Behind the Scenes at Disney World
June 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
Most of us over the age of five know that in Walt Disney World many things are carefully staged to provide the best customer experience. The reality, though, is that everything you hear, touch or smell at WDW is carefully controlled. Everything.
For example, Fantasyland’s Main Street, probably the most-visited optical illusion in the world, has been constructed on a scale to make Cinderella’s Castle look a considerable distance away. But the distance really isn’t all that far — it’s just that every building on Main St. gets progressively smaller, providing the illusion of distance.
The same with the castle itself — its building blocks diminish in size as they rise up, giving an illusion of greater height. That little railing at the top is actually a foot shorter than you think.
But it’s not just illusion at work here. Disney spent years researching everything imaginable to give parents the feeling that in the Magic Kingdom their children are in safest place in the world. That’s the reason everything is so clean and sanitized.
This research, for example, showed that if people have to walk more than about 40 feet to find a garbage can, they tend to drop their refuse on the ground. That’s why no two garbage cans in WDW are more than 27 paces apart. Take my word for it, I checked it out several times.
The entire complex is also built 16 feet above ground — atop 8.5 million cubic yards of imported dirt — with tunnels connecting all areas of the Magic Kingdom. Down here is where the park’s 60,000 “cast members” (who enter via one of three dozen hidden access points) keep everything humming — utilities running, 9 acres of warehouses stocked with foods and merchandise, people in offices who plan your magic moments.
It’s also where you see large vacuum pipes hung from the ceiling, whisking garbage out to a landfill at 65mph. And the “Air Smellitizer,” a small machine wafting the smell of baking cookies up onto the street outside the cookie shop above.
Down here all of the music is decidedly non-Disney. “After all,” my guide told me, “how many hours can you listen to It’s a Small World?” He also told me “absolutely no photos.”
But on those nights when WDW closes early for mega-corporate events — such as the US Travel Association’s Pow Wow party I recently attended there — more than just It’s a Small World disappears.
Disney’s daytime persona metamorphoses into a great party atmosphere with another world of characters which, it’s safe to guess, Walt never imagined. When you see them — a snippet of the Pow Wow party is at the end of the video (or click here) – at times it’s hard to imagine you’re actually still in Disney World.
Jim Ferri
