Fun trivia

I know I haven't blogged in almost a month. Life has been crazy! I decided to just do a fun post today of fun facts about the park.

Fun Facts about WDW

The land owned by the Walt Disney Company and known as the Walt Disney World Resort is about the size of the city of San Francisco or is about twice the size of Manhattan Island.

The fire station on Main Street is Station No. 71 (Magic Kingdom opened in 1971)

The US has a law that American flags must come down a sundown.  However, at WDW, only the "main" flag in Town Square in MK is taken down at sundown. In fact, there is a special ceremony daily for the Town Square flag.  The other similar flags are not true U.S. flags; they are missing stripes or stars; thereby avoiding having to be taken down daily.

Following an accident in mid-2009 where a monorail driver was killed, guests are no longer permitted to ride up front with the driver. Earlier, one monorail train was assigned to each resort on the monorail line where guests of that resort had priority to ride up front.

The Liberty Tree in Liberty Square at Magic Kingdom is a Southern Live Oak well over 100 years old. It is the proud parent to over 500 younger oaks, raised from its acorns.

When Abraham Lincoln, in the original Hall of Presidents display at the New York Worlds Fair, debuted, a malfunction occurred and red hydraulic fluid leaked into his clothing.  Investors and critics thought that Lincoln's assassination was being recreated.  From that time on, clear hydraulic fluid was substituted.

The entrance to Spaceship Earth in Epcot actually created a wind tunnel where at one time guests were swept off of their feet.  The Imagineers had to make adjustments after it was built.  But, it does still get extremely windy down there.

The golf ball (Spaceship Earth) weighs 16 million pounds!

Spaceship Earth is actually two spheres. The inner sphere is 2 feet inside away from the outer sphere. The outer "skin" of Spaceship Earth is made up of 11,324 aluminum and plastic-alloy triangular panels.

The Garden Grill is a revolving restaurant in the Living with the Land pavilion in Epcot.  Because Disney wants you to experience an entire revolution during the meal, the restaurant rotates faster at lunch than at dinner because most people eat lunch quickly.

The World Showcase lagoon is 185 acres in size and is larger than Disneyland in California!  The walkway around the World Showcase is 1-1/2 Miles.

When you board the elevator on the Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, on the left side, outside of the elevator itself, is an inspection certificate that's dated Oct. 31, 1939, and signed by "Cadwallader."  Cadwallader was a character in the sixth Twilight Zone episode, "Escape Clause" who actually turned out to be the Devil himself.

The exterior of the Tower of Terror was designed to match the buildings in the Morocco pavilion at Epcot because the Tower of Terror is visible from a certain angle in World Showcase and Imagineers wanted to make it look like Tower "fit in" with the landscape of Morocco.

The Earffel Tower, Disney’s Hollywood Studios' water tower landmark, would wear a hat size of 342 3/4.

Disney's Animal Kingdom encompasses 500 acres, the company's biggest theme park. The centerpiece is the Tree of Life, 14 stories high and 50 feet wide at its trunk.

In 1997 Michael Eisner invited Jane Goodall to come see construction of Disney's Animal Kingdom, in particular the Tree of Life. He asked Goodall what she thought about all the animals being carved in the tree and asked. "Where is the chimpanzee going?"  After conferring with Zsolt Hormay (chief sculptor) it was discovered much to Eisner's embarrassment that one was not included in the approximately 320 animals.  Eisner told Miss Goodall to pick a a place on the tree and one would be sculpted.  She chose the entrance outside of It's Tough To Be A Bug so everyone would be able to see David Greybeard; the first chimp she ever observed.  You will notice the chimp is more detailed than the other animals; and there is a plaque next to his image describing him.

The Tree of Life is constructed from an old oil rig.  It was the only thing strong enough to hold its shape.

Disney employs more than 54,000 cast members and is the largest single city employer in the U.S.

Disney is the largest "consumer" of fireworks in the world.

"Spare" or "backup" trees matching many of those in the parks are cultivated and kept on hand so in case a tree in a park is damaged, it can be replaced quickly.