Your best Disney fact or insider story...

[TGM]

I'll post again if I think of anything else, but

1. As you walk down Main Street, look at the lamps. They are advancing in technology, going from gas to electric, as you symbolically go through time.
2. Main Street and Tomorrowland are very unique, because of the years they are based on. Main Street is supposed to be 1910, and Tomorrowland, 1985. These years are not random, these are years Halley's Comet will be visible from Earth.
3. In Liberty Square, the shutters are hanging on an angle. This is not poor engineering, but ingenious Imagineering! During the Revolutionary War, all of the metal was used to make weapons, and instead of them being held up something made out of metal, they used leather.

 

[TGM]

All of the fake companies used to buy the land for WDW had a Mr. M. Mouse as the head. Now who might that be?

Also, all of the benches in DAK are made out of recycled materials, and the straws are made of paper-like materials, so the animals don't choke.

 

[pampam]

Actually we were abe to get straws at AK but they were very heavy sturdy paper, almost cardboard.

 

[TGM]

Actually we were abe to get straws at AK but they were very heavy sturdy paper, almost cardboard.

Wow! I guess that's new! I have heard that you can't get straws, and I've never seen them, so I always believed it.

 

[Chuckers]

I may have posted this earlier, but I can't remember...

When Epcot first opened.. the employees called it 'Extreme Polyester Costumes of Torture' because their clothing was horrendously uncomfortable.

 

[386chad]

love this thread, thanks everyone!

 

[CinderellasKastle]

I'm not gonna go through 29 pages to find out if someone posted this already and I don't care if everybody in the entire world except me knew this, but I heard one of the then Disney CEOs loved the Tom Hanks movie "Splash" so much he wanted to incorporate it into a Disney ride. So they put it into the name "Splash Mountain" just for him.

 

[RAPstar]

A net full of Jell-O

Roy E. Disney statue

 

[TGM]

I'm not gonna go through 29 pages to find out if someone posted this already and I don't care if everybody in the entire world except me knew this, but I heard one of the then Disney CEOs loved the Tom Hanks movie "Splash" so much he wanted to incorporate it into a Disney ride. So they put it into the name "Splash Mountain" just for him.

Sort of.

The idea for the Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da River Run was almost finished. They showed it to Michael Eisner, who wanted to make an attraction to promote their movie that was being released soon, Splash. So, to make the CEO happy, they decided to call it Splash Mountain.

 

[AuroraMeansDawn]

My favorite Hidden Mickey ever!

I was shown this just last week at Star Wars Launch Bay at DHS.

When you enter the attraction go to the room to your left and to the glass case on the back wall. A friendly CM asked if I knew where the Hidden Mickey was in the room. Intrigued I said no and he asked if I had the flashlight app on my phone. Flashlight on we went to the case opposite of the entrance and to the model of the ship on the far right and to the edge of the case. Bending down and with the flashlight shining into the ship's bridge or cockpit or whatever it suits you to call it on the left hand side of the wall is a tiny little poster of Jedi Mickey from Star Tours

Here is the ship to look for (I am pretty sure - like about 99% sure - this is the pic of the right one but I am sure a CM will help you if I have led you astray - I was there in March celebrating my 50th bday so I blame all errors on the convenient "I am 50 now" excuse)

And here is the teeny tiny poster (and a much nicer poster than Han had on the wall of the Millinium Falcon in Ep 4 wink wink)

My apologies for the photo quality. It's a dark room with a flashlight app and an iPhone camera working hard. It took us two phones to get the pic - one to shine the light and one to snap the pic.

How fun is that? It is the kind of fun little secret that just makes my heart happy!

 

[CinderellasKastle]

Sort of.

The idea for the Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da River Run was almost finished. They showed it to Michael Eisner, who wanted to make an attraction to promote their movie that was being released soon, Splash. So, to make the CEO happy, they decided to call it Splash Mountain.

That's basically what I said, but ok.

 

[HollywoodTowerHotel]

Ok, great.

 

[Mamaoftwo24]

These are all amazing facts. I love reading all of these

 

[Ensusieasm]

To find out how far apart to put trashcans, guests were given a candy at the gates to see how long they would hold onto the wrapper. Walt counted their steps, figuring it was 30, so trashcans are no more than 30 steps from each other.

Mickey has 290 different costumes and Minnie has 200.

A Liberty Bell replica was given to every state. Since Pennsylvania has the real one, they gave their replica to Disney, making Florida the only state to have two.

It took less than 30 minutes to evacuate all the guests on 9/11.

Each species of animal in AK have their own sound that they are trained to come back to be fed when they hear it played over the loudspeakers.

I didn't know they evacuated guests on 9-11. WOW!

 

[Ensusieasm]

Are you guys familiar with the Main St Windows? Guessing so if he's a bit of a historian, but if not, I would research those so that you can dazzle him with the history.

One of the Jungle Cruise "natives" says, "I love Disco."

The plane that's crashed on the JC is just half of the plane. The other half is at DHS - in the Casablanca scene.

In COP, in the "Spring" scene there are birds in the window behind the Dad. If they look a little familiar, that's because they're the same birds that whistle along with Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins' "Spoonful of Sugar" sequence.

DAK was supposed to have Beastly Kingdom(me) - which never was constructed. However, as you go across the bridge towards FOTLK, you can see a waterfall off to the right, dumping into the river. It's in the shape of a dragon, the last little homage to the land that never was.

EPCOT has utilidors, too. They only go under the front part of Future World, and are far less "infamous" than the MK's, but they exist.

In DHS, when you ride ToT, look off to the right from the top of the elevator and you can see Blizzard Beach. (Okay, not a terribly historical factoid, but I couldn't think of one for DHS and it felt left out!! LOL!)

There are more - mostly in the MK - but not sure what type of stuff you guys already know...

There was a show called Splashtacular that had these real tall robotish guys coming up from underground. Must have been using the Epcot utilidors. I think it was February 1992 that I saw this show near a big Epcot fountain. Anyone remember this short lived show?

 

[RAPstar]

There was a show called Splashtacular that had these real tall robotish guys coming up from underground. Must have been using the Epcot utilidors. I think it was February 1992 that I saw this show near a big Epcot fountain. Anyone remember this short lived show?

There's videos of it on YouTube!

 

[Ursula's Apprentice]

I knew quite a bit of these tidbits but there are so many more I didn't know! Now I can annoy my family even more with knowledge they didn't ask for! I love it!!!!

 

[Floridadreaming2016]

LOVE THIS THREAD! now i want to do KTTK

 

[xipotec]

I only read half to so far...but here is mine...a must do to "pay my respects"

After passing through Cindy's castle, there is a bronze statue of her on the other side, that has a painting behind it. The the painting has a crowns and vines.
It was designed so that from a little persons point of view the crown would show on her head. If an adult wants to see this optical illusion, you have to stand in front of her and bow. It then appears the Cindy is crowned in front of you....

I do this every visit and people always ask me what I am up to...

.

 

[xipotec]

In the HM que there is an organ, it is touch sensitive....on the side of the organ is a mural with floating instruments.
When you touch is on it plays its "part" of the HM theme...if you touch all of them at one you get a symphonic version of the full theme...but you cannot do it alone.