Walt Disney World is a "magical" place, but even more so than most people realize. There's hidden jewels, inside jokes and small details that most Guests see but never comprehend. Here are 10 of them, so the next time you go into the Magic Kingdom, you'll be able to tell people some of the "stories behind the magic."
1. The Magic Kingdom was Created as a Movie Theater
When the Magic Kingdom was created, its entrance and Main Street USA was created as a tribute to and in similarity to the old-fashioned movie theater.
Disney purposely placed the facade and railroad up high in front, so that from the moment you pass through the initial gates you can't see anything inside the park. Instead, you see the "marquee" of flowers across the front. As you pass through the tunnels under the railroad, you'll see large posters of various rides (upcoming attractions). Usually on the left entrance side, just inside the park, there's a popcorn stand. Why? It's for the SMELL...that smell you get when you enter a theater's lobby.
As you walk down Main Street toward the Castle, look at the names of the businesses in the 2nd and 3rd story windows. These are the Opening Credits...the names of the people who made both the Magic Kingdom and the Disney Company great. And when you pass that, you're at the Castle and the park's hub - the Main Attraction - and the magic officially starts.
2. Entering the Park / Leaving the Park
Disney used lots of tricks to make a more magical experience for Guests.
If you notice on the way into the Magic Kingdom down Main Street, you're walking slightly uphill. In addition, the Castle is built in such a way that it seems further away than it really is (that's through an architectural trick called forced perspective)...it builds excitement as you work your way into the main hub of the park.
But on the way out - when people are worn after a long day - having a slight downhill path makes the exit smoother and less tiring. In addition, the Railway Station at the entrance was built in a reversed forced perspective from the Castle...it looks larger than it actually is, giving Guests the feeling that they're really closer to the exit than they are (so they feel less tired).
3. A Haunted Mansion Secret
Disney's animators and designers were avid chess players - and kept chess boards at work - so how did their love of chess find its way into the design of the Haunted Mansion?
While the Haunted Mansion was being designed, as a joke, one of the designers topped the model of the Haunted Mansion with chess pieces, to see if anyone noticed. When the joke was discovered, Walt decided to keep the joke going and told the designers, keep the chess pieces on the mansion.
Next time you approach the Haunted Mansion, look at the many spires. Each one is shaped like a chess piece.
4. Sagging Hinges in Liberty Square
Disney's attention to historical detail is amazing. Most people don't ask why the Liberty Square shutters sag. It's not lack of maintenance...
At the time of the Revolutionary War, Britain refused to sell weapons and ammunition to the Colonists. But the Brits did sell the Colonists hinges...after all, shutters were essential to the construction of houses in those days.
The Colonists would take the hinges - as well as the hinges already used on their homes' shutters - and would melt the metal to create shot for their guns. They substituted hinges made of leather to hold the shutters in place. While this was a noble sacrifice for a noble cause, leather wasn't as good a hinge as metal, and over time the weight of the shutters would start stretching the leather, causing the shutters to sag outward at the top...thus the sagging shutters in Liberty Square.
Disney's "leather" hinges are made of metal - in the shape and texture of stretched leather hinges - to preserve the historically-accurate look of the area. This fact leads us to another in the Magic Kingdom...normally:
5. If You Can Touch It, It's Real...If You Can't, It's Not
Disney is the master of illusion. One way to illustrate that is to look at all the architecture. Disney has a philosophy that says, "If you can touch it, make it real...but if you can't touch it, make it to last."
There are certainly some exceptions to this rule as far as things that can be touched (with the amount of people rubbing up against and handling certain items, some things are simply not able to be real). But for the most part, Disney tries to keep things real at touch level.
As for those thatched roofs you swear are of natural materials, or the cobwebs in the Haunted Mansion, or anything else outside the reach of hands, they are 99% manufactured substitutes - fiberglass and metal, concrete and styrophone - creatively tailored to look absolutely real.
6. Murky Water and Deep Rivers
Many people look at the waters of the Jungle Cruise, the Pirates of the Caribbean or Liberty Square Riverboats and think that the waters are much deeper than they really are.
At the start of Disney's complex system of waterways (which flow throughout all the Disney parks), Imagineers thought to add a bio-degradable dye to the water to make it darker, causing the waters to appear murkier and thus deeper than they really are. At the end of the system, there's a process which removes the dye, causing the waters to once again show their normal color.
7. The Huge Fireworks Display
Where you view the fireworks makes a HUGE difference.
One night, we got stuck behind the Castle when the Magic Kingdom fireworks display started. It was a neat display, but came nowhere close to the grandeur and majesty of seeing the fireworks from our traditional spot in front of the Castle. The fireworks were okay, but many of them seemed puny...standard bursts of fireworks you might find in your hometown 4th of July celebration.
What makes Disney's fireworks display in the Magic Kingdom so special is that Imagineers' trick I mentioned before - forced perspective. When you look at the Castle at night, you lose sight of how tall (really how short) it really is...it looks absolutely HUGE! So when Disney sets fireworks to burst behind the castle - set against the palette of smoke from earlier fireworks - they too look huge. It's all illusion, amazingly accomplished.
8. What's the One Snack You Can't Buy?
There's so many great treats in the Magic Kingdom that very few people notice a common snack is missing...
This is a practical matter for Disney. If you've been to other theme parks, you see gum everywhere, especially on the ground and on walls of rides. Disney helps lessen the sticky clean-up issue by simply not allowing gum to be sold. They can't stop people from bringing gum into the parks, but not selling the sticky treat makes a big difference. And next time you're in the park, look how close trash cans are to each other...Disney researched how far apart they could be before someone felt the urge to simply drop the trash on the ground.
9. What Else is Beneath Our Feet...Besides the Utilidors?
A lot of people don't realize that there's an entire complex of passageways and rooms beneath the entire Magic Kingdom.
Guests actually spend their time on the 2nd floor of the Magic Kingdom, with Utilidors (Disney's words) underneath so that Characters and Cast Members can get in and out of the park without being seen (and thus destroying the illusion). But even if do know about the Utilidors, most people don't realize what else is down below:
The Magic Kingdom has one of the largest vacuum trash set-up in the world. It's part of an amazing recycling system that sucks all the trash from around the park into a center gathering area, where the trash - as well as 1000s of lost items - find their way. There, the trash is sorted and recycled, lost items if salvageable are taken to Lost and Found, and the rest is removed.
Disney's recycling program is extensive, reclaiming the vast majority of the trash thrown into their bins.
10. The Lines on the Roads Backstage
Disney is amazingly protective in making sure Guests only see the "magic."
On one of the backstage tours, we asked about lines of various colors drawn on the roadways. It was explained that these lines represented places in the roadway where Characters walking and on Parade floats could be seen by someone, somewhere in the park.
Disney has done extensive hiding of parking areas, back lot features, etc., so that when you're high up on Splash Mountain you're not looking at some Cast Member driving around in a pick-up truck. The rule of the park is, "If you can be seen by even one Guest, you must remain true to your Character." We had the opportunity to test this at Epcot many years ago when the Tapestry of Dreams Parade was still being run. At the end of the parade, Cast Members would exit through a gated area and walk down a 100 to 150-yard passageway before disappearing to the left. Even though it was dark and though they could barely be seen, each dancer and Cast Member continued as if they were in front of thousands of people, staying in character until they became out of sight.
An exception to this rule has been with the creation of the new Fantasyland. Disney has done a great job trying to hide renovations, but if you want an excellent view of construction, ride the Dumbo ride. Raise up Dumbo as quickly and as high as you can, and roll your videocams...you'll get quite an eyeful!
