WELCOME TO DISNEY

Making Magic

Sip top international wines, snack on local street food and let your imagination run wild at all of Walt Disney World Resort’s thrilling attractions.

WHERE’S MICKEY?

While designing, building or adding final touches to an attraction, Imagineers have subtly placed Mickey Mouse silhouettes in plain sight for years. See if you can find the silhouettes and abstract images of the famous mouse cleverly hidden throughout the park, starting with this snap shot from the Animal Kingdom.
HINT: The mouse marks are carved into the rock

Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

From Sept. 26 to Nov. 9, sip, taste and enjoy everything the 13th annual festival has to offer.

BY THE NUMBERS
135 Eat to the Beat! concerts
More than 300 national and international wines
1,200 wine and beer seminars
100,000 miniature desserts
338,000 wine glasses
750,000 beer cups
1.2 million hors d’oeuvre plates

DID YOU KNOW?
Covering 47 square miles, Walt Disney World Resort is about the size of two Manhattan islands.

Cinderella’s Secrets

The castle first graced Orlando’s skyline in 1971 and has been the magical centerpiece of Walt Disney World Resort ever since.

- The castle soars 189 feet into the sky and can be seen from 2 miles away.

- The clock has all Roman numerals except for “IV,” which is “IIII.” Designers thought it would be easier to distinguish that from “VI.”

- Outside the castle, in the Fairytale Garden, Belle of Beauty and the Beast holds story time several times a day.

- A “forced perspective” method was used to create the castle’s tall effect; as it gets taller, its proportions get smaller. The top piece of the castle is close to half the size it appears.

- Seven shades of gray were used for trim pieces, colors that would complement— not compete with— Orlando’s bright blue skies.

- Inside the breezeway, more than 300,000 pieces of colored Italian glass and enamel make up the five-panel mosaic tiles that tell the rags-to-riches story of Cinderella.
(Once inside, young princesses receive royal treatment at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Visitors are welcomed by their very own fairy godmothers-in-training, who magically transform them into Disney Divas.)

MASTERING THE WORLD

While waiting in line for Walt Disney World Resort’s Great Movie Ride back in the mid-’90s, computer scientist Len Testa had an idea: He would fi gure out the fastest way through the park, with the shortest wait times.

“It turns out that from a computer-science perspective, fi nding the way to minimize your wait in line at theme parks is a really challenging problem,” Testa says. “The more attractions you want to see, the more diffi cult it is for even very powerful computers to fi nd an exact answer. In a typical touring place like Magic Kingdom, for example… there’s something like 51 million-billion different combinations of touring plans.”

Testa teamed up with Bob Sehlinger (who was already working on a similar project), and the pair spent about three years developing soft ware. They used heuristics— rules of thumb guided by basic knowledge—and enlisted volunteers to do a lot of legwork. “I recruited every friend and family member I knew,” Testa says. “[At Walt Disney World Resort], we walked anywhere from 20 to 30 miles a day.”

The result of their hard work was The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, which they continue to update; a 2008 version is currently available. Add it to your packing list, and shave hours off your wait time.

A Man with A Plan

Len Testa outlines the optimal order to see Magic Kingdom in three hours

• Begin at FantasyLand on Dumbo the Flying Elephant

• Head to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

• Hop on Peter Pan’s Flight

• Get spooked at the Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square

• Grab a FASTPASS (a system that saves your place in line and tells you when to return) for Splash Mountain

• Scream down Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

• Pick up a snack or lunch at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe

• Get soaked on Splash Mountain

To customize your itinerary, go to www.touringplans.com

SNACK ATTACK

ITEM	WHAT	WHERE	FUN FACT	PRICE
DOLE WHIP	Pineapple soft-serve swirled together with vanilla ice cream	Magic Kingdom	Dole Foods are the corporate sponsors of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room	$2.89
SMOKED TURKEY LEGS	Oversized legs that come from 40 to 50 pound turkeys	All Disney Parks	The park sells more than 1.6 million legs a year	$6.19
CRÊPES	Chocolate, sugar or strawberry fillings stuff these thin French pancakes	Epcot’s France	Epcot features a small version of the Seine River and the Eiffel Tower	$3.76
MICKEY PREMIUM ICE CREAM BARS	Vanilla ice cream bar covered in a dark chocolate shell in the shape of Mickey’s head	All Disney Parks	More than 2.6 million chocolate-covered bars are sold every year at Walt Disney World Resort	$2.50
BRATWURST	Sausage topped with sauerkraut on a roll	Epcot’s Germany	Goes well alongside a cold German beer	$6.39

RIDE THROUGH THE YEARS

(1971) RIDE TIMELINE
26 attractions opened during the park’s first year, including Jungle Cruise; Cinderella’s Golden Carousel; Dumbo, the Flying Elephant; Mad Tea Party; Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride; “It’s a Small World” (originally created for the World’s Fair in 1964); Snow White’s Adventures; and Haunted Mansion

(1973)
Pirates of the Caribbean

(1974)
Magic Carpet ’Round the World and StarJets

(1975)
First computer-controlled thrill ride - Space Mountain

(1980)
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

(1982)
The Epcot ball weighs 16 million pounds - Epcot Center and Spaceship Earth

(1990)
Star Tours

(1991)
“Jim Henson’s Muppet*Vision 3D”

(1994)
Surpassed Cinderella’s Castle as the resort’s tallest structure, at 199 feet - The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

(1996)
Disney’s BoardWalk

(1998)
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin

(1999)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

(2001)
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin - Adventureland’s first new attraction in 25 years

(2003)
Mission: SPACE

(2004)
Stitch’s Great Escape!

(2005)
Crush ‘n’ Gusher and Soarin’ at Epcot Expedition Everest “American Idol”

(2006)
200 feet: currently the resort’s tallest attraction - Expedition Everest

(2009)
“American Idol” Attraction