Random WDW Info - I Never Knew!

[castleri]

During the KTTK tour while being shown the utilidors the subject was garbage and we were shown the tubes the garbage goes through. The guides explained that because of the mandate to recycle a
certain percentage of the garbage there are workers who actually sort through the mixed garbage to pull out the recyclable items. They also said that every so often they send stones through the tubes to clean them out.

 

[krismas29]

Great thread!

Here are two I remember reading here on the Dis, if I don't have them completely right, I hope someone with more knowledge will correct me!

1. The shutters on the buildings in Liberty Square in the MK are all hanging slightly cockeyed (tied on maybe?) to represent the fact that the colonists removed the hinges from their shutters during the revolutionary war to make weaponry.

2. When leaving Liberty Square and heading towards Country Bear Jamboree, the ground has yellow paving stones on the right side to represent the trough running down the side of the road where the horses would urinate. I must admit that my niece and I looked for this during our last trip and couldn't find it, so perhaps it is a Dis urban legend

On a related note, as mentioned earlier in this thread, we love to look at the picture of Mr. Toad handing the deed to Owl on the Pooh ride. Now I am dying to know where the tribute to 20,000 leagues is located in the Pooh playground. Does anyone know??

 

[undertheseas]

I had no idea about the HM idea that you die! Now I really am hoping it reopens earlier in September than they say so I can ride it again!

 

[nittanyliongirl02]

Not sure if this was mentioned already (because I didn't read ALL the posts), but when you're waiting in line for Star Tours, and look up at the baskets carrying things back and forth, you'll see numbers on the bottom of items. Those are the birthdays of the people who helped Imagineer the ride. This came straight from a CM. Pretty interesting I think....

 

[edcrbnsoul]

$1.7 million worms are ordered each year to feed animals at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Mickey Mouse has about 175 different outfits in his wardrobe, including a scuba suit and a tuxedo. Minnie Mouse's massive "walk-in closet" contains about 200 outfits, including a cheerleader costume and various evening gowns.

The fountain at Epcot Innoventions Plaza can shoot water 150 feet in the air -- within 30 feet of the top of Spaceship Earth. If all of the shooters were fired at once, there would be 2,000 gallons of water in the air.

Stormalong Bay, Disney's Beach Club Resort swimming area, holds 750,000 gallons of water, making it the largest sand-bottom pool in the world.

If you wanted to stay in all the guestrooms in all of the hotels and resorts currently open on Walt Disney World property (at a rate of one per night) it would take more than 72 years.

50,000 and 2,000 miles of irrigation pipe are needed to water more than 3,500 acres of landscaping at Walt Disney World Resort. Since 1971, more than 100,000 trees and 2 million tended shrubs have been planted.

 

[jisom12]

Great thread!

On a related note, as mentioned earlier in this thread, we love to look at the picture of Mr. Toad handing the deed to Owl on the Pooh ride. Now I am dying to know where the tribute to 20,000 leagues is located in the Pooh playground. Does anyone know??

The hidden tribute to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at the Pooh's Playful Spot is a blue Nautilus shape just above the door frame inside Pooh's house

 

[Simba's Mom]

I just remembered one that I thought was kind of interesting. It doesn't have to do just with WDW, but you know that fountain show at that big resort in Las Vegas? Well, the guy who developed that "cut his teeth" on doing the littler fountain show in Epcot. I thought that was interesting-kind of goes along with the idea of how many theme parks got their concept ideas from Disney.

 

[Piecey]

At the time, they couldn't figure out how to regulate the suction needed throughout the system; if the system was kept constantly pressurized to pull trash from the farthest point, the intermediate cans and/or pipes would have collapsed!

We were told on our Key To The World Tour that the state of Florida requires them to recycle so much of the garbage, too. So the CMs have to pull the bags, go through it by hand behind stage and then put it in the appropriate place (but he did show us the very-very stinky place where the trash is suctioned to the area behind Splash Mountain (then he showed us the area behind Splash Mountain)

He also said a system where all the trash is suctioned out automatically would be bad for a place like Disney World because of all the people (mostly children) that throw things away by accident. There would be no way to retrieve it. Like a retainer, glasses, a childrens favorite toy.

 

[castleri]

On one of the tours we took we went by the waste treatment area and the guide said that when it was built it was built so well that it still handles all the waste treatment even with all the hotels, parks etc that have been added since the beginning. He said they have not had to add to it at all.

 

[Piecey]

I don't think this one can be true. There are restrooms--upstairs--in the Liberty Tree Tavern. I'm assuming that restaurant is part of Liberty Square.

I forget exactly how my KTTW tour guide explained this, but he did. Something about how the bathrooms are actually in Fantasyland (which is why they're tucked all the way in the back of the upstairs and a little hard to get to)

 

[pampam]

Great thread!

Here are two I remember reading here on the Dis, if I don't have them completely right, I hope someone with more knowledge will correct me!

1. The shutters on the buildings in Liberty Square in the MK are all hanging slightly cockeyed (tied on maybe?) to represent the fact that the colonists removed the hinges from their shutters during the revolutionary war to make weaponry.

2. When leaving Liberty Square and heading towards Country Bear Jamboree, the ground has yellow paving stones on the right side to represent the trough running down the side of the road where the horses would urinate. I must admit that my niece and I looked for this during our last trip and couldn't find it, so perhaps it is a Dis urban legend

On a related note, as mentioned earlier in this thread, we love to look at the picture of Mr. Toad handing the deed to Owl on the Pooh ride. Now I am dying to know where the tribute to 20,000 leagues is located in the Pooh playground. Does anyone know??

That sounds very much like what we heard on the KTTK tour. It seems that the metal was collected and used for amunition, so the shutters were held up with leather straps. Of course over time, the leather stretched, and the shutters were crooked. Also, the stretch of different coloured stones in the streets of Liberty Square was to represent how people would just throw their slop water out the window, and it would run along the street. Not horse urine, because as you know, horses will urinate anywhere, not in a trough. It's not a depression in the street, so it isn't actually a trough.

 

[Donald is #1]

2. When leaving Liberty Square and heading towards Country Bear Jamboree, the ground has yellow paving stones on the right side to represent the trough running down the side of the road where the horses would urinate. I must admit that my niece and I looked for this during our last trip and couldn't find it, so perhaps it is a Dis urban legend

I was on the KTTK tour today and the CM talked about this. When you are in Liberty Square facing towards the river boat, there is an area off to the right between Columbia Harbour House & the Hall of Presidents. You can see the 2 different colors of the walkway here. Our CM explained it as there wasn't any in door plumbing during the time represented by Liberty Square so people emptied their waste from chamber pots, etc in the street.

 

[Chloesmom]

Originally Posted by MQuara
Richard Nixon gave his memorable "I'm not a crook" speech on 11/17/73 at Disney's Contemporary Resort Hotel.


Actually, the best known "I am not a crook " speech, also known as the "Checkers" speech, was made in the 50's when Nixon was the Vice-President under Eisenhower. Nixon was accused of using illegal campaign funds. Checkers was Julie's dog, which is the only thing that he claimed that he kept, the speech also made reference to Pat's "Rebublican cloth coat".

There are 2 speeches.. the Checkers Speech made in 52 over him keeping funds from an election and the " I am not a crook speech" made in 73 at the CR.

 

[SelfEmployedDebtFree]

50,000 and 2,000 miles of irrigation pipe are needed to water more than 3,500 acres of landscaping at Walt Disney World Resort.

While thats probably true... My showerhead in the Pop century put out about 1/2 a gallon an hour of water!!! Only kidding of course, but thats one thing i dont miss about Disney; the poor water pressure in the showers! Especially since I'm spoiled at home with a deluge disc showerhead. They bring water conservation to new levels!

 

[Elisa]

During the KTTK tour while being shown the utilidors the subject was garbage and we were shown the tubes the garbage goes through. The guides explained that because of the mandate to recycle a
certain percentage of the garbage there are workers who actually sort through the mixed garbage to pull out the recyclable items. They also said that every so often they send stones through the tubes to clean them out.

Hey, even I would rummage through stinky garbage just to get to work in Disney World. ...Sign me up

 

[Sinclare]

The Shoe Tree
When we went on our Wishes Cruise last summer our driver (who was terrific) brought us over to see The Shoe Tree. We were amazed to see a tree in the middle of Bay Lake with a whole load of shoes hanging off its branches! He explained that there it's a tradition for WDW boat drivers to throw their shoes onto the tree on the day they retire.

I thought the shoe tree was part of the theming for River Country and was just left over. Perhaps both is true, and the Captains are taking advantage of an the old themed tree as part of their own tradition. I doubt that they started it however because I just couldn't see Disney letting them.

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

Hey, even I would rummage through stinky garbage just to get to work in Disney World. ...Sign me up

Me too! Can you imiagine the stuff you would find!?

 

[irisbud]

All of these are from a cool site that I found on my cell phone’s internet browser called “pocketdisney”. If you type in pocketdisney.com a version of the site comes up on the regular web, but it isn’t the same thing. When I type it in on the url locater on my cell phone this neat little site for use on your cell phone comes up! It has info about the parks, resorts, restaurants, hidden Mickeys, and TONS of “random factoids”, some of which follow:

“The National Geodetic Survey has a first order GPS station on the Disney property stamped as station ”RATWORLD””.

“More than 26,000 feet of lights outlines the Epcot World Showcase pavilions – a string long enough to stretch across the Golden Gate Bridge more than six times.”

“If you were to wash and dry one load of laundry every day for 33 years, you’d clean as much as the folks at the Walt Disney World Laundry do in a single day. The 550 workers there launder and average of 120,000 pounds each day. In addition, between 30,000 and 32,000 garments are dry-cleaned daily.”

“Spaceship Earth, the visual and thematic centerpiece of Epcot, weighs 16 million pounds – more than three times that of a Space Shuttle fully fueled and ready for launch.”

“It would take more than 20 million 12-ounce cans of Coca-Cola to fill one of the humongous Coke cups at the Home-Run Hotel in Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort.”

“The Earffel Tower, Disney-MGM Studios’ water tower landmark, would wear a hat size of 324 ¾.”

“If you wanted to stay in all the guest rooms in all of the hotels and resorts currently open on Walt Disney World property (at a rate of one per night), it would take more than 61 years.”

“50,000 sprinkler heads and 2,000 miles of irrigation pipe are needed to water more than 3,500 acres of landscaping at Walt Disney World Resort. Since 1971, more than 100,000 trees and 2 million tended shrubs have been planted. For a burst of color, another 3 million bedding plants are added annually.”

“If you look at Cinderella Castle from Main St. on the right hand side there is a white flag on one of the flagpoles. This white flag is different than all of the others. It isn’t made of fabric, and looks like it is always flying in the breeze. This particular flag is actually a radio transmitting antenna which allows technicians to communicate with the Spectro Magic Floats in the parade.”

“After closing, service trucks drive up Main Street doing maintenance. The truck drivers are required to put a huge pan underneath the truck so as not to drip anything that would foul Main Street’s pristine façade.”

 

[RoyalCanadian]

1) The Rose and Crown sells more Gunness annually than any other establishment in the world (not just Disneyworld, the entire world).

Sure it's an old thread -- but this is one rumour that I expect is completely false. The United States ranks 4th in the world for sales of Guinness behind Great Britain, Ireland and Nigeria. I doubt the Rose & Crown accounts for the highest sales of Guinness in the world.

 

[Costumesaremylife]

There's a lawnmower at Fort Wilderness that has a tree growing out of it. I have no idea why, but it's neat. Until those Cinderella sequels came out the only place you could see Cindy on her wedding day was on one of the paintings on her Carousel. Her Horse has the gold ribbon in it's tail.

There's a Hidden Mickey Hieryoglyphic in the Indiana Jones room of The Great Movie Ride.

In Muppet Vision there's a net hanging from the ceiling it's full of jello.
A net full of Jello. Say it fast. I swear it's funny.

There's a special train car for the opening ceremonies at the Magic Kingdom, it has room for the characters to fit.

On the Train Magic tour I took the engineer said that Disney's insurance company said that they couldn't give tours because people weren't allowed to walk into the wheel house. They didn't say anything about people riding into them. --That's probably a joke--

Some of the Engines for the trains came from Mexico or Central America and when going through customs they were having a hard time getting them out until someone said they were made in the US and really they were just returning them. (It was a funnier story when I heard it)