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The Disney Theme parks are full of history and secrets.
From Disneyland in California to Walt Disney World in Florida, many tales have been told
over the past decades about these magical places but have you ever stopped for a moment
to wonder if these tales are true?
Can they actually take Cinderella Castle apart at Magic Kingdom?
Do the animatronics just keep moving all night long once the park closes and is that really
Walt Disney on the Haunted Mansion?
Well all these questions plus many more will be answered today as we count down the Top
7 Disney Secrets & Myths: Debunked.
Number 7- The Golden Spike At the end of Disneyland’s Main Street lies
the charming Sleeping Beauty castle.
Well if you’ve walked through castle into Fantasyland you may have noticed this gold
spike in the pavement.
The longtime Disney myth is that this spike was placed here when the park was being built
to represent the geographical centre of the park.
While getting this footage and drawing attention to the spike, we even heard someone walk by
and tell the person they were with that this was the centre of Disneyland.
So is this piece of knowledge that’s been passed around actually true?
Well lets take a look at this model of Disneyland.
It can be found in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and depicts the park on opening day.
At first glance you can see Sleeping Beauty castle is no where near the centre of the
park’s boundaries.
The hub area where the partners statue is today, looks to be much more central than
the castle.
Fast forward to today, where the park has grown and expanded quite a bit since 1955.
Even if you try to apply the centre spike theory to the size of Disneyland today, the
west side is still wider which means that the castle and main street don’t even split
the park equally in half.
So, no the gold spike under Sleeping Beauty castle doesn’t mark the geographical centre
of the park, and it’s nothing other than a survey marker.
These markers can be found all over the Disney parks, but this original Disneyland survey
marker was used to align the centre of the castle and draw bridge with Main street.
At the end of Main street where the trolly tracks meet in Town Square, there’s another
survey marker that meets up with the one under the castle.
If you’re wondering where the centre of Disneyland actually is today, well its somewhere
around here, just across from the Fantasy Faire theatre off the Hub.
Number 6- Underground Tunnels A common secret that’s widely talked about
are the underground tunnels at Walt Disney World.
These tunnels, known as Utildoors, are very real and can be found under the Magic Kingdom
in Florida, linking all areas of the park from one end to the other, fully underground.
Well actually its not really underground- Because of Florida’s high water table, the
tunnels were built on the ground floor and the theme park was built above it.
Either way, the tunnels house things like electrical operations, cast member cafeterias
as well as storage warehouses.
Now its believed that the underground tunnel system only exists in Florida and this is
partially true.
Disneyland in California also has a world underground, but it’s a small world.
In Fantasyland and under New Orleans Square there are spaces underground but these areas
could be considered more like basements since they’re isolated to that certain area in
the park.
The one true tunnel at Disneyland is in Tomorrowland.
It extends from the backstage area behind Star wars Launch bay all the way to Pixie
Hallow.
It houses some offices, break rooms and it’s where the Tomorrowland Terrace Stage lowers
into for the performers.
But none of these underground areas are as extensive as the Utildoor system at Magic
Kingdom.
It’s usually rare that Cast Members use them, since aside from the Tommorrowland Tunnel,
they can’t really take you into a different area of the park, but the Disneyland tunnels
do exist.
Number 5- Walt’s Busted The graveyard scene in the Haunted Manson
at both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland is where you can find the iconic singing busts.
The one myth that’s been passed around is that Walt Disney himself is this singing bust
who lost his head and sorry to break it to you but it’s not true.
The singing busts were an original part of the Haunted Mansion when the attraction first
opened at Disneyland in 1969 but Walt Disney passed away 3 years earlier in 1966.
Although this character known as Uncle Theodore might have a slight resemblance to Walt Disney
with his thin moustache, it’s actually Thurl Ravenscroft.
Thurl’s booming bass voice can also be heard singing the lead vocal in the song.
{Singing} When the crib doors creek and the tombstone quake.
Spooks come out for a swinging wake.
He was was known for being the voice of Tony the tiger for over 50 years
{Tony the Tiger} They’re great!
and can also be heard on other Disney attractions.
Fritz in the Tiki Room as well as Buff from the Country Bear Jamboree
{Buff} So long folks!
are also voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft.
As for his singing, well you can hear his rich bass voice in attractions like Pirates
of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain and It’s A Small World.
Number 4- Giant Legs One of the most popular food items at the
Disney theme parks are the giant Turkey Legs which got their start at Walt Disney World
in the early 90s.
A Frontierland food cart in Magic Kingdom was the first the serve the giant 1 1/2 pound
piece of meat.
Well the myth that’s been circulating since around 2010 is that these Turkey Legs are
actually Emu and not Turkey.
The myth picked up steam in March of 2017, when actor Zachary Levi, voice of Flynn Rider
from Tangled, brought it up in an interview on Conan Obrian’s late night show.
Well it turns out this is not true and the meat is in fact Turkey.
Emu’s are a pretty large bird-
{Genie} Don’t they look lovely, June?
-they’re actually the 2nd largest next to the ostrich, and the Turkey Legs in the park
are big, but they are not Emu big.
Apparently an Emu leg would be 8 times larger than a Turkey leg and Andrew Zimmerman from
Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods said that “Emu has the consistency of a turkey leg
but the flavor of roasted veal.”
Now if you’ve tried a Turkey Leg, you’d know that they taste more like Ham, and that’s
because they’re cured with salt and slow cooked in a smoker; it’s a similar process
to cooking ham.
You might also be thinking that the Turkey legs looks much larger than a Thanksgiving
turkey, and you’re right.
Usually the Turkeys we eat on Thanksgiving are typically smaller because they’re the
female Turkeys.
Male turkeys, the toms, are much larger and the turkey legs served at the theme parks
come from the these turkeys.
They’re about 30-40 pounds in size, so yea, that’s a big turkey.
Number 3- Sound Off Once the gates close and all the guests leave,
have you ever wondered what the Disney parks are like at night?
Well one myth is that the music never shuts off and the rides never shut down, especially
It’s A Small World.
Well after the last guest exits the ride, the cast members do their checks then fully
power down the attractions.
This includes shutting off all the music in the queue, on the ride and powering down any
animatronics and animation.
So no its not true that the rides never shut down, but there are instances when the rides
can operate at night.
Once the park closes there’s a whole separate team of cast members who work the third shift,
prepping the park for the next morning.
So a ride like It’s a Small World or Pirates of the Caribbean may operate at night if these
cast members are doing maintenance checks or repairs on the ride.
In terms of the music loops that plays throughout each of the lands, well that stays on a little
longer.
Disney maintenance teams don’t turn the music off until every single guest has left
the park.
Usually the music is shut off very late at night and it turns on again very early in
the morning so really it may only be off for a few hours but it does in fact turn off.
Number 2- Trash Sucks With thousands of people visiting the Disney
theme parks every day, there’s gonna be a lot of trash.
Wether its Disneyland or Walt Disney World, a trash can is never more than 30 steps away,
but have you ever wondered where the trash goes once its place in one of the thematically
appropriate trash cans?
Well the myth is that the trash at Disney is connected to a vacuum system underground
that sucks everything up, and there is truth to this but there’s also a big misconception.
The system known as AVAC, the Automated Vacuum Assisted Collection System, can only be found
at Magic Kingdom in Florida- you wont find it at Disneyland.
Cast members at Disneyland deal with trash the old fashioned way by collecting it onstage
then placing it into compactors backstage.
Believe it or not, cast members at Magic Kingdom also have to collect the trash onstage and
this is where the major misunderstanding comes from.
A lot of people seem to believe that individual trash cans on stage at Magic Kingdom have
a vacuum under them allowing the trash to be sucked into these underground tubes, but
thats not the case.
Once the trash is backstage, its placed into one of 17 collection points around the park.
Every 15 minutes the trash is sucked through 20 inch tubes at speeds of 60 miles per hour.
It’s then lead into the compactor located behind Splash Mountain.
If the onstage Trash Cans were connected to a vacuum system then they could never be moved,
which logistically doesn’t make much sense, but just think, trash at 60 miles an hour
is pretty fast.
Almost as fast as test Track.
Number 1- The Lego Castle At the end of Magic Kingdom’s Main street
in Walt Disney World sits Cinderella Castle.
This 189 foot structure soars over the Florida theme park with 27 spires decorating this
Disney centrepiece.
Well the longtime Disney myth with Cinderella castle is that they are able to dismantle
and remove the spires to protect it from hurricanes.
I mean it would be cool if the spires came apart like a lego set and although Disney’s
a magical place where anything’s possible, this isn’t true.
Anything built at Walt Disney World needs to follow Florida building codes which ensures
structures can withstand heavy wind and rain.
Cinderella Castle specifically was designed to withstand winds of 110 miles an hour but
some sources say its 125 miles an hour.
Either way it can and has sustained heavy hurricane winds in the past.
So there would be no need to remove the castle’s spires to protect it from wind and rain since
it was built to withstand wind and rain.
Also logistically this myth wouldn’t make sense since storms can approach the Florida
area very quickly.
They’d need to set up the famous castle crane, take down the spires then store them
somewhere safe; that’s not a quick job.
So no matter the weather, rain or shine Cinderella Castle always stays in one piece.
So those are just some of the secrets and myths of the Disney theme parks that aren’t
true.
Were you aware of any of these myths and secrets?
What’s one thing you’ve heard someone say about the Disney Theme Parks that is completely
false and not true.
I’d love to know!
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