Disney’s theme parks operate for 365 days a year, and often open late into the evening. That leaves little “downtime” during which they can be scrubbed and refurbished – and yet they manage to look sparkling clean every single morning. How exactly does Disney achieve this? The simple answer is through sheer weight of manpower. Every night, hundreds of Cast Members descend upon each park, each with a specific range of tasks to complete under the glow of portable floodlights. At Disneyland, for example, there are 1,500 workers in the “third shift”, and many of them have worked to a nocturnal schedule for years. There is alwayssomething happening at the parks, which truly are “cities that never sleep”. Here are 10 essential tasks that are completed every single night at Walt Disney World, the Disneyland Resort, the Disneyland Resort Paris, the Tokyo Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland.
10. The security sweep
First things first, Disney has to make sure that its theme parks are empty before it begins any maintenance work. It’s not unknown for guests to try and “camp out” in the parks at night, particularly in seemingly hard-to-spot locations such as Tom Sawyer Island. Park security, though, are aware of the most common hiding places. “If someone tried to hide, they would not stay hidden for long,” Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown told the LA Timesin 2010.
9. Refuelling
Many of Disney’s attractions still run on good old-fashioned gasoline. Every night, a team of oiler-truckers sweeps into refuel them. At Disneyland, for example, the Columbia Sailing Ship, the Mark Twain Riverboat, the Tom Sawyer Island Rafts, the Jungle Cruise boats, the Main Street Vehicles and the Casey Jr. Circus Train all need topping up. In addition, some 104 cars on Autopia need to be refueled.
8. Safety inspections
Like all theme park operators, Disney is under an obligation to ensure that its rides run smoothly and safely. An army of engineers inspects its roller coasters and other rides, walking along tracks to check for defects, inspecting vehicles and performing other essential tasks. Firefighters also work at the parks, and carry out inspections of fire extinguishers, alarm systems and sprinkler systems.
7. Repairs
It’s not just the rides that occasionally need repairing. At the Disneyland Resort, there are Cast Members whose sole responsibility is checking and replacing 800 umbrellas, 25,000 chairs and 7,000 tables in the various restaurants and snack bars in its two theme parks.
6. Production of commercials
Disney wants commercials for its theme parks to look good – and that means controlling exactly who appears in them, both in the foreground and the background. It also wants guests to be able to move freely around the park by day, without having to stop at “roadblocks” set up by production crews. For that reason, most filming takes place at night.
5. Devouring of rodents
Most Disney fans have heard of the feral cats that live at Disneyland, hiding in the trees and shrubs by day and emerging at night to feed on rats and other small creatures. Disneyland’s animal handlers control the population through spaying and neutering, and by re-homing some kittens. They’ve even set up permanent feeding stations in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. 
Not everybody is keen on snakes, but Walt Disney World is happy to allow species such as Black Racers to thrive on its property. They are non-poisonous, and help to keep the rodent population contained.
4. Underwater maintenance
Each resort employs dozens of scuba divers who are responsible for maintaining and fixing attractions and other equipment in their extensive waterways. This, of course, means that the divers have to possess other skills besides scuba diving, including being electricians and machinists. After the parks close for the day, the divers don their gear and check crucial elements such as tracks, the undersides of vehicles and animatronic characters. Often, they do this in the pitch dark using flashlights or headlights. Temperatures can be freezing, making wielding bolts, wrenches and pneumatic tools underwater even more difficult. Spare a thought for these hardy souls next time you ride Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage!
3. Cleaning…carefully
Image: Disney
You’ve probably noticed that Disney does not sell chewing gum at its theme parks. That’s an attempt to keep the amount of sticky goo stuck to its sidewalks to a minimum – but custodians still have to pry it off every night. Pressure washers are also used to hose down the streets and sidewalks. Cleaning Walt Disney World’s theme parks, hotels and other attractions is an immense task undertaken by a vast army of staff. The resort consumes more than 700,000 gallons of bleach in a typical year. But cleaners have to be careful not to be tooefficient. Imagineers have specified exactly how dusty and cobweb-covered the different areas and items in the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror should be, for example. Occasionally, even bodily fluids have to be cleaned up. On Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, 1,000 black lights shine on painted mesh screens to create “floating ghosts”. The effect can be ruined by guests spitting at the ghosts. Disney developed a special saliva-cleaning solution to wash this off, as traditional cleaning products bleach the screens.
2. Tending the plants
Every Disney park features dozens of species of plants. At Walt Disney World, for example, the resort’s horticulture staff plants 3 million bedding plants and annuals, along with 4 million shrubs, 13,000 roses and 200 topiary every year. Much of this work takes place at night.
1. Checking the “health” of characters
Disney’s rides are packed full of audio-animatronic characters. These are checked by engineers and mechanics to make sure that they are functioning properly. This can be tedious task – the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland, for example, features 225 moving birds, plants and tikis, and the show runs for 17 minutes. The only way to check that they are all working properly is to watch the entire show repeatedly.
