Welcome to TPMvids Disney Beat where we talk
about all things Disney! If you’re new to the channel, hit that subscribe
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find us @TPMvideos. The Disney Theme parks are full of history
and secrets. From Disneyland in California to Walt Disney
World in Florida, many tales have been told over the past decades about these magical
places but have you ever stopped for a moment to wonder if these tales are true? Can they actually take Cinderella Castle apart
at Magic Kingdom? Do the animatronics just keep moving all night
long once the park closes and is that really Walt Disney on the Haunted Mansion? Well all these questions plus many more will
be answered today as we count down the Top 7 Disney Secrets & Myths: Debunked. Number 7- The Golden Spike
At the end of Disneyland’s Main Street lies the charming Sleeping Beauty castle. Well if you’ve walked through castle into
Fantasyland you may have noticed this gold spike in the pavement. The longtime Disney myth is that this spike
was placed here when the park was being built to represent the geographical centre of the
park. While getting this footage and drawing attention
to the spike, we even heard someone walk by and tell the person they were with that this
was the centre of Disneyland. So is this piece of knowledge that’s been
passed around actually true? Well lets take a look at this model of Disneyland. It can be found in Great Moments with Mr.
Lincoln and depicts the park on opening day. At first glance you can see Sleeping Beauty
castle is no where near the centre of the park’s boundaries. The hub area where the partners statue is
today, looks to be much more central than the castle. Fast forward to today, where the park has
grown and expanded quite a bit since 1955. Even if you try to apply the centre spike
theory to the size of Disneyland today, the west side is still wider which means that
the castle and main street don’t even split the park equally in half. So, no the gold spike under Sleeping Beauty
castle doesn’t mark the geographical centre of the park, and it’s nothing other than
a survey marker. These markers can be found all over the Disney
parks, but this original Disneyland survey marker was used to align the centre of the
castle and draw bridge with Main street. At the end of Main street where the trolly
tracks meet in Town Square, there’s another survey marker that meets up with the one under
the castle. If you’re wondering where the centre of
Disneyland actually is today, well its somewhere around here, just across from the Fantasy
Faire theatre off the Hub. Number 6- Underground Tunnels
A common secret that’s widely talked about are the underground tunnels at Walt Disney
World. These tunnels, known as Utildoors, are very
real and can be found under the Magic Kingdom in Florida, linking all areas of the park
from one end to the other, fully underground. Well actually its not really underground-
Because of Florida’s high water table, the tunnels were built on the ground floor and
the theme park was built above it. Either way, the tunnels house things like
electrical operations, cast member cafeterias as well as storage warehouses. Now its believed that the underground tunnel
system only exists in Florida and this is partially true. Disneyland in California also has a world
underground, but it’s a small world. In Fantasyland and under New Orleans Square
there are spaces underground but these areas could be considered more like basements since
they’re isolated to that certain area in the park. The one true tunnel at Disneyland is in Tomorrowland. It extends from the backstage area behind
Star wars Launch bay all the way to Pixie Hallow. It houses some offices, break rooms and it’s
where the Tomorrowland Terrace Stage lowers into for the performers. But none of these underground areas are as
extensive as the Utildoor system at Magic Kingdom. It’s usually rare that Cast Members use
them, since aside from the Tommorrowland Tunnel, they can’t really take you into a different
area of the park, but the Disneyland tunnels do exist. Number 5- Walt’s Busted
The graveyard scene in the Haunted Manson at both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland is where
you can find the iconic singing busts. The one myth that’s been passed around is
that Walt Disney himself is this singing bust who lost his head and sorry to break it to
you but it’s not true. The singing busts were an original part of
the Haunted Mansion when the attraction first opened at Disneyland in 1969 but Walt Disney
passed away 3 years earlier in 1966. Although this character known as Uncle Theodore
might have a slight resemblance to Walt Disney with his thin moustache, it’s actually Thurl
Ravenscroft. Thurl’s booming bass voice can also be heard
singing the lead vocal in the song. {Singing} When the crib doors creek and the
tombstone quake. Spooks come out for a swinging wake. He was was known for being the voice of Tony
the tiger for over 50 years {Tony the Tiger} They’re great! and can also be heard on other Disney attractions. Fritz in the Tiki Room as well as Buff from
the Country Bear Jamboree {Buff} So long folks! are also voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft. As for his singing, well you can hear his
rich bass voice in attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain and It’s
A Small World. Number 4- Giant Legs
One of the most popular food items at the Disney theme parks are the giant Turkey Legs
which got their start at Walt Disney World in the early 90s. A Frontierland food cart in Magic Kingdom
was the first the serve the giant 1 1/2 pound piece of meat. Well the myth that’s been circulating since
around 2010 is that these Turkey Legs are actually Emu and not Turkey. The myth picked up steam in March of 2017,
when actor Zachary Levi, voice of Flynn Rider from Tangled, brought it up in an interview
on Conan Obrian’s late night show. Well it turns out this is not true and the
meat is in fact Turkey. Emu’s are a pretty large bird- {Genie} Don’t they look lovely, June? -they’re actually the 2nd largest next to
the ostrich, and the Turkey Legs in the park are big, but they are not Emu big. Apparently an Emu leg would be 8 times larger
than a Turkey leg and Andrew Zimmerman from Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods said that
“Emu has the consistency of a turkey leg but the flavor of roasted veal.” Now if you’ve tried a Turkey Leg, you’d
know that they taste more like Ham, and that’s because they’re cured with salt and slow
cooked in a smoker; it’s a similar process to cooking ham. You might also be thinking that the Turkey
legs looks much larger than a Thanksgiving turkey, and you’re right. Usually the Turkeys we eat on Thanksgiving
are typically smaller because they’re the female Turkeys. Male turkeys, the toms, are much larger and
the turkey legs served at the theme parks come from the these turkeys. They’re about 30-40 pounds in size, so yea,
that’s a big turkey. Number 3- Sound Off
Once the gates close and all the guests leave, have you ever wondered what the Disney parks
are like at night? Well one myth is that the music never shuts
off and the rides never shut down, especially It’s A Small World. Well after the last guest exits the ride,
the cast members do their checks then fully power down the attractions. This includes shutting off all the music in
the queue, on the ride and powering down any animatronics and animation. So no its not true that the rides never shut
down, but there are instances when the rides can operate at night. Once the park closes there’s a whole separate
team of cast members who work the third shift, prepping the park for the next morning. So a ride like It’s a Small World or Pirates
of the Caribbean may operate at night if these cast members are doing maintenance checks
or repairs on the ride. In terms of the music loops that plays throughout
each of the lands, well that stays on a little longer. Disney maintenance teams don’t turn the
music off until every single guest has left the park. Usually the music is shut off very late at
night and it turns on again very early in the morning so really it may only be off for
a few hours but it does in fact turn off. Number 2- Trash Sucks
With thousands of people visiting the Disney theme parks every day, there’s gonna be
a lot of trash. Wether its Disneyland or Walt Disney World,
a trash can is never more than 30 steps away, but have you ever wondered where the trash
goes once its place in one of the thematically appropriate trash cans? Well the myth is that the trash at Disney
is connected to a vacuum system underground that sucks everything up, and there is truth
to this but there’s also a big misconception. The system known as AVAC, the Automated Vacuum
Assisted Collection System, can only be found at Magic Kingdom in Florida- you wont find
it at Disneyland. Cast members at Disneyland deal with trash
the old fashioned way by collecting it onstage then placing it into compactors backstage. Believe it or not, cast members at Magic Kingdom
also have to collect the trash onstage and this is where the major misunderstanding comes
from. A lot of people seem to believe that individual
trash cans on stage at Magic Kingdom have a vacuum under them allowing the trash to
be sucked into these underground tubes, but thats not the case. Once the trash is backstage, its placed into
one of 17 collection points around the park. Every 15 minutes the trash is sucked through
20 inch tubes at speeds of 60 miles per hour. It’s then lead into the compactor located
behind Splash Mountain. If the onstage Trash Cans were connected to
a vacuum system then they could never be moved, which logistically doesn’t make much sense,
but just think, trash at 60 miles an hour is pretty fast. Almost as fast as test Track. Number 1- The Lego Castle
At the end of Magic Kingdom’s Main street in Walt Disney World sits Cinderella Castle. This 189 foot structure soars over the Florida
theme park with 27 spires decorating this Disney centrepiece. Well the longtime Disney myth with Cinderella
castle is that they are able to dismantle and remove the spires to protect it from hurricanes. I mean it would be cool if the spires came
apart like a lego set and although Disney’s a magical place where anything’s possible,
this isn’t true. Anything built at Walt Disney World needs
to follow Florida building codes which ensures structures can withstand heavy wind and rain. Cinderella Castle specifically was designed
to withstand winds of 110 miles an hour but some sources say its 125 miles an hour. Either way it can and has sustained heavy
hurricane winds in the past. So there would be no need to remove the castle’s
spires to protect it from wind and rain since it was built to withstand wind and rain. Also logistically this myth wouldn’t make
sense since storms can approach the Florida area very quickly. They’d need to set up the famous castle
crane, take down the spires then store them somewhere safe; that’s not a quick job. So no matter the weather, rain or shine Cinderella
Castle always stays in one piece. So those are just some of the secrets and
myths of the Disney theme parks that aren’t true. Were you aware of any of these myths and secrets? What’s one thing you’ve heard someone
say about the Disney Theme Parks that is completely false and not true. I’d love to know! Leave a comment down below to start a conversion
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