Little known secrets of Walt Disney World

Saintsfan75

Member
Original Poster
Let's post our "little known" secrets of Walt Disney World. It could be in any parks.

Examples: Best place to see Wishes, great snack in Animal Kingdom, best time to ride something.

Anyway, I love reading about your great stories, so let's make it interesting.
 

Craig & Lisa

Active Member
The carosel in MK came from Olympic Park NJ, the two flower pots outside Crystal Palace most times hold herbs not flowers. No bricks were used in the building the castle, When the 7 seas lagoon was finished it was stocked with 70,000 largemouth bass, and other sport fish fingerlings. There use to be a wave making machine in 7 seas lagoon but because it caused beach erosion at the poly they shut it down. The center of WDW used to be in EPCOT outside the land outside innovetions, you can fit all of the MK in world showcase lagoon. If my wife and I can come up with more we'll add to it.
 

Disneyson 1

New Member
If you're looking for secrets, there are ZILLIONS of threads on this topic. You should search for them.

BTW, my favorite secret is the key under the mat at the muppets.
 

C&D

Well-Known Member
This key:
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wild01ride

Well-Known Member
Best kept secret???

THE SEARCH FUNCTION!!!

OK, now that my cyber-ears have stopped ringing...


* Disney Imagineers leave hidden and obscure objects and references while building attractions and buildings. Among these are the "Hidden Mickeys" found throughout WDW. Other examples are the 2nd story windows above Main Street, USA which contain names and references to the creation of Walt Disney World such as the "Dummy" Corporations set-up by Walt Disney ("Ayefour Corporation" - reference to nearby Interstate 4; "RETLAW", which is "Walter" spelled backwards, etc.)

* Walt Disney originally coined WDW as "The Disney World Project". After Walt's death, his brother, Roy, took over the project and renamed is "Walt Disney World" to give credit and pay homage to Walt, who had dreamt up WDW.
 

scpergj

Well-Known Member
Let's post our "little known" secrets of Walt Disney World. It could be in any parks.

Examples: Best place to see Wishes, great snack in Animal Kingdom, best time to ride something.

Anyway, I love reading about your great stories, so let's make it interesting.


Gosh...I thought everyone knew the best kept secret at WDW is Disney Vacation Club!!! I mean, it's on signs everywhere...:D
 

pintraderpayee

Active Member
Best kept secret???

THE SEARCH FUNCTION!!!

What, so you can flame them for bumping an old thread if they want to comment? Please, play nice and keep it Disney-spirited!


I like the fact that Cinderella Castle was built to 189 feet, just short of the FAA regulation for a red light. No princess should have to deal with a magic-stealing beacon that could attract dragons, as well!



53 days until we are Orlando bound with 30 teens on a school bus for 930 miles of smiles!:hammer:
 

DizneyPryncess

Well-Known Member
I like riding "Cinderella's Horse" which is the only one on the carousel with a gold ribbon on it's tail or paintbrush hunting on TSI (if they still do it).
 

DisneyJunkie

Well-Known Member
If you're looking for secrets, there are ZILLIONS of threads on this topic. You should search for them.

BTW, my favorite secret is the key under the mat at the muppets.


Ok, I saw the picture of the key under the mat......but what's so special about it? Are you supposed to do something with that key?
 
Ok no one posted anything about rides so here i go:

Ride TSMM During the extra magic hours at night! Go on when their is a show for Fantasmic. We did this and rode the ride like 3 times before the crowd came!
 

spoodles

Member
This has been posted before and some if it's probably dated, but since it came up again...

(I did not compile this list. I'll delete the post if you think this takes the fun out of it. :))

Magic Kingdom
1. Cinderella’s Royal Table: Gus and Jaq are looking down over the foyer. (True)
2. Tony’s Town Square: Paw prints of Lady and the Tramp outside of the porch on the sidewalk. (True)
3. Hall of Presidents: Bill Clinton is the only president to wear a Mickey Mouse tie. (Unknown)
4. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin: Some of the biggest point values are in the first room. Turn around and hit the back of the orange robot’s arm or the back of the buzz saw…. 100,000 points. (at least partially true, thought point values do tend to change)
5. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin: When you are in line the "story" of the attraction is unfolding. Once inside, all guests are being 'shrunk' to toy size so they are able to fit in the xp 37-space cruisers. This is why, once you get up to the Viewfinder and Magna Doodle and Buzz, they are all the same size as you. Then when the ride is over and you see Buzz telling you your scores and zurg behind bars, you return to normal 'human' size. (Unknown, but plausable)
6. Haunted Mansion: The top of the building looks like chess pieces. The only one missing is the knight. (It’s inside) (False, as per the Imagineering book on the Haunted Mansion)
7. Haunted Mansion: In the wire fencing around the mansion there are 999 stick people made out of the wire in the fence. (Unknown--anyone want to do some counting?)
8. Haunted Mansion: Ballroom Scene: the ladies are leading the men. (True, due to the way the effect is achieved)
9. Haunted Mansion: As soon as you enter the graveyard, you go under a tall gate, if you look really hard, at the top left-center portion of the gate, there is a paper tag. This is the original purchase tag from California, they forgot to remove it, and it is still there today! (Unknown)
10. Haunted Mansion: In the scene with the lone piano player, pay close attention to what's going on outside! Notice the direction the wind is blowing the tree compared to the direction the clouds are moving... (Unknown)
11. Haunted Mansion: In the endless hallway there is a chair with a Hidden Donald Duck embedded in it. (False, as per the WDI book on Imagineering. It is a face, just not specifically Donald)
12. Haunted Mansion: As you exit look in the pet cemetery for a statue of Mr Toad. (True!)
13. Market House on Main Street: Go to the back of the store and look for an old fashioned phone. It’s called the Gossip Phone. Pick it up and listen to it. (It used to be true. The ultimate future of this element is currently unknown. There is a similar looking phone in the barber shop, but it is a functioning telephone)
14. Center Street off of Main Street: go to the end of the street and listen carefully, you can hear tap dancing and singing lessons going on upstairs. (True)
15. Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: In the first room there is a picture of Mr. Toad handing over the deed to Owl. (True)
16. Under the Train Station: Keep your back to the castle and look up. In the rafters you can see some Disney character “items” left behind. (True)
17. Main Street: After the afternoon parade goes by, watch the upstairs windows, they will close automatically. That is where some of the music is piped. (True)
18. Behind the castle and to the left is a fountain with Cinderella. When children look at her (from a shorter perspective) it appears as if she has a crown. Adults need to bend (or bow) to her in order to see it too. (True. Adults also need to bow in order to get a drink of water from the child-height drinking fountains)
19. Liberty Square: there is a gate around a door. It guards a marble slab that used to be a step at Monticello. Jefferson actually walked on it. (False, according to a Keys to the Kingdom guide, but there is a fenced-off step there. Also in liberty square, look for two lanterns in an upstairs window [two if by sea] Also find the Liberty Square "sewer system." There's a LOT of overlooked detail in Liberty Square)
20. Magic Carpets of Aladdin: there are embedded jewels in the concrete around the ride. (True. It is rumored that some of the masonry and tile work in the concrete is from structures that were destroyed to make way for the Magic Carpets and the Agrabah Bazaar, though I can't confirm)
21. Casey's Corner: I was sitting in the bleachers facing the TV showing Disney sports cartoons. On the same wall as the bleachers, there is a bunch of old baseball pictures. One in particular caught my attention. It seemed a lot newer than the other pictures-it wasn't really grainy at all, yet it was dated "1915." Also, the players were sitting on very modern-looking metal bleachers. The last thing I noticed was...THEY WERE ALMOST ALL WEARING PRECISELY THE SAME MOUSTACHE! Could these be the Imagineers who did the Casey's corner rehab a few years back? If you want to find it yourself, go in the TV room connected to Casey's Corner. The pictures are just inside the doorway, on the wall to the left. The picture I'm talking about is about at eye level. (True! I'm the one that originally posted this )
22. Tinkerbell’s Treasures: Try to find Tinkerbell flitting around the store. (True)
23. Tom Sawyer’s Island: Try to find one of the paintbrushes, and bring it back to a CM for head of the line passes. (True)
24. Sir Mickey's Shop in Fantasyland: look at where the roof meets the walls. You will see Willie the Giant from Mickey and the Beanstalk peeking into the shop. (True)
25. Liberty Square: The sidewalks are brown but the streets are not. People in that time dumped garbage out the windows, so Disney made it appear dirty. (Sort of true. There is a brown channel that runs through the middle of the street. This is the Liberty Square "sewer system." Delightful, huh?)
26. Liberty Square: all the shutters on the windows are hanging crooked. This is because in those times leather was used to fasten shutters on and would stretch over time to hang crooked. The Imagineers used crooked metal fasteners. (True)
27. Walt’s name only appears on one window on Main Street. It is the one above the ice cream parlor and is the only one that faces the Castle. (True. According to Keys to the Kingdom, Walt enjoyed a dish of vanilla ice cream every day of his adult life. They decided to make it easy for him, through the placement of his window right above the ice cream shop.)
28. There is a silver plate that runs between Liberty Square and Frontierland. This plate represents the Mississippi River, separating the east from the west, and there is water flowing out from the plate into the Rivers of America. Additionally the buildings also reflect changes east to west from the colonial style to the frontier boomtown to the southwestern adobe buildings. (True, to the best of my knowledge)

Epcot
1. Electric Umbrella: Look for the talking trashcan and the talking water fountain. (True)
2. In Epcot, if you stand in the correct spot, you can see the Tower of Terror appear to be part of Morocco. The best spot to see it is near the souvenir stands between Future World and World Showcase, specifically the souvenir stand closer to Mexico. And since both have similar colors, they blend together decently. (True, but not known whether or not this was intentional)
3. Journey Into Imagination with Figment: as you are about to go into the sound room, look at one of the doors, it says Dean Finder(Dreamfinder). Also, in the finale, look to the Figment with the music book glider, there is a Dreammobile. (True)
4. Mouse Gear: look for the blimp from the original JII, sans the balloon. (True)
5. Spaceship Earth: the scene with the monks writing. One has fallen asleep and has a Mickey shaped ink blob next to him. (True. There is also a hidden sorcerer Mickey in this scene, but it is not at all visible from the ride vehicles)
6. UK pavilion: there is a path running down the side of the Rose & Crown pub, which leads to a 'secret' garden. (True, though it depends upon your definition of "secret." The path is often blocked off due to private events.)
7. Maelstrom: When boarding the boats look at the Vikings, one is wearing Mickey Mouse Ears. (True)
8. Watch out for the rock formations on the shores of the Canada pavilion during Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. For the fireworks show, one of these boulders "breaks open," rising up into the air, a contoured piece of rock topping a pole equipped with lights and speakers for the show. Once Illuminations ends, the pole silently retracts back into the boulder, its rocky top preserving the appearance of the Canada shoreline. It's all part of Disney's attempt to preserve show elements--outside of show time, you'd never know it wasn't a real rock. A similar pole rises out of the rocks at the Japan pavilion, and two light poles are cleverly concealed in the Italy pavilion. (True)
9. Germany: The stone "castle" building, located in the Germany pavilion alongside the Biergarten Restaurant, was to have been the home of a Rhine River cruise attraction taking guests on a boat ride through the German countryside. But the attraction was never built. The main entrance to the ride would have been located at the back of the Sommerfest Outdoor Café. (True. There is a similar gigantic show building behind Japan for the never-installed (at least at Epcot) Meet the World show)

Disney Studios
1. Tower of Terror: Look for marquee with missing letters, on the bottom, the fallen letters will read “Evil Tower U R Doomed”. (Was true, now unknown. This element seems to come and go.)
2. Muppet Vision 3-D: Outside of the building there is graffiti written all over, stop and read the sometimes humorous messages. (True)
3. Muppet Vision 3-D: Look for the key under the mat when entering the theater. (True, though the mat is immediately to your right as you enter the turnstyles, below the "security office" and quite a bit before the theater entrance)
4. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular: Outside of the theater there is a well. Pull on the rope that's dropped inside of the well and listen. (True)
5. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular: There are crates stacked in the bushes that say “don’t open”… Go ahead and open them. (Unknown--it's been a while since I've seen Indy)
6. Singing in the Rain Umbrella: Near Lights Motor Action at the end of NY Street. (Or whatever it’s called now) (True, but only there seasonally)
7. Honey I Shrunk the Kids: Look for the dogs nose and stick your hand in its nostrils, it will sniff you (and sometimes sneeze!). (Unknown--it's been a while since I've been in Honey I Shrunk the Kids)
8. AFI shop at the Back Lot Tour ride: look for the area nearby which is stacked with wooden crates, open them and you will be rewarded with various silly effects. (True)
9. Look for the snowman in MGM. Great photo op! (True)

Animal Kingdom
1. Look for “DeVine” a real human vine, usually “hanging around” near or behind the Tree of Life. (True, she is often found on the path between Asia and Africa)
2. Tusker House: sit outside on the back patio area when you eat and listen carefully. You can hear people upstairs who seem to be having trouble cleaning. (True)
3. Tamu Refreshment Stand: Behind it is a half wall where a meet and greet takes place. The paint is chipping and one area of chipped off paint is a hidden Baloo. (Unknown)
4. Kali River Rapids: go on the bridge and find the buttons that allow the two elephants below squirt the riders. (True, it's fun!)
5. Dinoland Playground: Try to open the door. (Unknown)

Downtown Disney
1. Downtown Disney Marketplace: go with your children and ask at one of the (Disney) store cash registers for the Sticker Hunt booklet. There are 15 different stickers to collect at each of 15 stores. (Unknown)
2. Art of Disney store: They run a quiz every day and give out prizes if you get them all right! (Partially true. There is a quiz, but no prizes outside of Magical Moment Certificates)

Resorts
1. Contemporary Resort: near the Monorail loading dock, there is a huge mosaic. Look for the 5 legged goat within that mosaic. (True)
2. Port Orleans: the musical notes attached to the check in counter translate to “When the Saints Go Marching In.” (True)
3. Fort Wilderness: Look for the lawn mower tree. (True, though there isn't much left of the lawnmower)
4. Wilderness Lodge: Has a smokehouse tour. (True)
5. Wilderness Lodge: Get a hidden Mickey list and go on a hunt! (True)
6. Wilderness Lodge: Go look for Old Faithful. (True, but the name is Fire Rock Geyser)

Everything Else
1. Monorail: Sit up front with the captain and get a co-pilot’s license. (True--you just have to ask)
2. Watercraft: take the boats or ferries and get a Disney Watercraft sticker. (True, but seems to be uncommon)
3. Ask for a list of Hidden Mickey’s from Guest Relations. (Unknown)
4. Ask for a list of Pressed Pennies from Guest Relations. (Unknown)
5. The two colors Disney paints the backstage areas/show buildings are go Away Green and Blend In Brown. These two colors were made by Disney to paint things they did not want to be noticed. (True, to the best of my knowledge. There's also "Backstage Blue"--think Soarin')
6. Most people think of WDW as being "in Orlando". We Disney fans know that's not true. But even a lot of Disney fans don't realize that WDW is actually in two cities. The area that includes Magic Kingdom and Fort Wilderness is actually in the City of Bay Lake. The rest of the property is in Lake Buena Vista. (True)
7. The original design for the resorts around The 7 Seas Lagoon were to mirror the lands in the Magic Kingdom
Poly - Adventureland
Wilderness lodge and Fort Wilderness - Frontierland
Contemp - Tomorrowland
Grand FL - Main Street
The resorts for Fantasyland and Liberty Square were never built. (It seems to make sense to some extent, though unknown if it was intentional)
 

durangojim

Well-Known Member
My wife's and my first child, our son, was conceived in the Wilderness Lodge. I'm pretty sure that very few people knew this secret.:lol:

Also, if you climb the stairs by the entrance to the WL there's a very nice little area with a fireplace and some couches on the second or third floor, and no this has nothing to do with the above statement.
 

hemloc

Member
What, so you can flame them for bumping an old thread if they want to comment? Please, play nice and keep it Disney-spirited!

They shouldn't have to bump a thread if they can get all the information they need from it. The search function is there for a reason, but if people want to waste bandwidth re-posting new threads on topics that have been posted many times, then I can freely criticize them for doing so(And waste more bandwidth!)...
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
I like the fact that Cinderella Castle was built to 189 feet, just short of the FAA regulation for a red light.
Nope - the ToT was. 199ft is the limit for no lights. A lot of these unknown facts are really very well know, or just wrong. Such is the way of fokelore and myth.
 

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