Strange but True Facts About Walt Disney World

We've all heard wild and strange stories about Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. From that It is actually built above ground (well, it's true, at least the Magic Kingdom is) to Walt Disney World is able to control the weather above their parks (just fanciful thinking, I guess.)

While the weather at Walt Disney World is not controlled, there are some amazing things about the 43 square mile resort that you probably didn't know.

Walt Disney World has it's own Airport

Although not in use, you can still see the private runway next to the Magic Kingdom's parking lot. The runway was originally used for company executives who were flying back and forth between California to Walt Disney World. In fact, you can still see Walt Disney's private plane that was used for these flights on display at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

The Magic Kingdom is build one story above the ground

The Magic Kingdom is build one story above the ground Disneyland opened in 1955, 16 years before Walt Disney World opened in 1971. In those years, there Walt Disney saw things he thought took away from the fantasy he wanted to create for park visitors. He didn't like seeing people in space suits heading for work in Tomorrowland by walking down Main Street USA, nor did he like seeing bags of trash being dragged across the park midday. His solution was to build service tunnels under his new Magic Kingdom to provide access to all areas of the park for employees, trash removal, and restocking of food and merchandise. The only problem was that if you dig just a few feet under the surface in Florida you hit water. The solution was to build the service tunnels on the ground level and build the park on top of the service tunnels; one story above ground.

The Contemporary Resort Hotel is a prefabricated hotel

The massive A-frame Contemporary Resort hotel at Walt Disney World is instantly recognizable to most visitors. But what most visitors don't know is that the hotel, build by U.S. Steel, is unique in that the rooms were meant to be removable. You see, the hotel's guest rooms were built off site and hoisted and slid into the hotel's A-frame during construction. The idea was that when it was time for an update to the guest rooms they would be slid out and replaced with a new, updated room. However, over the years, the rooms have settled and gotten permanently stuck into the hotel's frame so no rooms have been removed since the hotel's opening (they have, however, been updated the old fashion way; one room at a time and on-site).

Some old friends Epcot friends get a new lease on life elsewhere at Walt Disney World

When Communicore opened with Epcot Center (as it was called in 1982), one of the stars was SMART-1, a purple robot you could talk to and he would answer back (amazing technology in 1982). However, by the 1990's he wasn't so amazing as technology caught up with him and during a renovation of Communicore into a new attraction, Innoventions, SMART-1 was removed. He can now be found, silent and not moving however, as decoration at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort hotel. And remember the famous car crash scene in the now closed World or Motion? Well, when it became Test Track, the was no use for the mechanical chickens used in the car crash scene. Luckily they found a new home at Mickey's Toontown fair in the Magic Kingdom.