Walt Disney World is carefully orchestrated to provide guests with the perfect combination of autonomy and attentiveness. While you’re free to create your own magical experience unlike any other, you’re also guided very carefully along the path. One of the keys to Disney’s careful control of a park teeming with thousands of visitors is its use of concealed spaces and hidden observation points.
From areas like these, managers, maintenance personnel, and Imagineers can assess everything from the flow of guest traffic to the performance of spieling Cast Members. You’re almost always observable when you’re in the parks, and in many cases you won’t have any idea where concealed watchers are hiding. Here are a few subtle spots where Cast Members could be hiding in the parks.
1. Behind “faux” windows
If you’re familiar with some of the more common methods for maintaining Disney illusions, you already know about forced perspective. Using forced perspective, Imagineers make the buildings on Magic Kingdom’s Main Street appear as though they’re three stories tall when they’re really only two. Windows, balustrades, and other details on the second and third stories are scaled down to create this effect.
With forced perspective in mind, you’d probably expect a faux storefront. However, the interior of these areas, though small and cramped, is still very real. You won’t be able to see them, but Cast Members can reach these areas and look down on the streets below. This isn’t a common practice, but it can prove handy for managers who want an unhindered view of the parade or other major events on the packed streets below.
2. Just overhead
Guests rarely look up when they’re on an attraction, which is why Cast Members are so easily obscured from view when they’re above. The Great Movie Ride, for example, is liberally criss-crossed with catwalks that run above the ride track. Regular Cast Members aren’t permitted into the catwalks, but trainers do have access. One of the most anticipated rites of passage in training for the attraction is climbing into the catwalks to watch the show from above.
Managers are also a big fan of catwalks. In a spieling attraction like the Great Movie Ride, catwalks make it possible for management to assess Cast Members’ performances unseen. Everyone puts on their best show when they know they’re being observed on a ride, but with a feature like this you have to stay on point all the time, because you never know who might be watching.
3. In unlit spaces
Darkness is one of the simplest and most effective tools that Imagineering has at its disposal. Unlit areas can hold any number of hidden features that you’ll never see when the ride is operating properly. Nearly all dark rides have some features you can’t see because they’re tucked away in the dark. On Dinosaur, this includes a complete maintenance desk tucked just behind the jungle scene to the right when you first transition into the prehistoric world.
You won’t see it under ordinary circumstances, but if maintenance were to leave a desk light on (as they did one unfortunate day), you’ll find a work area that looks wildly out of place. You may also spot areas like this if you’re evacuated from an attraction. During evacuations, the lights are turned on for safety, and you’ll see plenty of areas where the illusion falls away to reveal a far more realistic world.
4. In the scenery
Though Disney works hard to create a world that will seem believable, adult visitors are perfectly aware of the mechanisms and machinery that are at work behind the scenes. Many of these features create small hidey holes where Cast Members can crouch undetected. The Wicked Witch of the West materializes in the Great Movie Ride by popping up from a concealed hiding spot just below while smoke obscures her arrival. Though her place of concealment isn’t large, it is just big enough for a Cast Member or two to crouch in, sitting just beside her before she makes her entrance.
The top of the temple in the Jungle Cruise is easily accessible by Cast Members who can crouch unseen in the foliage. A similar spot is hidden behind the dancing natives. In Pirates of the Caribbean, there’s a completely functional spot just past the drunken pirate lounging with the pigs where Cast Members have to access a console used to take boats off the river.
Every attraction has its own nooks and cubbies. Most are used for maintenance purposes. Some conceal managers who need a place to observe the ride. You’re unlikely to see them if you don’t know where to look, and even then, darkness usually plays a key role in keeping them concealed.
Keep in mind that very few spots are undetectable in the parks. While this may seem unsettling, it’s really a smart feature that helps keep rides functioning properly and all the park’s guests safe during their time in Walt Disney World.
