WDW Facts! Did you know...

[Ted and Holly]

There are about 167 lane-miles of paved roads on WDW property.

-from Lou Mongello's WDW Trivia Book

And many people drive the whole length in about 4 minutes.

 

[kikipug]

And many people drive the whole length in about 4 minutes.

They're trying to make up for lost time after sitting in I-4 traffic...

 

[Dznefreek]

Did you know that Disney got the FAA to close the airspace above WDW after Sept 11th? This just adds to the magic as you don't even hear aircraft while on property. Man, you really are in another world!!!!

Actually WDW has been looking for a way to keep banner planes from flying over the park for years. They saw an opportunity and they siezed it.

 

[gizfish]

Because the buildings in Epcots Morocco have religious significance, they are not spotlighted during IllumiNations.

 

[rayelias]

Because of the proximity of MGM to Epcot's World Showcase, the back part of ToT is designed a tad different than the front.

You can actually see ToT in the background of Morocco, so the Imagineers designed the backside of it to fit in to the Moroccan theme.

 

[Daxx]

Did you know that all the names on the windows of the buildings on Main Street USA are not facing the Castle, except for Walt Disney's name, which is up on the Ice Cream Parlor.

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet (as I haven't gotten to all the pages), but Walt's name faces the castle for another reason ... so his name would face or look upon his wonderful creation.

Also, if you're in Frontier Land, the walkways are painted brown on the sides to resemble waste dumped there like they did in the Frontier days.

We found out this tidbit from our WDW Transportation bus driver:

When they remodeled the Emporium on MS USA, they knocked down a wall and found all of these old toys dating back to the opening of WDW. The toys (inc. MM stuffeds, trains, etc.) were stored there in boxes and the wall was built around them. These toys were of great value upon finding them NIB, in mint condition! Some older toys, brought over from DL and used as a display, were also found among the boxes.

Now, that's what I call a find!

 

[MyGoofy26]

Someone already mentioned the 'protein spills' but CMs use other "codes" when speaking in front of guests. Especially with the popularity of walkie talkies in the parks, it's very possible for guests to be on the same channel as CMs calling for help.

There are AFR's - usually used by lifeguards to order a pool shut down until sterilized. That would be an "Accidental Fecal Release"

If you hear about an attraction going '101' is has broken down.

And if you hear about an attraction being e-stopped, then it has been manually shut down for one reason or another.

A few facts that will make your wallet ache (these came from an old manager in my CP days who was in charge of merch for special events on top of his position in my area)

Those ponchos cost Disney 5 cents.

Disney has (or at least as of a few years ago, had) a deal with the Coca Cola company where each bottle of Coke and Coke products costs Disney another 5 cents.

Each box of popcorn costs Disney 2 cents.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. . .

 

[lab_girl]

...
There are AFR's - usually used by lifeguards to order a pool shut down until sterilized. That would be an "Accidental Fecal Release". . .

Made me laugh so hard it brought tears to my eye!

 

[ReninDetroit]

It is actually too short to be a real jet port. Its name is/was "Buena Vista STOLport". STOL stands for Short Take-Off and Landing. It is located across the access road to the East of the TTC Parking.


Click for larger image.

Ted

If you fly on Microsoft Flight Simulator, you can take off and land there, it's called Epcot Center, in Lake Buena Vista, FL and it's airport code is 44FD.

If you set it to "take off" there, you can taxi around a bit and you can clearly decipher things in both MK and Epcot : the Contemporary, Spaceship Earth, Test Track, Innoventions East and West, the MK Castle, the two mountains plus Space Mountain, and a few other things. If I remember correctly it's about 8 or so miles away from MCO (by air, not by road of course) and it's beautiful to take off in Orlando and fly in to the Disney area.

 

[Laurajean1014]

The Mah Jongg game in the lobby of The Tower of Terror was actually played by two championship players for one hour. Then they just stood up and walked away. This way nobody who knew the game could claim that the game was in any way inaccurate!!!

 

[Laurajean1014]

The outer "skin" of Spaceship Earth is made up of 11,324 aluminum and plastic-alloy triangles

 

[Laurajean1014]

There are 68 Audio Animatronic Characters in Splash Mountain at WDW

 

[Laurajean1014]

That Mickey and Minnie are married? Well their voices are!

The current voices, Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor are married in real life.

 

[Laurajean1014]

Spaceship Earth can fit in the main tank of The Living Seas with room to spare?

 

[Laurajean1014]

Polynesian Resort, there is an old wavemaker machine? Earlier, when the Polynesian first opened, it had a wavemaker that made waves lap up on the beach. Unfortunatly, this caused very rapid beach erosion, so the wave machine had to be shut down, though the actual machine still lurks off the shallows of the Poly. beach.

 

[Costumesaremylife]

Polynesian Resort, there is an old wavemaker machine? Earlier, when the Polynesian first opened, it had a wavemaker that made waves lap up on the beach. Unfortunatly, this caused very rapid beach erosion, so the wave machine had to be shut down, though the actual machine still lurks off the shallows of the Poly. beach.

I was told that too on an Illuminations cruise. According to our guide the wave machine was only used for the opening day of the Polynesian so that "authentic" Hawaiian surfers could hang ten. Also from the water Wilderness Lodge looks like face of a bear.

 

[Laurajean1014]

I was told that too on an Illuminations cruise. According to our guide the wave machine was only used for the opening day of the Polynesian so that "authentic" Hawaiian surfers could hang ten. Also from the water Wilderness Lodge looks like face of a bear.

I remember being at Poly when I was really little and it did have waves. However, I cannot confirm it was from a wave machine.

 

[Laurajean1014]

I heard from a CM that Walt Disney lived on a farm and found a sick or wounded owl, tried to maintain his health but it died and that is where he got his infatuation with talking aninmals.

 

[Laurajean1014]

While at MGM, we found three HM's we hadn't noticed before, they are in the Chicken Little mural on the side of the Playhouse Disney building next to the Brown Derby restaurant.

 

[Laurajean1014]

There are enough of the famous "Mouse Ear" hats sold each year to cover the head of every man, woman and child in Pittsburgh and enough Disney character T-shirts to put Mickey Mouse's smiling face on the chest of every Chicagoan.