Walt Disney World: Overlooked Treasures and Stories (Volume II)

Hello again, my fellow Disney fans. It's been a while.

When I last left you, we had just traveled up Main Street, USA. I certainly hope that you enjoyed that little tour. Now, we're off to go explore the wilds of Adventureland.

Adventureland is divided into two areas: the Arabian bazaar on the Main Street side and Caribbean Plaza on the Frontierland side. The land is themed as a whole not to one specific time or place, but is rather designed to capture the spirit of adventure. As a result, the Imagineers went out of their way to sculpt the landscape with a wide variety of lush vegetation, similar to what one would find in the wilderness. One Imagineer in particular, Bill Evans, was well-known throughout WDI for his knack to think of the perfect plant for any given spot. As a result, he was given his own special tribute on one of the Jungle Cruise's Fastpass machines.

This address label on a Jungle Cruise Fastpass machine is a tribute to Bill Evans. It also has some additional coded information on it - can anyone figure out what else this refers to?

While we're on the subject of the Jungle Cruise, now would probably be a good time to mention a quite interesting story that shows how WDI solves problems that was told to me by one of the Imagineers. Every so often, Audio-Animatronic figures need to be removed from attractions in something called the "cycle out" process, during which time the innards of the figures are restored and repaired. A recent example of this is the Chief Nami figure at the end of the Jungle Cruise, who went MIA for a few months in the summer of 2008. Since it didn't have that much of an impact on the attraction, there was no effort to replace him for those few months.

However, not all cycle outs are this easy. For example, a few years ago it became necessary to restore the rhino from the "Survival of the Fastest/Hole in Juan/Poke Ahontas" scene. Well this caused a slight problem: without the rhino there, the scene makes absolutely no sense. So after thinking long and hard about what to do, the Imagineers came up with a solution. They carved a rhino out of heavy-duty styrofoam to place in the scene while the AA was on cycle out. Additionally, they even spring-loaded the head so that it could put a hole in Juan or poke Ahontas (whichever joke you prefer).

Let's move away from the Jungle Cruise now and on to the Swiss Family Treehouse. Firstly, the Swiss flag over the treehouse is the only foreign flag to permanently fly above a Disney attraction. Quite interesting, huh? Secondly, the design of the tree was based off the tropical banyan tree, which actually has vertical roots that drop down from its outer branches to support the weight of the tree. WDI used this feature to their advantage, hiding the steel structural supports in these roots. Technically, the tree is classified as a "Disneyodendron eximus," a genus and species name that means "out-of-the-ordinary Disney tree." It is the only tree of this species in the world; the treehouses in the other Disney parks are of different species. After all, isn't it highly unlikely that trees of the same species would live in different environments throughout the world?

The vertical roots of the tree hide the steel supports in a natural way.

Adventureland also shows how the Imagineers never let anything go to waste. Around the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, you may notice that there are broken pieces of tile embedded into the pavement, giving the walkway the look of much-trodden on market dirt. The tiles are actually taken from a small building that had to be demolished to make room for the carpets - talk about recycling!

The Imagineers never let a good idea go to waste either. When Adventureland first opened with the Magic Kingdom in 1971, the group of wooden tikis that were by the Jungle Cruise were simply for area theming designed by the master of the sight gag, Marc Davis. After a few decades, the original wooden sculptures began to deteriorate and a need grew to replace them. WDI did just that, but they took it a step further and "plussed it," as they say. They reconstructed the tikis out of fiberglass, and added one of their favorite elements to the mix: water. Now, the Marc Davis Tikis are just as good as they were on opening day, plus they give park guests a chance to cool off on hot summer days.

And of course, no journey through Adventureland is complete without riding one of the greatest attractions to ever come out of WDI: Pirates of the Caribbean. The journey begins when you see the grand Castillo del Morro in Caribbean Plaza at the far end of Adventureland. The queue winds its way through this mysterious fort, passing by the famous scene of two skeletons sitting at a chessboard in a jail cell. Most people recognize it as a gag, but they don't realize just how morbid the gag is. In fact, this is one of the two most morbid jokes in all of WDW. Here's why...

Take a very careful look at the pieces on the board. Chess players will know that there is only one possible move. That one move can only lead to a string of moves that will end up with the pieces in the exact same spot as they were originally, thus making the game a perpetual stalemate. The two prisoners were so bored with themselves that they continued to play this stalemate out for ages and ages, eventually dying at the board. Their skeletons remain there to this day.

Like I said, it's a pretty morbid joke.

The never-ending game of chess in the Pirates of the Caribbean queue is rather morbid, contrary to what most park guests think.

Incidentally, the chess pieces got moved around accidentally during one of the refurbishments. When the Imagineers went to put it back, they realized that none of them remembered the arrangement to make the gag work. They checked all of Marc Davis's concept drawings for this scene and found nothing - until one Imagineer flipped one of the drawings over. Marc Davis had drawn a precise diagram of the board on the back of one of his concepts, and the scene was saved!

Pirates is also allegedly home to a ghost. Here's the story behind this one: While Pirates was being constructed, one of the workers (named George) mysteriously vanished. His ghost is said to haunt the attraction building. Every morning, the first Cast Member to arrive at Pirates must say, "Good morning, George," and the last Cast Member to leave Pirates must say "Good night, George." Legend has it that if this is not done, George will not let the attraction run properly for the day. Is it true? You'll have to figure that one out for yourself...

One more quick fact about Pirates of the Caribbean: I've mentioned the name Marc Davis quite frequently throughout our Adventureland tour. Marc Davis is responsible for the sight gags in many of the classic attractions (including two Adventureland ones, Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean). As a result, he gets a hidden tribute in Pirates. If you look at the coat of arms above the Treasure Room (where you see a singing Jack Sparrow) in the attraction's finale, you'll notice that the family name is none other than Marco Daviso.

Well that just about wraps up our stroll through Adventureland, a land that is full of mystery, stories, legends, and secrets. I have shared some of these with you, and there are indeed many more that lurk in these parts - so many, in fact, that I'm sure that I don't know even half of them! Again, my deepest hope is that you not only had fun reading this, but that you learned something in the process.

I'll be seeing you soon. I'm off to Frontierland, I hear that those miners over at Big Thunder Mountain have finally struck gold....