It's a well-known fact that Walt Disney World is the most magical place on earth.
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From the Magic Kingdom to Epcot, the Orlando, Fla. theme park was planned in exquisite detail by both Walt Disney and his creative designers — "The Imagineers."
But even frequent visitors to the park don't know many of its secrets.
Author Susan Veness reveals some of that hidden magic in her book The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World. The book is chock full of fascinating facts from behind the scenes at the park. She shared some of her insider scoops with us.
Walt Disney called his plan to purchase property around Orlando "Project X." He bought the land using dummy companies that were chaired by a "Mr. M Mouse".
Source: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World
Thanks to an Imagineers' trick called "forced perspective," Cinderella Castle is actually much smaller than it looks. The bricks and castle windows are smaller at the top, and the Main Street buildings are angled to make the castle seem further away.
Source: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World
There are "hidden" Mickeys all around the park — on rides, décor, and even in the shadows at the right time of day (Next time you're in the park, check out the shadow of of the bridge at Cinderella Castle).
Source: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World and Hidden Mickey Guy
The skeletons playing chess as visitors wait in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride are in a stalemate: The real "no-win" chess game was set up by a chess master.
The Morse code you hear clicking at the entrance of Frontierland isn't random — it's Walt Disney's opening-day dedication speech at Disneyland.
EPCOT stands for "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow." It was originally meant to be an actual "model community" where 20,000 residents would live with schools, monorail transportation, and "no retirees."
Source: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World
All the flags on Disney World's Main Street are fake, except for the one on the central courtyard flagpole. The Imagineers did this so the flags wouldn't need to be lowered or illuminated every night.
Source: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World
Most people think Fantasy Land was intended to have a medieval theme all along, but it actually stemmed from the 1955 opening of Disneyland in California, when Imagineers covered the unfinished parts of the park with tents. The theme stuck.
Source: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World
The houses in Liberty Square are designed so that if you put an "18" in front of the address, that's the date the house style would've been popular. The "address" of the Hall of Presidents is the year the Constitution was first ratified.
Source: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World
Natural pest management is used throughout Walt Disney World. Disney releases 250,000 "warrior insects" each year via programs like the Ladybug Release at Epcot. Feral cats also roam the Disney property to keep the rodent population down.
Note: Not one of the feral cats. Source: The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World
The Imagineers really thought of everything — the brown path running through Liberty Square is meant to signify where waste would have collected if it had been thrown out of windows like in the olden days.
If you get to the park really early, there are some special, secret things for kids to do. For instance, the first person to enter Tinkerbell's shop at the park gets to "wake up Tinkerbell."
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