Always remember that the best theme parks in Orlando depend wholly on your very own interests. Pro tip: staying on the property for the entirety of your trip usually comes with a bunch of desirable benefits, like early park access.
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida is a place where visitors can escape the real world and enter into a realm of fantasy and make-believe. With four theme parks, more than two dozen hotels, two water parks, two mini golf complexes, and a shopping and dining area, there are plenty of things to explore. But part of what makes Disney such a rich experience is what's less obvious. For many Disney fans, exploring the secret side of Disney is just as fun as the attractions—and luckily, there are plenty of secret tips and tricks to discover.
There are plenty of surprises at Walt Disney World for guests who know where to look—expect attractions, Easter eggs, fun facts, and unsolved mysteries. Keep reading to learn something new about the Most Magical Place on Earth.
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1. You can go underground at Magic Kingdom
A sign up for Disney’s Keys to the Kingdom tour grants a peek at the underground city just below the main guest area at Magic Kingdom. This five-hour, behind-the-scenes walking tour includes a tour of the Utilidor, the underground transportation highway of sorts for Cast Members, deliveries, and even trash. You’ll also learn more about Walt Disney, get backstage access to some attractions, and enjoy a tasty lunch.
2. Disney’s Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review makes over 900 pounds of fried chicken a night
One of the most beloved experiences at Walt Disney World is the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue. The dinner show is one of the longest-running in the country and dishes up hearty all-you-can-eat meals of fried chicken, ribs, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and strawberry shortcake. Serious volume is required to feed all these hungry park-goers—in just a single night of dinner shows, the chefs in the kitchen typically make more than 900 pounds of fried chicken.
3. Scuba-diving machinists clean and repair all water attractions
Unfortunately, you can’t take animatronic Jungle Cruise hippos to the vet. Each night before closing, a few scuba-trained cast members on Disney World’s attraction machinist team help inspect, clean, and maintain the tracks and ride vehicles (including hippos) within the park’s water-based attractions.
4. There are more than 120,000 possible combinations for constructing a lightsaber in Galaxy’s Edge
A trip to the Black Spire Outpost isn’t complete without a visit to Savi’s Workshop, where you get to build your own lightsaber by choosing from a variety of hilts, kyber crystals, sleeves, emitters, pommel caps, activation plates, and blades. If that doesn’t impress you, this might: there are almost 280,000 possible combinations for building an astromech droid at the nearby Droid Depot.
5. There are hundreds of Easter eggs hidden all over the parks
Nothing at Disney World happens by accident, and that extends to the hundreds of Easter eggs hidden in plain sight throughout the parks. Eagle-eyed fans can glimpse homages to Disney characters and movies all over the park.
Speaking of non-accidents: names given to rides and attractions aren’t coincidental. Take Star Tours flight number 1401, named after the street number of Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California. You can also spot a few familiar names if you look up at the windows on Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom, honoring many individuals who contributed to the opening of the park and some of Walt’s own family members.
6. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure pays homage to New Orleans in a very special way
After riding Disney World’s newest attraction, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, step into the Critter Co-Op store near the attraction’s entrance. Here, you’ll find a range of cute attraction-themed merchandise. You'll also see a section celebrating Leah Chase, the New Orleans icon who was the inspiration for Princess Tiana. In this area of the store, you can purchase spices and sauces used at Dooky Chase, the restaurant owned by Leah Chase and her family. This is the first time that the line of products has been available for purchase outside of the New Orleans restaurant.
7. When it rains too much for the afternoon parade, the characters dance through the streets of Magic Kingdom instead
A rainy day at Disney World may seem like bad luck, but the staff always has a few tricks up its sleeve. When the Festival of Fantasy Parade is cancelled because of rain, the Rainy Day Cavalcade takes over instead, when characters and performers ride in vehicles or march down the parade route, some donning brightly colored rain slickers.
8. The Walt Disney World Railroad trains are still powered by steam
The Walt Disney World Railroad has been in operation since the park first opened in 1971, but the four trains that travel the 1.5 mile route multiple times each day are even older. Originally built between 1916 and 1928, they are still powered by steam, honoring Walt Disney’s love for locomotives.
9. There is a drink served at Oga’s Cantina that will make your lips tingle
The Fuzzy Tauntaun at Oga’s Cantina (inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge) is billed as a mixture of peach vodka, peach Schnapps, orange and tangerine juices and cane sugar topped with a tingling “Buzz Button” foam. We’ve tried it and what started with a slight tingling on our lips quickly turned into a full-on mouth-numbing situation. The “Buzz Button” is actually a small, yellow flower bud that produces tingling, numbing, excess salivation and a cooling sensation when consumed.
10. You can learn how to decorate cakes at Disney Springs
There’s always something new to do popping up at Disney Springs, the park's massive shopping and entertainment complex. One of the most unique things to do is decorate a character-themed dome cake at Amorette’s Patisserie. The cake decorating classes are 90 minutes long and include step-by-step guidance from a Disney pastry chef. You even get to keep your cake at the end of the lesson.
11. Hidden Mickeys were born out of an inside joke
Nobody knows just how many hidden Mickeys—silhouettes or abstract images of Mickey Mouse—have been placed throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. What we do know, though, is how they came to be. Walt Disney Imagineers, the artists and engineers who design all of the parks and attractions, started placing hidden Mickeys in their designs as an inside joke. Some are easier to find than others, but serious aficionados have created websites meant to help visitors spot the hidden gems.
12. It took more than a year to create the carvings in Animal Kingdom’s Tree of Life
With its hundreds of animal carvings and towering stature, the Tree of Life is an undeniable icon of Disney’s Animal Kingdom park. It took 10 artists and 13 Imagineers a whole 18 months of full-time work to create the 325 animal carvings on the Tree of Life. Constantly working against the clock, the sculptors had between six and 10 hours to create each image before the wet plaster hardened.
13. Celebrity chefs have taken up residence around Walt Disney World
There are great places to dine all around the parks and resorts, but for a real treat consider dining at one of the many celebrity chef-owned restaurants at Walt Disney World. There are nearly a dozen options, including Indian-inspired street food at eet by Maneet Chauhan, towering chicken sandwiches at Chicken Guy by Guy Fieri, and incredible seafood at bluezoo by Todd English.
14. Order a drink at Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto and you’ll get to interact with Mickey
Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, located in Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, is known for its detailed decor and tropical drinks, but some visitors may get more than they bargained for. Ordering certain tiki drinks may trigger special effects and cast member interactions. We don’t want to ruin the surprise, but our top picks include the big-enough-for-two Uh-Oa and the rum-based Krakatoa Punch.
