Selected Walt Disney World Facts and Figures

Did you know that the tract of land near Orlando, Florida owned by the Walt Disney Company and known as the Walt Disney World Resort is about the size of the city of San Francisco or is about twice the size of Manhattan Island?

Here we give a selection of other statistics and facts and also some of the whys and wherefores of features and details at Walt Disney World.

Click for:   Magic Kingdom  **   Epcot Future World   ** Epcot World Showcase  ** Disney Hollywood Studios  **  Disney's Animal Kingdom  ** Resorts and Other ** Main Secrets Page ** Hidden Mickeys

Completely revised for March 2010.


Almost all of the material on this page was compiled from reader contributions to threads (series' of postings) in  internet bulletin board forum http://www.disboards.com

Topic heading "Theme Park Strategies and Attractions", thread "Your Best WDW Theme Park Secret", "
Topic heading "Theme Park Strategies and Attractions:, thread "Worldshow Case (sic) Secrets"
Topic heading "Disney Tips", thread "Secrets to DW"

Topic heading "Theme Parks Attractions and Strategies", thread "Interesting Facts About Disney"
and other threads.

As best as possible, I /my/we  is this writer, [I]/[my]/[we] is the original contributor.


Walt Disney World tips.

Travel tips.

Go to other unrelated topics.


Why Walt Disney World?

Anyone know exactly what happened to spark Walt Disney's idea of building Walt Disney World?

Well...when Walt was alive, he used to stand at the exit of Disneyland wishing the guests a farewell at the end of the night. According to him, no one left before closing time. One night, a family walked by and was leaving the park before closing time, and Walt stopped them. He asked them why they were leaving early, worried that maybe a CM was rude or something bad happened. They said everything was wonderful, but when they were on the sky ride (aerial cable cars), they saw the highway and could see there was a lot of traffic. They wanted to get a head start home to beat the traffic. Walt would have none of it, so he decided that day he would build a bigger park and make it a "world" instead of just a "land.” He wanted it to be that once you enter Disney World you have no ties with the outside world.

Since Disneyland was in the middle of the city and was so small, he couldn't do that. With a new world, you are engulfed in all that is Disney. Thus, the idea for Disney World was born (which project was later renamed "Walt Disney World" by brother Roy Disney to honor Walt who did not live to see opening day).

Magic Kingdom (MK) Facts

Out Front

Did you know that there is a wave-making machine (off the southern shore of Beachcomber Isle [near the Polynesian]) at the bottom of 7 Seas Lagoon?

It was supposed to make waves big enough for surfing, but it caused beach erosion and so they shut it down. Now, it serves as a reef for fish!

In the Magic Kingdom parking lot only six of the seven dwarfs have a lot section named after them. There are sections: Sleepy, Dopey, Happy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Sneezy. No Doc! Why? Because while naming the sections in the world's third largest parking lot, the designers were afraid people may get the Boat Dock and a parking lot section named "Doc" confused!

Following an accident in mid-2009 where a monorail driver was killed, guests are no longer permitted to ride up front with the driver. Earlier, one monorail train was assigned to each resort on the monorail line where guests of that resort had priority to ride up front.

Entrance and Main St.

The fire station on Main Street is Station No. 71 (Magic Kingdom opened in 1971)

Only the "main" flag in Town Square is taken down at sundown. The other similar flags are not true U.S. flags; they are missing stripes or stars.

Last time [I] was pregnant and craving something sweet we passed by one of the bakeries in Epcot. The smell outside was divine. When we got inside [I] asked for whatever was making that wonderful aroma. The CM's just laughed and said it was nothing specific. Now [I] know why.

From Main St. the castle appears large because the buildings on Main St. are smaller the closer they are to the castle (5/08).

General

When you ride the MK Railway, there is a huge green building off on your left that you don't really notice -- it's because the shade of green it's painted does not draw the eye.

One of Walt's stories went like this: He used to stand at the exit of Disneyland wishing the guests a farewell at the end of the night. It seemed that no one left the park just before closing time. One night a family walked by and was leaving the park before closing time and Walt stopped them. He asked them why they were leaving early, worried that maybe a CM was rude or something bad happened. They said that everything was wonderful, but when they were on the skyride they saw the highway and could see that there was a lot of traffic. They wanted to get a head start home to beat the traffic. Walt would have none of it, so he decided that day that he would build a bigger park and make it a "world" instead of just a "land". He wanted it to be that once you enter Disney World you have no ties with the outside world. Since Disneyland is in the middle of the city, and is so small, one couldn't do that. With a new world, you are engulfed in all that is Disney. Thus, the idea for Disney World was born (the complex was later renamed "Walt Disney World" by Roy Disney to honor his brother who did not live to see opening day.)

If you notice, as you're walking into the park you'll see that the concrete walkway has a dull reddish tinge. (We do not mean the personalized bricks) . I also believe it's this color on Main Street USA They picked this color to help enhance color pictures. Sunlight which is reflected off the ground makes people's faces come out better in daytime pictures. It has been said that as CM's see this change in pavement color as they enter public view and this reminds them that they must be in costume or must turn around and return "backstage".

Adventureland

Outside the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse are crates with addresses to persons on them. [I] know [I] don't have the facts 100% accurate, but there's enough here to snag your interest. One crate is addressed to Johann David Wyss (author of the book). It is being sent to McGuire Blvd. (Dorothy McGuire was Mother Robinson), and the other crate is to John Mills who was Father Robinson. It was sent to Bora Danno. James MacArthur played son Fritz Robinson. James MacArthur later played as Jack Lord's (Det. Steve McGarrett) second-in-command Det. Danny ("Danno") Williams (1968-79) in Hawaii Five-0. The view from the top looking out at the castle is absolutely amazing at night. . (3) The Swiss flag at the Treehouse is the only flag of another nation that is on display permanently over a Disney attraction.

Cinderella Castle

As reported on The History Channel, Cinderella Castle is not actually made of bricks. In addition it was constructed to withstand 100 mile an hour winds, as from a moderate strength hurricane.

Cast members playing Snow White and Ariel are not allowed to get a tan, even when they are "off duty." Snow White can't because she must have fair skin, and Ariel can't because mermaids don't have tan lines.

Fantasyland

Cinderella's Golden Carrousel is the oldest ride in the park. It was built in 1917 by the Philadelphia Toboggan (original name for a roller coaster) Company, at the time it was constructed it was painted red white and blue – symbolizing patriotism, and was located at Detroit Palace Garden Park. In 1928 it was bought back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was refurbished and then relocated to Olympic Park in Maplewood, New Jersey. Olympic Park closed in September 1965, and the carousel was due to be silenced, if not for the watchful eye of a Disney person. The Carousel was fully restored given the Cinderella theme -- and was unveiled at the opening of the Magic Kingdom October 1, 1971. There are ninety horses on Cinderella's Golden Carousel. Cinderella's horse is the horse with the gold ribbon tied on its tail; Prince Charming's is located next to hers. Know what the difference is between a merry-go-round and a carousel? Some say a carousel's horses all move up and down, while merry-go-rounds have some non-moving horses. I say, no difference.

There are "secret" rest rooms behind Ariel's Grotto (formerly 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea).

In It's a Small World, there is only one nation or region whose name is actually written out. Look (carefully) for the small hat with the name "Mexico" written on it as you venture through the South American portion of the ride

When Magic Kingdom was being developed, there was talk of a dark ride (comparable to Winnie the Pooh and Snow White) featuring Mary Poppins (5/08).

Frontierland

In numbers of dollars, it cost as much to build Big Thunder Mountain in 1979 as it did to build all of Disneyland in 1955! (Of course "one dollar" bought more in 1955 as "one dollar" did in 1979 let alone in 2007.)

There is a storyline to the coaster that most people don.t know. It has to do w/the flood of Amityville, a mining town, and the color and the shape of the rocks in the mtn. are based on those found in Arizona and the Grand Canyon.

It is said that if you ride in the afternoon, the grease on the rails are hottest so that will make the ride a little faster.

Liberty Square

The Liberty Tree is a Southern Live Oak well over 100 years old. It is the proud parent to over 500 younger oaks, raised from its acorns.

When your doom buggy turns to face backwards in the Haunted Mansion it is supposed to mean that you are going down six feet under.

In the Haunted Mansion in the ballroom scene, there is a lady sitting in a rocking chair. This animatronic figure is a duplicate made from the grandmother in one of the side scenes of the Carousel of Progress.

One reader interprets the Haunted Mansion this way:  If you pay close attention during the ride, none of the ghosts are aware of you until you come to a part in the ride where there's a bride and she supposedly pushes you out of the attic window. I believe that is the part in the ride with the steep decline. the reason the ghosts dont notice you until then is beacause we are supposed to be dead at this point due to the fall and now we are one of them! Then you enter the party scene (I guess they're welcoming you to the graveyard) and that's when they acknowledge you for the first time! Isnt that cool? I cant wait to look for that next time!

Two of the Mansion's more famous catchphrases -- "foolish mortals" and "grim grinning ghosts" -- are taken from Shakespeare: In "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Puck exclaims, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" In "Venus and Adonis", Shakespeare refers to death as a "Grim-grinning ghost".

The large bell in the middle of Liberty Square was made from the same mold as the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

The curtains in the windows above the exit door of the Hall of Presidents are hand sewn. To think they put that much attention and detail into something that people will only see for 5 seconds, and half of them won't even look at them. True Disney quality!

One source reports that when Abraham Lincoln in the original Hall of Presidents display at the New York Worlds Fair dubuted, a malfuncction occurred and red hydraulic fluid leaked into his clothing. Investors and critics thought that Lincoln's assassination was being recreated. Although it was said that from that time on, clear hydraulic fluid was substituted, there was at least one instance many years later, at Walt Disney World, that red fluid leaked out of a figure in Hall of Presidents (5/08).

Tomorrowland

Space Mountain is the only attraction in the Magic Kingdom to be located on the "far side" of the WDW Railroad track.

Jenny F. writes: ...the voice on the Indy Speedway is that of Tom Carnegie. Just like the famous philanthropist). Tom was the voice of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500 for 61 years! [In May of 2006 he] announced his retirement. He was also a sports anchor for Wish 13 TV in Indianapolis for many years. As a native Hoosier, it is so chilling to hear his voice when [I] ride the Speedway!

It's really hard to find any kind of a funny story. On Tomorrowland Transit Authority, in the bus stop as it's called (right after the city of tomorrow) there is a robot holding a green tube/paper thing in his hand. If you look at the top of the green thing, you will notice a small rim of red. A cast member told [me] that it is a horn that you blow on New Years Eve. Walt put his initials and the date on it and stuck it in there.

Tomorrowland Transit Authority was originally called the WEDway People Mover (for WED Enterprises named after Walter Elias Disney). The name was changed with the debut of the "New Tomorrowland" on June 11, 1994. Although the ride itself has remained essentially the same, the soundtrack has had several changes over the years.

Toontown Fair

Toontown Fair is scheduled for a major renovation in mid-2010. Parts if not the entire section will be closed off.

Fireworks Show

The role of Tinker Bell flying down from the castle is a hazardous one despite padding at the end of the "flight" It is said that the CM who does that performance is paid several hundred dollars for just that performance. A few guests will swear that once in awhile a man performs. Tinker Bill?

(end of Magic Kingdom section)


Epcot Facts -- Future World

The entrance to Spaceship Earth with the two shops actually created a wind tunnel where at one time guests were swept off of their feet and the imagineers had to make adjustments after it was built. Still gets windy down there.

Spaceship Earth is 165' in diameter and could fit completely inside the Living Seas aquarium (203' diameter)! The weight of the structure is 16 million pounds, three times that of a space shuttle fueled and ready for launch.

Spaceship Earth is actually two spheres. The inner sphere is 2 feet inside away from the outer sphere. The outer "skin" of Spaceship Earth is made up of 11,324 aluminum and plastic-alloy triangular panels

The panels have gaps between them for temperature expansion. There are also drain pipes in Spaceship Earth to catch rain water rather than allow the water to splash on the walkways below. The water is ultimately drained into World Showcase Lagoon.

The fountain outside Innoventions can shoot water 150 feet into the air. We're not sure whether all of the jets can do that simultaneously but if they could, there would be 2000 gallons of water in the air.

The aquarium at Living Seas measures 203' in diameter, 27' deep, and contains 5.7 million gallons of salt water. It is large enough that Spaceship Earth (160' in diameter) would fit inside with room to spare. A standard swimming pool holds 20,000 gallons of water. One inch of water from the surface here can fill a standard swimming pool. (5) Nearly two tons of food is produced each week for the inhabitants of the Seas. The dolphins dine on herring and capelin; the West Indian manatees eat lettuce, carrots, sprouts, and fruit. Animal nutritionists at The Seas manufacture the coral out of dental plaster, mixing in ground fish and other food in the process. Divers place about a dozen of these out each day, and the parrotfish and other coral crunchers eat them up. The windows in the Coral Reef restaurant are 18' high, 8” thick, and are made of acrylic.

The Garden Grill, a revolving restaurant in  the Living With the Land pavilion, rotates faster at lunch than at dinner. Disney wants you to experience an entire revolution during the meal, and we tend to spend less time eating lunch or breakfast! In a year's time over 30 tons of vegetables are harvested from the 'The Land's greenhouses and served at its restaurants and also at the Coral Reef restaurant..

The buffalo and prairie dogs were originally conceived to be part of a ride called Western River Expedition that was going to be put at WDW instead of Pirates of the Caribbean.

During the testing of Test Track, an empty car flipped over and crashed when imagineers tried to see how fast the cars could go. The highest recorded speed for a successful run was 89 MPH, while the maximum speed during normal operation is around 60 MPH.

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Epcot Facts and Figures -- World Showcase

The World Showcase lagoon is 185 acres in size and is larger than Disneyland in California!

The walkway around the World Showcase is 1-1/2 Miles.

The original Gol Stave Church, replicated at Norway, dates to the early 1200s and is at the Norsk Folke Museum near Oslo, Norway. There are 28 similar churches still existing in Norway. These 600-year old buildings are the oldest wooden structures in the world today. They may not last for long. People claiming to be pagans have set fire to some of these amazing old churches in recent years.

The American Adventure pavilion was originally supposed to be at the front of World Showcase, hiding the lagoon and leaving the Mexico pavilion (on the left) and the Canada pavilion (on the right) visible in the distance. Later it was decided to have the entire lagoon in view and the American Adventure pavilion now occupies the center position across the lagoon..

When you go to see the show at American Adventure, you will have to go up to what seems to be the second floor. The reason for this is that all of the different sets with the Presidents on them are actually stored under the seating area. They come sliding out as they are needed and then go back under when they are finished.

A Rhine River attraction was originally planned for the Germany pavilion. A building was even built for it, but the attraction was never constructed. A pair of massive wooden doors at the rear of the outdoor cafe is the only indication of the show building behind the stone castle wall. (Taken from "Since the World Began")

The Japan pavilion was scheduled to receive a feature attraction in October of 1983: "Meet the World", a Carousel of Progress-type history show, which can today be seen at Tokyo Disneyland, The Epcot version was never completed.

Since the Eiffel Tower in France isn.t full scale, it is coated with a sticky substance so birds won.t perch on it and spoil the size illusion.

At United Kingdom Rose & Crown Pub & Dining Room in Epcot World Showcase, a specially designed ale warmer can heat your Guinness to 55 degrees, the temperature favored by the British.

Over 26,000 lights outline the various pavilions in World Showcase, enough lights to stretch across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge six times when spaced the same distance apart.


Disney-Hollywood Studios Facts and Figures

Originally, "Disney Studios" was planned as a pavilion at Epcot rather than as a complete park.When M. Eisner and F. Wells saw the plans for it, they decided not to limit the concepts and ideas to one attraction, and thus, a third theme park was born.

The date for the opening of the park (5/1/89) is on the gasoline pump near the park entrance (if you get up close and look at the numbers). (3/10)

In One Man's Dream there is a clock that is stopped. The time it shows is supposed to be the time of Walt's death.

About Gertie the Dinosaur (when entering the park, go past the first block of gift shops and take a left):

About 1912 vaudeville actor and artist Windsor Mackay decided to spice up his act with a cartoon of a railroad, projected on a screen, and he would interact with it. The audiences thought that this was trick photography. Windsor then introduced Gertie the Dinosaur. This was before the concept of the multiplane camera which allowed separate celluloid image frames (cels) for subjects and backgrounds. He made about 14,400 drawings on rice paper, that could be considered a forerunner of the cel. Each one not only had Gertie drawn on it, but also the background screnery (Silent movies then had 16 frames per second and this cartoon ran about 15 minutes or 900 seconds). Windsor started this act in 1915, the audiences soon recognized that Gertie was a cartoon and could not be trick photgraphy. Many years later, Walt Disney met Windsor's son. The son was very happy to met Walt, but Walt was even happier to meet him. Walt told the son that "I owe everything I have done to the idea started by your father". There is a small sign near Gertie in the park, but it does not go into this detail.

The belt buckle worn by the John Wayne figure in the the Great Movie Ride was really worn by The Duke in one of his movies.

In the Great Movie Ride, just the front half of an airplane graces the Casablanca scene:

"The one Casablanca scene shot outside a sound stage did involve an airplane, but it wasn't a Lockheed Electra 12A. Major Strasser's arrival in Casablanca was filmed at Metropolitan Airport in Van Nuys (now known as Van Nuys airport) on 10 July 1942, after some of the wartime restrictions on location shooting had been loosened. However, according to Richard E. Osborne's Casablanca Companion, the plane that carried Major Strasser to Casablanca in that scene was a Travel-Air light transport plane manufactured in the late 1920s, not a Lockheed. So, since Disney purchased a real Lockheed Electra 12A, not a Travel-Air, and not a wooden scale model, and not how could they possibly have "the" plane actually used in the film? The answer is, they don't. But it created some great publicity for their new theme park to claim that they did."

According to another source, this Casablanca scene was shot indoors and the plane used was not a real plane. For a variety of reasons (including the size of the soundstage the scene was shot on), a real plane could not be used, so a smaller-scale version was built. In fact, the shot was filmed with many considerations in mind, including the locations of the actors and extras) so that it would not look too small.

The top speed for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is said to be about 39mph.

When you board the elevator, on the left side, outside of the elevator itself, is an inspection certificate that's dated Oct. 31, 1939, and signed by "Cadwallader". Cadwallader was a character in the sixth Twilight Zone episode "Escape Clause" who actually turned out to be the Devil himself. The inspection certificate number is 10259, which is cool because The Twilight Zone's first episode ("Where Is Everybody") premiered on Oct. 2, 1959.

The exterior of the Tower of Terror was designed to match the buildings in the Morocco pavilion at Epcot because Tower of Terror is visible from a certain angle in World Showcase and Imagineers wanted to make it look like Tower "fit in" with the landscape of Morocco.

The Tower of Terror building is the tallest structure at WDW, topping out at 199 feet, just under the height at which airplane warning beacons would be needed and which would spoil the "spooky" feeling. When Mickey's hand with the sorcerer's wand was over Spaceship Earth, that was the tallest structure at 240 feet. Shortly after 9/11/01 WDW was designated a restricted airspace by U.S. Homeland Security, though.

When you board the service elevator, on the left side, outside of the elevator itself, is an inspection certificate that's dated Oct. 31, 1939 and signed by Cadwallader. Cadwallader was a character in the sixth Twilight Zone episode, "Escape Clause," who actually turned out to be the Devil himself. The inspection certificate number is 10259, which is cool because The Twilight Zone's first episode ("Where Is Everybody") premiered on Oct. 2, 1959.

A young Alyssa Milano was what Ariel's facial features were based off of.

Because of its complexity, holiday decoration for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights begins in July.

The lagoon where the Fantasmic show takes place is only 1.5 feet deep! The island stage is surrounded by a 1.9 million gallon moat--enough water to fill every bathtub in the more than 24,000 rooms on Walt Disney World Resort property--twice.

Animated sequences are projected on three water screens stretching 50-feet high and 100-feet wide providing an excellent view no matter where you sit. In comparison, the water screens are more than twice the size of an average 20-foot-by-40-foot movie theater screen. To create a surface on which animation can be projected, water jets pump 2,400 gallons of water into the air every minute, and if called upon, could fill the 500,000-gallon Disney-MGM Studios landmark Earffel Tower in less than three hours. During his battle against evil, Mickey encounters the villainous Jafar in the form of a 100. long and 16. high cobra that could fit more than 8,000 average-size real King Cobras in its coils.

The mechanical Maleficent dragon in the climactic good vs. evil scene weighs an astonishing 32,000 lbs. To move the dragon's enormous body and wings takes more than 2,000 PSI of hydraulic pressure. If stretched out, the river of fire during the Maleficent dragon scene would circle the entire one-mile tri-oval racetrack at Walt Disney World Speedway.

The Earffel Tower, Disney-MGM Studios' water tower landmark, would wear a hat size of 342 3/4.

(end of Disney-Hollywood Studios section)


Disney's Animal Kingdom (AK) Facts and Figures

Disney's Animal Kingdom encompasses 500 acres, the company's biggest theme park. The centerpiece is the Tree of Life, 14 stories high and 50 feet wide at its trunk.

The highway sign in Dinoland shows route 498 (since the park opened in April of 1998).

When Animal Kingdom was first planned, the centerpiece and icon was to be a carousel rather than the Tree of Life.

In 1997 Michael Eisner invited Jane Goodall to come see construction of Disney's Animal Kingdom, in particular the Tree of Life. He asked Goodall what she thought about all the animals being carved in the tree and asked. "Where is the chimpanzee going?" After conferring with Zsolt Hormay (chief sculptor) it was discovered much to Eisner's embarrassment that one was not included in the approximately 320 animals. Eisner told Miss Goodall to pick a a place on the tree and one would be sculpted. She chose the entrance outside of It's Tough To Be A Bug so everyone would be able to see David Greybeard; the first chimp she ever observed. You will notice the chimp is more detailed than the other animals; and there is a plaque next to his image describing him.

The Tree of Life is constructed from an old oil rig. It was the only thing strong enough to hold its shape

There are about 27,000,000 gallons of water in Discovery River. That will fill about 1,800 average-sized backyard swimming pools.

1,800 tons of steel were used in the mountain structure.of Expedition Everest That is about six times the amount of steel used in a traditional office building of this size.

Two of the Pocahontas shows are "training sessions," per Steve Soares' website. They are not regular shows. They train the animals to perform the behaviors they use in the regular shows -- sort of a "behind-the scenes" show.

(end of Animal Kingdom section)


Downtown Disney (DD; DTD)

Pleasure Island is officially closed and construction of new restaurants and shops is ongoing..


Walt Disney World Resorts

The highest point for the monorail is while it is going through the Contemporary Resort.

At All Star Movies, when you count all of the dalmations, those on the walls as well, you should come up with 101 of them. Ninety eight cutouts on the building sides, two big ones, Pongo and Perdita, and little Lucky by the "television" decoration. And each should have a bone, two bone shaped benches, 72 bones on the building sides and more engraved on the pavement.

At All Star Sports, it would take more than 20 million 12 ounce cans of Coca Cola to fill one of the giant Coke cups. It would take about 9.5 million tennis balls to fill up one of the giant tennis ball canisters.

The vintage car near the front entrance of Disney's Beach Club Resort is a mint-condition 1927 Chevy Depot Wagon, or "Woody Huckster," complete with wooden steering wheel, one manually operated windshield wiper and a wood cabinet seating area with bench seats. Stormalong Bay lays claim to being the world's largest sand bottomed swimming pool, holding 750,000 gallons of water.

[I] think it's at the Boardwalk Resort, in the rooms there are postcards that are printed on the curtains. Those are real postcards that were used in years past and have different people's messages on them.

The wedding pavilion at the Grand Floridian was designed and positioned so the bride and groom have a view of Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom while standing at the altar.

Unique animals that have also found a home at Tri-Circle D Ranch near Fort Wilderness include Roadsweeper and Bonjara, two of the only 26 registered Gypsy Vanner horses in the United States. They have been living on the Tri-Circle D Ranch since July 2002. Minnie Moo, a Holstein cow famous for her natural Mickey Mouse shaped black spots, lived on the Tri-Circle D Ranch from November 1990 through July 2001.

Pioneer Hall was constructed of pine logs brought from Montana.


General

Over 230 buses transport guests giving Walt Disney World a transit system third largest in Florida, behind Miami and Jacksonville.

Walt Disney World has over 2,000 acres of grass to mow! And Disney mows lawns THREE times a week! Mama mia!

All the Spanish moss you see hanging off any trees is fake. It's stapled onto the trees.

On the Keys to the Kingdom tour they mention that in WDW there will always be a trash can within 30 paces. It seems that Walt went to other parks when he was designing the park and counted how long a person would hold onto a piece of trash before dropping it on the ground. He figured that most people would hold it for about 30 steps.

Every holiday season, WDW is decorated with more than 11 miles of tinsel garlands, 3000 wreaths, and 1500 Christmas trees. The tallest is 70 feet, in Disney's Contemporary Resort. Trees from 45' to 70' are placed in prominent locations throughout the parks.

Disney employs more than 54,000 cast members and is the largest single city employer in the U.S.

The Wishes fireworks display at Magic Kingdom costs about $33,000. to put on. Disney is the largest "consumer" of fireworks in the world.

"Spare" or "backup" trees matching many of those in the parks are cultivated and kept on hand so in case a tree in a park is damaged, it can be replaced quickly.

If you played all of Disney's golf courses, you would play 99 different holes. This makes Disney one of Florida's largest golf resorts.

Over 50,000 sprinkler heads and 2,000 miles of irrigation pipe provide water for the over 3,500 landscaped acres.

CMs launder an average of 240,000 pounds each day. That is about the same as your washing and drying one load of laundry every day for the next 44 years.In addition, between 30,000 and 32,000 garments are dry-cleaned daily.


In A Year (2004)

Walt Disney World erved nore than 50 million soft drinks,10 million hamburgers, 7 million hot dogs, 9 million pounds of french fries, and 300,000 pounds of popcorn. Over 1.5 million soft pretzels, more than 639,000 pounds of macaroni and cheese,

Used 194,871 miles of toilet tissue, 24,409 miles of paper towels, 319,353 lbs. of chocolate, 1.2 million pounds of watermelon, 741,150 pounds of sugar, 1.8 million pounds of flour, 245,000 pounds of fruit filling, 38,000 pounds of white icing glaze, 2.9 million pounds of eggs, 606,000 pounds of bananas, and 510,000 of grapes, More than 3.8 million ballpoint pens, 337,000 pencils annually, 148 million sheets of recycled copier paper annually, and 730,102 gallons of bleach

Maintenance used over 150,000 gallons of paint, enough for 7,500 average size houses.

Over 214,000 bandages were provided to guests during the year 2004.

In 2004, Walt Disney World recycled 18,322,000 pounds of paper products.

Enough of the famous "Mouse Ear" hats are sold each year to cover the head of every man, woman, and child in Pittsburgh and enough Disney character T-shirts to put Mickey Mouse's smiling face on the chest of every Chicagoan. More than a half-million character watches (mainly Mickey) are slipped onto wrists from Walt Disney World gift shops each year. At any given time, there are more than 200 different varieties of character watches. The most popular timepiece is a gold-tone relief of Mickey Mouse.


Characters and Cast

Largest working wardrobe in the world with more than 1.5 million operational garments in use and over 7,000 different garment types.

What the Mouse will be wearing depends entirely on the occasion. Mickey Mouse himself has 175 different sets of duds ranging from a scuba suit to a tuxedo. Minnie Mouse's wardrobe contains some 200 outfits including everything from a cheerleader ensemble to evening gowns.

This next one isn't about a theme park, but it's very interesting. It's a story that the CM who gave [us] a Keys To The Kingdom tour told us: Before Walt Disney started his own company, he was a young cartoonist looking for work. He signed on with a very small and little known company and started drawing and creating. He created a rabbit that he named "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit". Apparently, this company loved the rabbit, but wanted to make some changes. Walt refused, saying that this was his creation and he didn't want it changed. He then sold the rights of his creation to this company and quit to set out on his own. The company? Warner Bros., who then renamed Walt's creation "Bugs Bunny!"

Link to the whole story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_the_Lucky_Rabbit


Monorail System

Backstage at the Magic Kingdom (on the far northeast side of the park), there is a monorail barn. Ten of the twelve monorails spend the night in there. Why only ten?

Because when the barn was built, WDW was only supposed to have a total of ten monorail trains, but two more were added out of necessity for more guest capacity. Each night, two monorail trains have a sleepover in one of the other stations, and if the tempserature was to go below freezing, they go deluxe and stay in the Contemporary's station. Because of regularly scheduled maintenance, no two trains ever spend more than one night in a schedule rotation outside of the barn. Someday, when you're at the MK and you have a few spare minutes, go outside the gates and turn left. Walk down the pathway under the monorail beams toward the Contemporary Resort, and just before you come to the intersection where North World Drive goes backstage, stop and look up. Above your head is a switch beam, which can move a train between the outer (Express or Exterior line) and inner (Resort or Lagoon line) beams. If you're really lucky, you might witness an actual switch. While looking up, you'll also note a spur track that goes north into the backstage area, which then continues into the barn. If you happen to have a recent property map, the Magic Kingdom area spur track and the barn are actually shown on the map, although neither is identified as such. On the Epcot line, there is another spur track to the northeast of the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC), which connects it to the Express beam.

What happens in the event that one monorail breaks down along the beam and can't get back to barn under its own power? There are three diesel powered tractors that can pull a fully-loaded monorail into the nearest station. The passengers are dropped off there, and the tractor then moves the empty train backstage to the barn for maintenance. By the way, the monorail trains also share the barn with the WDW Railroad steam trains. The monorails occupy the upper area of the building and the steam trains have the lower area.

TRIVIA: The last two trains added to the fleet are Monorail Lime and Monorail Coral. The way to tell the difference between Monorails Green and Lime is by the white delta shape painted on Lime. Since 1971, total miles logged by WDW monorail trains would be equal to more than 30 round trips to the moon. All twelve trains were replaced in 1990 and the original fleet received a well-deserved retirement. The total track (or beam) mileage is 14.


Almost all of the material on this page was compiled from reader contributions to threads (series' of postings) in  internet bulletin board forum http://www.disboards.com

Topic heading "Theme Park Strategies and Attractions", thread "Your Best WDW Theme Park Secret", "
Topic heading "Theme Park Strategies and Attractions:, thread "Worldshow Case (sic) Secrets"
Topic heading "Disney Tips", thread "Secrets to DW"

and other threads.


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