Welcome to TPMvids Disney beat where we talk
about all things Disney! Walt Disney World is a world unlike any other
and is often described as a Magical place. This notion really rings true when you walk
into any of the Disney Parks. Pretty much, you're walking into the biggest theatre ever,
and with every step you take you’re “on-stage” experiencing this one of a kind show. Its
fitting since Disney calls their employees cast members. To make the Disney Park experience so perfect
and magical, theres some things that go on behind the scenes that you wouldn’t necessarily
think of, and as the saying goes, things aren’t always as they appear. There’s many details
and facts that the average Disney guests wouldn't catch onto. Which is a good thing since Disney
probably prefers that these things as seamless as possible to create the most immersive experience
for the guest. But today we’re gonna shed some light on some interesting facts about
Walt Disney World and share some secrets with you. So here are the top 10 Walt Disney World
Secrets & Facts. Number 10
The American flag: At the Magic Kingdom, Main Street is the first official land guests walk
into. It’s home to a train station, City Hall, Fire House, and about a dozen or so
American flags; everything you’d expect for a small town thats modelled after early
20th century America. BUT the America flags technically aren’t American. See the flags
on Main St are up permanently, they’re part of the set dressing that makes up main st.
But if you’re familiar with the American Flag code, you’d know that regulations require
that traditional flags need to be raised, lowered, and flown at half-mast. But if Disney
has these flags up permanently, how do they get away with it? Well when we said the flags aren’t technically
American, we meant it, because any flag used on Main St, minus the big American flag that
flies in Town Square, is missing stars or stripes so they can stay up permanently. Disney
wants to make sure that each guest that walks through the turnstile has the same experience
one day to the next. And another little fun fact is that these flag poles also double
as lightning rods to protect guests from inclement weather. Number 9
Dark water: If you’re sitting by the Rivers of America or taking a ride on the Jungle
Cruise you might think to yourself, ewww this water looks dirty: well thats done on purpose
and is all part of the show. Disney purposely dyes their water a greenish brownish color to
preserve a little bit of that Disney magic. The colored water allows for Disney to hide
elements it doesn’t want its guests to see like animatronics on the Jungle Cruise or
boat tracks. Most of the boats at Disney like the Liberty Square Riverboat, or even the
Jungle Cruise boats, run on a track and aren't actually being driven by a cast member. The
colored water keeps this illusion alive. It also gives the perception that these bodies
of water are really deep since you can’t see the bottom, but thats not the case at
all either. Most of the bodies of water in the parks are very shallow, and at the most
are only about 5 feet deep. Number 8
Forced Perspective: Remember how we said things aren’t always what they appear to be, well
thats true about Cinderella castle. It took Disney 18 months to build this 189 foot centrepiece,
which is tall enough to be seen from outside the park and from the monorail, but just less
than 200 feet which would have required a blinking red light on top of the castle to
warn low flying aircrafts. Disney thought this would ruin the magic so they built under
the maximum Florida code. But you’re probably thinking the castle looks much taler than
189 feet, probably more like 300 feet. Well this is thanks to forced perspective and this
technique gets used a lot at by Disney and its Theme Parks. At higher elevations, the castle’s proportions
to full scale are reduced when looking at things such as stones, windows, and doors. A
brick at guest level is much larger than the bricks on the top level. Well actually, they
aren’t even bricks. Disney used a mixture of fibreglass and plaster to create the appearance
and look of stone and brick. Could have fooled us. Number 7
The 2nd floor: Did you know that The magic Kingdom is actually built on the second and
third floors of the park? Yup, you’re not standing on ground level when you walk through
the Magic Kingdom. To approach the magic kingdom you need to either take the ferry across or
the monorail around the man made Seven sea lagoon. When Walt Disney World was being built,
all the soil and dirt dug up from the Seven Leas Lagoon was used to build up the land
on top of the utilidors raising the Magic kingdom approximately 14 feet off the
ground. So as you walk into the park starting from
the boat dock to the train station, the incline is so gradual that no guest would ever know
they were ascending floors. Now most of the park is built on the 2nd floor, with only some parts of Fantasyland
and Cinderella Castle being built on the third. Number 6
Go Away Green- Beyond all the magic theres things Disney doesn't want you to notice. So,
they paint structures, buildings, garbage bins, fences, construction walls and anything
else they don’t want to stand out to guests a shade of green referred to as go away green.This
cross between grey and green is a color Disney uses to help blend these buildings and structures
in with the landscaping around the park. Now yes, Disney is magical but it doesn’t make things completely
disappear, instead it really just makes things easier to ignore and not notice and frankly
it actually works. Number 5
Watch where you step: One thing that really makes Disney theme parks stand out from other
theme parks across the country is their attention to detail. Everything from landscaping, to
ride facades, down to the sidewalks you step on. Yup, Disney puts a lot of thought and
detail into everything. If you’ve ever noticed the walkways around Town Square and the sidewalks
to the right and left of main street are painted red. This was done because Walt Disney wanted
all of his guests to get the red carpet treatment. So the red walkways signify the red carpet
being rolled out for each guest that walks through the park.
And as you walk from land to land the walkway color changes to match the vibe and theme
of the new land you’ve just walked into. Next time you’re at the park take a look
down at the ground, just try not to run into scooters and strollers, and you’ll see this
detail. Really, no detail is overlooked like in Liberty
square, which is set in colonial America. In Revolutionary times, there was no indoor
plumbing, so many people would take their waste and dump it from their windows into
the streets. The brown wavy path that runs down the middle of the walkway in this land
represents the sewage you’d find running down the streets. It’s kinda gross when
you think about it but at least this waste doesn’t smell and is a great detail that
makes Liberty Square even more authentic! And speaking of authentic, there are no public
restrooms in Liberty Square, since they wouldn’t of had them in colonial America. And If you
don’t believe us, next time you’re in the park try looking for the restroom, you’ll
probably need to visit a neighbouring land if you actually have to go. Number 4
Disney Trash: And we aren’t referring to people, we mean the actual trash, well the
trash cans to be exact. At Walt Disney World you never have to walk more than 30 steps
to reach a trash can, thats right there’s a trash can every 30 steps and sometimes even
less. Walt Disney thought of everything when designing his theme parks. He did research
to calculate how many steps people would take while holding onto a piece before dropping
it on the ground. The number he came up with was 30, so trash cans at the parks were placed
approximately 30 feet apart. So next time you’re at a park holding a piece of trash,
don’t litter cause a trash can is only a few steps away…..liter-ly. Number 3
Sticky situations: If you’ve ever tried buying gum at Walt Disney World you’d know
its physical impossible because gum isn’t sold anywhere on the resort. This is done
so guests visiting the park don’t step in gum thrown on the walkways and rides. Now
guests can still bring their own gum into the park so you might find some on the floor,
but the Disney custodial staff is generally pretty quick at cleaning it up. So next time
you visit your local theme park take a look at how much gum is on the walkways or rides
and then compare it to the magical walkways and rides at Walt Disney World. There should be
a difference. Number 2
The underground tunnels: So theres a series of underground tunnels at the Magic Kingdom
and before when we mentioned that the park is on the 2nd and 3rd floors, the tunnels
are actually the first floor of the park. One day, Walt Disney saw a Disneyland cast
member from Frontierland walking through Tommorowland and thought that this ruined the magic. So
when designing Walt Disney World in Florida, he made that sure this would never happen
again, and an underground tunnel system, known as utilidors, short for utility corridors,
was built, which allows cast members to easily get to different parts of the park without
ruining any magic. The utilidors also house things like waste
removal, Electrical operations, cast member services including rehearsal rooms cafeterias
and storage warehouses. The tunnels are in an octagon shape with a
central corridor running straight down the middle from Cinderella Castle to the front
of Main St. Now not all of the magic kingdom has tunnels under it, this map overlay shows
exactly where the tunnels are. Pretty cool though, huh? Number 1
Smellitzers: Have you ever walked down Main St and noticed that fresh baked cookie smell
or the salty sea air in the queue for Pirates of the Caribbean, or the peppermint smell
around the confectionery shop? Invented at Walt Disney World by Imagineer Bob McCarthy,
the Smellitzer can blow scents in strategic locations to match the surroundings. Its been
said that they no longer use the smellitzers on Main St at Disney World but anything smelt
in Pirates of the Caribbean or Spaceship Earth definitely still uses this technology. So
next time you're at a Disney Park and you smell something REALLY good it might be real
or it might be the smellitzers hard at work. So, which of these facts did you find most
interesting? Let us know down in the comments below. And if you have another fact you wanna
to share, leave a comment! Thanks so much for watching. Click the TPM
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