Originally posted by WDW-Imagineer
Great picture... I find it interesting that there are so many buildings behind MK, I'd like to know what each one is.
This post contains info about the backstage areas at WDW, I am assuming that you want to find out about this stuff since you are here, reading this thread after all, but feel free to turn away if it will ruin it for you.
I have been on several different behind the scenes tours of different places at WDW and I am using the info I gleaned from them as well as just studying the photo to figure out what is there. I am not totally sure what each building is but here is what I am pretty sure about.
Starting on the left, just above and across the lagoon from the Floridian and right behind Splash Mountain is the parade float storage area. Also, the floats for the Floating Electrical Pageant are kept in the canal behind the lower building. They are barely visible as grey spots beside 4 white spots that are the dock I believe. Inside the MK, if you start at Main Street and follow a line up past the statue of Walt and Mickey, past the Castle and Carousel and between the building of the right and the vegetation area on the left, there is a large shadow, this is where the dock is for the back of the utilidors, everything that goes in or out of the MK gos through that dock. Above the MK on the left side of the backstage area is a large round tank with a long building that has 6 smaller circles on it. This I beilieve is a water or sewage treatment plant. To the right of that is the monorail shed. Further to the right , the largest building is the main central shops building. There they work on and store almost anything mechanical that is in the park. The other, smaller buildings are storage and other central shops type buildings. The laundry is back there somewhere in one of them. To the right and just below the large building is the boat maintenance facility. Below that is a large storage yard that looks to have all kinds of misc stuff in it. At the bottom right below the burned looking area are the subs from 20K Leagues Under the Sea. I recognize them from an arial photo on this site I believe. Above all of that stuff is the CM parking area.
As I mentioned before, I've been on a few tours, one of them was called the Keys to the Kingdom, which I mentioned in another post above but I am not sure what the names of the tours are now or if they are definitely still being offered as they do change from time to time and for a while Guest Services was giving some or all of them and later, they switched to Disney Institute People giving them. I know they revamped DI a while back so there is no telling what the deal is now. The best thing I can tell you is that when you book your trip, ask the CSR about any behind the scenes tours they have since I could find nothing on Disney's website about any behind the scenes tour stuff. Also, some of the tours are open only to people 18 years old or above and some require you to already have a ticket for the park that day and some do not. You need to make sure you ask the reservation person if they do not tell you about any restrictions.
The Keys to the Kingdom tour went to all the parks, there were 3 at the time, and lasted about 8 hours. We went into the utilidors, ate breakfast in a resturant above one of the Adventureland shops, as well as getting our picture taken with Tigger on one of the parade floats. On the wall in the parade float building was a picture showing the long term developement plan. I of course went right over to it but could not take a picture
. We went to MGM, to the real animation department, which was in a bunch of modular buildings at the time, and painted a cell, we ate lunch under the front overhang of one of the houses on the backstage street at MGM with one of the street performers who was very funny BTW and waved to baffeled looking people going to and from Catastrophe Canyon. We went into the wardrobe area at MGM as well as MK. Luckily we did not pick up any diseases from the underwear
. While at MGM we also got to go inside the building for Star Tours while the simulator was in operation. We were standing to the side in the dark and could see the people load and unload from the simulator, I guess if one of them had been sharp enough to look back as they were leaving they could have seen us as it was nt actually pitch black. We went to Epcot, behind and in and out of several pavilions as well as above the tank and in the research areas of the Living Seas. We also went to an office building in Epcot that had to cubicles where the people took dinner reservations. At the time they had these two-way video phone type systems in the kiosks in the "bridge area" between Future World and the World Showcase to take the reservations from people. It was really funny because the guest making the reservation saw this nice high-res picture of the CM but the picture the CM saw was B&W and crappy. The CM camera was this big video camera with lights and everything and the guest cam was I'm sure much lower quailty than the Webcams that are used all over the place now. It is amazing what technology can do in a few years time.
It is also amazing to me that we did all that stuff and more in about 8 hours. The tour was about $150 per person and was worht every penny. We also got a pass that was basically a hopper pass for one day. In and out of all 3 parks all day, something you could not even buy. We used that on the tail end of another trip later so I guess they got their money's worth on that one. Well since my wife and I always stay on property (in fact, I have never stepped foot in the MK parking lot, Jealous
I actually just like to spend my money where it counts) and have been there 7 times in the 6 years since we have known each other including getting married there with 85 guests that stayed an average of 4 days they have definitely got their money's worth out of us.
Sorry about the long post.
Lee
