General Resort Fun Facts

You can also find other information on fun facts and secrets of Walt Disney World by consulting with your local independent bookstore or visit our online bookstore. These are real Disney secrets. For more Disney secrets and trivia and bloopers try DISNEY Ever Notice... ?. If you are interested in rumors (some true, most not), checkout Disney Urban Legend Reference Page and Urban Legends Archive.

1. The addition of the Animal Kingdom Lodge will bring the number of Disney-owned-and-operated resorts to 18. Property-wide, there will be 28 resorts, offering more than 25,000 guest-room accommodations.
2. This is what we received from Disney during our New Year's eve stay: "Designed for our Walt Disney World Millennium Package Guest, the unique hand-crafted gift is one of only 4,500 created. For the new Millennium, Walt Disney World Co. and Arribas Brothers have combined the age old arts of Damarene and glasscutting alongside 21st century laser technology. Suspended within each sparkling hand crafted crystal cube, Mickey Mouse encourages everyone on planet Earth to 'Celebrate the Future Hand in Hand.' Each crystal cube contains 40,000 individual, laser-created explanations to form this unique work of art."
   REPORTED: anon 07 JAN 00
3. Upon check-in my 4 year old daughter announced that she was celebrating her 5th birthday during our week long stay...The cast member was sweet and asked her how old she would be and when her birthday was...we thought nothing of it. A few days later we were suprised to return to our room and find it decorated for her birthday, complete with baloons, cake, napkins, plates, forks and a few Mickey pens and pencils... What a suprise.
   REPORTED: Amy 09 JUN 01
4. The water sprites you can rent at almost of the Walt Disney hotels and resorts and company called Brunswick in Chicago. They have just started selling the water sprites to the public and they say they are about $5,300.00 which includes boat, engine, everything.
   REPORTED: J.T. 25 MAY 98
5. My family was taking a waterskiing trip on Seven Seas Lagoon and in the middle of the trip we stopped to dive in and cool off. As I dove into the water, I asked the boat driver if there were any "gators" in the water. He replied with, "Yep, we pulled an eight footer out last week!" I laughed, b/c I figured he was teasing me while I was swimming, and he replied again with a serious,"No, Really, we pulled an eight footer out last week!" I quickly swam back into the boat, however he reassured me that they are timid animals and are generally scared by the boats, but they do keep metal screening installed before the shorelines to weed out any of the gators from getting into the swimming areas or onto the resort shores. We also were chased by tiny baby gator while trying to retrieve a golfball from the Magnolia Course water.
   REPORTED: anon 27 SEP 00
6. Last year me and my parents went to Disney World. We kept 6 stuffed animals I had brought along in the room and each day when we came back from a day of exhasting touring, the animals were arranged in a humorus and cute way! I think I have seen a report of this before, I am confirming it. It was really cute! I am going to try it again this year,I am going in a WEEK! So excited. We were staying in the All Star Sports hotel, in the tennis building.
   CONFIRMED: Phil Tatro 26 JAN 00
   A couple years ago I had shared a room at the Port Orleans resort with a friend who had brought two stuffed animals from home. Every day when we got back to the room we noticed that housekeeping had arranged the animals in different ways; sitting on the headboard, tucked into bed, etc. Brought a smile to our faces every day!
   CONFIRMED: anon 12 JAN 06
7. Walt Disney World is experimenting with something called the $10 E Ticket Express. The E Ticket Express permits entry into the Magic Kingdom theme park at night, after the park has closed, to sample a limited number of rides and attractions. The offer is valid only for guests staying at hotels owned and operated by Disney, which is the only place the tickets are available. Guests must have a valid Disney multiday, multi-park ticket, or a seasonal or annual pass.
   REPORTED: anon 08 OCT 97
   I wanted to add that Tokyo Disney is not the only park doing E tickets. Walt Disney World does offers it certain nights for guests staying on grounds. My brother and sister-in-law just purchased E tickents on their visit in September of 97. You just have to ask about the tickets. They do not advertise about them.
   CONFIRMED: Jamie Josephson 11 OCT 97
   During the off-season, Magic kingdom & the Studios close at 7pm for night functions (i.e.: big company rents the park from 7 to 9 for a private party). They don't do this at EPCOT because it's more a night-time park, and the paying guests have to have *something* to do.

   Closing at 7pm is published in the park literature, however, there's not always a night function booked on a given night. So, if the park attendance is high, they may simply not close the park for another 2 hours (the CM's were gonna work anyway, right?). This often isn't announced, the doors just simply stay open.

   An alternative is letting resort guests, or AP holders in after hours. Sometimes special deals are cut with a company to hold a private night function for them after hours, but, because they have a low number of estimated show-ups, they are given a cut rate in return for letting a limited number of resort guests in at the same time. This isn't feasible when a big company (like IBM & Lotus, the other night), literally TAKES OVER the Studios with 12,000 people, with free food lined up all up and down the streets, special booths setup, and a customized "LOTUS" fireworks show.
   UPDATE: anon 03 FEB 98

8. There are more than 30 Mickey Mouse costumes at each Disney Resort. All the poeple employed as Mickey Mouse have to be exactly 5ft 2in tall. Men can play Minnie Mouse and women can play Mickey Mouse.
   REPORTED: Thomas Worship 05 FEB 99
9. The security gates at each resort has reduced drunk driving by 90%!
   UPDATE: anon 10 JUL 98

• Go on to the Fun Facts of Disney's All Star Music and Sports Resorts,
• Go back to the Spacecoast Hidden Mickeys Home Page,
• Submit a new or confirm a Hidden Mickey located on Walt Disney World Property,
• or just send me EMail.