Magic Kingdom (Disney Land and Walt Disney World) - Perspective from a Soon to be Cast Member and Current/ Alumni Cast Members

To all who come to this happy place; welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past… and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America…with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. - Walt Disney (1955)

Welcome back, friends!
Today's post will not only be talking about the similarities and differences between Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort, but I have also been talking to current and past cast members and asking them about what their favorite  (Non- Cast Member only secrets) secrets about the park that they wish other visitors would notice next time they were in the park!





Disneyland Resort:
Little Known Secrets from current and past Cast Members!

• Splash Mountain in Disneyland was created in part with the purpose of reusing the animatronics from America Sings that was open back in the 70s for America’s bicentennial (it was in the rotating theater of carousel of progress). 
• Michael Eisner wanted more thrill rides at Disneyland to help bring up attendance, Tony Baxter (Imagineer for Disney during that time) decided to reuse the animatronics!

Not a Fun Fact: the reason America Sings was shut down is that a cast member got caught in the rotating theater and killed. only temporarily, it reopened a few days later and stayed open another decade or so.... but still.


Haunted Mansion (Disneyland Resort):

Outside of the 999 spooky haunts being held inside of the Haunted Mansion, one interesting little lore is that  Around the summer of 1974, someone with a firearm within the park fired off multiple rounds. Two confirmed gunshots struck both the ballroom wall in the Haunted Mansion and a snowflake on Adventure Thru Inner Space. 

A third hole was found in the Primeval World diorama on the train. 

A later investigation by Anaheim Police determined the holes to be .22 caliber with bullet fragments matching between the holes.

This left Disney with a problem. The panes of glass at the Ballroom scene are so large, the roof of the building would have had to be removed (i.e. destroyed) to replace them. Disney’s solution was to cover up the hole in the glass by disguising it as a spider web and place a fake spider right over the hole. So next time you ride the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland when you leave the ballroom scene just before entering Madame Leota’s room, look for a spider and web on the last pane of glass in front of you.

Another really cool thing about the Haunted Mansion is that Madame Leota's head is an Imagineer, but the voice is Eleanor Audrey who is the voice of Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty) and Lady Tremain (Evil Stepmother in Cinderella).

Haunted Mansions in Disney World and Disneyland is the Ring! Because this ring was a creation of the fans and not Disney canon, the story of the ring varied depending on who would tell it. Perhaps Master Gracey had gotten angry at the young woman for cheating on him and tossed it over the balcony in a fit of rage. Or maybe it was the indent of her ring forced into the ground when she flung herself to her death. The delightfully morbid notion took on a life of its own and the little piece of embedded pipe grew into a legend.

Cast Member's Favorite Secrets about Walt Disney World:

There is an airplane runway built on property just southeast of the Contemporary. The goal was for guests to fly straight to WDW from connecting flights throughout FL. Look on Google Maps for a long piece of concrete.

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To make it even cooler: The runway “sings”!

Known as the Lake Buena Vista STOLport runway, what appears to be just a wide spot in a side road was once a landing strip for small aircraft flying between Disney World and the central Florida international airports. Built-in 1970 (or 1971, it is unclear) the runway was only used for a year or two–by Shawnee airlines, the only airline ever to fly directly into the Magic Kingdom–before flights were discontinued.  The area is now used as a backstage parking and storage lot and is easily accessible by turning right under the monorail before entering the Magic Kingdom parking area. The closed runway was at one time used as a training area for Disney’s bus drivers, which revealed a hidden surprise for the trainees. Originally used to surprise the airplane passengers, the set of grooves, like those on the side of a highway, that line this runway play “When you wish upon a star” when driven over at roughly 45 miles per hour. 

It is rumored that the grooves used to make the runway sing were removed in 2008. I was able to find videos of people driving across the runway (hoping to check that out when I'm down in Florida, hopefully doing this is not something that can get me terminated from the company.) Unfortunately, I was unable to find video proof that the runway actually sung. It is also rumored that the song played may have actually been "Zip-a-dee do-da". I have only seen this a few times, and have mostly heard that the song was "When You Wish Upon a Star" so it was most likely "When You Wish Upon a Star". 

Reused Animatronics at Disney World:

Disney is notorious for reusing animatronics with both using just the skeleton and using the whole animatronic itself. Some examples of this are...

Whole animatronic:

 The Snow White animatronic in 7 Dwarves Mine Train is from Snow White scary adventure. The dog in The Haunted Mansion, Carousel of Progress, and Pirates are all the same (They made the same animatronic three times), and you will find the father and daughter from the Carousel of Progress in the renaissance scene of Spaceship Earth playing instruments.

( Seen here is Walt Disney standing amoungst the molds used for some of the pirates in the Pirates of the Carribean ride)

(These animatronics are seen at the end of the Snow White Mine Train ride not pictured is the Evil Queen in hag form standing outside the cottage door.)

The Three Caballeros-

Donald Duck, Jose, and Panchito debuted in 1944. Their musical popularity took them soaring straight into the Mickey Mouse Revue, an animatronic extravaganza in Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland. An opening day attraction, the Mickey Mouse Revue delighted guests from 1971-1980. With the opening of Disneyland in Japan, they were shipped out there to be apart of the Mickey Mouse Revue there on opening day. Once that show closed though the birds were shipped back to DisneyWorld and were put into the Grand Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros in the Mexico Pavilion of Epcot’s World Showcase. In their current home, Donald, Jose, and Panchito perform their Three Caballeros world tour after finishing their real-life world tour. 

Star Tours Droids-

America Sings was a gold mine for animatronics in the 80s. Long before the animals headed over to Critter Country, two geese disappeared from the show. Later, Imagineers admitted to removing the two for a new ride featuring a well-known space odyssey. These two geese had their feathers plucked and all their outside dressings removed. A couple of plastic pieces and a reprogramming later, these geese were official Star Tours agents qualified to screen passengers and (attempt) to fix droids.

The Pirates of the Carribean-

Back before Disney exported animatronic production to a third party, all the many faces of favorite characters were produced by a limited number of artists. As such, sometimes animatronics had the same face only with different hair or body shapes. This was EXTREMELY common in Pirates of the Carribean. 

In the Well scene, Mayor Carlos and the second tied up man from the left share a face. In the Auction scene, the drunkard on the bridge shares a face with one of the catcallers on the steps. The man of many hats in the burning city shares a face with one singing pirates by the donkey.

THE NEW REDD ANIMATRONIC:

Some say Jane's face from Tarzan was put on the animatronic of the Wicked Witch and added as Redd in Pirates. I'm not sure how credible that is, but it wouldn't be surprising if this is the case. Animatronics usually get repurposed because they cost a ton to make.

Finally some really cool and random facts I found about the Magic Kingdom!

1. There are no bathrooms in Liberty Square because you wouldn’t find bathrooms in that time period, hence the poop river in the middle of the walkways.
2. The buildings in MK (for sure Frontierland & Liberty Square, but not sure about the others) are numbered. The increasing numbers indicate time passing. 
3. There are no batteries in the magic bands! In theory, they could work forever. There is something more ‘techy’ going on if they stop working though.
4.  The long-range RFID scanning is really really really glitchy which is why you will often get the wrong ride photos or none at all. Super fun for Photopass working at late at night (test track is especially fickle) 
5. Eat at weird times while in the parks to get the most out of your day, and if you are nice to CM I promise they will be nice back (like with FP, etc.) 
6. When you are on the people mover and go through space mountain, the signs on either side say Starport 75, referring to 1975 when space mountain opened at Disney World
7. At Grand Floridian, the reason why the furniture in the lobby isn’t exactly identical to each other is because, during the Victorian era, people would collect unique pieces of furniture from their travels and it was very rare for two pieces to be exactly alike. So they put furniture in the lobby that looked similar enough in color and style but they aren’t all uniform.

Thanks for reading! Have a magical rest of your day!

If you have any follow up questions about anything mentioned today don't be shy, leave a comment and I'll get back to you as soon as I can! 
Did you know anything about what I mentioned above? and What's your favorite little known Magic Kingdom secret? Comment Below!!!
If you have any Disney questions feel free to leave a comment with those too! If you have a topic you think I should touch upon then leave that down in the comments too! 

Walt's Frozen Head signing off for now!

M-I-C... See you real soon K-E-Y Why? because we like you
M-O-U-S-E