Backstage Magic Fun Facts

[joanne]

Here are some interesting aspects of Walt Disney World Resort that guests will discover during the Backstage Magic tour offered by Disney Institute:


·Walt Disney World has the largest working wardrobe in the world with more than 2.5 million individual costume pieces and almost 8 miles of costume racks. Disney Creative Costuming has an inventory of more than 3,700 costume designs and uses more than 650,000 yards of fabric each year.

·Magic Kingdom is actually built on the “second floor.” The first floor is made up of approximately 9 acres of storage area and offices as well as a “utilidor” (utility corridor) for cast members. This Utilidor System is a tunnel more than a mile long.

·Many Audio-Animatronics figures, such as those featured in Hall of Presidents, wear human-hair wigs. Live performers wear synthetic hair wigs.

·Thirty-five Audio-Animatronics figures are featured in The American Adventure show, and the rear projection screen at the show is 28 feet high by 155 feet wide.

·Cinderella’s Golden Carousel was built in 1917 as the Liberty Carousel and ran for many decades in New Jersey before being acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 1967. The original horses are still used today.

·Central Shops is capable of building everything from trash cans to monorails. At 298,000 square feet, you could fit nine football fields inside the Central Shops building.

·The Hollywood Tower Hotel structure is 199 feet tall – making The Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror one of the tallest attractions on site. Some 1,500 tons of steel and 145,800 cubic feet of concrete were used in the construction of the attraction.

·There are approximately 100 acres of browse plants grown for animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The Walt Disney World horticulture team plants more than 2 million annuals each year.

·Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened on Earth Day, April 22, 1998. At the center of the park is the Tree of Life, which is more than 140 feet tall and 170 feet wide at the base.

·Disney’s Wilderness Lodge was inspired by National Park Lodges, such as Old Faithful Inn (Yellowstone) and Ahwahnee Lodge (Yosemite). Massive pine logs for Disney’s Wilderness Lodge were harvested from standing dead wood at an elevation of 7,000 feet in Oregon and Montana.

[Indydisneyfan]

Very interesting. Some of these are mentioned on the Travel Channel when Samatha Brown does/did her many Disney tours.

I was amazed to find out that Magic Kingdom is actually 20 some feet higher when you walk in because of the underground maze for workers. If you think about it, you do walk up an incline to get into the park when you are outside the gates.

Also, in the MK, the buildings are built to a much smaller scale the higher up you look although you can't tell by looking at them. Example, the windows at the tops of the buildings are much smaller than the actual full size windows at the base.

[Minnie Mad]

Aparantly the windows thing is called "forced perspective". It is even more noticable on the castle at EuroDisney.

[TimonAndPumba]

Really interesting facts there!

[psdjmem]

Very interesting facts! When the kids are older I would love to take this tour!

[mitchwalesuk]

me and leander are doing it on the 9th of may. i think it will be quite good

[Julie Parker]

If the HTT was a foot taller there would have to be a red light on the top to warn aircraft.