Secret City

[jklonowski]

I want to know about this secret underground city that they have underneath Disney World. Someone told me that the Disney employees live there. Can someone tell me if this is true?

 

[wdwnut]

hi: take the tours. one is keys to the kingdom. you'll see some of the underground that way. there are descriptions on the official site.

 

[carterman_12]

This underground "city" you are talking about is not a city. Called the Ultilidors, it is underneath the Magic Kingdom. This is where all the WDW Computers are, storage is held here, and where MK employees go back and forth from different places in the Park (hence why you don't see a lot of construction workers or janitors walking around in Fantsayland).

 

[Werner Weiss]

Just think of it as a basement below part of the Magic Kingdom. I was down there on a tour once. There are hallways and areas for functional support. Nobody lives in the utilidors. There's no "magic" down there. It's as exciting as the basement of an office building.

It must have seemed like a good idea when they designed the Magic Kingdom. But it undoubtedly added to the cost of construction. The three newer parks at WDW don't have utilidors. Instead, the "backstage" support areas run around the perimeters of the parks, so many locations in the parks have back doors that open to non-public areas.

 

[lrodk]

The main cast member cafeteria is down there as well as the wardrobe dept. I once saw Mickey's costume hanging on the wall, as well as an armored truck making a delivery. We were also shown the trash disposal system which consists of a long series of tubes that suck garbage down from receptecles inside of the park to a central location. It wasn't glamorous, but it was interesting to see this other side of the park.

 

[YoHo]

The Utilidors were not initially installed to facilitate CM movement. DL has no utilidors. The land that MK sits on was very unstable. the "Basement" was installed to help stabalize and elevate the MK. the park is actually the second floor.

 

[Another Voice]

There are “secret” cities at Walt Disney World – the City of Bay Lake and the City of Lake Buena Vista. People actually live in them and they are chartered under Florida law. Not all governmental power could be given to the Reedy Creek Improvement District under the state constitution, so to safeguard control over the property, Disney created the two “cities”. The city councils control some end-use aspects of water, fire, police powers, some zoning issues, transportation and a few other non-RCID maters.

Of course, both cities are nothing more than trailer parks housing about thirty people – all of whom are guaranteed to vote exactly according to Disney’s wishes (imagine loosing not only your job but your house as well). All of the residents are “renters” since owning land would give them a seat on the Reedy Creek board and it's generally thought they all hold very low-end jobs at the resort.

If you look at the extreme northeast corner of Bay Lake you can see a small strip of beach that is part of the City of Bay Lake. If you get a boat close enough to it, you can usually see a few of the trailers.

 

[HorizonsFan]

That's cool AV. I knew about Lake Buena Vista but not the city of Bay Lake.
As far as the utilidors go, I found them to be as magical as the rest of the Magic Kingdom. Just in a different way.
More info: The MK utilidors are actually at ground level. The rest of the Magic Kingdom is the "second floor".
Epcot has a much smaller tunnel system under Future World. It's main function is reportedly cash control.

 

[Safari Steve]

MK, TTC, and the MK resorts are in the city of Bay Lake, pretty much everything else on property is in Lake Buena Vista (which actually has many, MANY more residents than Bay Lake)
The Street address of MK's Main St. Service Tunnel is 7553 Monorail Way Bay Lake, FL.