Ride Ready Guide Independent & unofficial

Disneyland Park

New Orleans Square

Two of the best rides ever built, the park's best restaurants, and wrought-iron balconies over a walkway that smells like beignets.

  • Opened1966
  • Attractions2
  • Places to eat6
  • HeadlinerPirates of the Caribbean

New Orleans Square opened in 1966 as the first land added after opening day, and it is the most convincing environment Disney has ever built at this scale. Narrow streets, French Quarter balconies, jazz on the soundtrack, and a waterfront on the Rivers of America. It contains only two ride attractions and is still, by most people's reckoning, the best land in the park.

Those two are Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, both originals, both better here than their Florida counterparts. Disneyland's Pirates runs roughly fifteen minutes against Magic Kingdom's eight and a half, with the Blue Bayou opening, a second drop, and a fuller burning-town sequence. The Haunted Mansion's stretching room is an elevator that lowers you under the railroad tracks rather than a room with a rising ceiling.

The food here is the best in the park. The Blue Bayou puts you inside the opening scene of Pirates; Cafe Orleans serves the same Monte Cristo for less money and takes a reservation you can actually get; Tiana's Palace is the strongest counter service at Disneyland; and the Mint Julep Bar fries Mickey-shaped beignets to order beside the railroad station.

Club 33 is here too, behind an unmarked door with a small brass 33 on Royal Street. You cannot get in, there is no public booking route, and the honest advice is to look at the door and move on.

Do not miss

  • Pirates of the Caribbean, the long original version
  • The Haunted Mansion's elevator stretching room
  • Mickey-shaped beignets from the Mint Julep Bar, eaten immediately
  • Lunch at Cafe Orleans on the river-facing patio
  • The waterfront tables by the railroad station

New Orleans Square tips

  • Sit on the left side of the Pirates boat for the best view of the Blue Bayou and the ship battle.
  • Book Cafe Orleans rather than the Blue Bayou unless the room is specifically the point — same Monte Cristo, smaller bill, easier reservation.
  • Eat beignets within five minutes of collecting them. Cold beignets are wasted money.
  • This land becomes impassable for fifteen minutes after Fantasmic! ends. Plan your exit route before the show, not after.

Attractions in New Orleans Square

Pirates of the Caribbean

Any height

Boat ride · 15 min · Multi Pass

The original 1967 version and still the best: fifteen minutes of bayou, caverns, and a burning town, roughly twice the length of Florida's.

Pirates of the Caribbean was the last attraction Walt Disney personally worked on, opening in March 1967, three months after his death. The Disneyland version is the long one — around fifteen minutes against roughly eight and a half at Magic Kingdom — and the extra time is not padding. It buys you the Blue Bayou stretch at the start, a second drop, and a longer, better-developed sequence in the burning town.

Tips for Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Sit on the left for the best view of the Blue Bayou and the ship battle. Front row gets the most spray on the drops.
  • You will get lightly damp, mostly from the drops. It is never enough to need a poncho, but a phone in an open shirt pocket is a bad idea.
  • The queue is fully shaded and partly indoors — a genuinely comfortable place to wait, unlike most of the park in summer.
  • Eating at the Blue Bayou puts you inside the ride's opening scene. It is expensive and the food is fine rather than great, but the room is unmatched and reservations open sixty days out.
  • Waits fall off sharply after the fireworks let out. The last hour of the night is the best time to ride, and the boats keep loading until the park closes.
  • If your child is nervous, the scary part is the front half — caves and skeletons in the dark. The back half is bright, loud, and much less upsetting.

Full guide to Pirates of the Caribbean →

Haunted Mansion

Any height

Dark ride · 9 min · Multi Pass

The 1969 original, in an antebellum mansion that has nothing to do with New Orleans Square and works anyway.

Disneyland's Haunted Mansion opened in August 1969 after more than a decade of argument inside the company about whether it should be scary or funny. The compromise — a house that is genuinely eerie for the first three minutes and then throws a ballroom party — is why it still works. The exterior is a white antebellum manor that fits New Orleans Square about as well as a wedding cake fits a swamp, a mismatch Walt reportedly resolved by declaring that the outside would stay clean and the ghosts could live inside.

Tips for Haunted Mansion
  • The doom buggies load continuously, so a posted 45-minute wait moves faster than a 45-minute wait anywhere else in the park.
  • Ask a cast member to seat you in the front of the buggy pair if you are riding with a child — the buggy holds two comfortably and three at a squeeze, and the outside seat has the better sightline into the graveyard.
  • The stretching room is the fear checkpoint. If a child is going to bail, it happens there, and cast members will walk you out through a side door without drama.
  • Look for the hitchhiking ghost effect at the very end and glance at the mirror rather than the figures — the gag reads far better if you are watching the reflection.
  • This ride gets an overlay for part of the year, which changes the whole interior. If you want the original version, check what is running before you plan around it.
  • The courtyard outside is shaded and has low walls to sit on, making it one of the better regroup spots in New Orleans Square.

Full guide to Haunted Mansion →

Eating in New Orleans Square

Table service · New Orleans Square

Blue Bayou Restaurant

Dinner inside the opening scene of Pirates of the Caribbean, in permanent artificial dusk with fireflies and a moonlit bayou.

$$$$Book ahead

  • CuisineCreole-influenced American
  • ReservationsReservations essential

Table service · New Orleans Square

Cafe Orleans

The Blue Bayou's cheaper, easier neighbor, with the same Monte Cristo and a patio on the Rivers of America.

$$$

  • CuisineCreole-influenced American
  • ReservationsReservations recommended

Quick service · New Orleans Square

Tiana's Palace

Counter-service Southern cooking in New Orleans Square with a courtyard, a live-music soundtrack, and better food than it needs to have.

$$Mobile order

  • CuisineSouthern and Creole
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Snack cart · New Orleans Square

Mint Julep Bar

A walk-up window by the railroad station selling Mickey-shaped beignets that come out of the fryer to order.

$Mobile order

  • CuisineBeignets and specialty drinks
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Quick service · New Orleans Square

Royal Street Veranda

A small walk-up window on the corner by Pirates selling gumbo and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls.

$$Mobile order

  • CuisineSoups in bread bowls
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Table service · New Orleans Square

Club 33

The private members-only club above New Orleans Square. You almost certainly cannot get in, and that is the whole answer.

$$$$

  • CuisineContemporary American
  • ReservationsNo reservations

Snacks worth stopping for

Mickey-Shaped Beignets

Mint Julep Bar

$7.49

Three square-ish fried dough pillows cut into a Mickey silhouette, fried to order and buried in powdered sugar. They arrive genuinely hot and slightly hollow inside.

Our take: One of the three best things to eat at Disneyland, provided you eat them within five minutes. Cold beignets are a waste of money and there is no way around that, so do not buy them to carry across the park.

Do not leave without it Sweet Vegetarian Walkable

Mint Julep

Mint Julep Bar

$5.79

A non-alcoholic mint and lemon drink served over crushed ice with a garnish, sharing its name with the bourbon cocktail and nothing else about it.

Our take: Overrated. It is mint syrup and sugar, and most first-timers get halfway down and stop. Buy one for the table to try rather than one each, and put the money toward a second order of beignets.

Drink VegetarianVegan Walkable

Monte Cristo Sandwich

Cafe Orleans

$25.99

Ham, turkey, and Swiss between bread, battered, deep fried, dusted with powdered sugar, and served with berry preserves for dipping. It arrives cut into quarters and it is enormous.

Our take: It sounds ridiculous and it works completely — the sugar and the preserves land as a foil to the salt rather than as dessert. Split it between two adults with an order of pommes frites; one person cannot finish it and should not try.

Do not leave without it Savory

Monte Cristo Sandwich at Blue Bayou

Blue Bayou Restaurant

—

The same deep-fried ham, turkey, and cheese sandwich with berry preserves, served at lunch in the Blue Bayou dining room alongside the Pirates of the Caribbean bayou scene.

Our take: The sandwich is the sandwich. What you are paying extra for is the room, and if the room is the point then this is the cheapest way to buy it — book lunch rather than dinner and order this.

Savory

Pommes Frites

Cafe Orleans

$10.49

Thin-cut fries tossed with garlic, parmesan, and herbs, served hot with a creamy dipping sauce on the side.

Our take: The item Disneyland regulars order and first-timers skip. Get an order for the table regardless of what else you are eating; they are better than the fries at any counter service in the park by a wide margin.

Near the top of the list Savory Vegetarian

Gumbo Bread Bowl

Royal Street Veranda

$14.49

A dark, spiced gumbo with sausage and vegetables served in a sourdough bread bowl from the small corner window beside Pirates of the Caribbean.

Our take: The better of the two bread bowls in this corner of the park and one of the most overlooked cheap meals at Disneyland. On a cool evening it beats anything else in New Orleans Square under fifteen dollars.

Near the top of the list Savory

Nearby

Disneyland Park map See where this land sits All attractions Every ride in Disneyland Park Main Street, U.S.A. The turn-of-the-century street every guest walks down twice a day, with the park's best coffee, its worst evening crowd crush, and more detail than anyone stops to look at. Adventureland The narrowest, most congested land in the park, and home to its single best-built attraction queue and its roughest ride.