Backstage Magic Tour - WDW October 10, 2008

[YoPaulie]

I was given the opportunity to take this 7 hour tour as a birthday present from my in-laws, so of course I jumped at the chance!

The day started off fairly early... I left our Saratoga Springs room at Congress Park around 8:00 AM. I walked to Artists' Palette restaurant and grabbed a coffee, and then, as luck would have it, walked to the Springs bus stop JUST as the Epcot bus pulled up. I was the only one there... since the park didn't open until 9, and there were no Extra Magic Hours scheduled anywhere that morning.

Had a nice chat with the driver, who turned down the automatic announcements and music so we could hear each other. The trip to Epcot took about 5 minutes, as traffic was light and we hit no red lights. I was SO early, I toyed with the idea of taking the monorail, but decided to just meander around the Epcot entryway, listen to the sounds of Alice in Wonderland (the entry plaza music, due to the Food & Wine festival theme), and just generally chat up the cast members as they prepared for their day.

About 8:45 I went over to the meeting area for tours... to the right side of the entry plaza, past security, over by Guest Relations. There I met Wayne, our tour guide, and we did a brief getting-to-know-you with the group, about 20 people in all. Wayne has worked for Disney in various capacities, including at The Land when EPCOT Center opened as a landscape designer, and he still consults with WDW for landscaping and plant selections.

We also were given handset radios and earpieces, which were fairly comfortable and offered pretty good sound; we could hear Wayne just fine, and all he had to do was speak in a normal tone of voice.

Once were signed in (Photo ID required) and did a sound check, we entered Epcot. It was now 9:10 or so, so the park was open. We walked underneath Spaceship earth and paused near the restrooms on the right side for a moment. Wayne discussed the concepts of on-stage vs backstage, and how very little money is spent in non-guest areas. He pointed out the planting "wall" that covered up the wall and backside of The Seas with Nemo & Friends, and how rather than just a wall, it was a mounded earthen berm with progressively taller plants and trees. Next time you're in Epcot... walk in under the right side of Spaceship earth and look to your right... you'll see what he means.

Then, we ventured backstage for the first time. (cont'd)

[YoPaulie]

We came out into a parking lot and loading zone behind The Seas. Ahead we saw our bus for the day, which was a Disney Cruise Line bus, with bottled water aboard for our enjoyment. Wayne explained that most of Epcot is accessible via a loop road that runs around the entire park, and the only pavilions that cast members have to walk in the open are the ones who work Spaceship Earth and the Innoventions area.

We saw VIP parking for Siemens employees and a few semi trucks lined up to unload their wares for the park. I was amazed that all of this activity was going on, with heavy machinery and diesel trucks, just 10 feet from a guest area, and you NEVER hear the commotion when in the park. Wayne told us that speakers are strategically placed so as to drown out backstage noise as much as possible and to not interfere with the onstage "show". We then boarded the bus and headed over to the backstage are of The American Adventure.

On our trip, we saw several areas, particularly behind the Land and the Soarin' building, that had "real world" vehicles, including scissor lifts and service trucks. those do venture out into the parks when they're closed, to do maintenance and other types of work that requires that level of involvement. Wayne told us there are very few inaccessible parts to every theme park; they are designed to be as easy to get to as possible for maintenance and repair.

Parking behind The American Adventure, we got off the bus and went to the front of the pavilion. There, Wayne pointed out that since this area isn't open to guests yet, there is no background music... no food carts, no sanitation workers... essentially, World Showcase looked to be deserted. This, of course, was not the case. In fact, hidden behind the trees were several high lift vehicles that were replacing lightbulbs on the building; you just can't see them from Future World. Kinda cool!

Wayne then demonstrated the "reverse" forced perspective used to make the 5 story American Adventure building appear to be much smaller than it actually is. For example, the "first floor" is actually 2 stories tall... the doors and windows are VERY oversized (take a look next time you go) and the bottom levels are painted a brilliant white. As you go further up the bulding, the white fades a bit to become a light gray color, as White attracts your eyes more than every other color.

Wayne also pointed out that unlike Cinderella Castle, which is mostly fiberglass cast "rock" and "brick", the American Adventure building is made of thousands of real Georgia clay bricks. The rationale is "if a guest can touch it, make it real as possible"... since we can touch the brickwork, it should be real bricks. If we can touch the woodwork, it should be real wood. The framing around the windows and the trimwork up along the roofline are not wood, they are painted molded plastic, to cut on cost and maintenance, but, since you can't touch it, they went that direction.

We walked around to the other side (the right side) and ventured backstage again, through the small courtyard. There we saw the trees that appear in the background are actually on HUGE raised concrete planters, and there's an earthen berm to keep the backstage area hidden from sight from the Boardwalk and Dolphin & Swan resorts. Again... planting in layers and placing tall things even higher up on slopes to shield as much as possible.

Now, we headed into The American Adventure's basement, to see the animatronics scene switcher. (Cont'd)

[Politzania]

YoPaulie - thanks so much for sharing this trip report!

Scott and I have taken the Yuletide Fantasy tour & the Undiscovered Future World tours & got to see some of the Epcot backstage areas as well. We really want to try this tour someday as well.

Looking forward to reading about "The War Wagon"!

[YoPaulie]

No problem! I kinda look forward to writing it! LOL


I also now have my whistle whetted to take all of the other tours; Yuletide Fantasy being one of them!

[YoPaulie]

So, we enter into the very bowels of The American Adventure, and behold the titanic "War Wagon", which is what they affectionately call the animatronic scene switcher for the show. Essentially, all of the show's scenes are stored in bays below the stage. When a scene is called for, a giant cradle rolls forward, then the scene as a whole is pushed sideways from it's bay onto the switcher, then the switcher moves into performance position, and the scene is raised for the performance. When finished, the scene is lowered, then moved back into it's bay. The switcher then gets the next scene in sequence, and repeats the motions.

All in all, the switcher appears to be a good 20 feet square, with the bays extending 20 feet on either side.

Above it all is the MONSTROUS screen, which is rear-projected so as not to cast shadows when the animatronics are up in front of the screen. The projectors are set back about 60 feet or so and have HUGE fans to keep everything cool back there... very neat.

It was here that we discuss the two types of animatronics, hydraulic (water) and pneumatic (air). There was a demo model set up backstage, and Wayne told us essentially pneumatic is only used near water (to ease pollution fears) or near guests (no leaky Tiki birds, for example). They also used to dye the hydraulic fluid red so they could find leaks, but when Mr. Lincoln sprung a leak at Disneyland, he looked as if it was a recreation of his assassination at Ford Theatre. Ever since, Disney Hydraulics have been clear.

After spending about 10 minutes discussing animatronics (did you know that whenever possible, human hair is used for the wigs on the figures when indoors?) and the switcher (including a pretty good closeup look at George Washington on his horse), we headed back to the bus.

This time we continued behind World Showcase to the Cast Member center, located near Mexico and Test Track. This was neat for me... seeing people coming in and getting ready for work. By this time it was about 9:45 or so... and World Showcase Cast was rolling in to start their day. We entered as cast does, then paused in the hallway.

Wayne pointed out the typical "You make the magic" signs, and there was a lot of employee engagement posters, internal awards, and the like on the walls. Also, no Disney music in there... the speakers were tuned to a local radio station. From here we walked through the locker room (NOT a changing room!!! as many many signs attest to!) to see one of the true hidden wonders of Walt Disney World... the Costuming department.

We were well timed getting to this point, as this central "pickup and drop off" location is likely hopping when Future World is getting set to open. Let's see if I can sum it up...

Each Cast Member has a costume for his or her position, which can include pants, shirt, vest, jacket, hat, and sometimes shoes. Wayne told us that Cast can "check out" up to 5 complete costumes at one time. At Epcot, there are rows and rows and rows and rows of each garment type... ranging from size 0 all the way up to XXXXXL (Yes, we saw a 5-X bus driver costume shirt). Cast would then go to their appropriate row, then grab their size (hopefully it's there) and how many they need. Then, clothing in arm, they go to a "check-out" counter, where they hand their cast member ID to the checkout person. Once that is scanned, each piece is scanned into the computer using a bar code imprinted onto the garment.

These bar codes play an important role in the life cycle of a garment... which I will go into more detail later.

Standing in the enormity of the Epcot Costume department, Wayne reminds us that there is a similar facility at Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and Disney Hollywood Studios... all with racks and racks of bar-coded garments. We make our way past the "check-in" desk, where cast members are retuning their worn costume garments. Each piece is then scanned again, removing the item from the Cast member's "inventory" and now into the laundry tracking system. More on this later as well.

We now venture towards the back of Costuming... into the repair shop.

(Cont'd)

[YoPaulie]

Walking into the Epcot Costume repair shop, one thing strikes me... the wall (literally, a WALL) of buttons ahead of me, and the wall of thread. Every color, size, and shape button imaginable is up there in marked bins... and every color and size thread you can imagine as well.

There is a rack on the left of garments in various states of repair; we saw several Sleeping Beauty garments, as well as an undergarment "fat suit" for Eyeore, among other things.

Behind this repair rack was the makeup department. This I liked... a lot. Because I got to see some princesses in various states of makeup. All of the princesses do their own, don their wigs, then head over to get outfitted. At this point in their day, they were in the makeup chairs, in full wig and applying lipstick, etc., but in shorts and tank tops. One particularly fine looking Belle was walking across the parking lot later, in sweatshorts... but, I digress.

The repair work done at this location, we were told by Wayne, is of the minor variety... ripped seams, missing buttons, etc. Most of the major work is done at the costume shop at Disney Hollywood Studios. I'd estimate there to be about 2 dozen people working at various sewing machines and work areas... and they were ALL busy. One thing I'd say in general about the people who are cast members behind the scenes... they all work with purpose. Their jobs don't require the hap-hap-happiness as those who interact with guests do, but you get the sense that they are all consummate professionals in their trade, and confident not only in their ability but in all of those around them, to get the job done, done well, and done right the first time.

Now, it was out the back door... into the parking lot, where the bus awaited us. It was time to head to the Studios.

The bus went through the security gate to the right of the Tower of Terror, and we parked right alongside it, next to a stand of bicycles. It appears bikes are the best mode of transportation around the Studios for cast members! Once again, here we were, in a large parking lot immediately next to Rockin' Rollercoaster, and you never hear any road noise. For that matter, we did not hear the Aerosmith music on this side, either. The trees you see to the right side of the Rockin' Rollercoaster behind the big wall are in the same kind of planters I described by The American Adventure... they add a good 4 feet of hight to the trees.

One thing that struck me right off the bat was the phenomenal lack of theming on that side of the Tower... it looked almost naked. Again, it follows the saying of "If the guest can't see it, don't spend money on it". We walked into the maintenance bay of the Tower to behold one of the elevators. It's pretty simple, with some intricate welding and themed metalwork, but it is more like a giant shopping cart with seats than anything else. We talked a bit about how the Tower was conceived (in the backseat of the Sci-Fi Dine In, I think) and designed, about the reprogrammability of the drop sequences, and said hello to a couple of the engineers working on repairing/maintaining one of the electronic pieces. After about 10 minutes, we reboarded the bus and headed over to the Studios Costuming Department.

(Cont'd)

[Mortis]

Hand cramped?
Thanks for the report, waiting on chapter 4.


Lots to report on...

[Doofy]

This sounds pretty amazing. I think that it would be a lot of fun to try. I would really like to try that tour.

[Mortis]

I'm still mad he didn't take me.

[Mortis]

Look, I found a picture of YoPaulie on his trip.