Your best Disney fact or insider story...

[Chuckers]

This is definitely the idea behind the suite... but Tom and Suri got up there somehow.

Tom and Suri aren't the only ones... Neil Patrick Harris sent a tweet earlier that strongly implied he is staying in the Castle Suite at MK today.

 

[AndiSlamberg]

To all those who say you can't buy a night in the Castle, Neil Patrick Harris is saying he stayed there last night via twitter....
https://twitter.com/ActuallyNPH/status/320246728248934400/photo/1

 

[tjmj9801]

To all those who say you can't buy a night in the Castle, Neil Patrick Harris is saying he stayed there last night via twitter....
https://twitter.com/ActuallyNPH/status/320246728248934400/photo/1

Pssst. Check out the post above yours.

 

[lucas]

I found my guide said a few things that I didn't think were right but I was too polite to point it out because I have been wrong before. LOL Ok so it was about the Jungle Cruise plane and I knew the other half was in DHS in the Casablanca scene and she said it wasn't but why argue with her and make everyone uncomfortable over something so trivial?

As soon as the tour was over, dh and I thought of all kinds of questions we should have asked. But, we're shy and didn't want to draw attention to ourselves, I guess. If we ever do it again, we'll be more prepared.

I did speak up with a few corrections. She said Dole Whip is only available in 2 places in WDW, MK and Poly. I said it was available right now at Epcot during the Food and Wine. And, she said the only time people could stay in the castle suite was if it was won by a family or thru an organization like Make a Wish. I spoke up and said Tom Cruise had stayed there. She did acknowledge both were true.

 

[lucas]

I understand, my point was I am unlikely to smell anything unless it's force-fed to me. And your guide told you something that is inconsistent with most everything I've heard about the MS smells.

Another thing to mention if I take the tour again.

 

[Chuckers]

To be honest, we don't know if Tom Cruise or Neil Patrick Harris bought their night's stay in the Cinderella Suite.


Disney could have given it to them gratis or I could see NPH actually making a nice donation to a charity and getting his stay from a charity.

 

[Zooshoveller]

To be honest, we don't know if Tom Cruise or Neil Patrick Harris bought their night's stay in the Cinderella Suite.

Disney could have given it to them gratis or I could see NPH actually making a nice donation to a charity and getting his stay from a charity.

I read on DIS awhile back that Cruise donated a LOT (6 figures?) and it was a "thank you"

 

[jvptravels]

The doors are open on all the stores/bakeries so the smells naturally drift down Main Street. But, the smells are not pumped out. They tried it but it didn't work. Any hoo, that is what our guide said.

The doors are always open on Main Street for 2 reasons (aka "Keys").
1. Safety - So nobody injures themselves opening, closing or walking into doors.
2. Show - Having the doors open creates a welcoming feeling for Guests. Also, before air conditioning, shops would open their doors to get a draft.

A machines that pump the fragrances onto the street are still in operation. One of them is located in the utilidors, on a wall near the ceiling.

 

[jvptravels]

All of the buildings on Mainstreet are scaled down with each getting smaller from the entrance of MK towards the castle in order to create the forced perspective to make the castle look bigger than it is. That is all the buildings are scaled down except for one, the train station. They did this because the WDWRR uses full sized trains, a smaller building with a large train in front of it would've looked silly

The town square theater is two full stories. It was built to scale in order to hide the Contemporary Resort from view. This maintains the theme of Main Street, while accomplishing Walt Disney's wish to hide the outside world from Guests view while inside the park. This was because Walt Didn't have enough money to purchase the land surrounding Disneyland, and he resented all the tacky motels that were built around his park.

 

[Prock]

The town square theater is two full stories. It was built to scale in order to hide the Contemporary Resort from view. This maintains the theme of Main Street, while accomplishing Walt Disney's wish to hide the outside world from Guests view while inside the park. This was because Walt Didn't have enough money to purchase the land surrounding Disneyland, and he resented all the tacky motels that were built around his park.

Oh yea I forgot about TST, though technically they're all two stories but still scaled down.

Walt's desire to hide the outside world is also the reason you have to take a ferryboat or monorail to the magic kingdom, its all part of his revealing the park to you. If you stand on the ferryboat dock at TTC and look out you'll notice you can't see any cars (although with all the tree's they've taken down you can occasionally catch a glimpse), thats how well they accomplished his vision.

Another fun fact: When MK first opened you could take one of the parking trams to the main gate, but when they added cars to increase capacity it was unable to climb the hill underneath the water bridge.

Theres a reason for the themes to the MK resorts, each one matches up with a land in the park. GF is Mainstreet, Adventureland is the Poly, Fort wilderness and Wilderness lodge are frontierland, and Tomorrowland is the Contemporary

 

[csummerlin55]

Good story. I would love to see that picture! The way Divine moves is truly Art.

I'll try to figure out how to post that. Grandma was embarrassed and so the picture of her isn't great but Devine "grew" around her beautifully. She didn't just stand there, she gracefully moved around her so we like the video of the interaction best.

 

[bcrook]

Oh yea I forgot about TST, though technically they're all two stories but still scaled down.

Walt's desire to hide the outside world is also the reason you have to take a ferryboat or monorail to the magic kingdom, its all part of his revealing the park to you. If you stand on the ferryboat dock at TTC and look out you'll notice you can't see any cars (although with all the tree's they've taken down you can occasionally catch a glimpse), thats how well they accomplished his vision.

Another fun fact: When MK first opened you could take one of the parking trams to the main gate, but when they added cars to increase capacity it was unable to climb the hill underneath the water bridge.

Theres a reason for the themes to the MK resorts, each one matches up with a land in the park. GF is Mainstreet, Adventureland is the Poly, Fort wilderness and Wilderness lodge are frontierland, and Tomorrowland is the Contemporary

A clever connection.

Disney was planning on building the Venetian resort, the Persian, and the Mediterranean resort at one time or another on the monorail loop. Which one of those would have matched up with the "missing" fantasyland resort in your plan?

Old world Europe? Maybe the Venetian?

 

[bcrook]

Oh yea I forgot about TST, though technically they're all two stories but still scaled down.

Walt's desire to hide the outside world is also the reason you have to take a ferryboat or monorail to the magic kingdom, its all part of his revealing the park to you. If you stand on the ferryboat dock at TTC and look out you'll notice you can't see any cars (although with all the tree's they've taken down you can occasionally catch a glimpse), thats how well they accomplished his vision.

Another fun fact: When MK first opened you could take one of the parking trams to the main gate, but when they added cars to increase capacity it was unable to climb the hill underneath the water bridge.

Theres a reason for the themes to the MK resorts, each one matches up with a land in the park. GF is Mainstreet, Adventureland is the Poly, Fort wilderness and Wilderness lodge are frontierland, and Tomorrowland is the Contemporary

Although it is a pain sometimes, I really do like the slow reveal of the magic kingdom from the perspective of the boat and monorail. As a kid I didn't appreciate it, it just meant more waiting in line and a longer delay to get back to the swimming pool.

 

[jw50]

Theres a reason for the themes to the MK resorts, each one matches up with a land in the park. GF is Mainstreet, Adventureland is the Poly, Fort wilderness and Wilderness lodge are frontierland, and Tomorrowland is the Contemporary

What is your source for this?

I think saying that a Victorian seaside resort matches up with turn of the century small town USA is a real stretch.

 

[bcrook]

Found a fun fact about the Oasis at Animal Kingdom...apparently there was discussion to name that area "Genesis Gardens". that would have been interesting.

 

[csummerlin55]

Good story. I would love to see that picture! The way Divine moves is truly Art.

I forgot she allowed us to pose in front of her too. DeVine is so beautiful. Shhh, don't tell grandma I posted this pic of her, she'll kill me.

 

[bcrook]

Those pictures are great! Tell your grandmother thank you. I definitely have to get my dad there to see divine.

I like how the vines kind of enclosed your grandmother. What a memorable experience.

 

[bcrook]

According to the disney web page, the Animal Kingdom Lodge displays one of the largest collections of African art in the United States. It is like a museum.

 

[bcrook]

I would have never guessed that the animatronic Simba in the Festival of the Lion King is 12 feet tall!

 

[Jenny-momof3]

Re: the smells being pumped out in Magic Kingdom....

I just took the KTTK tour 2 days ago. They will no longer be pumping smells out of the bakery. They repositioned the vents for the ovens and you can smells the baked goods that way now.

Re: feral cats....

We've stayed at every resort on property except 1. The only one I've ever seen cats at is Pop Century...like a PP stated. There's probably cats that have reproduced on their own over there. On our tour we were told the bugs are controlled through various insects ( dragonflys, ladybugs,etc.) being released and lots of different type birds.