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 taller 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!

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