47 Facts About the Most Magical Place on Earth
Yesterday (October 1, 2018) Walt Disney World turned 47 years old! As someone who had their very first visit to the Most Magical Place on Earth during the 25th anniversary celebration, it seems so surreal that the 50th anniversary is only 3 years away. To celebrate this iconic resort that has ultimately become the most visited theme park in the world, I’m sharing one fact for every year since it opened its gates in 1971. Let’s learn a little big about Walt Disney World!
1. Walt Disney World resort covers almost 39 square miles of central Florida. Think the size of San Francisco or twice the size of Manhattan! This area covers almost 25,000 acres. Talk about dream BIG.
2. Their staff covers more than 74,000 Cast Members. The kind of magic Walt Disney World creates is some pretty serious stuff that requires a lot of extra hands! This astonishing number of Cast Members makes Walt Disney World the largest single-site employer in the United States.
3. It took $400 million to build the original Walt Disney World. Walt Disney World opened its gates on October 1, 1971 as one theme park, two resorts, and one resort & campground on the way. So how much has been invested in Walt Disney World resort since then? The current cost is $3.5 billion.
4. William Windsor Jr. was Walt Disney World’s first guest. Aside from ultimate bragging rights, what did William and his family gain from this amazing honor? Lifetime passes to the parks (LIVING THE DREAM.) and the title of Walt Disney World’s First Family.
5. An adult ticket to Walt Disney World cost $3.50 on opening day. It’s insane to imagine a time where your daily admission to Disney cost the same as a Coke in the parks! This figure has continued to climb over the years and is now anywhere from $102 to $122 for a one day ticket depending on the theme park and season.
6. It would take 68 years to stay a night in every hotel room in Walt Disney World. Walt Disney World offers over 30 resorts on property and several new ideas are in the works including the Disney Riviera Resort which is to open in Fall 2019.
7. Cinderella Castle is made entirely out of fiberglass. Despite popular belief, it took 0 stones to construct the famous icon! The castle is also inspired by a castle in Germany, Neueschwanstein.
8. Walt Disney World is the most visited vacation destination in the world. Magic Kingdom welcomed over 20 million guests in 2017 alone. Last year Walt Disney World’s four parks ranked #1 (Magic Kingdom), #6 (Disney’s Animal Kingdom), #7 (Epcot), and #9 (Disney’s Hollywood Studios) on the list of top amusement parks worldwide based on annual attendance!
9. More than 75 million Cokes are consumed each year at the resort. Talk about thirsty guests! In addition to all of this Coke, guests also drink about 13 million bottles of water in a year.
10. There is no official count the of Hidden Mickeys throughout Walt Disney World. Although an official number hasn’t been published, the man who wrote the Hidden Mickey books has found over 1,200 so far! (Learn all about the history of Hidden Mickeys here!)
11. Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain was the world’s first computer-controlled thrill ride. Although this technology is pretty common today, in the 1970’s when Space Mountain was created this was a major achievement for the industry. This attraction idea was originally conceived by Walt Disney in the 1960’s but it took around a decade for technology to finally catch up!
12. Guests are never more than 30 steps away from a trash can in the parks. Cleanliness was an important aspect to Walt Disney in the original development of his parks. After some research, Disney found that people were likely to drop their trash on the ground after only about 30 steps. In response, you can find a trash can every 30 steps!
13. On opening day 10,422 people visited Walt Disney World. By the end of 1971, the number of guests rose to 400,000! Magic Kingdom currently sees around 52,000 visitors per day — what a jump in attendance!
14. More than 30 tons of fruits and vegetables are produced in the Land Pavilion in Epcot each year. This produce is also served to guests as restaurants around the Walt Disney World resorts — how magical! You can get a closer look at this amazing produce on Epcot’s Behind the Seeds tour.
15. Walt Disney World is open 365 days a year. That’s right, any day of the year you can visit the Most Magical Place on Earth! The iconic theme park has only closed 5 times in the past 47 years — all were for hurricanes.
16. Chewing gum isn’t sold anywhere on property. In another effort to keep Walt’s parks clean, you won’t find gum for sale anywhere in Walt Disney World. Just be sure to bring your own next time you visit!
17. Epcot in home to the second largest salt-water tank aquarium in the world. The tank holds 5.7 million gallons, which makes it only slightly smaller that Georgia Aquarium’s 6.3 million gallons. In fact, The Seas with Nemo and Friends’ tank is so large that it could fit Spaceship Earth inside of it with room to spare!
18. Mickey Mouse has almost 300 different outfits. Talk about closet goals! His leading lady isn’t far behind him in magical looks. She’s got around 200 piece in her closet at well.
19. Walt Disney World isn’t actually in Orlando, Florida. The Most Magical Place on Earth resides in the nearby city of Bay Lake, but Orlando is larger and more memorable so it claims the location on maps around the world.
20. There are no restrooms in Liberty Square. During the era in which Liberty Square takes place, there was no indoor plumbing. To keep with the Colonial theming, Imagineers didn’t build any bathrooms in this themed land of Magic Kingdom. (FYI, there is a bathroom inside of Liberty Tree Tavern if you decide to dine there.)
21. There is an abandoned island and water park on property. Disney’s Discovery Island and Disney’s River Country have been closed down and abandoned for close to two decades! With a little Youtube searching you can find haunting videos of these forgotten Disney parks.
22. Disney’s Hollywood Studios used to be an actual film studio. Back when the park was known as Disney-MGM Studios, it had big plans as a major location in the film industry. From sound stages, to sets, to animators on site, the park was fully equip for movie magic back in the day.
23. Over 200 pairs of sunglasses are turned into Walt Disney World’s lost and found everyday. Disney has said that since 1971, over 1.6 million pairs of glasses have been turned into lost and found!
24. One third of Walt Disney World’s property is reserved for conservation. Although the property makes up almost 40 square miles, one third of this land will is saved for a more important cause. How cool!
25. Lucky guests can stay a night in Cinderella Castle. And by lucky I mean lucky. It’s basically impossible to stay in the most sought after room on Walt Disney World property. Other than winning a stay in contests like the Year of a Million Dreams, the closest anyone will get to this suite is through a tour.
26. Balloons, straws, and drink lids all aren’t allowed in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. These items can’t be found in the theme park as a precaution for the animals! Don’t worry, paper straws are still available to guests.
27. Cast Members do about 285,000 pounds of laundry per day. Basically if you washed and dried one load of laundry every day for 52 years, you’d cover as much laundry as Disney’s Cast Members see in one day. HOW CRAZY! Around 30,000-32,000 garments are dry-cleaned daily as well.
28. Mr. Toad’s presence still exists in Magic Kingdom. Although Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride hit two decades since its closure last month, the iconic toad can still be found throughout the park. Mr. Toad has his own tombstone in the Haunted Mansion’s pet cemetery. He is also shown handing the deed to the building to Owl on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh — so keep an eye out for that picture next time you ride!
29. Both Epcot and Magic Kingdom share the same birthday. Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971, and 11 years later on the very same day Epcot opened!
30. Walt Disney World is home to the most expensive roller coaster in the world. Expedition Everest claims the title of most costly coaster worldwide. For the low, low price of $100 million, Disney was able to build this unique ride experience for us to enjoy. Its also the tallest icon on property at 199.5 feet.
31. Disney PhotoPass photographers take hundreds of thousands of photos per day. Around 100,000 to 200,000 to be exact! Plenty of chances to make memories while you visit. Don’t forget to invest in Memory Maker so you can hold onto them all!
32. There is a secret tunnel system that runs under Magic Kingdom. Walt Disney World’s first theme park was actually built on the second floor! These tunnels or “utilidors” were built to give Cast Members a way to get from area to area without ruining the magic of costuming. (For example: A cowboy walking through Tomorrowland.)
33. Every year Walt Disney World resort decorates its property with over 1,500 Christmas trees. Let’s just say Disney knows how to do Christmas! Check out everything you need to do when you visit this time of year in this post.
34. Magic Kingdom’s parking lot is huge. The number one theme park in the world sees a lot of guests each day, so they built a parking lot to prepare for it. Magic Kingdom’s parking lot is so large that it could fit all of Disneyland resort and still have room for 500 cars to park there!
35. Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear were all fully produced at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney-MGM Studios used to be home to Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, the animation studio responsible for these films. Although the studio eventually closed in 2004, it’s pretty cool to know that a few films were created right at Walt Disney World Resort!
36. Epcot was supposed to be a working city of the future. Walt’s original plan for EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) was a futuristic city of sorts. (Hence all of the extra land needed!) Unfortunately, after Walt’s death in 1966 this city never came to be. Imagineers instead moved forward with the idea of a permanent World’s Fair.
37. A tree in Liberty Square is the parent of hundreds of other trees on property. Liberty Oak is a lot more than just a tree in Magic Kingdom’s themed land. This tree is parent to over 500 trees that all started as harvested acorns from this one tree.
38. Over 4,000 acres of gardens and park landscape are maintained on property. (That’s about 3,000 football fields, folks!) Thanks to the hard work of Disney’s horticulture Cast Members, Walt Disney World has some of the prettiest landscaping around!
39. Peter Pan’s Flight didn’t open until October 3, 1971. Although many believe that Peter Pan’s Flight was an opening day attraction in Magic Kingdom, the iconic attraction didn’t debut in the park for another few days!
40. One of Walt Disney World’s resorts is home to the largest sand bottom pool. Walt Disney World’s Beach Club Resort has a pretty amazing pool. Stormalong Bay holds 750,000 gallons of water, and unlike the other pools on property you have to be staying at the resort to use it!
41. The fountain in Epcot’s Future World can shoot water 150 feet into the air. This Epcot Innovations Plaza fountain is pretty powerful! In fact, if all of the “shooters” were set off at the same time, there would be about 2,000 gallons of water in the air.
42. You can camp out at the Most Magical Place on Earth. Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground offers more than 400 cabins and around 800 campsites for guests to experience!
43. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the largest theme park on property. This one of a kind theme park covers over 500 acres of the Walt Disney World property! It is also home to over 1,700 animals from 250 species.
44. Various Future World pavilions feature secrets lounges. Since Epcot’s attractions were initially built based on sponsorships, each building has a secret area devoted to the attraction’s sponsor and their guests. Before the sponsor change, Siemens had a lounge inside of Spaceship Earth. Test Track is still home to the Chevrolet lounge, which can be visited by invite or on the UnDISCOVERed Future World tour.
45. The All-New Mickey Mouse Club was filmed at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling all got their start in Disney-MGM Studios! Guests of the park had the chance to watch the MMC stars preparing for their tapings during the Backlot Tours. Some guests even had the chance to watch as a studio audience member!
46. The dragon in the Animal Kingdom logo represents an area of the park that was never built. Beastly Kingdom was as idea for Phase II of Walt Disney World’s fourth theme park. Pandora – World of Avatar now occupies the land set aside for this project. You can read up on those plans that never came to be in this post!
47. John Lennon officially ended The Beatles at Walt Disney World. On December 29, 1974 at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, John Lennon signed the paperwork to end The Beatles once and for all. Talk about a random location!
Believe it or not, these 47 facts only scratch the surface when it comes to the rich history and detail that makes up the Most Magical Place on Earth. As a child of the 90’s it’s tough to imagine a time without this iconic vacation destination that has become a bucket list item for the young and old alike! I’m so excited to see what’s in store for Walt’s Florida Project as we continue to creep up on its 50th anniversary!
