Walt Disney was a very eccentric person who believed that nothing was impossible and went out of his way to prove it against overwhelming odds. The things he loved, he loved with a passion, and many of his personality traits were so pronounced as to be almost exaggerated. Many of Walt’s lifelong obsessions continue to shape the parks, even today. Here are some key areas where you can still see Walt’s influence in the parks.
Everything Trains
Walt had a lifelong passion for trains. His wife Lilly recalled how it was recreation to him, to go and watch trains pass on the railroad tracks, then sit and watch the tracks’ vibrations after they’d gone. In 1947, he got his first train, in the form of a small electric train. He wrote to his sister Ruth joyfully, telling her how much fun he was having with it. He described it in detail saying, “It’s a freight train with a whistle, and real smoke comes out of the smokestack. There are switches, semaphores, a station, and everything. It’s just wonderful!”
Later, at Walt’s home in Holmby Hills, he constructed a backyard railroad that circled the home. Lilly wanted ample room for her flower beds, but Walt’s proposed train track circled their entire five-acre property. The couple compromised with a miniature railroad tunnel that ran beneath the flowerbeds. Walt even incorporated an “S” shape in the tunnel to give it more excitement. The train was constructed to 1:8-scale. He even has coal ground to the perfect scale for his personal home railroad.
Trains still play a major role in Disney theme parks. Disneyland features the Disneyland Railroad and Casey Jr. Circus Train. At Walt Disney World, you’ll find the Walt Disney World Railroad circling the Magic Kingdom and Wildlife Express Train offering transportation to Rafiki’s Planet Watch at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. International parks feature trains as well. There’s the Western River Railroad at the Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Railroad at Disneyland Paris, and Hong King Disneyland Railroad.
Another treasure trove of train memorabilia can be found in the lounge of the Wilderness Lodge’s Boulder Ridge Villas. Here you’ll see a train car from Walt’s original backyard railroad as well as numerous train pictures. Trains will always play a major role in Disney theme parks, because this is one of the few attraction types that infallibly evokes images of the man behind the magic.
The Fascinations of Wildlife
Wildlife held incredible interest for Walt Disney. His True-Life Adventures were an homage to all manner of wild creatures, and Bambi brought animals more realistic than cartoonish to the big screen. Walt loved to surround himself with animals anywhere he could. Cast Members long remembered his fondness for the miniature horses at Disneyland. His daughters remember him feeding blue jays in the evenings. When squirrels began munching on the family’s fruit trees, rather than allow the gardener to poison them, he instructed that they simply plant more.
Though Walt didn’t live to see Disney’s Animal Kingdom, this park is surely something he would have adored. One can easily picture Walt doting on the baby elephants or sneaking in a handful of treats to feed to the birds. Animal Kingdom is an innovative blend of theme park and zoo, which is exactly the type of creation Walt would have loved.
Carriages at Walt Disney World
Image: d.k.peterson, Flickr (license)
Animal Kingdom isn’t the only place that you’ll find animals in the parks. Horse-drawn trolleys run in most Disney parks around the world. You can take a horse-drawn carriage ride on other locations around Walt Disney World as well, including Port Orleans and Fort Wilderness. At Fort Wilderness, you’ll find the Tri-Circle-D Ranch where all the Disney horses reside. You can walk through the stable and take a peek at these massive beasts, or go for a short pony ride along the ranch’s trails. Longer horseback rides around the Fort Wilderness property are available as well.
Unceasing Perfectionism
Walt’s perfectionism is a major part of what set his parks apart from the unkempt carnivals that pop up in parking lots. He exhibited intense attention to detail. When inspecting the design of Disneyland, he once requested that a Brazilian pepper tree with a spread of about 30 feet be moved farther from the walkway. The tree’s six-ton root system was boxed up and moved back six feet to accommodate his request.
Author Neal Gabler described Disney accurately as a “perfectionist visionary.” He wanted everything in his parks to embody his idealized images down to the last detail, and he nearly always got what he wanted.
Though Walt isn’t around to demand his level of personal perfectionism today, the parks still adhere to an incredibly high level of detail. Managers are known for their insistence on picking up trash as soon as they spot it. Cast Members adhere to a strict dress code that keeps them uniform right down to their nail polish. Disney’s pixie dust sheen is still the result of a lingering need to make things perfect – just as Walt would have done.
Disney parks, by their very nature, will always have a certain air about them that hearkens back to their creator. If you want to get a sense of Walt in the parks, just look to these key elements.
