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 | Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. Seattle, WA May 29, 2006 |
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« Blame Harry Potter | Main | Storm 80, Mercury 87 » June 22, 2006Backstage At Disney WorldSunday's Washington Post had a great article about what it's like to take one of the (several) "backstage tours" at Disney World ("Behind the Scenes at Disney World"): Did you even know you could peek behind the curtains at Disney World? They do almost nothing to promote these stunning backstage ops. But in fact, any civilian willing to pony up $12 to $199 can ogle a bit of what goes on within one of the most painstakingly designed, constructed and managed patches of all human civilization. The author sampled three different tours: "Keys To The Kingdom", "Backstage Safari" and the "Epcot Seas Aqua Tour." I wholeheartedly recommend the backstage tours. Back in 2002, a group of us spent a week at the World and took an entire day on "Backstage Magic." We kicked off at EPCOT, headed out to the Magic Kingdom, and then finished up at Disney-MGM studios. Amazing day. The "Utilidors" under the Magic Kingdom are damn impressive, but the stuff that blew me away was a lot of the under-the-hood stuff at places like EPCOT's "American Adventure". We got to see all the audio-animimatronics in action, and see how ingeniously the show buildings are designed to provide the best possible guest experience. One other thing that I found intriguing was Disney World's own recycling and trash-handling operation (the formal Disney name is "Environmentality"). From the article: Trash is a big deal in a place that moves a couple of Super Bowls' worth of people through every day. On our first backstage stop, a utility area behind Pirates of the Caribbean, Matthew points out a rubbish compactor the size of a four-unit apartment building. Remarkably, before the garbage is sucked here from around the park by a Swiss-built network of pneumatic tubes, it's sorted by hand to pull out recyclables and all the wallets and cameras people toss by accident. The combustibles are burned to generate a third of Disney's electricity. If you're headed to the World and want to take a tour (and you should), check out WDWInfo's page on the subject. Posted by Gavin Shearer at June 22, 2006 11:29 AM. Posted to Disney. CommentsPost a commentThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out) (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |