Disneyville: A Disney World Podcast

10 (Actually) Hidden Secrets of Walt Disney World

• Tyler and Jessica Braun • Season 3 • Episode 41

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Ever wondered what secrets lie beneath the polished surface of the Most Magical Place on Earth? Prepare to have your Disney World experience forever changed as we pull back the curtain on some of the most fascinating, peculiar, and downright surprising facts about Disney's Florida kingdom.

Did you know that Richard Nixon's infamous "I am not a crook" declaration happened at Disney's Contemporary Resort? Or that the Beatles officially signed their dissolution paperwork at the Polynesian? These unexpected intersections of American history and Disney property are just the beginning of our deep dive into Disney lore.

Whether you're a casual Disney visitor or a dedicated enthusiast, this collection of hidden history, abandoned projects, and ingenious imagineering solutions will give you a whole new appreciation for the layers of storytelling throughout the parks. Share your own obscure Disney knowledge with us and join our community of Disney detectives uncovering the magic behind the magic!

Book your next trip to Disney with Tyler's expert travel agents from People Mover Travel by your side! 

Watch the pod on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@disneyvillepodcast
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disneyvillepodcast/
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Check out our website: www.welcometodisneyville.com

Want to get to know Tyler and Jessica even more? Check out their YouTube channels!
Jessica’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@itsjessicabraun
Tyler’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@tylertravelstv

Are you thinking of planning a Disney vacation? Tyler’s amazing team of travel agents can help! Visit the People Mover Travel website to learn how!
Get a free quote from People Mover Travel: https://www.peoplemovertravel.com

Tyler:

Welcome to the Disneyville podcast, episode 41.

Jessica:

Here we talk about Disney World, disney Parks, disney Cruise and all the magic in between. How?

Tyler:

do I do Tyler? Nailed it. We are your hosts, tyler and Jessica Braun. Yes, today should be a fun episode.

Jessica:

Oh, this may be the most excited I've ever been. I'm not even kidding, because today we are talking about one of our favorite geeky things to talk about Super obscure Disney knowledge that we have no use for except for in a place like this, this is it? We're talking like folklore, like I am. You don't know any of the things I'm going to share today. I can't wait and I'm so excited.

Tyler:

So first of all, I made an omelet this morning and somehow yeah, you did.

Jessica:

It was so good.

Tyler:

Sorry, I made one for you too. Somehow a piece of eggshell got in it and I was eating it and there was like a bite with like an eggshell in it. And it's really like just thrown me off the whole day. Thrown me off the whole day. I can still feel the crunch in my mouth because it was a crunch when I was not expecting a crunch. It was. But here's the weird thing, jess. Ok, I did this exact same thing yesterday. What is with these eggs? Two?

Jessica:

days in a row I made omelets, and two days in a row Eggs are getting more expensive. The shells are just not the same, anyway, so that's so. I'm really hoping that this is gonna just fix the funk.

Tyler:

All right, let's get you out of this, get me out of my eggshell funk. So today's podcast is brought to you by eggshells. No, today's podcast we are talking about 10 fun facts, obscure facts, things that you probably don't know, but I feel like I kind of biffed it on this one. All the all of the facts that I came up with are ones that I've, like talked about in vlogs before well, but not everyone watches the vlog.

Jessica:

Sure miss one here or there.

Tyler:

I'm like I feel like these are ones that people already know, but think about curious well and so this is the problem. So I'm looking through dozens of forums, right, I've, and everything that was brought up. I'm like I already know this.

Jessica:

I'm like I don't know, but that doesn't mean the listeners already know, right? That's my point.

Tyler:

So I don't know if it's just that I already know way too much and so maybe you guys won't know these and maybe it'll be exciting, but I don't know.

Jessica:

Or we'll just form a little connection in your brain, a little dendrite right, so that you will remember it. So maybe you've heard it once before and then when he says it again you'll be like oh yeah, I'm starting off lighter. My first couple I did when you told me you felt like yours were not as fleshed out as fleshed out as mine fleshed out or fleshed out. I have asked this before and I never got it.

Tyler:

Well, it's not that it's just more that they are ones. I feel like people are already gonna know if you're, if you're listening to a disney podcast. I feel like you probably already know these, but maybe I'm wrong, so I'll be curious to hear. So if you already know all these, I apologize, but shall we go?

Jessica:

I apologize for nothing.

Tyler:

Okay, so we each have five.

Jessica:

Yes, and we also have are going to be sharing your guys's favorite, most obscure facts folklore about Disney stories you've heard.

Tyler:

Yes.

Jessica:

At the end as well, and I cannot wait to read those I haven peeked okay, yeah, I haven't looked either.

Tyler:

So okay, two things though before we start. Uh, actually just one thing two, two authors that if you like this episode, you're probably gonna like their books. I've read, I think, all the all of these. Susan vaness, I think, is her name has the hidden magic of walt disney world. There's like three or four different versions out, that's a really good If you find this kind of stuff interesting, interesting you're going to like that.

Tyler:

And then Jim Korkus has so many books on Disney world and they're all great. My favorite one is the one all about Disney resorts. I learned so much. I'll try and link all these below. But anyway, if you like this kind of stuff. You would like all of Jim Korkus's books, and the hidden magic ones as well.

Jessica:

Also, we need to share our mugs. We finally switched them out, guys. What do we have today, tyler?

Tyler:

All right, this is one of my all time favorite Disney mugs. It is Mickey mouse, but he's dressed like a 1950s dad and it just makes me so happy and it just says dad on it. It's like a hunter green, if you will, and it's got 1950s Mickey on it and then on the back it's just got the castle. I got this one relatively recently, but it's one of my favorites.

Jessica:

It is a great one. It even has little Neverland pirate ship floating above the castle.

Tyler:

I don't know if you noticed that. Oh yeah, look at that.

Jessica:

Mine. I picked for a reason. I picked Disney's Animal Kingdom mug that looks like true classic 1990s Animal Kingdom and on the other side it got a mickey that's got all sorts of foliage and animals and stuff making up the mickey head.

Tyler:

So so good, it's a good one. These are good mugs. We switched, like I said, all our disney mugs out, so for the next podcasts, for a little while, we're gonna have some new, fresh freshies, fresh boys, you start?

Jessica:

you want me to start? Okay, this one is a visual, so if you are watching you'll be able to see what I'm talking about, okay? Okay, if not, I'll do my best to describe it, cause I I know that technically this is a podcast, first and foremost. But one thing I actually did not know until this year, and maybe many of you already know it, but expedition Everest from above is actually a hidden Mickey. So when I started looking into this, I thought that's so cool. I'm sure it was intentional and I'm kind of looking into it and it sounds like it definitely was. I mean, it'd be crazy if it wasn't not to be yeah there's also in this part.

Jessica:

I don't know if it's intentional or not, but it seems like it'd be crazy again if it wasn't to take it a step further. You can also see the outline of oswald the lucky rabbit from the aerial just on google maps. Go to google maps in Animal Kingdom. Zoom in to Expedition Everest.

Tyler:

I'd heard the Mickey thing before. I'd never heard Oswald.

Jessica:

So there's the. Basically, if you look at the mountain from above, like that would make up the main circle of the Mickey head and the two ears would be two round tracks that come out from it during the ride that's the Mickey, so you can kind of envision that Well, and come out from it right during the ride.

Jessica:

That's the mickey, so you can kind of envision that well. And it was harder to see, so I'll pop up one that was on, like inside the magic someone literally drew. So that's our source there, the same circle, but there's two long pointed ears coming up like oswald the lucky rabbit made of the other parts of the track that literally make that shape, coming up almost between the two circles. For the other, Mickey ears. So it is so bizarre, but once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Tyler:

And that's intentional too. I don't know. That's the one.

Jessica:

I don't know if it's intentional or not, but again it's like it'd be kind of crazy if it wasn't.

Tyler:

Right.

Jessica:

But either way it's just kind of a cool little that is so cool One fact compounded to be another fact.

Tyler:

Umwood studios when it first opened was also a hidden mickey. Like an aerial view of hidden mickey you can see the whole like hollywood studios. Yeah, it was like the whole, like main courtyard area, but like even including some of the buildings you could look from above, and it was also a mickey from the from above too. Um, that's really cool. I remember at one point learning that everest was the most expensive roller coaster like ever constructed at the time. I'm sure it's been surpassed now because I mean so many things.

Tyler:

Technology keeps getting bigger and crazier and whatever, but that was one thing that I remember reading at some point like when it was made, it was the most expensive roller coaster that's pretty cool.

Jessica:

Too bad, the yeti still hasn't worked for like a decade disco yeti.

Tyler:

So this is one of my all-time favorites in the germany pavilion in epcot. There was originally supposed to be right. There was actually supposed to be a ride in a lot of them, but in the germany pavilion if you walk in you think they've kind of got the two arches. On the left hand side you go into the beer garden and then on the right hand side it's just kind of an open area. You can park strollers or whatever in there. There's a big mural back there, murinal, and that is where the doors for the ryan river cruise ride was supposed to be. Now a lot of people have said that the ride pavilion itself, the show building, was built, which it actually was not. There's parts of it that were built that would have been like the um, like the queue area, like the, the what am I looking for? Like where you get on and off the ride.

Jessica:

But that's really all the loading area, the loading area.

Tyler:

Right, Thank you, but the the actual show building itself was never actually constructed. But they had these big, huge Oak doors there originally and they were eventually covered up with that Murinel. But I just think that's such a cool idea and what apparently this? It was supposed to be like a slow moving boat ride, so it's kind of like a mix between like maelstrom and small world okay but it was supposedly looking at the, I guess, the artist renderings, the concept art.

Tyler:

Everyone is facing one direction and you're moving, you know, across like sideways left, right, so like the train in animal kingdom.

Tyler:

Yeah, takes you back to rafiki's planet watch. From the artwork it looks like that's how it was going to be. So you were just going to be going through like tableaus of different things, but it wasn't going to be on both sides, and then they were going to have all kinds of like german, you know, um landmarks and stuff like that the cologne cathedral um new schwanstein, which I'm sure I'm saying that wrong Castle Sounded good, sounded great, but anyway they were going to have all these cool things, but anyway, never came to fruition.

Jessica:

You mentioned before that if you knock on it, that panel it's hollow because it really was just kind of a faux wall to put up to block it off. I mean it's a real wall but you know what I mean.

Tyler:

But I'm curious, like if anybody was a cast member, did you ever get to go?

Jessica:

has anybody ever been back there? Because from what?

Tyler:

I heard it's just storage. You know what I mean.

Jessica:

That's all they use it for, but I think the restaurant's, in theory, right behind it now, right, so the unloading zone.

Tyler:

from looking at the map from above, the unloading zone looks like where they have the buffet area at the top of beer garden and from what it said something about, there's gonna be like a viewing platform. So I think as you got off the ride you could go through. You would go like through that area, the restaurant, so you could like see the show going on and then you know if you wanted to go and eat or whatever that would actually make sense because where the buffet is is kind of not odd.

Jessica:

I it makes sense, but I don't know there's something about that restaurant there in that area that does feel like an afterthought and I've never really and I actually love that restaurant, I love going there. So I wonder, if you think about where the buffet is, it really is right behind where that wall is.

Tyler:

Right, exactly yeah.

Jessica:

So, in theory, I wonder what is left of the area. Also, I heard I don't know if this is true, but when you are looking at the Germany pavilion, like you know, zoom out literally before you even entered that whole area, like standing in the world. Standing all the way back, yeah, by the World Showcase Lagoon. If you look up back behind, there's this like cream colored kind of castle fortress looking thing and it's definitely just a facade. Supposedly that would have been the facade for behind it, which would have been the ride show.

Tyler:

Oh, I see.

Jessica:

So again, I don't think there's anything actually back there.

Tyler:

But I don't know if that's true or not.

Jessica:

It could just be that they were going to do that either way, because they did.

Tyler:

Yeah, yeah.

Jessica:

But I like, I like to think that yeah.

Tyler:

Anyway. So yeah, there's been several rides throughout the years that were supposed to be in different countries in Ep it was like up until 1982, like they were talking about it, and then it just like they stopped. Man yeah.

Jessica:

Okay, this is one I learned about recently and I'd always heard this, but I don't think I knew the terminology. So for a lot of rides, especially newer rides, but even some older, which I'll give some examples, they have an A mode and a B mode, and I don't mean like A mode and B mode. Think about the great movie ride, how there was the Western one track. You could have gone on. Or the like gangster one, not necessarily like that. This is more for if the ride, if some of the more complicated animatronics broke down, they would switch it to B mode. So A mode is, ride is going as normal, the animatronics are working correctly. B mode is what they would activate if something were going wrong and they didn't want to just completely shut down the ride altogether, because think about how often things go wrong with these, especially nowadays, these really high level animatronics. So go ahead.

Tyler:

I say, a great example of that is Navi River Journey.

Jessica:

Yes.

Tyler:

They have you Sometimes if you write it. There's this amazing animatronic at the shaman, the shaman of songs, and sometimes she's not there and there's a screen basically doing the same thing. So that would be kind of what they're talking about. So, they can still keep the write up, still keep it operational, but it's especially for these.

Jessica:

You know, basically e-ticket attractions like that that people want to see if they're there. It's nice that you can still get the experience of it. Now, of course, it is such a bummer when the shaman is down.

Tyler:

But if you don't know that she's normally there, then you don't know, that's true, but so many people know.

Jessica:

But I agree, did you know that when the shaman is broken down, they close the ride down for you know five, 10 minutes, whatever. They lower the shaman down into a maintenance area and then, of course, have the screen up of the shaman doing its thing. So I had no idea. I guess that makes sense.

Tyler:

Was that your fact?

Jessica:

That was one of my three examples of the A mode and B mode.

Jessica:

So another example of A mode, B mode that I feel like is a little more known now is the Kylo Ren scene in Rise of the Resistance. At a certain point you see this pretty freaky Kylo Ren. At a certain point you see this pretty freaky Kylo Ren. It's my favorite part of the ride, other than the surprise part I won't say in case you haven't read it, but anyway uh where you see the audio animatronic of Kylo Ren and then he's kind of like blasted and he's like, ah, um, that one breaks down a lot, that one breaks down a lot. And so it's when he's saying like there's no escape, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yeah. So the B mode, of course, is a screen and it shows him kind of in the video flying in on some kind of transport and saying the same word. So the sounds don't change, it's just obviously way less cool, yeah.

Tyler:

Isn't there a big like fan blade or something that's like down?

Jessica:

No, so the fan blade is there when he, when he goes, ah, the fan blade comes down. Based on the videos I saw, maybe that maybe the family just stays down to block him that's what I was thinking and then you see the screen, but I couldn't really tell in the videos.

Tyler:

But that sounds right. I'm pretty sure I've written that I don't know five or six times.

Jessica:

Only one time was that kylo ren thing working, and every other time I feel like every time I've written it it has really once't.

Tyler:

Oh yeah, I feel like I never see that thing Twist my arm.

Jessica:

So my last little A-mode, b-mode example might be my favorite, and this one is when you're on Dinosaur. Okay, which is it now officially?

Tyler:

RIP, or it's like really soon 2026, yeah.

Jessica:

When you're on Dinosaur and you're riding it and it gets to the big part, the dinosaur, the Carnotaurus, no, carnosaur, whatever, it is the Carno, I'm going to call him the Carno, okay, the Carni, that's what I really want to say. And when the Carni comes down and it's his face and it's like the big part and you're like ah because it genuinely takes you by surprise, that's obviously coming.

Jessica:

Well, okay, wait a minute. Now I'm confused about what I was seeing, because the one example I was saying yes, so maybe it's a different when it's there's one that's like on the right that lunges in at you Right, so maybe that's the one I'm thinking of. But there's another one in the far, like, as you're writing, in the far left corner, that is just sitting there, it doesn't move, and that's the B mode. So maybe it's the one coming at your face versus that Right. The one in the upper left corner is always there, it just doesn't move, but it's in the dark. So it's kind of funny to think that if you're riding that, you could possibly catch a glimpse of this random dino head that's not being used, just sitting there. So that's just a favorite. I just love the idea. So that's B mode.

Tyler:

They just shine a light on it and you still hear the noise. What's gonna happen to that dinosaur? Can I take it? I know, can I have it all right? This is a. This is a pretty famous one. But in 1974 the beatles officially broke up in walt disney world. Now they had been broken up since, like I don't know, like 1969, 1970, something like that, but the paperwork to officially end the Beatles happened at the Polynesian resort. John Lennon was there with um it wasn't Yoko Ono.

Tyler:

It was, uh, may Peng and then his son and supposedly I don't think anybody actually knows this, but people say they know it, that we, we basically know what building it was in. It was in the Samoa building, because he talked about how he could see Cinderella Castle outside and see Seven Seas Lagoon.

Jessica:

Okay.

Tyler:

So I think we have a pretty good idea of which building it is, but some people say it's room 1601, but I don't think anybody actually knows, I think it's just people. It's one of those things that somebody said it once and then it kind of became.

Jessica:

Yeah, yeah.

Tyler:

But anyway, we basically know what building. So officially he signed the paperwork to end the Beatles at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort.

Jessica:

That is wild.

Tyler:

Yeah, isn't that crazy. It really is the most famous band in the world. Also, it's so crazy. The Beatles were only I mean, I don't know exactly when they started like in Liverpool but they were only together for like nine years.

Jessica:

I recently learned that too.

Tyler:

I'm like they did all that, they had all of that in nine years. Like they had 31 number one hits or something ridiculous In nine years, all these amazing songs we know in nine years.

Jessica:

Such a blink in time. And then it's crazy to think that that same kid and that affected the rest of their lives and how much money they made Nine years of their lives Like. That is crazy isn't that wild.

Tyler:

Yeah, also, I remember learning. Okay, two things. One is crazy that we just watched the snl 50th and paul mccartney performed in it. I'm like it is so wild to think that's the same paul mccartney I know from like the beatles, so he seems like the beatles fame, anyway it seems, so it's sir paul mccartney to you, sir paul mccartney also.

Tyler:

I remember watching the cbs sunday Morning Show one time and they were talking to Andrew Lloyd Webber and they were talking about it was actually Mo Rocca, who I love, was interviewing him and he's like is it true that you're the most wealthy British songwriter of all time? And he was like oh, I don't know about that, whatever. And he's like I think Elton John has beat me.

Tyler:

The order goes number three is Paul McCartney, number two is Elton John and number one is Andrew Lloyd Webber. He's made more money. Now I gotta look this up. I remember watching this several years ago, but because everything that he writes gets performed all over the world constantly and he gets the rights for I mean think about all the shows that he wrote. Anyway, that's all. No, that is in my head I would have been Elton John or Paul McCartney, but I'm pretty sure Andrew Lloyd Webber is wealthier.

Jessica:

Honestly, it does kind of yeah, that is all crazy Anyway that's all.

Jessica:

There's another little it out. Okay. So, as we're going on, I'm getting a little deeper. All right, this is. This is all so new to me and I'm so excited to have learned this. So I'm excited, tyler, to teach you today. All right, you know the golden camels that are outside of. I know this one. He did guess most of it, correct, so Tyler did know this, in case you were curious, off camera. Okay, so, the two camels that are right outside of the Aladdin, what's it actually called? The?

Tyler:

Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

Jessica:

Yes, magic Carpets of Aladdin in Adventureland. Well, they actually are much, much older than the ride itself. They were originally in this parade. They did so, if you recall, back in the late 80s, early 90s, often, especially early 90s, disney would do some kind of promo for big launches, big movie launches, in the parks.

Tyler:

How dare they? They also made the castle into a birthday cake. You know what I mean. These these are the big ideas, no these are the big ideas they were doing in the nineties.

Jessica:

Speaking of self promo, we're wearing our Disneyville merch. In case you're curious, can you see it? I got the tea on. This is a comfort colors tea, if you know anything about t-shirts you know that comfort colors are the best. We were very intentional about doing comfort colors. You were very excited. I am very. They're the best t-shirts. They're like mid-weight, not so thin that they're see-through at all, but not so thick that you're sweating. They're perfect. They're the perfect t-shirt. And then you're wearing the denim hat. They call this the dad cap.

Tyler:

By the way, their dad hat the little sticker that came on, it Totally. Yeah, the denim with the Disneyville logo.

Jessica:

It looks so classic Anyway. So if you're interested in our merch self-promo there, we will link the merch below. I'm working to try to get it on our YouTube store where you can just see it on there if you're on YouTube, but that I I think is going to take some time, but anyway. So if you're listening, you can go to welcometodisneyvillecom slash shop or just go to welcometodisneyvillecom. You'll see it. There you can find all of our merch. We have other options too.

Tyler:

We also have a blog. We have our. All of our episodes are listed there.

Jessica:

We've got there's all kinds of fun stuff there, mgm Studios or Disney MGM Studios, and it was called Aladdin's Royal Caravan and it was supposed to be kind of like Prince Ali you know where. They're literally doing a parade and they're like he's got 75.

Tyler:

Make way for Prince Ali.

Jessica:

They. You know what did they say? He's got 75 golden camels. Well, in this this he had two. However, they could turns out disney could not afford 75 golden camels. Um, but what was so weird about this float was it had the two beautiful golden camels and it was being carried by these fake built kind of statues of people, but the legs moved like they were all walking, but the legs didn't touch the ground, so it just looked so weird. It looked cool, but it was weird. Like the more I looked at it, I'm like these are weird. I love it. They were even shown this parade and the camels these exact camels, were shown in an episode of full house where they're. It's called like what is it? The house? The house meets the mouse, and there were, I think, two parts to it. We need to rewatch.

Jessica:

I know, I know they were watching this parade and at one point Danny Tanner gets sprayed in the face with these darn golden camels.

Tyler:

That is amazing.

Jessica:

Is that I'm literally. I love, love, love everything about that. So that means that these were working. The sprayers were working even back then for the parade, which how funny is that? That's a hilarious thing to do during a parade. That's so funny. So when the parade ended in 1995, they were moved to the entrance at this soundstage restaurant which I had never heard of. Turns out, it was where Disney Junior, live on Stage, is now.

Tyler:

Okay.

Jessica:

It was a restaurant and supposedly and this I haven't verified supposedly they were doing like Aladdin character meet and greets and stuff like that there at the restaurant. Again, I'm not totally certain that's true.

Tyler:

Yeah.

Jessica:

But either way, the camels were out guarding the entrance but they like removed the little tassels that were a part of it, but it still had like the red from the parade.

Tyler:

Well, that restaurant closed down in 1998. They were stored somewhere, did?

Jessica:

they spit on the restaurant guests. So I did some digging on this. No one can find out.

Jessica:

If they did, they everyone's pretty sure they didn't back then okay I'm based on videos people had posted and things, so pretty sure they didn't spit then I know that's what everyone's concerned. So they were stored for a couple years. Then in it was moved to the ride when that opened, but the red portion that was kind of on the top of the camel humps and stuff is gone. Now it's all gold and beautiful and they added the tassels back. So and of course we know that they spit. But I will say it has been debunked that anyone is in control of when and where the camel spits.

Tyler:

Oh yeah.

Jessica:

That myth has been. I feel like they wouldn't have. They wouldn't have hired a cast member to just sit there. I like the rumor.

Tyler:

Yeah, that's fun. I love that one. That's a good one, thank you, very good, all right, um, quite right, quite right, thank you, um okay. So I'm sorry I'm repeating myself, but this is one of my all-time favorite Disney fun facts the world-famous speech by Richard Nixon where he said I am not a crook. I am not a crook.

Jessica:

Perfect delivery.

Tyler:

The people deserve to know if their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.

Jessica:

No, yeah, that was pretty good.

Tyler:

I can't do any better anyway that was, I was gonna say, performed. That speech was given in the ballroom of the americas at disney's contemporary resort, so arguably the most famous thing that richard nixon is known for yeah that line like think about anybody anytime you see somebody wearing like a halloween mask, or that is like what they're doing. Yeah, that speech was at the ballroom of the americas at disney's contemporary which is still a ballroom.

Jessica:

There you can kind of yeah, you can kind of peek in yeah, maybe.

Tyler:

Yeah, I'm not certain if you mean they still have functions there so you can. So there you go. Isn't that wild? That's really just crazy it is crazy.

Jessica:

Once you know that, you can't unknow that. That is so cool. Same with the Beatles thing. Like those are two huge events that happened in Disney World. Disney World of all places, happiest place on earth. All right, we're getting deeper. Did you know that Stormalong Bay, as in the whole pool area at the Yacht and Beach Club, have you ever wondered why the lazy rivers there are so deep? Because they are. They're deeper than, I think, probably standard lazy rivers. It is because it used to be for years a snorkeling lagoon. Saltwater replete with actual fish. Yeah, you literally would snorkel in there.

Tyler:

Stormalong Bay, if you don't know, is the almost water park, if you will. Yeah, the small water park at Yacht and Beach Club.

Jessica:

Yeah, so you could snorkel, you could swim with the fish. It was just there Apparently and this is something I also didn't know very similar to the shark reef that was at Typhoon Lagoon. But Typhoon Lagoon's snorkeling area with fish was way bigger, way cooler and so over time basically the reason Disney eventually got rid of it a few reasons maintaining saltwater snorkeling reef was really tricky to keep fish alive. It's one thing to have a saltwater pool, but it's another to have to like make it livable for fish and all that stuff.

Jessica:

And I guess with chlorine and pools nearby, they were worried about contamination if a kid was in there and then came into the thing like all of that kind of stuff, plus again, when you're comparing this to like Typhoon Lagoon snorkeling one, that one was just so much cooler. Now that one closed and I think like 2016, somewhere in there, way more recently than I would have guessed.

Tyler:

I remember going and seeing it, but do we actually get in? Do we actually do? I don't think we did. I don't think so.

Jessica:

It's what a shame, but I remember seeing it yeah, but it was around 1999 that they kind of closed it, phased it out and then eventually, of course, it was a lazy river the way it is today. So one of those things and I'm like that's wild, like that would have been so cool. So if you are someone listening or watching and you ever got to do that, specifically at, yeah, the yacht and beach, let us know what you remember that have been so cool fascinating I am dying to go back, because the with the time that we stayed there, it was.

Tyler:

It was either like early in the year late year, but it was cold and so we, we like braved it and it was cool because we were like the only ones there, like hardly anybody was there, but it was kind of cold so it wasn't as fun to get in the pool. Like I want to go back when it's 110 degrees outside in july, yeah, and stay there again a couple more here. Wait, do I have five or six? Maybe I have six. Okay, yeah, I have six.

Tyler:

Okay, most of the flags in walt disney world are fake the american flags, and it's because that way, so disney always goes with whatever the us flag protocol is, so like if the weather's bad, you're supposed to take it down. Like in the evenings, when the business closes, you're supposed to take it down. And the one on main street in the middle is a real one. They do the flag ceremony every day, but most of the other ones are all fake and they have like one less star or they have one less stripe, whatever it is like they're. They're not exactly right, so that disney doesn't have to constantly take them up and down, so like and follow like the proper flag protocol, exactly.

Tyler:

So if there's like a like if the flags are ordered half staff, they don't have to put those down. They don't have to take them down when it rains all these different things. They don't have to be illuminated at night. There's's a whole bunch of rules that you're supposed to follow, but because they're not real flags, they don't have to follow those. That's interesting.

Jessica:

I wonder when and how that decision was made. It makes sense because I feel like they have a lot. I don't know.

Tyler:

On main street specifically, there's quite a few. So, that's where you'll see. You'll see them on top of buildings. You'll see them in a lot of different places, and that's.

Jessica:

But they will like half-staff, et cetera. They'll do for the one that is real there, because I remember being there. I don't remember what was going on, but at some point they were half-staff. That one was half-staff.

Tyler:

We're going to fly a lot of flags half-staff.

Jessica:

Raise a glass. Is it half-mast?

Tyler:

I don't know saying it the wrong way the other day, so now I can't remember.

Jessica:

I said half mass and you were like it's half staff fly a lot of flags, half, I don't know. That's a hamilton reference, in case you're okay. Okay, my final one. I did not know this ever existed and there's still remnants in the park and I cannot wait to go back to animal kingdom hence my mug to look at these. Get photos of these. I'm gonna make an instagram reel about these. Okay, ooh, okay. Did you know that the first extinct ride in Animal Kingdom still has remnants there and it only lasted a year?

Tyler:

So it couldn't have lasted too long.

Jessica:

Yeah. So to tell you what I'm talking about, we have to go back a little bit, back to when they were first creating Animal Kingdom. As many of us know, there was going to be a Beastly Kingdom portion of this area and it basically would have been where now Pandora is, kind of where Camp Mini Mickey was at the time. So they set up Camp Mini Mickey. It was meant to be kind of temporary. In the end it actually became pretty permanent for a while, until now it's gone.

Jessica:

So to kind of drum up excitement for this beastly kingdom, because it was not going to open when Animal Kingdom itself opened. It would have been later. So Animal Kingdom opened and they had this ride called Discovery River Boats. I have never heard about this in my life and it turns out there's a lot of information about it out there. So you would get on one of these boats in what was called Safari Village, which is now just Discovery Island, the main area and you'd ride around all the waterways through Animal Kingdom. So it was kind of a grand tour of the park. It would last like an hour. Oh, wow.

Tyler:

Like where they do all the flotillas and all that. Yeah, now where you see exactly.

Jessica:

So you see things going on that water. But what I've always thought is that that water was like more natural. I mean it may have been Disney made, but like it looks so beautiful and overgrown, there's water lilies and like floating pads all around. You know what I mean. So I did always think it was odd. When I would see flotillas of characters go by, I'm like, are they allowed to like? This feels like a natural habitat. Once it turns out, it was really made to be able to do for many reasons, but they were doing this on these waterways. So basically, on this boat ride you would have little teasers of things that would be in the beastly kingdom. So they had originally had grand plans of, like a big dragon that was going to be a copy of the dragon that's sleeping under the castle in Disneyland Paris. You ever been?

Jessica:

they were going to literally just copy that and have that in there. They were going to have this whole unicorn section and all this stuff because the Beastly Kingdom would have had good and bad and the good would have been like unicorns, the bad would have been trash and it was all mythical creatures.

Tyler:

That was the idea Mythical creatures.

Jessica:

Yeah, exactly. So in the end, budgetary cuts, of course, and I'm not at that point, I think they were still planning to do Beastly Kingdom, so they wanted these teasers in there. So they really simplified and they ended up having kind of these dragon rocks where you could hear the sounds of a dragon and see smoke, like the dragon was breathing. You don't actually see, see a dragon. And then for the unicorn this has been, it was roasted at the time because it was just they just built a white statue of a unicorn that just stood there on these rocks. Well, well, that was apparently taken down even sooner. I don't know why people say it was because it was just so dumb looking. I'm like I don't think they would take it down. I mean, it's just a statue.

Jessica:

It's not that.

Tyler:

Well, I think we have the stuff like when you're on the Disney the Magic Kingdom Railroad or the riverboat, like they're just statues sitting there. What's the difference?

Jessica:

yeah, so that statue now, by the way, of course, all this is gone, but there are some remnants I'm going to tell you about. The statue of the unicorn is now owned by private owners and there's like pictures it has like a social media presence this unicorn um.

Tyler:

It was the swan boats of animal kingdom literally that's exactly what it's been compared to.

Jessica:

So they also had these slain knights in armor, but but apparently they were like like as in the dragon Right right, apparently, they were super graphic. There's pictures of them online. It's not that bad, but it was enough that, like, parents of little kids were like complaining, so Disney took those out, actually pretty quickly.

Tyler:

Yeah, you got me on this one. I did not know this one at all.

Jessica:

They also. Okay, they also had a dinosaur. You know, the movie Dinosaur had a dinosaur. You know the movie Dinosaur? Well, what's his name? Michael Eisner was really pushing that. Hence they did the Dinoland and all that. Well, eventually, well, the Iguanodon from it, I guess, was somewhere within this I don't know that it's exact, but it's an Iguanodon and so you would ride this and it would actually be like someone narrating and you'd be seeing these things be talking about them. So that Iguanodon animatronic was moved to Disneyland Paris. They like stripped the outer part of it and it was just on the studio tram tour there for a while. Just an interesting fun fact. Um, so it was an hour long. People didn't want to waste an hour of their time there. It was kind of slow moving.

Tyler:

There really wasn't a crazy amount to look at, especially for that long Were they like pontoon boats, so they were larger.

Jessica:

I can pop a picture on the screen of what they looked like. They were kind of larger and now they have these boats. They have still used from time to time for character ones, not like those little cool flotillas we've seen. They're a little bit longer, probably could have sat 20, 30 people, maybe more. I'm trying to picture it. So people have said that a lot of the old boats are parked behind the Finding Nemo building.

Jessica:

I went on Google Maps kind of zoomed in. I can pop up what I found. There were some boats back there. I don't think they necessarily look like that. They also could be in like dry dock somewhere. There's a lot of buildings back there. So if you know, let us know. Yeah, but they have been seen more recently like they've used them. I saw a picture of them being used to transport, I think, people to maybe the parks from the Polynesian. So they're kind of one of those random things that you can actually see out and about. Now the queue to get onto these boats is still there. They've painted it brightly. They'll use it for character meet and greets. You've seen it a million times before those bridges. You'll walk across over the water and you'll look down and you'll see a queue and you're like what is that? And sometimes you'll see a character down there. Those were the original like loading areas for the, because there were multiple throughout, so some of them are still there.

Jessica:

So could you get on and off as you please, so eventually they called it discovery like river taxi and they were like, okay, people don't like it as like a standalone ride. Let's use it to like let people get on and off. This is my understanding. I might not be exactly right on this. Again, if people still were like we just don't, we could walk to the next area faster than we could by just getting on this thing. There was also a blip where it was a radio disney thing and they had like radio disney music and radio personalities playing while you were on it, like they were really trying to make this work. It literally only lasted, I think, one year as the way it was, then another year, maybe two, with these weird iterations. That was it. Then it was gone.

Jessica:

You supposedly and this is what I want to look for I've seen a picture of it. You can still see the little dragons, rocks. You can supposedly still see geysers from the ride right across from the Lion King show. If you look in the water area there's it's kind of overgrown but there's like these kind of rock formations. That was part of what you'd see. The rocks that the unicorn was on is supposedly still there. I don't know exactly where, but I want to look for it, so I just love that.

Jessica:

Yeah, I've never heard of that in my entire life, my favorite thing I learned about I know, and how there's still so many remnants of it everywhere from back when it opened.

Tyler:

That's so cool.

Jessica:

I've never heard of it as quickly as it came, it was gone.

Tyler:

You got me on that one. That is a fun fact. I did not know. I love that.

Jessica:

You were wrapped.

Tyler:

Okay, so I've got two very quick ones here, okay, and then we're feedback here. So, uh, this is one I talk about a lot, but only a quarter of the land that walt disney world comprises is actually developed. There's a quarter of it that is set aside as a nature preserve that will never be touched. Love it, but think about how big everything they have in walt disney world is in theory. It could get three times larger, like only a quarter of it that's crazy Of the land that they actually own is developed.

Jessica:

Isn't that insane? Yeah, and when you think about when you're driving around in the buses or whatever, you're looking around and it's all trees and like there's so much undeveloped.

Tyler:

That's just crazy. That is amazing. That's just one of my quick fun facts. Oh, and then the last one. It's still there, a wave machine in Seven Seas Lagoon in front of magic kingdom. The idea was I don't know if it was dick nunes's idea, but he was an avid surfer he was, uh, the president of the walt disney company. He, or maybe walt disney world, I don't know if it's the entire company, but he. I just read his book and actually the day I finished his book is the day he died, which was weird. But he has a great book. It's really interesting if you go, if you're interested in it.

Jessica:

They had it, and for a while sorry, trash truck is here at the studio it was operational but they couldn't get it to work quite, quite right.

Tyler:

But the whole idea was that you could surf like at the polynesian and stuff like that, so you can still see it and they. They turned it on several times and like it worked, but it didn't ever work quite right.

Jessica:

But then they also had the transportation boats in there Going through that same area.

Tyler:

Yeah, so they, they did it a few times and then they eventually just just let it let it go.

Jessica:

That was an expensive trial.

Tyler:

Yeah, so anyway. So at one point you could in theory surf in seven seas. Okay, so those were all of ours.

Jessica:

Let's go to yours. So if you don't follow us yet on instagram, uh, we are disneyville podcast on instagram and everywhere else you might want to find us facebook, etc. Okay, tara lee stump. Hey, girl said. The robins in the window of the first scene of carousel of progress, okay, picture it. Okay, are the same robins from the spoonful of sugar scene in mary poppins. This makes them the oldest animatronics in the park I had no idea I have never heard that is so.

Jessica:

Oh, I can't wait to tell everyone that I'm just gonna take that as my own thanks.

Tyler:

We should probably verify some of these. Yeah oh yeah, we're just sharing these.

Jessica:

If they're true or not, we don't know. If you do know, let us know. I cannot believe. Oh, I've never heard love that that's so cool, okay.

Tyler:

Elizabeth O'Kelly said if you hit all the bells in the Everest queue, it plays. It's a Small World. Wow, that's so cool yeah.

Jessica:

Quinn said. I tried replying in the box but it's too long. When I took Sangria University at Coronado Springs, the amazing cast member told us that the OG president Lincoln animatronic was filled with red oil and when he broke down he looked unalive. I have heard similar things like certain times it would go awry and it would use red oil it was made.

Tyler:

It was hydraulic and so the hydraulic fluid basically they burst and people literally thought that they were recreating the assassination. Oh my gosh.

Jessica:

They were too far, geez too soon so they replaced that liquid with a clear liquid kristin said I was told a story during my cast member training that a few years ago they kept getting. So this is recent. It sounds like they kept getting reports of a gator spotted in magic kingdom and again this is all alleged. Okay, yeah, disney, we're not, um, but every night pest control would come and do a sweep and say they didn't find any gators. They say they only saw three gators on the jungle cruise. Cast members had to tell them there's only supposed to be two gators on the jungle cruise. He was found and quickly removed after that. I don't know if that's true, but that is crazy, crazy, yikes this one, okay.

Tyler:

This one, okay. This one makes me laugh. Jessica Serrano said my neighbor can play Peter Pan and other characters at Disneyland for years. That is a fun fact. I did not know. Thank you, jessica Rogdog25. I had heard this one said there are no bathrooms in Liberty square and the reason that they did that is because they wanted to keep it accurate and there would not have been rivers there.

Jessica:

You just right in the center, yeah, dump it out the window. Um, that's funny, though I didn't realize there actually aren't restrooms there. I didn't know that, love it. Maggie rose said doritos were invented at disneyland at a restaurant called casa de frito I've heard that before yum.

Tyler:

I love doritos I yeah, that's one that I've heard, that I've never verified, like if that's true or not. I've heard that in a lot.

Jessica:

I was even researching this. That was one I came across, so, but I'd never heard that.

Tyler:

Katie Leanne the Van said there is an insta for a statue of a unicorn from the defunct Beastly Kingdom. The statue was on the river ride through Animal Kingdom when they shut it down and cast. Member took it. That's so funny, you are my person.

Jessica:

Yes, shut it down and cast. Member took it. That's, you are my person. Yes. Sarah fenster said there's a letter board in the lobby of tower of terror. Okay, okay, the letters fell off and it spells out take the stairs.

Tyler:

I love that one fun fact that I don't again. I you take any of this with a grain of salt, but I remember reading at one point that they have put so much dust on like because they continuously sprinkle dust in the lobby area and stuff like that of tower terror right that supposedly like if you stacked it all up it would be taller than the tower itself, or something like something love those kinds of random like.

Jessica:

Yeah, like how would they ever know?

Tyler:

exactly okay.

Jessica:

Izzy de grande said carthay circle and disney's california adventure has the only photo of walt smoking in any of the parks.

Tyler:

I would love to go see that dca okay one fun fact that people didn't mention but I'm just thinking about and I don't remember what all of them are, but they reuse a lot of the faces on the audio animatronics a lot, and so a lot of times you'll see the same faces on different rides and if I remember right, the, the scribe or whatever he is, that's seated in spaceship, earth, like reading he's got like the long blonde hair and like the italy part has. It's like andrew jackson or something like that.

Jessica:

Thomas jefferson, it's the same they use the same mold or whatever instead of recreating the wheel every time speaking of of that one I guess I could have included. You know, maybe I should save it. I think I might save it If we do another obscure facts episode. I might save that one, so nevermind.

Tyler:

Okay, all right, well, I hope you guys enjoyed that. That was fun, that was a, that was a really cool episode and yeah that I just love this. Yeah, this is this like hidden magic kind of stuff.

Jessica:

I mean, this is really what I'm into. Okay, this is my wheelhouse.

Tyler:

This is what got us started. I always say, like, like you go to Disney like your first couple of times, you have fun, you're excited. That's when Disney becomes like you get into the lore. Yeah, the lore, the lore. Well, if you have any others that were not shared here on the welcometodisneyvillecom website, we're going to have a blog post. You can put your comments there. You can also comment on the episode page as well. But if you have any that were not shared, please share them there, because I'll be very curious to read those.

Jessica:

And if we do do another part to this in the future, which we will perhaps we'll pull from there too and share some of your guys' entries. So, all right, by the way, in the last episode we talked about how we, if you go to like, let's say, apple podcasts, okay, if you go there and you search Disney or Disney world or Disney parks, you cannot find us. So we were we're working on our own stuff trying to fix that. But one of you guys DM'd us on Instagram and said, hey, that's actually how I found you guys. So it does work, maybe Really. And we were only on like episode two and they found us. I'm like, oh, my gosh, that makes me so happy.

Tyler:

Okay, interesting.

Jessica:

So yeah, we're always curious how you guys found us. I know some of you guys have come over from our own respective YouTube channels. How many of you guys found us kind of organically, just in this Disney world?

Tyler:

So we always like to read a review at the end of the episode on Apple Podcasts, because the reviews you guys they are so nice, we love reading them so much. They mean so much to us. So this one here is from Oliver Germethius.

Jessica:

I thought it was Ollivander.

Tyler:

Ollivander Germethius. Yes, love it, ollivander Germethius. I think so.

Tyler:

Yeah, uh favorite podcast is the title says this podcast is simply the tops I love that I started watching jessica and tyler's content years ago when I stumbled across one of their disney hall videos, and I've been a fan of both of their youtube channels ever since. Jessica and tyler are those rare creators that actually make me laugh out loud. I listen to their podcast on my way to and from work and it always puts me in such a happy mood. I could be having the worst day at work and I'll throw on an episode of my way home and it totally brightens my mood. That means so much I've learned. I've learned about so many things, especially food that I'm excited to try when I can get back down to Disney. Thank you, jessica and Tyler, for sharing your truly vast Disney knowledge and for making the world a happier, brighter place.

Jessica:

Oh my gosh. Thank you, gosh. What a kind, thoughtful comment. I'm floating away in a cloud, guys. When you're hearing this, at some point in the near future we are on the Disney treasure. Yes, so we are pre-filming a bit. We're about to film the next episode right after this. We got to change our shirts, okay.

Tyler:

So it looks like it's something else.

Jessica:

Well, I just feel like just something fresh to look at. If you watched this episode all the way to the very end, you're in the know now.

Tyler:

Yeah you know you're in on the secret, um, but you should come. No, okay, if you, yeah, if you have watched all the way, on the next episode you should put some of what like three shirt emojis three shirt emojis okay, I love a shirt, or?

Jessica:

yeah, that's great just want it to be more visually interesting for you guys. You don't feel like you're watching two of the same episodes, or just comment shirt.

Tyler:

Why is everyone commenting?

Jessica:

shirt. You're part of the club. You're a citizen of Disneyville? All right, we love you guys. See you guys in the next one In just a minute.