Backstage at Walt Disney World

The tour starts at the Grand Floridian, the most lavish hotel at Disneyworld. Right in the lobby of the Main building of the Grand Floridian thirty of us have gathered ready for a day of discovery. Our tour guide Mark is a friendly man who cracks jokes and lays the ground rules. Then we get aboard an open air tram and head out. Our first stop is at the float barn, a safe haven and repair shop for parade floats, never know about that Florida weather. As we pull up to the exterior of the building we see a long line of black painted barges. These barges are towed across the Seven Seas Lagoon at night. The parade consists of ten barges towed by a very powerful boat and travels around the lagoon lit up with multiple colored lights in serveral different shapes such as sailboat and the featured character, seventy foot sea serpent.. The barge for EPCOT, the centerpiece of the the fireworks and light show is also there. We all struck by the mass of it, you could have a Queens Ball on it and it is made entirely of steel.. Then we get a real treat, a float that will be used in the parade later in the day, guess who is on it? Tigger, we all get our photos taken with him on the what they call the Princess float, Upon returning home our photos with Tigger arrived, an 8x10 and some 5x7's.

The Heart of the Kingdom

One of the most fascinating parts of the tour in the Kingdom was going down below the Main Street of the Magic Kingdom. This is the hub of the magic. The tunnel is huge and branches off into the different lands, kind of strange to see Mickey being chauffered around in a golf cart heading to his next appearance. Then we were ushered into Cinderella's dressing room and met Cinderella as she was getting ready for her first appearance of the day at her castle. She was in full costume, as her costume and hair mistress looked on, Cinderella explained that are five wigs that they use. Each person is chosen as a character type. The choice is based on weight, height, body type and of course gender. For instance Cinderella was originally chosen as a chipmunk body type and as it turns out that body type if female is also qualifys to be Cinderella. Further explanation revealed it takes her about two hours to get dressed and the on the following day she was going to be a chipmunk. of course was not revealed if she was Chip or Dale!

On the next part of our journey we got to visit the computer room where everything in the Kingdom is controlled, Parades, rides, everything is run on continuous tape. That is why you will almost never hear any general park announcements, according to our guide if they made an announcement it would break the tape and stop all the rides. He went on to explain how all the parades are controlled. Along the parade route, yes it is a fixed route and has been since the park opened on October 1,1971, there are sensors placed into the road. The next time you go look at the road and you will see a brown waxy looking substance in the shape of a circle about the size of a quarter. These sensors are rigged up with receivers in the floats themselves and play the appropriate music or the float spins or what ever it is supposed to do. Cool, Huh!

MGM is Disney's version of a studio attraction, of course there not really any films made there. There is a street from time to time that they shot some exterior shots but that is about it. Our first stop was a place that the Imagineers work. Imagineers are the people Disney employs to dream up, design and layout the plans for new parks, new rides and any changes made to the Disney parks. The original Imagineers were the animation staff from the original Disney movies. Here we saw some drafting tables and mock ups of some new rides that they were contemplating.

Next it was time to do some animating, for me as an artist this was definitely the height of the tour. We got to go inside their animation studio which at the time was the headquarters where they were making "Aladdin" and then met with an animator who guided us through painting a cell of Mickey. After we arrived home I received my cell in the mail.

Lunchtime had arrived. They drove us down the street where the house facades are and stopped under the portico where some tables had been set up. Here we were served a nice lunch and as we were finishing a woman appeared, "one of the neighbors", After distributing the cookies she disappeared inside the house and came out sans basket and hat. She explained that she was an actress and she played several parts and was paid actors scale. Her exciting news was she was heading to Broadway to try her luck and I hope if she ever reads this she will let me know how it turned out.

UPDATE: No longer is the house used for the lunch stop on the tour, they now go to the Whispering Canyon Cafe in the Wilderness Lodge which isloaded with good food but alot of laughs as well.

After lunch we visited Star Tours and got to go under the machine where everybody gets tossed around like in a real spaceship. Mark our guide explained that it was a Mark VIII. One of the latest on the market and capable of many more real type movements than the previous models were not capable of.

The one place that stood out to me at EPCOT was the Living Seas. Now it is called The Seas with Nemo and friends. Inside this attraction you get to stand in the middle of a huge fish tank and for the most part you can see the whole tank. Here divers feed the inhabitants from time to time. You get to pet some lovable Manatees (sea cows )and learn about sea life along the way. Have your photo taken in a huge diving suit, these suits are the real item. We were taken to the very top of the tank, where guests usually don't go. Mark explained that the tank was the sixth largest aquarium in the world, 27 feet tall 200' wide and the glass is 8" thick. No plastic aluminum here. What I found really fascinating is that there is a restaurant attached and as you eat you can watch your meal them swim by. With the new theme they have created some new interaction with Nemo so it should be a lot of fun! This was the end of our tour. Back to the Grand Floridian and then on to home with wonderful memories for life!

My Parting Thoughts

If you have ever wanted to see how theme parks run, this is the tour for you. I understand they still give the tour at a cost of around $200. The experience for me was worth every penny and to tell you the truth, I will take it again.