Did You Know?

Roy O. Disney came out of retirement to finish the Florida project after Walt's death, and insisted the resort be named 'Walt Disney World' so nobody would forget whose dream it was. He died less than three months after it opened.

Carousel of Progress also came from the 1964 World's Fair and is believed to be the longest-running stage show in American theater history, by number of performances.

Its theme song, 'There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,' was written by the Sherman Brothers - who also wrote the song from 'it's a small world' that you cannot now get out of your head.

Disney bought the Florida land through a web of dummy corporations with names like 'Ayefour Corporation' - a pun on Interstate 4 - so landowners wouldn't realize who was buying and raise prices.

The secret held until a local newspaper reporter pieced it together, forcing Disney to confirm the project early.

Walt Disney World's property covers roughly 27,000 acres - about the size of San Francisco - and Disney still hasn't built on most of it.

Disney bought that much land specifically because of Disneyland: Walt watched motels and attractions crowd right up to his fences in Anaheim and vowed never again.

For decades, the Florida property operated under its own quasi-governmental district with powers most private companies never get - including, on paper, the authority to build a nuclear power plant.

Magic Kingdom is built on what is effectively the second story. A network of tunnels called utilidors runs beneath it, so cast members and deliveries move unseen.

The idea for those tunnels reportedly came from Walt spotting a Frontierland cowboy walking through Tomorrowland in Disneyland and deciding it broke the spell.

The utilidors weren't dug down. Magic Kingdom was built at ground level and earth was piled around it, because Florida's water table made real basements impractical.

Cinderella Castle is about 189 feet tall. The often-repeated reason - staying under 200 feet to avoid an aircraft warning beacon - is widely cited but not officially confirmed by Disney.

There isn't a single real brick in Cinderella Castle. It's largely fiberglass over a steel frame.

There's a hidden suite inside Cinderella Castle. It was originally planned as an apartment for the Disney family and sat unfinished for decades before becoming a rarely-awarded guest room.

EPCOT was originally meant to be a real, functioning city where people would live and work - an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt's death changed it into a theme park.

Spaceship Earth's surface is designed so rainwater is channeled through gaps into a gutter system and carried into the World Showcase Lagoon - not dripping off onto guests below.

The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom is carved with hundreds of animals - the official count is 325 - and its 'roots' are a repurposed oil platform frame.

Expedition Everest's yeti was built as one of the most advanced animatronics ever made. He's spent most of the last decade frozen in place, lit by a strobe - a mode fans nicknamed 'disco yeti.'

The Hollywood Tower Hotel stands at 199 feet - one foot below the same threshold people cite for Cinderella Castle.

Tower of Terror doesn't just drop you. Motors pull the elevator downward faster than gravity would - which is why loose items float up.

Disney's Hollywood Studios opened in 1989 under a different name - Disney-MGM Studios - and was a working production studio, with real animation and television work done on site.

Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear were animated largely at the Florida studio inside the park, where guests could watch animators work through windows.

The Contemporary Resort's guest rooms were built as complete modules in a nearby factory, then craned into the finished steel frame like drawers into a dresser.

The monorail running through the middle of the Contemporary was designed into the building from the start - the A-frame exists to accommodate it.

Walt Disney World has abandoned parks on property. River Country, America's first Disney water park, and Discovery Island both sat closed and overgrown for years.

The Grey Stuff, served at Be Our Guest, exists because a song promised guests it would be delicious. Disney had to invent something that lived up to the lyric.