There's A Secret Message From Roy Disney If You Stick Around The Castle At Night
Here are a few of the craziest facts about the most iconic castle in the world.
Psst.. Don't leave the parks just yet. If you stick around the castle after the ending fireworks long enough, you might hear a message from Roy Disney (Walt's brother) over the speakers. Don't believe us?
There Are Three Different Elevators Inside
We guess you'll just have to see for yourself. It's called "The Kiss Goodnight," and features audio from Roy's dedication speech set to the lights going off around the castle. It's a little-known tidbit that you might be able to catch next time around.
One elevator goes up to Cinderella's Royal Table, as Disney wanted to accommodate those in wheelchairs. Another elevator used to move food from kitchen to kitchen. Finally, the last elevator is used by cast and crew to reach the underground Utilidoors, as well as those who are lucky enough to stay in the signature suite above.
A Secret Suite Exists Five Stories Above The Bottom Floor
What? Did we say signature suite? You weren't supposed to hear that..
A suite made specifically for the Disney family was planned during construction of the castle, however Imagineers decided to turn it into a "Dream Suite" for guests instead. In case you were wondering, Disney spared no expense in making it one of the most luxurious places to stay in the world.
Christmas Lights Decorating The Castle Use As Much Energy As A Dryer
Included inside is a salon, a bed chamber, and a bathroom that's as beautiful as any room you've ever seen before. Many times Disney reserves the room for the "Make A Wish" foundation, so availability is a little tight.
The holiday season is one of the busiest times at Walt Disney World. In fact, on Christmas Day the parks always reach capacity. In fact, the crowds are so strong that guests get packed in like sardines.
There's a 'IIII' instead of a 'IV' On The Clock
With the holiday season also comes the beautiful light displays that make Cinderella's Castle look like Elsa's from Frozen. Covering the castle are some 200,000 LED lights that use about the same amount of energy as a dryer. Disney World has always been focused on being efficient with energy, in fact, they recently installed a field of solar panels just outside Epcot that help power a good amount of attractions inside.
For those who are really paying attention, you'll notice the clock on the front of the castle has a "IIII" insignia instead of "IV." This wasn't a mistake! The Imagineers were simply trying to be true to the times.
Imagineers Transformed It Into A Birthday Cake For Its 25th Anniversary
The "IV" roman numeral wasn't used until after the Colonial Period, and since Cinderella's Castle is from a couple centuries before that, the minds behind this iconic structure wanted to be faithful to their source material. Make sure you look for that next time you're in the parks, as well as this other hidden gem..
Pretty crazy to look at, huh? For Magic Kingdom's 25th Anniversary, Imagineers turned the castle into a giant birthday cake. It took 400 gallons of pink paint to cover the castle, and had 26 candles ranging from 20-40 feet in height.
A Room Directly Beneath The Castle Controls Basically Everything In The Park
Among other decorations were massive gumdrops, lifesavers, lollipops, and other goodies. Are you drooling yet? The castle stayed in this form for a good 15 months, delighting guests from 1996 until 1998.
What controls the animatronics at The Hall of Presidents? Or the light shows at night? Or the stage curtains at Country Bear Jamboree?
The Castle is Only 189 Feet Tall For A Reason
A small room underneath the castle, in fact! The system is both brilliant and complicated, as it controls hundreds of Animatronic characters throughout the park all at the same time.
When constructing the castle for Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney and the Imagineers ran into a problem. Florida required every building above 200 feet tall to have a red blinking light atop it for the safety of passing airplanes. There's no way a red blinking light would look good on top of a medieval castle, so the Imagineers just made it 189 feet tall.
Imagineers Used Forced Perspective To Make The Castle Look Much Bigger
But why does it look so big? That's yet another secret behind Cinderella's Castle..
We hope we're not ruining your childhood too much. Yes, the Imagineers made the castle look much bigger artificially. They did this in two ways. One, they made the higher towers of the castle a bit smaller than usual to make them look much farther away.
There's A Restaurant Inside Which Many Regard As The "Holy Grail" Of Disney Experiences
Second, they designed the buildings on Main Street to get shorter and shorter the further guests walk down towards the castle. It's a very subtle nuance, but makes all the difference in making the castle look absolutely gargantuan. This technique is called "Forced Perspective."
Perhaps the most sought-after experience in all of Disney World is a reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table. Always booked at least 180 days (6 months) in advance, if you want a spot here, you'll need to give "planning ahead" a whole different meaning. When guests are called to be seated, they ascend a beautiful spiral staircase to meet Cinderella before sitting down in the medieval dining room of the princess herself.
Tinkerbell Is A..Boy?
One more thing: It's also one of the easiest ways to meet Disney princesses! Snow White, Cinderella, and Arielle all make regular appearances. You don't want to miss this experience.
It's long been debated whether the Tinkerbell that appears during the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular is, in fact, a boy. For those who don't know, Wishes was the nightly fireworks show that used to be presented in front of Cinderella's Castle. Before the fireworks, Tinkerbell herself would fly from the top tower across the sky on a wire.
The Events Of September 11 Made It A No-Fly Zone
It's long been a rumor that Tinkerbell is a man, however this is impossible to prove one way or the other. It is true that whoever plays Tinkerbell MUST be petite and fit very specific height and weight requirements. They're paid outrageous sums just to make one jump every night because it's so hard to find people with the correct body type.
Sadly, after the events of September 11, the park had to change a lot of things. On that fateful day the parks were evacuated because it was a potential target for attacks due to large crowds and landmarks like Cinderella's Castle.
Cinderella's Castle Is Also A Lightning Rod
Now the entire park is a no-fly zone for added protection. Cinderella's Castle is largely the reason why the government worked with Disney to make this law.
photo courtesy: pixabay Florida is the lightning capital of the United States. Pretty much every day during the Summer without fail it storms for a good thirty minutes. Walt Disney knew this, so he very carefully placed a variety of lightning rods throughout the park to ensure guest's safety.
There Used To Be 29 Towers But Now There's 27
The biggest one at Magic Kingdom is Cinderella's Castle! The Epcot ball is also a lightning rod, and the Sorcerer's hat that used to be part of Hollywood Studios was one as well.
Adorning Cinderella's Castle are 27 beautiful towers, however original designs included two other ones. Why weren't they included?
Inside Is A Boutique Where Young Guests Can Become Princesses
Because the other two wouldn't have been visible from any direction, so Imagineers decided to cut them from the final construction. Each tower is numbered 1-29, and in case you were wondering, towers 13 and 17 were the ones to get removed from the final design.
It's called the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, and it's every little girl's dream to go there. Inside a group of talented hairstylists work with their little customers to turn them into Princesses from their head to their feet. Included are manicures, hairstyling, make-up, costumes, and photos.
The Castle Is NOT Made of Marble
They also receive sashes, wands, and a variety of other goodies. For anyone with a young daughter, this lesser-known experience is worth looking into!
The castle looks like it's made from pure marble, but like many things at The Walt Disney World, appearances may deceive you. The structure is actually made from steel and concrete. Despite the appearance that bricks were used to construct it, there were none brought in when building it.
The Moat Contains 3.37 Million Gallons Of Water
Instead, what you see on the outside is very hard fiber-reinforced gypsum plaster supported by metal studs. The towers were raised by cranes and bolted into place afterwards.
The Moat surrounding Cinderella's Castle contains an unfathomable 3.37 million gallons of water. That's enough to fill more than five Olympic Swimming Pools. In 2014, Magic Kingdom drained all the water from the moats to redesign the main Hub area located in the middle of the parks.
The Drawbridge Doesn't Work
Thankfully construction has since concluded, and the moat was re-filled and restored to its former glory. It must have taken a long time! There's another secret pertaining to the Moat not many people know about..
Pictured above is the drawbridge at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. We pictured this one because the drawbridge at Disney World doesn't work. It's not because the Imagineers failed or something, it's just because it was never put into the end design.
Fans Have Actually Speculated About Best Siege Tactics To Take Cinderella's Castle
So there you have it, if there was ever a siege of Cinderella's Castle in Orlando, those defending might have a tough time from invaders. Speaking of sieges..
Just when we thought all conversations about Disney have been had, there's one more that hardcore fans actually speculate about: the best siege tactics for taking Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World. Some strategies include sneaking in through the Jungle Cruise, securing an outpost in the woods, then cutting off access to the monorail for enemy reinforcements to arrive. That's just a start.
The Castle's Design Was Inspired By 10 Others Throughout Multiple Countries
Then they go into aquatic invasions via the Seven Seas Lagoon, taking the Main Street Railway Station, and much, much more. It's ridiculous, but it's also a lot of fun to think about.
Pictured above is Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, one of the many inspirations for Imagineers when designing Cinderella's Castle. Other inspirations include Fontainebleau, Versailles and the châteaux of Chenonceau, Pierrefonds, Chambord and Chaumont.
Hidden Inside One of The Flags Is A Transmitter That Coordinates The Parades
Overall, the castle is designed with the flamboyant gothic style of the 1400's in mind. We think they hit the nail on the head.
Magic Kingdom is known for their spectacular parades and nightly shows, but what you may not know is there's a transmitter located inside a flag atop one of the Castle's towers.
It Took Just 18 Months To Build
It helps coordinate the floats that pass through Main Street and come up in front of the castle.
Despite being an incredibly massive structure, Disney's team managed to erect the Castle within 18 months. It was completed in July of 1971, making it an incredible 45 years old today.
The Castle At Tokyo Disneyland Is Basically A Carbon Copy
The park opened three months later in October of 1971.
For all intents and purposes, the castle at Disneyland Tokyo is essentially the same as the one in Orlando, with a few small differences. While the original Disney World castle is 189 feet tall, the one at Disneyland Tokyo is 168 feet tall.
It Took Artists 22 Months To Create The Stunning Murals Inside The Castle
And also for a few years the castle in Tokyo had an attraction that guests could walk through, unlike Cinderella's Castle in Disney World. Despite Disney basically copying the castle over in Japan, we still believe there's no structure like the original.
Imagineer Dorothea Redmond designed the five-pane mural set inside Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom. Incredible artists built each pane out of 300,000 pieces of Italian glass.
Design
It took 22 months. For longtime Disney fans, the murals inside the castle are some of the most spectacular sites to behold in all the parks.
After 18 months of construction, the castle was completed in July 1971. It is 189 feet tall measured from the concrete bottom of the water - filled moat that contains approximately 3.37 million US gallons of water.
Castle's architecture
It is 100 feet taller than the Sleeping Beauty Castle in California.
There are 27 towers on the castle, numbered 1-29. (Tower numbers 13 and 17 were deleted before construction since they could not easily be seen from anywhere in the park, mainly due to obstruction by other Fantasyland buildings.) The tower with the clock in front is number 10, the tallest is number 20, and number 23 is the other golden-roofed tower.
Construction
For the better part of 2015, Disney has added an additional 4 turrets to Cinderella Castle extending the lovely panorama!
Again, Disney ingenuity fools the eye to believe the castle is made of marble; however, it is made of steel and concrete. Six hundred tons of steel braced frame construction make up the inner structure and is encircled by a ten inch reinforced concrete wall.
Castle's exterior
All of this is on a concrete drilled caisson foundation. Despite the appearance of bricks, none were used in the construction.
Most of the exterior is a very hard fiber-reinforced gypsum plaster supported by metal studs. There is much less fiberglass used than is commonly thought. Fiberglass was used for the more ornate exterior walls of the upper towers.
Mystery legend
Roofs are made of the same type of plastic that computer monitor shells are made from. Towers were raised by crane, welded and bolted permanently in place.
It is a popular legend that in hurricane force winds, the castle can be disassembled and moved to safety. As most legends go, this is total myth.
In The Archway
It was easier to build the castle to withstand 110 mile an hour winds with more strength to spare.
Walking inside the castle archway, one will find five beautiful mosaic murals telling the story of Cinderella. The series was designed by Imagineer Dorothea Redmond and set by a team of six artists led by mosaicist Hanns-Joachim Scharff. Each panel is a 15 feet by 10 feet shaped Gothic arch. Skilled artists took 22 months to complete the murals using over 300,000 pieces of Italian glass in more than 500 colors.
Evening Spectaculars
The tiles are hand-cut and many are fused with sterling silver and 14k gold. Some tiles are as small as the head of a tack! On your next visit, spend some time enjoying this incredible spectacle!
Walking inside the castle archway, one will find five beautiful mosaic murals telling the story of Cinderella. The series was designed by Imagineer Dorothea Redmond and set by a team of six artists led by mosaicist Hanns-Joachim Scharff. Each panel is a 15 feet by 10 feet shaped Gothic arch. Skilled artists took 22 months to complete the murals using over 300,000 pieces of Italian glass in more than 500 colors.
Within the Castle
The tiles are hand-cut and many are fused with sterling silver and 14k gold. Some tiles are as small as the head of a tack! On your next visit, spend some time enjoying this incredible spectacle!
Cinderella’s Royal Table lets you dine with Disney Princesses in a fairytale setting for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Leisure for young guests
It is a most sought after experience, and if you are lucky enough to reserve a spot, this may be your child’s most cherished memory of WDW.
Also within the castle is the Bibbidi, Bobbidi Boutique where young guests can be transformed into princesses and knights.
Makeover packages include hairstyling, make-up, manicures, costumes, and photos.