If you’re a fan of Walt Disney World or Universal Orlando, it’s likely that you can close your eyes and instantly conjure up an image of your favorite ride.
The Haunted Mansion? There it is, with its foreboding looks and a creepy graveyard out front.
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey? There’s Hogwarts Castle, with the mighty towers and turrets seen in the movies about the boy wizard.
Disney and Universal have done an incredible job of bringing to life fantastical places and convincing guests that they are really there. But, in reality, the illusion is only designed to work from certain angles. There’s no need for Universal to recreate the entirety of Hogwarts – it just needs to reproduce enough of it to give visitors the impression that the entire castle is present, even if some of it is hidden from view.
We love being immersed in Orlando’s theme parks. But it’s also fascinating to see just how little of these amazing structures Disney and Universal actually have to install in order to cast their spells on us. Thanks to the magic of satellite and aerial imagery, that’s now easier than ever before.
Let’s take a look backstage (from above) at 10 iconic attractions to see what is actually hidden just beyond the façades…
10. Haunted Mansion (Magic Kingdom)
From the ground:
From above:
The Haunted Mansion is one of the Magic Kingdom’s most iconic attractions, with its impressive exterior providing a hint as to the spooky goings-on within.
In fact, the actual Haunted Mansion façade is relatively tiny in comparison to the size and length of the dark ride within. Hidden behind it is an enormous, warehouse-style structure that contains the actual scenes that the Doom Buggies pass through.
9. Hall of Presidents (Magic Kingdom)
From the ground:
From above:
Very close to the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square is the Hall of Presidents, where guests can watch past and present leaders of the United States say a word or two. The red-brick colonial hall evokes old-style meeting houses – but, of course, it is really just another enormous ride building in disguise.
Liberty Square itself seems relatively small to visitors, but the footprint of the Haunted Mansion and the Hall of Presidents is actually very substantial.
8. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Islands of Adventure)
From the ground:
From above:
Hogwarts Castle is Universal’s answer to Disney’s iconic castles, and performs a similar function by drawing guests through the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade towards its headline ride. It looks for all the world as though Universal has transplanted a full-scale recreation of the fictional Scottish castle into Islands of Adventure.
From above, it’s clear that only very small sections of Hogwarts have really been installed. The “rocks” underneath the castle were actually created using concrete (so, too, were the “wooden” beams in the Three Broomsticks and the snow on the roofs of Hogsmeade’s buildings).
7. Hogwarts Express (Universal Orlando Resort)
From the ground:
Image: Universal
From above:
From Hogwarts Castle, it’s a short walk to Hogsmeade Station, where you can catch the Hogwarts Express train over to Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida. Two trains run the line – one in either direction.
As you’ve probably guessed, the Hogwarts Express does not really run between London and Scotland. Instead, it winds its way through a backstage area of Universal Orlando. All of the steam puffing out of the trains is strictly for show. The trains actually operate like a funicular railway of the type that usually runs up and down a steep hillside, being pulled along by a cable rather than driven by engines.
The system was built by funicular railways specialist Doppelmayr, who boast: “Hiding behind the detailed reproduction of the renowned steam train is a modern funicular ropeway constructed by the world market leader in ropeway engineering.”
There may be two trains travelling back and forth between Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, but that doesn’t mean there are two separate tracks for them to run on. Instead, both trains share a single track – except for one point in the middle, where they are able to pass each other.
6. Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts (Universal Studios Florida)
From the ground:
From above:
Diagon Alley’s equivalent of Hogwarts is the towering Gringotts Wizarding Bank, which comes complete with its very own fire-breathing dragon.
Again, only a tiny amount of the bank is actually visible. That enables Universal to hide a truly cavernous ride building, which contains the roller coaster-cum-dark ride.
5. Cinderella Castle (Magic Kingdom)
From the ground:
From above:
It’s probably the single most enduring and iconic image of any of Florida’s theme parks: the view down Main Street, USA towards the Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle.
From the ground, thanks to the magic of forced perspective, the castle looks impressively large and is clearly the central icon of the entire park. But from above, it looks surprisingly tiny and insignificant.
4. The American Adventure (Epcot)
From the ground:
Image: Disney
From above:
Just like the Hall of Presidents, Epcot’s American Adventure contains an patriotic audio-animatronic show.
Hidden behind the colonial-style frontage is a huge building. The theatre itself is located on the second floor, allowing an enormously complicated array of scenes and stages to be rotated into view from below.
3. Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (Formerly The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
From the ground:
From above:
It’s long been a sore point for many fans of Disney’s Hollywood Studios that the park’s original icon, the Chinese Theatre façade for The Great Movie Ride, was hidden by the installation of an enormous Sorcerer’s Hat sculpture back in 2001 (and, man, looking at the image above it really is clear just how completely the hat snuffed out the view of the theatre).
With the hat now removed, the Chinese Theatre can shine once again. But as this aerial image shows, it’s very much just a façade – a massive soundstage-style building actually holds the ride’s sprawling sets.
2. Men in Black: Alien Attack (Universal Studios Florida)
From the ground:
Image: Disney
From above:
Opened in 2000, Men in Black: Alien Attack occupied a large unused space in Universal Studios Florida. In the movie, the Men in Black organization was kept secret from the general public. The ride’s designers, therefore, wanted it to be housed inside a “false” structure that would hide its true nature. They opted to house it inside a recreation of a 1964 World’s Fair pavilion, complete with the iconic flying saucers from the film, which had been “relocated” to Universal Studios Florida.
The pavilion conceals an enormous 80,000 square foot show building, which enabled dual-tracks to be installed to increase capacity.
1. Kilimanjaro Safaris (Disney’s Animal Kingdom)
From the ground:
From above:
It’s a well-known fact that Animal Kingdom is the largest park theme park in Orlando, but thanks to creative layouts and forced perspective, you may never notice the difference in size between it and the other parks that much.
The park’s headline attraction, Kilimanjaro Safaris, sprawls across an area that is actually slightly larger than the entire Magic Kingdom. Whereas other rides trick you into believing they are larger than they really are, this is one attraction that may actually be even bigger than you perceive it to be.
