Cast Member Only! – Fun things we know.
by Mr Mouse Admini... on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 15:36
As we go through our time with Disney we come across interesting nuggets of information. I am not talking about spoilers, this forum is accessible by the public do please no fact’s that those who believe in the Magic of Disney don’t want or need to know, I mean the fun stuff only a Cast Member might know.
I am starting this in the forums with an eye to moving it to another project in the near future. Thanks for sharing!
When Disney and the French government agreed terms for the French Disney Resort the rule was that the first language of the Parks must be French, the concession was however made that the first language for the resort hotels could be English. This then became a clause for each attraction, restaurant and merchandise location being signed off by the French authorities.
As I understand it from a friend in Imagineering, this rule was followed to the letter, well almost. The exception was the “Star Tours” attraction. Here the agreement read “The first Terrestrial language will be French”. If you listen carefully to the recorded spiels that run in the attraction the first language used is ‘Batchi’, the alien language used in ‘Star Wars – A new hope.’
As you walk through the queue line in Star Tours in Paris you’ll see at one point that there are a string of moving grey plastic baskets suspended from the ceiling. Each one has an individual number stencilled on the side. Each one is a mix of numbers and letters.
They represent the initials and dates of birth of the Imagineering team responsible for the attraction.
The same Imagineering names and dates of birth systems is used on the ceiling of the "Baltimore Gun Club" area of the queue line of Space Mountain, again in Paris. The stars painted on the blue ceiling just before descending to the grouper/load area are ‘cataloged’ using the system.
An old friend of mine, Tom, is recorded almost in the middle of the tableau under TM-### (I won’t embarrass him by giving his date of birth here.)
Once on the attraction and you enter the Maintenance Bay, after you dropper and as you turn to the right you can see the giant microscope from Adventures Through Inner Space.
Thinking back about the queue, it wouldn't surprise me that the baskets used at the Disneyland Resort have the same lettering and numbering system, although I can not personally confirm that.
At The Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, there are tons of spiffy little things through out the queue...
The queue itself took more time to construct than the actual attraction
Upon entering the queue, the Mercedes Benz truck you see was one of the vehicles used during the major chase scenes for the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Shortly after you enter the temple there is a round room with tons of 2 letter initials (in the Myra print of course). The initials are all the people that worked on the making of the attraction. 2 names of interest would be George Lucas and Mickey Mouse.
In the projection room, if you ask the CM at the back (near the screen) to show you with a flashlight, you can see the last standing Eeyore sign from the original parking lot. While watching the film, to your left there is a hidden Mickey and a hidden silhouette of Indy on the right, they are both hidden in the cracks.
In the attraction....
The skull room contains 1,996 skulls (the attraction opened in 1996). Amongst the skull, there is one with sun glasses and one with mickey ears.
Enjoy...
A Scan of my original decoder card that was passed out when Indy opened
When building the ‘Big Thunder Mountain’ attraction at Disneyland Resort Paris a date was set to flood the ‘Rivers of the far west’ lake that surrounds the attraction. The date was posted to all the various contractors working in Frontiereland and as the Resort opening was drawing near the time and date were not up for negotiation.
One firm of, I believe Italian contractors, either didn’t get the memo or just missed the deadline because the compressor (you know the, big, noisy, yellow things you see at the side of the road powering jack hammers…) that they were using is still to be found at the bottom of the river. It’s final resting place is about 3 meters (10 feet) from the splashdown – where the BTM trains appear to tough the water. opposite Phantom Manor.
I can vouch that it is there because I tickled it once or twice with a keelboat!
Do not know if everyone is aware of this, or not, but the steamboat Liberty Belle, that is located in the Rivers of America actually runs on an underwater monorail track, very similar to what the actual monorail runs on, or what the submarines in the 20,000 Leagues attraction also used. I am sure that very few people have ever seen this underwater track in the RoA, but that is one of the areas that I worked construction back in the summer of 1971 and was there the day they actually pumped the water in to fill up the river.
Don't forget, from a guest perspective, all boats that run in any and all waterways through the parks are steered by the captain/skipper of that respected ship/boat.
In the attic scene, on the left hand side, kinda near the shadow pianist, there is a dresser that's actually a toilet. It isn't usable since it doesn't have the pluming, but it is there.
P.S.- it is in the closed position so it just looks like another dresser.
For a private showing of this night time spectacular, it would cost $40,000.
Nearing the end of the ride there are four singing heads. They appear to be animated plaster busts of four middle aged male singers. What is not too well known is that one of them is Tony the Tiger from the Kellog’s adverts.
Tony the Tiger was voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who is I think, the second from the right in the Phantom Manor ghostly heads line up.
From Wikipedia I understand that Thurls’ voice is heard in both American Haunted Houses but I am not too sure about the Asian parks.
I had the pleasure of doing a walk through of the Haunted Mansion and I can confirm that the guy who did the voice of Tony the Tiger is in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, I too forget which head it was. This makes me wonder if they copied the same effects throughout the different parks.
I also know for a fact that the Haunted Mansion/Phantom Manor attraction is truly unique due to the fact that it is located in a different land at each resort. The reason for this is to respect local customs about after life.
Tom Sawyer's Island is one of the only parts of the park that was designed by Walt Disney himself which has changed very little over the years.
As far as I am aware Frontiereland in Paris is the only land to have it’s own complete back-story, though if you Google it you’ll find about ten different variations on the theme.
One thing they all agree on is that the basic story twists around the Ravenscroft family.
Ok, so the address for Disneyland Guest Relations is 1313 Harbor Boulevard, Anaheim, CA. When Disneyland was built there was nobody else on Harbor Blvd. So how did we get to the 1313 bit?
Simple. The thriteenth letter of the alphabet is "M"... So 1313 is "MM". That ring any bells?
Also...
1313 Discovery Arcade, Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Resort Paris is the onstage entrance to the Main St Cast Member cafeteria!
For a while in the late 90’s I worked in Disneyland Resort Paris’ Fantasyland on the Peter Pan’s Flight attraction.
On my first training day the attraction lead showed me Wendy’s guilty secret. In the scene near the end of the ride where Wendy is forced to walk the plank a Thriller VIP, on one of his famous after hours tours of DRP’s Neverland had lifted her long dress and signed her behind!
love this thread about hidden secrets!
-The murals in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Cinderella's Castle @ WDW are set up to look like the Castle Garden that her and Prince Charming danced in during the ballroom scene.
-The clock in the entrace area by the cashwrap is perpetually set to "12". This is so that the clock will never chime "after midnight" and return all the princesses to their "normal state"--thus perminently preserving the magic.
-The sofa inside the boutique has 6 crowns on top for some of the Disney Princesses: (L to R) Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora, and Belle.
-The dressing rooms contain prints of the concept art for Cinderella, done by Dorthea Redmond.
-Imagineering confirmed during my stay that there will *not* be a hidden mickey in the boutique. It's said that the logic behind this is that each hairstyle offered contains a "hidden mickey", so when you go and get your hair done, you're wearing the hidden mickey.
Soon after the turn of the century (1900) a British war hero decided to retire and build a house between the edge of civilization and the wild jungle. There he lived with his doors open to hunters and traders. He offered them a place to rest, replenish supplies, as well as place to trade. Till his dying day, he welcomed all. in the early 1910's he unfortunately died. Being by himself outside the traders and hunters, the house became quite worn and destroyed.
As it became the 1920's three traders came back across the ruins that were once a house. Together they remembered what it was and decided to restore the house back to what it once was. In the process of the restoration, they also expanded the house to 2 stories and out of remembrance of the man that opened the house initially they continued to wave the British flag, which can still be seen today. Eventually, business picked back up and everything was going wonderful. Around 1930 though, business seemed to come to a halt, the trio that was running the trading post came upon hard times, some of them took it harder than the others. As the hard times wore on, the lack of money flow made it difficult to maintain the house (notice the metal sheet on the roof and the over all poor condition of the boat house?). One day, after "not enough trading and not enough thinking" (too much rum perhaps?), one them even ran a boat into the house (right before you enter the boat, if you look to the right where the Indy Fastpass machines are located, the second story is still held up by a palm tree trunk where the boat hit the house, the floor is also slanted down in that area).
Just as about all hope was lost, the late 1930's came around and a movie producer came across the house. The producer being curious about the jungle cause he wanted to shoot a movie in the area requested the men there for a tour of the jungle. At first they refused, telling the man that they have no problem showing him around, but they don't know all that much about the animals and such. The producer insisted that they still gave him a cruise and offered to pay them quite handsomely. Not wanting to refuse any money, they took him on a cruise, pointing what they could. Upon arrival back at the house, the producer was quite excited and amused by the cruise he was just on.
After arrival back to Hollywood, he passed the word around about the wonderful cruise he had been on. Since then the men have been giving cruises of their backyard ever sense, still not really knowing about the animals, but more than happy to take the money from the tourists that arrived expecting cruises. The skippers have been giving cruises to anyone that shows up ever sense.
Paul "may the jungle live and grow forever" Torres
P.S.- As I haven't seen the OG really since I was in training which was almost 2 years ago, this might be slightly in accurate. As a whole, I do feel that it is in tack. Also, I believe I made an error with my Indy info... it should be 1995 not 1996.
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney
Just prior to the opening of the EuroDisney Resort in March 1992 some of the stars of the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the then Festival Disney went on a meet and greet of the local area.
They visited the local towns near the Resort touring gardens, public spaces and woodland shocking locals as they went!
The touring stars were 12 of the shows Buffalo!
Did you know that Disneyland Resort Paris' Magic Kingdom has it's own micro-climate? The Park is surounded by a high earth bank which effectivly cuts off the winds that hit the Paris region unstopped in their journey from Siberia and makes the park 1-2 degrees walmer than the surrounding area.
I suppose everyone knows that the end of Main Street nearest the Hub is both narrower and lower than the City Hall end? The difference is only a matter of inches but it adds to the illusion that the street is much longer than it really is. It is a visual effect that uses your expectation of perspective.
101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie.
The Great Movie Ride was supposed to be a pavilion at EPCOT, but the Disney suits liked the idea so much they decided it had to be in it's own park. The Disney-MGM Studios was born as the Hollywood that never was, but always will be.
Part of the Grand Opening event for EPCOT's "Living Seas" pavilion was an underwater ribbon-cutting ceremony that included underwater performers and featured Mickey Mouse and Frank Wells. It was viewed through the windows of the restaurant which had a dense curtain of bubbles that split and opened-up to the start of this underwater presentation.
The dive team had a difficult time getting enough weights onto Frank Wells to get him to neutral buoyancy. ;-)
That's correct. As I tell all my unsuspecting passengers wondering if my boat is on a track, I just point out that my boat has a wheel, unlike that of Pirates of the Caribbean. If they still don't believe me, I stop my boat and throw it in reverse. I'd save that bit for after passing through squeezeplay (the spraying Indian Elephants.)
Here's some Jungle factoids for you:
-Backside of water actually does look different than the front.
-Our Jungle water is brewed fresh every day by the use of our waterfall. Brown dye is added to hide the depth of the water.
-Average depth of the river is 3 and a half feet. The deepest part? The hippo pool at 8 feet.
-The attacking natives love disco, it's true! You can hear them proclaim their love for the ancient dance during their attack. Listen carefully to their third chant.
-Skippers are not the captain of the boat. Some skippers allow someone to be captain temporarily in case something should happen along the way. Remember: Captains go down with the ship, skippers skip away at the first signs of danger.
That is all.
Disney's larger, more turbulant roller coasters have a least one hole drilled in the floor of each foot well (usually between the Guest's foot position) to make hosing the trains out a little easier after a Code V.