Disney Revealed - Walt Disney World Tips and Tricks

It’s a Small World is one of the Magic Kingdom classic rides.  Whether you love it or hate it it’s hard to not sing the song associated with the ride.  Here are some fun facts about It’s a Small World

(1) There is only one nation or region whose name is actually written out anywhere in the attraction. Look carefully for the small hat with the name “Mexico” written on it as you venture through the South American portion of the ride!

(2) Only two of the figures represent the United States. The cowboy and the Eskimo.

(3)  In the jungle room of Small World, the purple vines hanging from the ceiling are all Hidden Mickeys.

(4) In the African section, right above the giraffe on the right side of the boat, there are some leaves. One leaf is in the shape of Mickey’s silhouette.

(5) In the Australia scene, there is a kangaroo bobbing back and forth, and the shadow of it on the wall makes a Hidden Mickey.

Here are some fun facts about Cinderella’s Carousel in Walt Disney World

(1) There is only one horse on the carousel that has a gold ribbon on its tail. This is Cinderella’s horse. Prince Charming’s horse is next to it. (At least that’s what the fairy godmother said.)

(2) Cinderella’s Carousel is the only place in Fantasyland where you can see a picture of Cinderella running with her prince to their carriage after just being married.

(3) Cinderella’s Carousel was built in 1917 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. At the time it was constructed, it was red, white, and blue (symbolizing patriotism) and was located at Detroit Palace Garden Park. In 1928, it was brought back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was refurbished and then relocated to Olympic Park in Maplewood, New Jersey. Maplewood closed in 1967, and the carousel was due to be silenced, if not for the watchful eye of a Disney person. The Carousel was fully restored, given the Cinderella theme, and was unveiled at the opening of the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971.

(4) There are 90 horses on Cinderella’s Golden Carousel.

(5) Know what the difference is between a merry-go-round and a carousel? A carousel’s horses all move up and down, while merry-go-rounds have some non-moving horses.

Below are some fun facts about Liberty Square in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.

Liberty Square—

(1) The Liberty Tree is well over 100 years old (a.k.a. Southern Live Oak). The 13 lanterns hanging in the tree represent the original 13 colonies.

(2) Listen for the subtle music changes between lands in the MK. Also, notice how the pavement changes as well, especially as you travel across the nation and through time from Liberty Square (the Colonial Eastern US) into the Frontierland (Western US).

(3) In Liberty Square, where they have the building fronts with just door after door, stop and take a look at them. (This is the area right behind the outdoor eating area.) The addresses on the doors are all two numbers. If you put 18 in front of them, that is the style of door they would have had for that year. As you walk along, you can see the progression of the style. From the windows to the hardware to the door and the window styles themselves.

(4) There are no bathrooms located in Liberty Square, in keeping with the time period of that area.

(5) As you enter the Columbia House Restaurant from Fantasyland, near Peter Pan’s Flight (London), it is decorated to represent England, and as you walk through, the decor changes to early American. As we change lands, Fantasyland to Liberty Square, we are virtually crossing the Atlantic when you enter the Columbia House Restaurant end nearest the Small World attraction leaving the Old World Behind to make our fortunes in the New World.

(6) In Liberty Square in MK, all of the shutters are hung slightly at an angle. This is because during the revolutionary war, England stopped shipping the US almost everything made of metal because the colonials would melt them down for bullets. One thing they did continue to ship was shutters. The colonials would take the metal hinges off the shutters to melt down for bullets and would hang the shutters with leather straps. Over time, the leather would stretch out, causing the shutters to hang at an angle.

(7)  Liberty Square was supposed to represent the East Coast of the United States all the way across to the Train station behind Splash Mountain which was to represent the West Coast of the United States.
Pennsylvania is the “Liberty Tree and the Liberty Bell.” The small bridge and creek next to the “hat” shop near the shooting gallery is referred to by CMs as the “Little Mississippi.”

(8) In Liberty Square, look down at the main walkway (which is also the parade route). Instead of just plain cement, there’s also an area a couple feet wide that goes all the way down the walkway and looks like a brownish/yellow gravel. In frontier times, the streets had a urine trough in them for the horse urine. The gravel area represents the urine trough.

(9) Liberty Square Christmas shop–Look closely! It’s actually three separate shops with the walls opened between them.  They are supposed to be owned by three different colonial families–a German family, a woodcarver’s family, and a musician’s family.

(10)  The 17th-century mansion of Master Gracey is supposedly on the Hudson River. The Hall of Presidents is supposed to represent Pennsylvania. I think the river for the paddle boat was supposed to be on the Mississippi.  The Diamond Horseshoe is at the gateway to the west, St. Louis, MO. The old wooden cottage of the Country Bear Jamboree symbolically represents Colorado. Big Thunder Mountain and the tiny town of Tumbleweed were near Monument Valley, MT, and lastly, the train stopped in Frontierland, representing CA. (WHEW!)

(11) Hidden park in Liberty Square in the back of the Christmas Store.

(12) The large bell is made from the same mold as the Liberty Bell.

(13) Look at the 2nd story windows in Liberty Square. One has a rifle and another has 2 lanterns for “1 if by land, 2 if by sea.”

The Haunted Mansion is one of my favorite rides in all of Walt Disney World.  Below are some fun facts about the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World.

Haunted Mansion Fun Facts

(1) After riding the elevator/stretching room down, as you walk to the cars, there is a lobby with a desk and lamp. On the desk is a dictionary that is turned to the word, “death.” This is not easy to see since it’s supposed to be behind a barrier, but go ahead and look because nobody is there to stop you….or is there?

(2)  HM on dining room table, in the library, and on the right hand corner of the Spirit.

(3) HM as you face Liberty Square and are at the iron gate. Look to the left–the thing that holds the gate at the bottom is a Hidden Mickey.

(4) If at the Haunted Mansion at night, look at the top-story right above the front door. You’ll notice a light pass by it and some shadows. It looks like 2 people are walking by with a lantern.

(5) The 17th-century mansion of Master Gracie is supposedly on the Hudson River. The Hall of Presidents is supposed to represent Pennsylvania. I think the river for the paddle boat was supposed to be on the Mississippi. The Diamond Horseshoe is at the gateway to the west, St. Louis, MO. The old wooden cottage of the Country Bear Jamboree symbolically represents Colorado.

(6) The top architecture is very easy to recognize as chess pieces. The architect was famous for building structures that had chess pieces as a part of the structure. When he was commissioned to build the HM, he continued his “signature” and added some chess piece architecture to the top of it. The only chess piece missing from the outside is the knight. This is because it is always (k)night INSIDE!

(7) Two Hidden Donalds embroidered in the chairs–red velvet chairs in the hallway area–Donald’s face is on the whole “back” of the chair. One is by the piano with shadow and one is in the hallway w/floating candelabra. (CM said there were 2 Donalds, 5 Mickeys, and a hidden ring.)

(8) At the HM, the carriage in the courtyard is being led by an invisible horse, notice the hoof prints (go at night if you can). The invisible horse is called “Old Glue” or “Elmer” and the black hearse is the same one used in a John Wayne movie called THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER. Follow the hoof prints (and wheel tracks of the hearse) out to the area where the fastpass machines are housed. This is the stable (you can see horse whips, bridles, and horse shoes hanging down from above).

(9) Stand in front of the hearse at the Haunted Mansion and listen. You will hear the “ghost” horse whiney.

(10) In the back of the pet cemetery, you can see Mr. Toad!

(11) Loeota Toombs (Thomas) is the woman on the gravestone and the small bride right before you exit urging you to “hurry back”–this is actually her voice played here. She is the head in the crystal ball, but the voice of the crystal ball Leota is actually Eleanor Audley, who did the voice for Maleficent and Lady Tremain (from Cinderella). Leota was not an Imagineer; she was part of the costuming department (wigs). Walt saw her as he was touring the department and said, “You’ve got a face that should be in the Haunted Mansion.” What he meant was that she was quite beautiful, and he wanted her likeness as the now-famous Madame Leota.

(12) At one point in the ride, you fall out of an attic window and die! This occurs when your doom buggy turns backwards, and you make that steep descent. The ghosts have not acknowledged you before that point, but after you “die,” you enter the party scene, and they acknowledge you for the first time!

(13) The creepy organ music you hear in the stretching room is “Grim Grinning Ghosts” slowed way down. You are hearing one song the whole ride, starting very slow and getting faster as the ride goes on.

(14) The “hands” on the clock are actually fingers!

(15) The one-winged bat really has both wings–one is extended as if stretching the wing and the other is still by the side of the body. (Once you leave the stretching room and make your way through the queue to your doom buggy, you pass posts to which the chains are attached. Those posts have bats at the “head” or top of them. There are three “one-wing-stretched” posts. Look where you make your turns to change the direction the line moves.

(16) Towards the end of the graveyard scene, there is a ghost in a window-type thing holding some keys. The key holder is a HM.

(17) In the ballroom scene, there is an old lady sitting in a rocking chair. This animatronic figure is a duplicate made from the Grandmother in one of the side scenes of the Carousel of Progress.

(18) The well in front of the Haunted Mansion contains an info red emitter (which activates the info red receptor in Pal Mickey’s nose).

(19) 2nd ring in the pavement is a “fairy ring” formed by paving stones just beyond the well. This marks the spot where a huge oak tree once stood. It was removed when the fast pass machines were put in. If you stand in the middle of the fairy ring on the night of a full moon and call out “Leota” three times, she will come briefly to one of the upper windows of the mansion with her candle.

(20) The area from the well to the building entrance is called the Colonnade. Towards the end of the Colonnade is the Family Plot with Imagineer “credits” on the tombstones.

(21) A berm behind the Family Plot conceals the gigantic building for the ride — none of which takes place in the brick mansion!

(22) The Foyer is the only spot in the mansion in which you can take a flash photograph.

(23) Six separate images are in the Aging Portraits above the fireplace as the young man ages and decays. The portrait was inspired by an Oscar Wilde novel called THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.

(24) The Foyer and two Stretch Rooms form a Hidden Mickey.

(25) Side step the ride and use the exit on the right side of the foyer to find a little corridor leading to the exit side of the mansion (used as a VIP or wheelchair entrance). In the passage is a row of servant bells. Though the attic is not one of the locations for which there is a bell, Madame Leota has one.

(26) Be among the first to exit for the Doom Buggies by standing on the side with the painting of the lady with the parasol (a painting of Master Gracey’s first wife who was lured to her death by the machinations of Madam(e) Leota).

(27) Who is the woman who screams in the stretch room? Some say this is the voice of a woman who has thrown herself down from the rafters and you can hear a dull thump at the end of the scream.

(28) Notice the yellow bats painted on the conveyor of the load area.

(29) Hippogriffs guarding two separate staircases.

(30)  There is a sea captain with a harpoon pictured in the Portrait Gallery. HM lore includes a story about the owner of the house being a sea captain who murders his bride. (And the weather vane at Disneyland’s HM is a sailing ship!)

(31)  The piano player in the Music Room is invisible, but you can see his moving shadow on the floor.

(32)  The flowers in the conservatory wake scene are not dried out and shriveled (like the wreath on the mansion’s front door). They are all still bright and alive.

(33) There is a Hidden Tinker Bell in a pane of broken glass over the coffin! (34) A ghostly shadow of a claw sweep across the Ghostfather clock.

(34) Look for the duelists who lean out of the paintings in the Grand Ballroom and shoot at each other.

(35) Look for the Lon Chaney PHANTOM OF THE OPERA poster in the attic. (You can only see it when the lights are on.)

(36) There are stars twinkling overhead in the graveyard scene! Notice that the outside of this house looks nothing like the brick manse outside.

(37) A shaggy haunt by the singing executioner (and the knight) is the very same haunt that appears as one of the Hitchhiking Ghosts at the end! These three are Phineas, Ezra, and Gus.

(38) HM was based on an actual Manor–The Gracey Manor. After all the family members died, the common people started rumors of seeing weird things happening. Walt Disney World then decided to create a walk-through telling the story of one of the rumors told. It ended up as a ride though. Also, they couldn’t decide whether they wanted the HM to be scary and serious or humorous, so that is why at the beginning it is so grim and at the graveyard the singing busts and the hitch hiking ghosts make it funny.

(39) If you look up at the cemetery gate when you are first going into the cemetery scene, you can see a paper tag hanging off of the gate. That is actually the purchase tag that was accidentally left on the gate when it was purchased from a California manufacturer. It has been there for so long they leave it as a private joke to themselves.

(40)  One small, almost completely unnoticeable enhancement is in the Stretch Room. If you linger behind the crowd as they are exiting this room, pay attention to the gargoyles. They speak and chatter and laugh. It’s difficult to hear, and you need to pay attention, but they are definitely making noise. This is a VERY minor effect — only a true Disneyphile would even care — but if you’re like me and want to experience everything, then don’t rush out of the Stretch Room.