disneycastle_nightGrowing up close to Disney World, my family visited many times, and as a child, I often heard stories about the tunnels that were underground. I never knew if they were real. Well, 30 years later, I finally have my answer, straight from an Imagineer’s mouth. That’s right. I got to meet a Disney Imagineer on a recent blogger’s trip to Disney and he filled us all in on this big secret.

tmom_disney_fri_am_006It turns out there are not tunnels underground! Tunnels are pretty impossible in Florida where you don’t have to dig too deep to hit water. But leave it up to Disney to come up with something even cooler. In this case, that’s utilidors. Essentially, our Imagineer (Diego) explained that Disney is really a second story. There’s another floor below what you see as you walk around the Magic Kingdom. Who knew???!!!

Diego explained it was important to Walt to maintain the magic of Disney and wanted to make it possible to get the characters around from one area to another, or get deliveries where they need to be, or even ship out garbage. The utiladors were his solution. So he built them and then built the park on top. They’re big enough to even get golf carts through. So, no, they’re not tunnels, but they’re still pretty magical. Pretty cool, huh?