sunset Boulevard, Echo Lake and Toy Story Land
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: Asia, Africa and Pandora – World of Avatar
• Tokyo DisneySea: Mysterious Island, Mediterranean Harbor and Arabian Coast
• Tokyo Disneyland: World Bazaar, Westernland and Adventureland

Let’s enter into Americana and talk about Main Street!

What is your short(ish) review of Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A.?

Main Street, U.S.A. is a perfect setup to a theme park. There’s some great attractions, restaurants and shops to get you ready for your theme park day or to send you off into the real world. Main Street is a little bit of home before you set out on an adventure.

What’s in the land?

For not having conventional attractions, there’s a lot here!

• Disneyland Railroad – Start your grand circle tour here on Main Street, with the iconic station seen from outside of the park.
• Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln – A replica of the 1964 World’s Fair attraction, an incredible Abraham Lincoln animatronic is giving a speech. The figure was revolutionary in its time and impressive to this day.
• Main Street Vehicles – Why walk down Main Street when you can ride? There’s horse drawn carriages, omnibusses and more to enjoy!
• Main Street Cinema – Step inside here to rest your feet and enjoy some older Mickey cartoons.
• Disneyland Gallery – Sort of the queue to Mr. Lincoln, this gallery hosts different exhibits having to do with Disney history.
• The Dapper Dans – A barbershop quartet that sings a mix of Disney songs and old classics.
• The Disneyland Band – The marching band can be seen all over Disneyland but is on Main Street more often than not.
• Parades – Disneyland has a rotating set of parades, our favorite of which is Magic Happens.
• Nighttime Spectaculars – Like the parades, the firework shows rotate in and out and Main Street is the best place to watch them.
• Carnation Café – The land’s table-service restaurant, Carnation Café serves American food and fits in with the early 1900’s theme.
• Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor – The title says it all here. There’s ice cream!
• Jolly Holiday Bakery – Jolly Holiday is a counter-service restaurant that serves a mix of sandwiches and baked goods!
• Main Street Market House (Starbucks) – It’s a Starbucks with a very long line but it is themed well!
• Plaza Inn – Another counter-service spot that is known for their fried chicken and beautiful décor.
• Refreshment Corner – Hot dogs are the food of choice at this quick counter. There’s also good chili.
• Little Red Wagon – Home to the famous Disneyland corn dog!
• Disneyana – This store showcases different Disney artwork available for purchase. That might be redundant.
• The Mad Hatter – Get your ears and/or Disney hats here.
• Disney Showcase – There’s some clothes here! I’ll be honest, I didn’t know the name of this one and had to look it up.
• Emporium – The store in Disneyland that’s kind of the catch-all. Most people hit this one on the way out of the park to get any souvenirs they missed.
• 20th Century Music Company – There’s pins and lanyards here but surprisingly little to do with music.
• Crystal Arts – Watch them blow glass here or buy some of your own.
• Silhouette Studio – You can get portraits here!
• Candy Palace & Kitchen – A place to get all of the candy and baked treats!
• Plaza Point – This store is fairly new and is a year-around Christmas shop.

What is Main Street’s backstory and theme?

Inspired by Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri, Main Street is supposed to embody small town America in the early 20th century. Like most theme park lands, it is idealized. Not counting the bypasses that open during especially busy times (and monorail), Main Street is the only entrance and exit to the park. Guests enter in front of the train station that leads to the small town. Upon turning the corner, there’s town square followed by a thoroughfare of shops and restaurants. The castle at the end represents what’s beyond the small town; a whole kingdom waiting to be explored.

There are notable decorations on Main Street, whether that’s holiday décor for Halloween and Christmas or names of notable Disney company names along the windows that fit into the make believe businesses. There’s not much break in theme, from the entertainment to the attractions offered, it all feels like a step back in time.

What is your favorite part of the land? What’s the most memorable aspect of it?

I’ll start with the latter, as the most memorable aspect of Main Street is turning the corner to see the castle. This is true of Main Street in all of the Disney Castle Parks and detractors (I almost wrote dementors but that’s a different land) would say that Disneyland’s castle is the smallest of any park. That’s true, but what it lacks in grandiose, it makes up for in charm. Watching fireworks shoot off from that view down Main Street with the castle in the foreground is as memorable as it gets.

My favorite part is much harder to pick so I’m just going to list a couple of less obvious things than saying the castle and it’s nighttime spectaculars. The flower cart down Center Street, crossing the middle of Main Street, is beautiful and offers a great place to sit. I still splurge on the fried chicken at Plaza Inn every now and then. The omnibus gives me life. I love the Christmas garlands stretching across the street during that season. Finally, I still love checking in on Mr. Lincoln every now and then.

Are there parts of Main Street that you don’t like?

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of that Starbucks. There’s no reason to rehash a decade old debate though so I’ll leave it at that. My only other critique is that I wish some of the shops had a little bit more character than they do. Not only do I wish the merch was more interesting but I wish the Magic Shop was bigger and there were a few other niche offerings.

How does the land coincide and transition with the rest of the park? Does Main Street make the park better or worse?

I mean, it’s perfect partially because it’s what we know. This being the first Americana theme park, Main Street was the first land people stepped into. It feels like a natural jumping off point because of what the castle at the end of the street symbolizes – when you reach the end of the small town it’s time to go see what adventures and fantasy are out there! That makes Disneyland better because of how flawlessly, and wordlessly, that idea is communicated.

Where would you rank the land in relation to the others in the park?

This is a hard one because of how different it is from the rest of the lands. Obviously, lands with more attractions will likely be more memorable and would rank higher. I do like Main Street more than Toontown and Disneyland’s current version of Tomorrowland. Same goes for the ghost of Critter Country. I’ll put it 5th out of 8 then, behind Fantasyland, Galaxy’s Edge, Adventureland and (just narrowly) Frontierland.

What do you think of Main Street, U.S.A.? Do you like our Land Exit Surveys? Would you add anything? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below. Planning a trip to Disneyland? Check out our Planning Guide here. Need tickets to Disneyland? We’ve got discounted options here! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!