By Jackie Sheckler Finch

Kicking up his heels, Woody the cowboy from Toy Story leads guests on a rollicking hoedown. When the Frontierland show is done, the characters wave goodbye and dance down a side street at Walt Disney World.

Once they hit the magic yellow line, however, those hot costumes come off, and the dancing slows to a walk. This part of Disney is hidden from guests.

"That line was measured very carefully,” says Disney guide Matthew Arter. "Once you get to that line, the people in the park can no longer see what’s going on. When you cross that line, you can get out of character."

The special line is just one tidbit that visitors learn on fascinating Behind-the-Scenes Tours at Walt Disney World at Orlando. The programs offer a chance to see the park from the inside out. And, oh, the surprises waiting to be discovered. Tour-takers might never look at Disney the same way again.

"It’s a side of Walt Disney World that most people don’t get to see," says Matthew, who has worked at Disney for twelve years. "When you take one of these tours, you get to see where the magic begins."

Take the Keys to the Kingdom tour, for example. As a walking tour through the Magic Kingdom—as well as under it and behind it—the tour takes about five hours and costs sixty dollars, plus theme park admission. Other tours vary in length and cost. Most of them are only open to visitors age sixteen and older, and cameras aren't allowed.

On this sunny day, a small group with ID badges falls in behind Matthew to start the Keys to the Kingdom Behind-the-Scenes Tour. Keeping track of the tour guide will be easy. Looking like a turn-of-the-century bandleader, Matthew is dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt with a button-down collar, a blue vest with a plaid back, and a plaid necktie. He also carries a bandmaster's baton, which he'll sometimes twirl or use as a pointer or hoist up high when he is ready for his followers to move onward.

Little things that most Disney visitors don't even notice are pointed out. "The whole theme park concept is set up like you're going to a movie," Matthew says. "Walt Disney wanted to be in charge of all your senses. When you walk through the turnstile to the park, you're hit by the smell of popcorn."

A constant soundtrack floats over the park. "And those are the opening credits," Matthew says, gesturing to old-timey business names on second-story windows. "These are the names of real people who helped build the park."

Above the confectioner's shop is Roy O. Disney. "He was Walt's brother, the accountant," Matthew says. "They loved like brothers and fought like brothers."

Above the ice cream parlor is the make-believe office of Walter E. Disney—Graduate School of Design & Master Planning. "They put Walt Disney's name over the ice cream shop because he loved ice cream," Matthew says.

Unfortunately, Walt Disney did not live long enough to see the park completed. He died December 15, 1966. His brother Roy took over construction of the park and completed it to continue Walt's legacy. It was Roy who officially had the name changed from Disney World to Walt Disney World. Roy died two months after the opening of the park on December 20, 1971.

Although the old-fashioned buildings on Main Street USA look like they are three stories tall, they are only two stories. A technique called Forced Perspective is used to create the illusion. For buildings they don't want seen, Disney uses a paint called "go-away-green." "We can't make the building disappear, so we paint it with a green that makes your eyes go away from it to brighter colors around it," Matthew says.

Since most Americans are right-handed, they tend to move to the right and look to the right. Disney took that into consideration for the park layout. "When you enter Magic Kingdom, you'll find things that you might need for the day on your right," Matthew says. "And what you need when you're leaving, you'll find on the left."

Sure enough, stroller rental, breakfast eateries, places that sell supplies like film and suntan lotion are located on the right. Walking down Main Street on the way out, you'll find souvenir shops on your right. Since Tomorrowland is on the right, it is one of the first to fill up every morning. If you want to beat the crowds, head to your left and go to Adventureland or Frontierland instead.

Cleanliness and trash disposal are big deals at Disney. Legend has it that Walt Disney ate a hot dog in Disneyland and counted how many steps it took to finish it—almost twenty-five steps, which is roughly how far apart trash cans are placed. It's also said that Walt himself reportedly handed out candy at Disneyland and then counted the number of steps before people would drop the wrapper. He reasoned that a handy trash can would help prevent litter.

"We have the standard of being one of the cleanest parks in the world, and we work hard at that," Matthew says. Behind the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is a massive rubbish compactor where rubbish is sucked from around the park by a Swiss-built network of pneumatic tubes. The combustibles are burned to generate about a third of Disney's electricity.

"All the trash is sorted by hand to pull out recyclables and things that people accidentally throw away," he says. "There are about twenty-three tons a day of trash just in the Magic Kingdom."

Keys, wallets, sunglasses, cameras, and retainers for braces are among the most common items tossed by accident. The most unusual? A glass eye. Think it's strange that someone could throw away something like that? Consider that each year nineteen thousand cars are locked at Disney World with their keys in them, and fifteen hundred of them have their engines still running.

Then comes the Utilidor, which some people dismiss as pure folklore. But it's true. Under Main Street USA is an elaborate system of utility corridors built to connect the lands. But it's not correct to say that the Utilidor is a tunnel or even that it's underground. "The park was built on top of it," Matthew says.

Since Walt Disney World was built from the ground up, Disney had engineers build utility corridors for the first floor of the park. The water table in Florida is very high so it would have been quite expensive to keep tunnels dry. Instead, the utility corridors were constructed at ground level and then covered with dirt. The Magic Kingdom is built on top of this so Main Street USA is actually on the second floor, or about fourteen feet above the original ground level of the area.


The corridor loops around the outside edge of the park with a wide passageway that leads down the middle. Scattered all over the park are stairwells and elevators that lead up to the public areas. Using the color-coded catacombs, "cast members"—the preferred name for folks who work at Disney (remember this is supposed to be a theater experience)—can walk from one side of the park to the other in ten minutes without being seen by guests. Walt Disney World employs about 59,500 cast members.

Cast members are supposed to abide by basic grooming guidelines and are expected to keep the magic alive. Cast members bid guests to "Have a magical day." They abide by the four keys of safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. At Disney, the word TEAM means Together Everyone Achieves Magic.

"If I have problems, they stay in my car when I come in," Matthew says.

Every single costume is designed at Walt Disney World, and the park has the world's largest working wardrobe. Each costume has a bar code to identify its use; and Disney laundry, called Textile Services, washes about sixty-nine tons of laundry a day. "They get about a ton of lint every day," Matthew says.

Mickey has over 175 different outfits, from a scuba suit to a tuxedo. Minnie has even more, about 200, including a cheerleader outfit and evening gowns. With some of the furry costumes weighing up to sixty-five pounds, there's a limit as to how much time a character can visit with guests in the park. "There's nothing in the costume to cool you off so you can't be outside very long if it is really hot," Matthew says, noting that characters have to practice signing their autograph for happy kids "until they can do it blindfolded."

All of the utilities—water, electricity, fiber optics, trash, sewage—are in the Utilidor. "If something breaks down," Matthew says, "you aren't going to see them digging holes on Main Street to fix it."

The Utilidor also serves as a neat photo gallery for the history of the park. "There wasn't even a paved road when Walt Disney came here," Matthew says. "We built something out of nothing down here."

When word got out that Walt Disney was buying property for another theme park, the price of Orlando land suddenly skyrocketed. Disney used a fake name, M.T. Lott, so he wouldn't be charged extra. That is one of the names on a Main Street window.

Now comes the really big question. How does Tinker Bell fly? On the tour, Matthew says only that the cable that stretches from the top of Cinderella's Castle is "where she hangs out her laundry."

For those now in the know, that cable is where Tinker Bell makes her nightly flight. The cast member who plays Tinker Bell must be no more than five feet tall and weigh no more than ninety-five pounds. She wears heavy safety equipment, harnesses, and lights. She earns actor's equity wages plus hazard bonus and gets paid for eight hours whether she flies or not.

"She climbs all the way to the top of the castle with a guide," Matthew says. "Then he shoves her out the window in the castle turret."

Two people with a huge comforter wait at the end of the cable. "She curls up into a ball and slows down when she flies into the comforter," Matthew says. "Tinker Bell has a pretty good gig, if you think about it."

Labels: Behind the Scenes, Florida, Orlando, Walt Disney World