09/05/2013: WE HAVE THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM!
I wasnt sure what to write about today, namely the tour. It was all so interesting, and I managed to make lots of notes, partly for my own memory but so that I could share them with you guys too. However, people might perceive this as a bit of a
spoiler despite lots of the facts that we learned being already published on the net and in various WDW books.
So, this is just a warning if you don't want to know about the Keys To The Kingdom Tour, for example if youll be doing it yourself and want it to be a surprise, then please scroll onto the next post where Ill talk about the rest of the day. However, if you do want to learn about the tour, then please feel free to read on 
I dont have many photos from the tour because I was so engrossed in what the guide was telling us! Plus the fact that photos werent allowed in the backstage areas! I have included photos from the internet where they help though!
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Today we were up bright and early as we had the Keys To The Kingdom tour booked for 8.30am at the Magic Kingdom. This cost us around $75 each and before I go on, Id just like to say that this was definitely worth it as it proved to be a big highlight of the holiday for all of us! When we booked, we were offered a choice of one of three tour start times: 8:30, 9:00 and 9:30. You can find more information on Disneys website
here.
There were plenty of early buses running to MK today as it was morning EMH. We arrived at the park just before 8 and watched the opening ceremony.
We checked in at the Chamber of Commerce and were given our name badges.
As we were instructed to check in at least 15 minutes before our tour we were offered compliementary tea, coffee and bottled water whilst we waited. Lunch was also included in the tour and would be at the Columbia Harbor House. We were asked to make our choices now so that our lunch would be ready and waiting for us when we reached that part of the tour. We were also given our headsets very FBI haha! They would allow us to hear our tourguide clearly, saving him having to shout over everyone.
We all took a bottle of water and waited on a bench outside in the sunshine for the tour to start. It was certainly going to be a hot one today!
Our view whilst we waited
We also met Snow White whilst we waited! She was out next to City Hall with no one waiting to see her! Usually, Jos not really into meeting characters but she was particularly excited about this one as we approached Snow White she realised that Snow White was
friends with somebody she worked with at the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique! Jo remembered her auditioning at the time, and was chuffed to find that it was all working out!
At just after 8:30 our tour guide arrived and gathered our group. Today, we were hosted by Matt, and he was great. Very enthusuastic! I wish wed had a photo with him! He instructed us on how to use our headsets and then to test them out we went around the group introducing ourselves, stating where we were from and what our favourite attraction in WDW was. There were around 15 of us in the group and we were the only ones from the UK.
The tour started in the Main St area. Some things we learnt about WDW in this area were:
*** How many American flags do you think there are in Magic Kingdom? (He asked us this as we were standing next to one
or so we thought!) Theres actually just one! This is the one they use at the flag ceremony; all the others are slight variations with smaller numbers of stars/stripes and so arent technically the real flag. Matt went into the many rules in place about displaying the American flag such as that it can only be displayed between sunrise and sunset, and not for 24 hours a day. Having these
fake flags in place along Main St etc. avoids the need for having to take them down each evening.
(Not my photo)
*** The entrance to the park and Main St USA is based on a theatre. As you walk under the arches of the train station you see lots of posters on the walls. These represent the movie/theatre posters you would see at a theatre. Then the different names that are displayed on the windows of the facades on Main St are names of people that were involved in the WDW project and are akin to the credits of a production. It ends with the directors credit i.e. Walt E. Disneys name on the window of the Ice Cream Parlour. One name that I found quite interesting was on a window of the Emporium about 2/3 down Main St. It stated:
Dr Card Walker. Doctor of Psychiatry, Justice of the Peace. Card Walker was apparently the gentleman that used to act to calm down arguments between Walt and his brother Roy!
(Not my photo)
*** The buildings on Main St make use of the technique of
forced perspective to make them look taller than they are. But thats common knowledge! For example, Caseys looks three stories tall from Main St, but in reality, it is only a two story building which we witnessed when we went around to the back side. The second floors of these buildings alongside Main St are mostly used as managerial offices. The windows are not real however, and so no one has a view of Main St. No work would get done otherwise! Interestingly, the theatre at the bottom of Main St is the only full-sized building in this area it was built this way to block the view of the Contemporary resort!
(Not my photo)
*** Another thing that is common knowledge: the hub and spoke layout of MK. However, what I didnt know is that the bridge to Tomorrowland is twice as wide of the bridge heading to Adventureland due to the tendency for most people to turn right as they reach the end of Main St.!
*** The Crystal Palace restaurant is actually located so that it sits across two lands: Adventureland and Main St USA. To fit in with both themes, the right side, with the awnings, is more overgrown to fit in with the Adventureland theming. This is not the best example, but hopefully you can begin to see what I mean with the awnings on the right side in Adventureland etc!
(Not my photo)
As we wandered down Main St, Matt also talked about the strategies that were in place to acquire land for WDW when they decided to start the Florida project. I will never tire of hearing this story! Because of the popularity of
Disneyland in California, land prices in Florida would have shot through the roof if they knew that the Disney Company was buying it for their Florida project. To avoid this, they set up a number of fake companies, if you like, to buy the land so people were none the wiser! They managed to buy 90% of their land like this before people twigged due to an article in a newspaper. Of course, land prices in this area then shot up, and the final 10% was purchased at something ridiculous, like 100 times what they had paid for the entire first 90% (may be a slight exaggeration there...)! Also interesting to note was that only a third of the land has been built on at present! Another third is being protected as a nature reserve, which leaves another third empty and for new developments. Technically, WDW could double in size in the future!!!!
As we crossed the bridge into Adventureland, Matt spoke to us about Walts idea of '
plussing', meaning that everything is built with the notion that any attraction can be changed at any time if its popularity decreases. For example, we spoke about the Plaza Swan Boats that travelled around the hub moat. Apparently it became unpopular as guests realised there was nothing more that they could see on the boat than they could walking around! The bridge to Adventureland used to accommodate them by going up and over. Now it has been redone and is just flat.
We also talked about how Adventureland and Walts True Life Adventure documentary series were inspired by his good will government trip to South America way back when. Who knows what would have been in this area if Walt hadnt made that trip?
We then rode our first ride of the tour Jungle Cruise! It was a little different to usual though. We would have a Jungle Cruise Skipper driving our boat, but Matt would be doing the talking. There would be no jokes on this ride, just JC facts! We were taken right to the front of the queue and were warned not to make eye contact with all the guests that were waiting lol! I learnt so much on this ride:
*** All of the plants on the ride are now real tropical plants! In the winter, it can get a bit cold for them so they are taken care of with blast heaters!
*** Of course the Jungle Cruise CMs dont actually steer the boats
despite them turning the wheel during their performances. They do control the speed and starting and stopping though! The boats actually run in troughs that are underneath the water. To disguise these troughs some coloured dye is added to the water and the waterfall that plays such a big part in the ride is actually used to mix it all through!
*** The animals on the attraction run off pneumatics rather than the more complex hydraulics of what we know as animatronics. This is due to the more simple movements that they make, making the pneumatics ample enough. The original idea for this attraction was to actually have live animals!
*** Some of the same faces sculpted for the animatronics for the WDW attractions have been used multiple times in different attractions. Apologies because again this isnt my photo, but apparently the face of the gentleman on this pole is also used for the caretaker on Haunted Mansion.
*** This particular fact took an ear of faith lol! When you pass these guys (the natives) on the cruise they all shout some stuff. The first two shout gibberish, but the third one apparently shouts
I LOVE DISCO!. I wasnt sure myself
listen out for it the next time you ride!
(Not my photo)
*** Before the Jungle Cruise opened, they didnt have enough time to plant lots of tropical greenery around the cruise route. Instead, they took orange trees that were already there and planted them upside down with the roots up so that they looked all strange and tropical!
*** And finally (
and this is my favourite), most scenes on this ride are run off sensors detecting when the boats approach. It has been known on a number of occasions for the sensors to be slightly off, thus spraying the boat and guests with water for example when passing the elephants! I would love to see that!
After finishing up on the Jungle Cruise, we headed to stand outside the Tiki Room. Did you know that this attraction was the first to use animatronics? The roof of this attraction looks thatched doesnt it?! Well it isnt it is in fact made entirely of strips of recycled aluminium. Oh, Im sorry. I meant
aloominum! That means that it is still going strong 41 years later! Matt even stood on the fence and banged it with his stick to prove it to us! The thatched rooves in Animal Kingdom are much more authentic and craftsmen from Africa have been hired to make them. This means that they are replaced much more frequently!
It was now getting rather hot, and we settled for a five-minute restroom break near to POTC.
I swear Jo was having a good time!
After gathering the troops again, we sat in the sheltered seating area of Tortuga Tavern to talk a bit more about the Walt Disney Company. Amongst other things, we talked about the making of Snow White the first feature film animation in 1937. People at the time had no faith in it, and said it would never work! Doctors even advised people
NOT to see it they reckoned that watching cartoons for that length of time would make you go blind!
Walt became a bit sick and tired of the people in the theatres having so much say over the screenings and makings of his films. For example, only 15 theatres in the entire country installed Walts Fantasound surround sound system that the company had created to accompany the film Fantasia. Not one installed the incense and smells and sprinklers that he wanted alongside it too! The Philharmagic attraction is now most alike to Walts original idea for Fantasia with all the effects, and smells and sound! (You can find an interesting Wikipedia article about Fantasound
here).
Moving on, one thing many Disney fans read about is all the mishaps that occurred during the opening of Disneyland in California in 1955. This is another story that I never get bored of! We spoke about how everything ran out and how every ride broke down during that day! The park was way over capacity as some silly soul had printed a picture of their ticket in a newspaper many people who werent invited to the opening proceeded to just cut the picture out of the paper, and were let in! It had been a major rush to complete as much of the park as possible for this opening day. However, the asphalt hadnt been laid long and in the heat was still quite soft. Lots of the ladies came wearing stilletos, only for their heels to get stuck in the asphalt. Apparently, the heel marks are still in the floor to this day! I havent watched this myself yet, but Matt reccomended that we find the live broadcast that Walt made from the park that day. Live broadcasts were rare back then and no one really knew how to act or what was going on apparently the whole thing is funny to watch and quite awkward! When I find it, Ill post back here! The whole opening day has been termed '
Black Sunday' in the Company!
Despite all of this though, Disneyland became a huge succes and Walt wanted to build another park however, the Company wasnt sure if the East Coast audience would take to it the same as the West Coast audience had. To test drive it, they trialled some attractions in New York at the Worlds Fair in 1964; It was a huge hit, and the rest as they say, is history!
We also went onto talk about the conception of Mickey Mouse (intended originally to have been called
Mortimer Mouse of course phew!), the creation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Universal, and the reacquisition of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit quite recently! Effectively, NBC Universal traded back Oswald to Disney for the services of Al Michaels who was a sports announcer on ABC/ESPN.
Before leaving, we had a quick discussion about POTC seeing as we were in the area. Did you know that this attraction was never meant to have had a place in the Magic Kingdom here in Florida? However, many people complained since it was so popular in Disneyland. Therefore, they had to literally squeeze it in, hence why it is smaller and shorter than its Disneyland counterpart. Blaine Gibson, one of Walt Disneys main sculptors, only had enough time to sculpt 30 different faces for the attraction, but there are 60 pirates. Therefore
there are a lot of twins! A lot of the same faces are again also used in the Haunted Mansion!
We now walked on a bit and turned left just before Splash Mountain to head backstage. We went through the gate but technically we were still on stage as guests could see us. There was a huge diagonal yellow line on the floor and Matt informed us that this was the parade
sight line. As soon as the performers crossed this line, they would either start or stop full performance depending on the parade direction even though they were back stage.
We then went back stage proper. First we were shown the trash building lol! All the trash from the park travelled in tubes to this one compactor and there was a hell of a stink around it! Matt showed us where disinfectant was sprayed into the air to hide the smell from the park but it was as fresh as anything back here! We were also shown the famous '
Go Away Green' colour of all the show buildings back here!
Next was the exciting bit; we went into the Production Center!!! This is where all the parade stuff was kept I thought I was going to pee myself! We saw all of the parade floats from the day and night shows they were so big and shiny! It was absolutely amazing, and I thought how awesome it would be to be a performer on these floats! We were also shown where the drivers sit in each float and about how the floats are categorised in order of difficulty to drive. Its surprising how limited the drivers views are it must be a tense job, and I can now see why the parade control CMs are so keen to keep you back when a parade is coming through. There are lots of emergency stop buttons located on the floats so that any CM can press one if something comes into the road that the driver cant see.
We also saw this float in all its glory and were told that it was the only float that had been used in every single parade for the past 10-20 years! A while back, I was looking at some old holiday photos from our first trip to WDW in 2000 and thought I recognised it!
For a change, one of my own photos! From June 2011
However, it was announced this week that there is a completely brand new parade coming to WDW in Spring of next year: The Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade! So exciting! I wonder if that float will have a place again?? Although Matt seemed to think it wont. We were also shown the seasonal parade float storage from a distance, but didn't have a chance to go in.
Next up was the Splash Mountain water reservoir. The water on the attraction is cleaned with bromine and thats what gives it its distinctive smell! Theres even a
Facebook group for fans of the Splash Mountain Smell! The Bromine also gives it the green colour. They are unable to use chlorine to clean the water as when they tried this, they noticed that it was staining guests clothes!
Before leaving this backstage area we sat in what looked like a big sheltered smoking area with mirrors! I guess this is where the parade dancers wait around before show time! This was our chance to discuss all things characters! Matt mentioned about seeing parade rehearsals, and how strange it was seeing the performers dancing around a speaker in just their heads! Apparently they also do full runs of the parade to rehearse over night! Ever wondered how they get onto those high parade floats? By fork lift of course! We talked about the requirements to become a character, costuming, the princesses doing their own make up and so on, and so on! Any questions we had about entertainment we just asked, and Matt answered them as truthfully as he could!
As we walked back out I noticed lots of bits of old signage and old rides lying around outside
I would have given them a good home! I also noticed a really pointless basketball hoop wedged in between two temporary buildings
it had obviously been there a long time from when there was a lot more room backstage! We also talked about the three levels of Disney evacuation procedures that they have in place and it brought all my old CM training back to me! They have only used the highest level of evacuation procedure once in the entire 40 odd years of Magic Kingdom, and that was after the events of 9/11.
Now back onstage we walked through Frontierland. Did you know that the Country Bear Jamboree and the Hall of Presidents were originally E-Ticket attractions?! Who would have thought it?! We stopped outside the Hall of Presidents and spoke some more about the attraction. Talking about the same faces being used on multiple attractions, apparently they have used the faces of some presidents that were no longer needed on the Spaceship Earth attraction in Epcot. Matt did tell us which presidents and what part of Spaceship Earth they were on but I cant quite remember now! Im sure the guy painting the church ceiling is one though! Also, did you know that all of the presidents in the attraction are actual size apart from President William H. Taft? Apparently he was so big in real life that he would have looked cartoon-like next to all of the others and so they had to scale him down a bit! They also have some real props on stage such as Bill Clintons watch, which he donated to the attraction.
Matt also spoke to us about Nixons long history with the Disney Company. He took a ride on the very first Monorail journey at WDW coincidentally, it was the very first time that the Monorail managed to make a full journey, all the way around without breaking down! After he boarded and the monorail pulled off, his entourage soon realised that none of them were on there with him! Apparently one of them jumped onto the monorail track and started chasing after it! I bet that was scary!
We then walked over to Columbia Harbor House ready for lunch. As we waited to go in we had the opportunity to ask Matt some more questions. Somebody asked something about Space Mountain and Matt mentioned that Space Mountain only goes at 27mph which is the same speed as Goofys Barnstormer! What a difference the darkness makes I struggled to believe that!
Before we knew it we were called into the restaurant and led to a cordoned off seating area upstairs. All our tables were already set with name tags and our lunches waiting for us all very efficient. We ended up having around 30-40 minutes for lunch. I had the tuna sandwich, which is my CHH staple! Tanya and Emma had the chicken strips with fires whilst Jo had the Chicken Broccoli Peppercorn salad. However, it was missing one important thing
chicken! Poor Jo had to wait a while whilst they fetched a new salad. Lunch was good, but then again, Ive never had any complaints about CHH.
The Anchors Aweigh tuna sandwich
A little surprise we had at lunch was to find a special KTTK tour pin folded in our place name I loved it! Definitely something to keep!
After lunch we were now in a perfect location to visit the Haunted Mansion. The attraction was actually completed before the Magic Kingdom park was finished! They were building it for Disneyland at the time and so just built two of everything with the anticipation of putting it in MK when open! HM is in every Magic Kingdom park around the world but in a different land in each.
As we wandered through the line of HM, Matt spoke to us about the Disney Imagineer Leota Toombs Thomas who was an Imagineer involved in costuming and cosmetology. Her face is actually used for Madame Leota in the crystal ball in the séance scene of the ride, but here her voice is not used. The voice of Madame Leota in the crystal ball is actually that of Eleanor Audley who was the voice of Lady Tremaine and Maleficent. A tombstone commemorating Madame Leota was introduced to the HM in 2002. Leota Toombs Thomas also plays the Ghost Hostess at the end of the ride
hurry baaack. This time the voice is actually that of Ms. Toombs Thomas! It is unknown whether the Ghost Hostess and Madame Leota are meant to be the same character.
We also spoke about the stretching room! In Disneyland, you actually step into an elevator, which takes you down a level in the stretching room. However, in Florida this was not possible as due to the high water table, they were unable to dig below ground. Therefore, they reversed it here and made the ceiling go up rather than the guests go down! We also chatted about some of the effects they use in the ride such as an old magicians trick of '
peppers ghost' and Matt recommended that if we were interested in seeing more of the workings of the Haunted Mansion then we should definitely check out the
Marceline to Magic Kingdom Tour!
We then had the chance to ride HM. Again we were taken straight to the front and through a CM entrance it felt good
Before we got on, Matt told us about the three hidden Mickeys on the ride. We all spotted the first two, but all struggled to spot the last.
We next wandered over to Liberty Square. Did you know that there are no toilets in Liberty Square? This is to fit in with how it was back in Colonial America, with no toilets and just chamber pots whose contents were then thrown out. This brown river paved on the floor (
that I have somehow never noticed before) represents the river of well
poop
that used to flow through the streets at the time.
Another expertly composed photo of mine haha!
We also spoke about the window shutters on the facades in this area if you look at them, they seem to sag outwards at the top. During the revolutionary war, metal for weapons was in short supply and so the hinges of the windows were melted down and used. They substituted the metal hinges for leather ones but over time, the weight of the shutters stretched the leather causing the shutters to sag and look a bit wonky. Every tiny detail amazing!
(Not my photo)
We now walked back towards the hub and spoke a bit about the castle. As many people know, it was built at 189 ft, falling just shy of the 190 ft that would have required a red beacon to have been placed on top. This however was the old law the current law requires a red beacon at 200 ft resulting in the Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest being built slightly higher at 199 ft. The castle is also built out of fibreglass. However, Osceola and Orange counties rules, where the castle is (
or was) technically located, wouldnt have allowed this. Therefore, the Company created the
Reedy Creek Improvement District so that it could become its own municipality, separating it from Osceola and Orange, meaning that they could make their own rules and fibreglass could be used to build the castle. The only thing that RCID doesnt have that any other municipality/county has is an education system and a police force everything else is present! Sherrifs are borrowed from Osceola and Orange.
Somebody in our group also asked about the Cinderella suite. Matt promised he would show us some photos when we got down into the Utilidors. It was built in 2007, and back in the Year of a Million Dreams promotion it was used every night as a prize a guest could win at the park. However it is only used a couple of times a month now and can only be won. Money cant buy you a stay here! Again this is not my photo, but you can just see three vertical windows which I have labelled in red here. To get an idea of where the suite is, Matt told us that these windows were those of the sitting room.
Next stop was another bathroom break in the area between Caseys and the Crystal Palace. This is where we also headed backstage once everyone was ready.
The first thing I noticed was that the parade floats were out and rehearsing, ready for
Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It. Mickey and Minnie were rehearsing on the float but only in half costume. They had no heads or gloves on, and the heads were just sitting on their sides on the floor next to the performers! It was very strange! I would have loved to have experienced what it was like to have been a character performer!
We then went down into the Utilidors. As we made our way in Matt pointed out a big tentacle that was just lying faded on the ground. It was from the squid from the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea attraction and had pretty much been lying there for years since it was dismantled. No CM knew why! It was everyone elses first time down here, but the four of us had been down here for our Cast Member training and sometimes when we were just visiting the parks with friends who worked here. As we walked through, we talked about all the old construction photos that lined the walls. They should definitely sell these as prints! Matt also showed us a photo from the opening day where ALL the MK Cast Members at the time were gathered in front of the castle. They would never be able to do this now and fit every CM into one shot theres just too many of them! Matt pointed out one of the Haunted Mansion CMs in the photo he has worked his way up through the company and is now Vice President of the park!
We also watched a video about costuming it was all a bit tongue in cheek and was quite funny! It basically talked through how CMs check out costumes, how they are made, and what the costuming warehouses look like. Again, it brought back lots of memories of the ICP where I used to trawl through the Honey I Shrunk The Kids racks looking for shorts that werent ten sizes too big or small, or shirts that didnt have a button missing around the bra area!
As we walked under the Main Street Confectionary building Matt pointed out a pipe to us. It was labelled '
Cookie Air' and is the sweet smell that they pump out of the shop and onto Main St, enticing you inside. Wish we could buy it! We also huddled around a big overhead photo of MK and talked some more about the park and about what Disney was planning next i.e. Disneys Shanghai Resort, Disney Springs replacing DTD etc. etc. As we spoke about Shanghai, one of the members of the group asked Matt where it was based. Matt answered Shanghai. But where? the lady asked. Uhhh
Shanghai Matt answered again along with a couple of members from our group. The lady was still confused: no, but where in this park?. Someone then had to explain to this lady that Shanghai was in China, which was a different country. Oh my! This same lady was also caught taking photos on her phone in the Utilidors on more than one occasion you could sense Matt getting annoyed slightly, especially when he asked her to delete the photos in front of him and she claimed she didnt know how to. Theres always one isnt there?!
Before we knew it, it was time to head back up out of the Utilidors as we neared the end of the tour. Before we headed back onstage to Main St USA Matt showed us Tinkerbells landing area when she flies down from the castle in Wishes. Can you guess where it is? Its actually on top of the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor building! We then headed back to the Chamber of Commerce, returned our headsets and thanked Matt for the tour. As I mentioned, this was certainly a highlight of the holiday and I now cant wait to do another one!! If you ever have a spare morning and want to do something a bit different then I can highly recommend this. I know we all read books about Disney and we all class ourselves as fans but I still learnt so many new things on this tour. And now I have written this trip report, I can remember them for future use
Ill now continue this in the next post for those that didnt want the spoilers
I love the hot weather of the summer! May was a bit of a shock for us I am used to June/July/August! Was not expecting to feel a chill in the mornings and evenings! I can't believe how quick your trip has come around Lesley - you must be so excited!!!! Are you going to do a TR or something?
My fingers must have been swollen at the time, but now on my ring finger it felt too loose and it didnt feel safe. I decided Id go back and try and exchange it for a smaller size. Seeing as I was ready I thought may as well have tried to do it now, so I headed off to the Poly planning to meet the girls at Jiko where we had our ADR this evening.
I remember that it was very, very strong though. Oooooph! 
) in Key West followed by a trip "home"
