Favorite Fun Facts

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alicemouse's picture
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Favorite Fun Facts

Hi there everyone,

I just read a Facebook post about fun facts at Disney and found their list to be entirely to short. I feel like we have done a topic similar to this, but I can't find anything in the archives, so here goes! Here are my favorite Disney fun facts. I've collected them from various books and tours and hopefully I've remembered everything with reasonable accuracy. I'm curious to hear what everyone else's are!

1. The pavement in Liberty Square is designed to represent the open sewers that were common during colonial times.
2. The waterway between France and the UK in EPCOT represents the English Channel.
3. There is a hidden Mickey on the golf ball that is hit in Soarin'
4. On the top of Mouse Gear in EPCOT, there is a little robot that monitors the wind speed and relays the information to the control station in the Magic Kingdom that controls the height of the water spouts in the Fountain of Nations during the water ballet show.
5. Spaceship Earth has an internal gutter system. When it rains, water runs in the holes at each junction of alumilite panels and is funneled into the World Showcase lagoon.
6. The tree located in Liberty square was damaged when it was moved to its current location. It had to be wired back together.
7. Walt Disney has both the first window that you see (above the train station outside the main entrance) and the last window (above Edy's Ice Cream parlor).
8. In the mosaics in Cinderella's Castle, the stepsisters faces are red with rage and green with envy.
9. The Contemporary and Polynesian theming is not an accident. Because the resorts are visible from the park, they have to blend in with the lands from which they can be seen--Contemporary from Tomorrowland and Polynesian from Advetureland.
10. All of the 3-D glasses for every attraction are cleaned after each use at a facility that is backstage at EPCOT. All of the glasses have to be stacked on the trays by hand after the cleaning process is completed.

Ok, go!

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# no.7 I thought Roy Disney had the window overlooking the train station and Walt had the one looking over the castle ??

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alicemouse's picture
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Mrferret wrote:
# no.7 I thought Roy Disney had the window overlooking the train station and Walt had the one looking over the castle ??

Walt's is on the front of the train station outside the main entrance. Roy's is inside (I think above the Confectionary) facing the front entrance

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I don't have any, but what you posted is awesome!!!

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alicemouse wrote:
10. All of the 3-D glasses for every attraction are cleaned after each use at a facility that is backstage at EPCOT. All of the glasses have to be stacked on the trays by hand after the cleaning process is completed.

First of all, your #10 is one of my favorite facts! Yay to killing germs clapping

I like the little details and hidden "secret" fun facts the best. It was so much fun discovering the 100's of little surprise details inside the parks. Here are just a few of my favorites.

~Key under the mat at the Muppets 3D
~The story of the Bride's ring from the Haunted Mansion. It was originally a scar from a piece of sawed off pipe, that people assumed was the Bride's ring. The stories grew about the "ring" until it was paved over. People were so upset that the "ring" was paved over, that Disney added a real engagement ring to the pavement when they updated the queue a few years ago.
~The various phones, inside the parks, that you can answer or call.
~PUSH the talking trashcan~R.I.P PUSH sad
~The ToT was designed so that it would blend in with Morocco in Epcot. The Imagineers carried Morocco's color palette and architectural elements into the Tower of Terror's design. You can see the ToT in the background of Morocco if you are looking at Morocco from Mexico in Epcot.
These are just a few of so many fun facts that I love about Disney!

BTW, This isn't a "fun" fact, I think it's more of a creepy fact, but I can't believe how many people spread ashes on Disney rides or attractions. I'm not sure if people have been caught spreading ashes in WDW but it's happened several times at Disneyland. eek

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AnnielovesDisney wrote:
The ToT was designed so that it would blend in with Morocco in Epcot. The Imagineers carried Morocco's color palette and architectural elements into the Tower of Terror's design. You can see the ToT in the background of Morocco if you are looking at Morocco from Mexico in Epcot.

Ooooh! I forgot about this one!

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Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

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Not sure this is 100%, someone might verify it. The street lights on Main Street are all from Baltimore MD and progress in age as they go up toward the castle.

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AnnielovesDisney wrote:
BTW, This isn't a "fun" fact, I think it's more of a creepy fact, but I can't believe how many people spread ashes on Disney rides or attractions. I'm not sure if people have been caught spreading ashes in WDW but it's happened several times at Disneyland. eek

It does happen at WDW. Mostly at the Haunted Mansion but it has happened at Toy Story. One of my old co-workers was called to clean up sand out of a ride vehicle and when he got there, he realized that it was ashes.

-There are no bathrooms in Liberty Square to keep up with the theming from that period.
-Mr. Toad is in the pet cemetery at the Haunted Mansion.
-In The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, you can see a picture of Mr. Toad handing the deed over to Owl. There is also a picture of one of the characters from that ride with Pooh.
-There are hidden Pascals in the Rapunzel themed restroom area
-There is a hidden Nautilus in the queue for Under The Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid
-In the arc that leads to the Animation Courtyard at Hollywood Studios, there is a hidden Goofy.
-In Rock 'N' Roller Coaster, there are three hidden Mickeys I believe.
-Mickey Mouse wasn't going to be in EPCOT. The imagineers didn't want there to be any hidden Mickeys inside EPCOT.
-Camp Minnie-Mickey in Animal Kingdom was a temporary fix for that area because they didn't have enough funds to build Beastly Kingdom like they wanted to which is why there is a dragon in the Animal Kingdom logo and a Unicorn parking lot.
-There was a wave machine in Seven Seas Lagoon by the Polynesian to imitate being on the beach. It was turned off a little bit later because the beach was eroding away.
-You have to take transportation to Magic Kingdom once you park because Walt wanted us to leave reality behind.
-There is a Short Landing and Take Off runway in between Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness that was used to bring in important people by plane. Now it is used as construction site headquarters and for buses.

This is all I can remember. If some of this isn't correct, please tell me so I can correct it.

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I admit I looked up a lot of these but anyway, I'll pick a few I found most interesting:

-None of the shops in Disney World sell gum, which is why you never see any stuck to the rides or sidewalks.

-You could fit all of Disneyland into the MK Parking Lot and still have room to park 500 cars!

- No trash can will ever be more than 30 steps away from you in the parks.

- Mickey Mouse has over 290 different outfits!

-There's only one harpist at the Disney World Parks. You can hear him nightly, over dinner at Victoria & Albert's, the restaurant at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

And here are some fun food facts:

63,000 Cobb salads are tossed every year at The Hollywood Brown Derby at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The original recipe for the dressing, created in 1926, still tops the salads.

At least 190 orders of meatloaf and mashed potatoes are requested every day at the 50's Prime Time Cafe at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

324,000 pounds of popcorn are popped every year at Walt Disney World Resort " that's 5.3 million bags of buttery kernels.

Over 10 million hamburgers, 7 million hot dogs and 9 million pounds of french fries are consumed by hungry Disney World guests every year.

More than 50 million cokes are consumed each year at Disney Parks.

More than 700,000 pounds of unused, prepared food is donated annually through the Disney Harvest program to feed the homeless of Central Florida.

More than 1 million pounds of Turkey Legs are consumed every year in the four Walt Disney World Resort theme parks.

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These are great, guys!! If we all pull our collective knowledge, we could probably write the most comprehensive book available on this subject!

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Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

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Mandy wrote:
-Mickey Mouse wasn't going to be in EPCOT. The imagineers didn't want there to be any hidden Mickeys inside EPCOT.

Not sure if this is true or just an urban legend...

I remember reading that Hidden Mickeys were created in Epcot because Mickey Mouse wasn't going to there.

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-The red headed mermaid in Peter Pan's Flight was modeled after Ariel.
-There is cooper in the ground at Hollywood Studios along the parade route so the cast members don't have to tape the route every day.
-The rooms for the Contemporary were pre-fabricated and slid into the A-frame like drawers.
-Hollywood Studios used to be a giant Mickey head.
-Walt Disney wanted real animals in the Jungle Cruise.
-Cosmic Rays is the second or third busiest restaurant in the world.

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I read on Google that the "Morse Code outside of Frontierland is Walt Disney's opening day speech for Disneyland". awesome

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-Minnie's hand is on top of Roy's hand because that's to show he was supportive.
-The palm trees in Tomorrowland by Space Mountain originally folded up and opened with the sun.
-Magic Kingdom park is on the second level
-The one of the only buildings on Main Street that was built to scale was Town Square Theater to block out the Contemporary.
-The only real American flag in Magic Kingdom is the one on the flag pole in Town Square. The rest of them have something wrong with them like they have stripes and stars missing.

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JoAnn C wrote:
Mandy wrote:
-Mickey Mouse wasn't going to be in EPCOT. The imagineers didn't want there to be any hidden Mickeys inside EPCOT.

Not sure if this is true or just an urban legend...

I remember reading that Hidden Mickeys were created in Epcot because Mickey Mouse wasn't going to there.

Maybe that's what it was. I just know that Mickey wasn't supposed to be in Epcot.

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There is a small basketball court in the top of the Matterhorn mountain at DL.

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I love all of these - keep them coming!

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alicemouse wrote:
AnnielovesDisney wrote:
The ToT was designed so that it would blend in with Morocco in Epcot. The Imagineers carried Morocco's color palette and architectural elements into the Tower of Terror's design. You can see the ToT in the background of Morocco if you are looking at Morocco from Mexico in Epcot.

Ooooh! I forgot about this one!

The funny thing is, I forget about this fact every time I'm in Epcot too. I've never looked across to see if I can spot the ToT when I'm there. I only remember this fact when we're already home and I start planning our next trip. THEN I remember I forgot, yet again, to see if I could see the ToT behind Morocco. laugh

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AnnielovesDisney wrote:
alicemouse wrote:
AnnielovesDisney wrote:
The ToT was designed so that it would blend in with Morocco in Epcot. The Imagineers carried Morocco's color palette and architectural elements into the Tower of Terror's design. You can see the ToT in the background of Morocco if you are looking at Morocco from Mexico in Epcot.

Ooooh! I forgot about this one!

The funny thing is, I forget about this fact every time I'm in Epcot too. I've never looked across to see if I can spot the ToT when I'm there. I only remember this fact when we're already home and I start planning our next trip. THEN I remember I forgot, yet again, to see if I could see the ToT behind Morocco. laugh

We've looked from Mexico and you can see it right on top of the building in Morocco and it fits right in. Now, that is what I call attention to detail!

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John Lennon signed the paperwork that officially broke up the Beatles at the Polynesian Resort on December 29, 1974.

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I was told that when the real Chinese Theater in California wanted to restore part of the theater or something, they had borrowed Disney's blueprint for the Studios Theater since they are almost identical.

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mrhub wrote:
John Lennon signed the paperwork that officially broke up the Beatles at the Polynesian Resort on December 29, 1974.

Wow, no kidding? Were they on vacation? Do we have archival photos of them riding stuff?

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Some more I got from wdwnews.com

* There are over 12,000 "books" in the library at Enchanted Tales with Belle.
* There are 115 windows in the Beast's Castle.
* There are 183 characters in Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid. More than 70 percent (128, to be exact) are featured in the "Under the Sea" scene.
* The Audio-Animatronics figure of the sea witch Ursula is 7 1/2-feet tall and 12 feet wide.
* If you stacked the number of standard autograph books sold annually, it would match the height of 200 Cinderella Castles. Add the Princess-style autograph books and, end to end, the books would reach 88 miles into space.

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President Richard Nixon declared "I am not a crook" during a speech at the Contemporary Resort in November 1973.

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I am still trying to get past the info learned here that the pavement in Liberty Square is darker to indicate the way the "drainage worked in that period."

I am reading a book about "parts left" from old rides that still exist in the park.

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OH! I remember one! When they were doing the Great Movie Ride, to save some money, they used premade face forms in the scenes with different costumes and wigs. Teddy Roosevelt is in one of the scenes.

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"George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again." Walt Disney

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JoAnn C wrote:
President Richard Nixon declared "I am not a crook" during a speech at the Contemporary Resort in November 1973.

Yes it was from the Top of the World Lounge, which is now the Cali Grill.

disneydoc wrote:
mrhub wrote:
John Lennon signed the paperwork that officially broke up the Beatles at the Polynesian Resort on December 29, 1974.

Wow, no kidding? Were they on vacation? Do we have archival photos of them riding stuff?

Here is one article but there are hundreds of them about it.
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/12/19/what-role-did-walt-disney-world-play-in-the-breakup-of-the-beatles/

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mrhub wrote:
JoAnn C wrote:
President Richard Nixon declared "I am not a crook" during a speech at the Contemporary Resort in November 1973.

Yes it was from the Top of the World Lounge, which is now the Cali Grill.

disneydoc wrote:
mrhub wrote:
John Lennon signed the paperwork that officially broke up the Beatles at the Polynesian Resort on December 29, 1974.

Wow, no kidding? Were they on vacation? Do we have archival photos of them riding stuff?

Here is one article but there are hundreds of them about it.
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/12/19/what-role-did-walt-disney-world-play-in-the-breakup-of-the-beatles/

This made my day! Combining my two favorite things: Disney and the Beatles mickey

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If you look at the statue of Cinderella behind the castle at the right angle, you'll notice a crown forms above her head in the mural behind her.

A life preserver at the unloading side of Goofy's Barnstormer is the "Ya-Hoo-Hoo-Buoy".

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All of the skulls and skeletons on Pirates of the Caribbean used to be real now only one real skull
remains on the headboard of the bed.

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There were two TV series about hi-tech crimefighting boats, and BOTH of them are have connections to Disney Hollywood Studios.