Interesting Facts About Disney World

Disney World or more specifically, the Walt Disney World Resort, is located in Bay Lake (more famously known as Lake Buena Vista) near Orlando, Florida. If you haven’t been to Disney World but you really love to go there, arm yourself with these interesting facts about this famous tourist spot. Even for those who have been to Disney World may be surprised and amused with these more curious and entertaining facts!

The Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom holds a Flag Retreat Ceremony everyday. It is Disney’s way of honoring our nation and the brave people who defend it. Each day, Disney randomly choose a military veteran to take part in the ceremony, which occurs at 5 p.m. on Main Street USA Square.

You may call the Walt Disney World Resort a city if you’d like! Now the park occupies 30,500 square meters (12,342 hectares) of land, about the size of San Francisco, California or about twice the size of Manhattan, New York.

The Magic Kingdom Park became the first of the four theme parks in Walt Disney World Resort. The Magic Kingdom’s opening day also coincided with the opening of Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Florida and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort in Hawaii and other Polynesian countries.

About 10,000 people attended on the Magic Kingdom’s opening day.

Walt Disney had always been interested and fascinated about the life of the great US president. When he was a young boy, Disney knew the Gettyburg Address by heart and would easily recite this in front of his class.

There is a stage show in Disneyland titled Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln which features an audio-animatronic likeness of President Lincoln. This particular figure made its first appearance at the 1964 New York Fair. And a year after its debut, it was Disneyland’s turn to launch the show, and today Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is one of Disneyland’s most popular attractions.

In Walt Disney World, the figure of Abe Lincoln is among the 43 audio-animatronic Presidents that appear onstage inside The Hall of Presidents building. It is located on Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square.

The construction of the Cinderella Castle was completed in 1971. This iconic fairy tale castle measures 189 feet (or 58 meters) tall, about 100 feet taller than the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland, California.

Jungle Cruise is a familiar attraction in many of the Disney theme parks — Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. Hong Kong Disneyland has a similar attraction but its name is Jungle River Cruise.

The Jungle Cruise in Disney’s Magic Kingdom is found in Adventureland. It is one of the Magic Kingdom’s original attractions since it opened on October 1, 1971. There, you can experience the jungle life — rain forests, jungle animals like elephants and gorillas, boat rides in the jungle rivers, and other features and enhancements. In 2010, the man-made Jungle Cruise was declared a “real” forest because it was equipped with its own ecosystem.

Another famous spot in Magic Kingdom Park is the Pirates of the Caribbean, a dark ride attraction opened on December 15, 1973. The Disneyland in Anaheim, California was the first to have the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. It’s also found in Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park in Paris. Another one is under construction in the soon-to-be-opened Shanghai Disneyland.

Of course, the attractions are the basis of the blockbuster swashbuckler-fantasy films starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush and Keira Knightley.

The eight-and-a-half minute ride inside the underground cavern features long and twisting passageways, pirates, cannon battles, and of course Captain Jack Sparrow.

The Animal Kingdom is also one of Magic Kingdom’s most popular attractions. Opened in April 1998, you can find hundreds of real animals (not animatronics), some of them are really interesting. They include a wide variety of birds and reptiles (including the fearsome Komodo dragon), as well as fennec foxes, Bengali tigers, Nigerian Dwarf goat, tarantulas, and exotic cattles and chickens.

The most iconic part of this attraction is the Tree of Life, a tall, fake tree with carvings of different animals on its “trunk” and “branches.”

Although there’s “Hollywood” in its name, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is otherwise located at the World Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. It first opened its doors on May 1, 1989.

When you step inside this theme park, it feels as you’ve been transported back to the 1930s and 1940s Hollywood, where the park actually derives much of its inspiration. The most famous spots there are the Twilight Zone Town of Terror, Echo Lake Lagoon, the Streets of America, Pixar Place and Animation Courtyard, among others. A huge version of the Sorcerer’s Hat — the one that Mickey Mouse wore in the film Fantasia — has been recently removed from the park.

The Hall of Presidents at the Magic Kingdom Park, Walt Disney World Resort is one of the original attractions since the theme park opened in October 1971. It features 43 audio-animatronic figures of the US Presidents, where they all appear onstage in the Hall of Presidents Building located in Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square.

The Hall of Presidents is considered one of Walt Disney’s most ambitious projects. It started with Disney’s collaboration with his own “Imagineers” to come up with the first audio-animatronic figure in human form. It resulted into an attraction called Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, which debuted at the New York Fair in 1964. It eventually moved to Disneyland in California a year later and since then it has become one of the major attractions. Now, the figure of President Lincoln stands among the other figures of other US Presidents inside The Hall of Presidents building.

The second Swiss Family Treehouse opened in Magic Kingdom in October 1971 (the first one was in Disneyland in Anaheim, California in 1962). As you might have known, these attractions are based on the 1960 Disney film Swiss Family Robinson. The attraction recreates the treehouse that the Robinson family built after they had been shipwrecked.

To get to the top of the treehouse, you have to go through an ordeal (or adventure) of climbing a total of 116 stairs.

Another popular attraction at the Walt Disney’s World Resort’s Magic Kingdom is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It first opened on June 4, 1999.

Another “dark ride” attraction, you get to go aboard the Hunny Pot. Along the way you meet several Winnie the Pooh characters like Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Tigger, Kanga, Roo and of course Winnie the Pooh, in audio-animatronic figures.

First opened in Walt Disney’s World Resort’s Magic Kingdom theme park on November 15, 1980, the attraction is closely akin to the first Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

The roller coaster’s theme is set in the American Southwest specifically during the Gold Rush. You get ride a “mine train” and encounter falling rocks, waterfalls, suspended possums (for humor), bat-infested mining tunnels, and even an earthquake for an added thrill. The man-made caves look so realistic with “stalactites” and “stalagmites”

A getaway island located within the Magic Kingdom theme park, the Tom Sawyer Island first opened on May 20, 1973. Tom Sawyer is, of course, based on the famous works by Mark Twain. The attraction’s attention to detail is by far exceptional, to start with.

The island has lots for the tourists to explore — dark caves and passageways, old mining site, a challenging rope bridge, a barrel bridge, and a fort named Fort Langhorn (from Twain’s birth name Samuel Langhorn Clements) where people can play with fake and noisy rifles and cannons and dare to go inside the “escape tunnel.” This island will be extra fun for the kids who love such adventures, as well as a perfect refuge for the kids-at-heart.

If you want a spine-tingling, hair-raising experience in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, then this Haunted Mansion is for you. First opened in October 1971, the Haunted Mansion, the Haunted Mansion features some of the Magic Kingdom’s best special effects as well as excellent attention to detail. Get aboard the Doom Buggy which will take you through the English Tudor-style haunted house and the graveyard.

While the haunted house is more spooky, the graveyard serves up some laughs, with the humorous epitaphs and opera-singing, Viking helmet-wearing ghouls. Discover spooky secrets inside the Stretching Room, a space with no doors and windows. Ghost suddenly hopping at your Doom Buggy coach would add to a more creepy fun. Even at the exit of the attraction there are still some witty and humorously-named crypts such as Pearl E. Gates, Rustin Peese and I.M. Ready.