Disney fun facts

-Walt's final words -written rather than spoken- were, rather cryptically 'Kurt Russell'. No one, including the actor himself, has any idea why.
-Walt Disney bought the 43 square miles of Central Florida swampland for Disney World for $5 million, or about $185 an acre.
-No gum is sold on property at Walt Disney World Resort.
-Contrary to rumours, Disney's daughter has assured the press he wasn't cryogenically frozen.
-Walt Disney died of complications of lung cancer on Dec. 15, 1966, before the first shovel of dirt was moved on construction of Disney World.
-Aged 16, Walt signed up for the army, but was rejected because he was too young. Instead he became an ambulance driver in World War I France.
-In 1971, when Walt Disney World opened, there were only about 5,600 rooms in the Central Florida area. By 1975, that number was well north of 22,000. Today, there are 22,449 rooms on property at Walt Disney World.
-'Man is in the forest' was a code used by animators to warn colleagues to get back to work when Walt Disney was coming down the hallway.
-Disney World has closed three times, all in anticipation of hurricanes: Sept. 15, 1999, for Floyd; Sept. 4-5, 2004, for Frances; and Sept. 26 of that same year for Jeanne.
-There are over 50 themed swimming pools among the various Disney Resort Hotels.
-The Matterhorn rollercoaster at Disneyland has a secret basketball court inside it for Disneyland staff to use.
-It took less than 30 minutes to evacuate thousands of guests from the theme parks on Sept. 11, 2001.
-Steve Martin used to work in the magic shop at Disneyland.
-After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration put a flight restriction over the Disney World resort. It extends out in a three-mile radius from Cinderella's Castle and up to 3,000 feet.
-Walt Disney World Resort is the largest consumer of fireworks in the United States purchasing over one million fireworks a year for their more than 1,000 firework displays per year.
-The theme parks use a patented 'Smellitzer' device designed to pump certain scents around. Whether it's a waft of sea salt in Pirates of the Caribbean, or vanilla in Main Street, your senses are constantly being played.
-Over 600 million guests have visited the most magical place on Earth since it opened in 1971.
-An estimated 1.65 million pairs of eyeglasses have made their way to Disney World's lost-and-found bins since 1971. Every year, the park finds an average of 6,000 cell phones, 3,500 digital cameras and 18,000 hats. The weirdest things ever found... a glass eye, a prosthetic leg and a potty trainer - all of which were claimed.
-It's rumoured that Walt Disney had a phobia of mice. While this is hard to prove, it is a fact that his big-eared creation was named 'Mortimer', until his wife persuaded him that 'Mickey' had a better ring to it...
-The Disney Transport bus fleet consists of nearly 300 busses traveling along over 100 routes. In total, the entire fleets drives 15 million miles each year.
-Apparently, if you send Mickey and Minnie Mouse an invitation to your wedding they'll send you back an autographed photo and a 'Just Married' badge. If you send Cinderella and Prince Charming an invitation, you'll get an autographed congratulatory certificate.
-A married couple from Boynton Beach, Fla., Alex and Donna Voutsinas, realised years later that they were coincidentally photographed together at Disney as children.
-Walt Disney's attention to detail was legendary. He placed the bins at Disney World 25 steps away from the hot dog stall, as this was how long it took him to eat a hot dog. You will never be more than 30 steps away from a trash can in any Disney theme park.
-The Walt Disney World resort is about the size of San Francisco, and only about 35 percent of its more than 27,000 acres has been developed.
-Each year, several families ask to scatter a loved one's ashes into the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. The answer is always no, but a family has been caught in the act before.
-There are no exact ninety degree angles on Main Street, USA in Magic Kingdom Park.
-Mickey has more than 290 outfits, from a scuba suit to a lighted tuxedo. Minnie? She has more than 200, from cheerleading attire to evening gowns.
-Like air stewardesses, Disney Princesses have to fit a certain body type to work at the parks. While princesses are between 5'4" and 5'7", Tinkerbell, Alice and Wendy must be more petite - between 4'11" to 5'2". Oh, and you need to be a real spring chicken: 27 is considered over the hill.
-There is a tree farm on site so that when a mature tree needs to be replaced, a thirty-year-old tree will be available to replace it.
-Stretched end-to-end, the hats with Mickey ears sold at Disney World would span about 175 miles.
-Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was make-or-break for Disney, costing his studios $1.4m to make. It was widely derided as Disney's Ruin, by people subsequently proved non-psychic. Adjusted for inflation, it's one of the ten highest-grossing films of all time.
-Cinderella's Castle is made out of fiberglass, and it stands 189 feet tall.
-Across Walt Disney World, over 20,000 different colours of paint are used.
-Disney World's biggest theme park, Animal Kingdom, encompasses 403 acres.
-Between the four major theme parks, there are 37,811 parking spaces available.
-The latest creatures at the Animal Kingdom are the blue people of "Avatar". A new section, with interactive 3-D rides, is planned to open between 2015 and 2016 at a cost of about $400 million.
-Cinderella Castle is constructed of fiberglass not stone.
-The Animal Kingdom features more than 3,000 species in its 4 million trees and plants.
-If the entire Jungle Cruise River was emptied, it would take 14 to 24 hours to refill it all. Similarly, the river's water is dyed a light shade of green to hide the shallowness of the water.
-Inside the upper levels of Cinderella's Castle is an apartment that Walt Disney intended to use when he and his family were in Florida. It was left unfinished when he died, until Disney announced in 2006 that it would be turned into a deluxe suite, which is awarded randomly to a family every day. It comes complete with 24-karat gold tile floors and a 'magic mirror' that turns into a television.
-Roughly 50 million people a year ride the Walt Disney World Monorail (including the Express and Resort monorail beams in addition to the Epcot beam) making it the most heavily travelled monorail in the western hemisphere.
-The Land ride at Epcot isn't just for entertainment. More than 30 tons of fruit and vegetables are grown there every year for Disney restaurants.
-The oldest attraction in Magic Kingdom Park is the Prince Charming Regal Carousel, which was built in 1917.
-If you were to stay in a different room every night at the Disney World resorts, to sleep in them all would take you 68 years.
-It took Disney ten years to develop and two years to actually construct Space Mountain.
-What does Epcot mean? Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
-Epcot was originally planned to be a futuristic city with 20,000 residents.
-75 acres of lawn and landscaping can be found at Epcot.
-Disney World employs more than 62,000 as part of its "cast" making Walt Disney World the largest single-site employer in the United States.
-If all of the water cannons were initiated at the Fountain of Nations, it would blast out 2,000 gallons of water.
-Test Track must operate for about 20 hours a day due to long start-up and shut-off times.
-Disney invited engineers from MIT to aid in the design of Spaceship Earth.
-23 countries brought water from their homeland to contribute to the Fountain of Nations.
-When Disney originally began designing Disney's Hollywood Studios, it was originally to be a half-day park.
-Disney's infrastructure has more than 270 buses, making it the third-largest bus system in the state, behind Jacksonville and Miami.
-Rock 'n' Roller Coaster shoots guests from 0 to 60 MPH in 2.8 seconds.
-The newest roller coaster at any of the Disney World parks, Expedition Everest at the Animal Kingdom (aka the Yeti ride) is the tallest of any of the parks' at just a shade under 200 feet. Space Mountain at 180 feet is puny by comparison.
-The audio-animatronic Mr. Potato Head went through several days of guest testing at Disney California Adventure Park prior to ride opening to ensure that he had a line for anything guests said.
-Ever notice the water tower wearing the giant Mickey ears at Disney's Hollywood Studios? If you made actual Mickey ears for it, the "Earffel Tower" would wear a size 342¾.
-It would take six hours of continuous riding to see all 50 ride combinations for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.
-If you look closely at the mosaic mural on the fourth-floor lobby of Disney's Contemporary Resort, you can see a five-legged goat facing the monorail track.
-At 403, acres Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is the largest Disney theme park in the world. The other three Walt Disney World theme parks could all fit comfortably inside Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park.
-Disney World decorates more than 1,500 Christmas trees at holiday time.
-All of the bathrooms in Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park have doors (unlike the other parks) with bolts making it possible, in the event of a dangerous animal escaping, to cram everyone into the bathrooms.
-There are more than 81 holes of golf on five courses on the property.
-All of the straws at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park are made out of a special (semi-edible) paper that would not choke the animals if ingested.
-If you dress up folks in all the shirts sold at Disney World in one year, you'd have enough for every resident of the state of Montana (pop. 974,989.)
-8,692 branches are on the Tree of Life. The Tree is actually constructed off the base of an oil rig from the Gulf of Mexico.
-When Disney World opened, adult admission to the Magic Kingdom cost $3.50. Today it costs $85.
-The tallest in-park attraction is Expedition Everest at 200 feet tall.
-Before it became strictly a theme park, Disney's Hollywood Studios (originally called Disney-MGM studios before a legal falling out) was designed to be a working studio.
-About 60% of the trees at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park come from other areas around Walt Disney World property, while the others were either grown from scratch using accelerators or imported from other areas of the world.
-Television shows were filmed at Disney's Hollywood Studios, too. "The Mickey Mouse Club" featured soon-to-be stars Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling and Christina Aguilera. No shows are filmed there today.
-Of the 27 Disney Resort Hotels on property, eight are Disney Vacation Club resorts meaning they consist solely of timeshares.
-Disney World flew its flags at half-staff on the day Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died. Jobs was Disney's largest single shareholder (7 percent), and he was on the board of directors.