Visiting the City of Disney World

I’ve often advised friends who are visiting Disney World for the first time to let go of any impression that they’re going to do it all. “Would you go to Paris for 5 days and expect to do everything?” I say. Don’t expect it from Disney World either. But if you think that a visit to Disney World is only about the rides, let me tell you that the analogy to Paris is more apt than you might think.

Disney World has entertainment and culture—both the arts and theater kind, and the sociology kind. It has history, abandoned spaces, continuous renewal, educational opportunities, local celebrities, politics, factions, insider secrets, and even its own dialect, after a fashion. You can discover Disney World as a travel destination, and not just an amusement park.

A tricky thing about any place you’ve never been is to find the balance between enough research to ensure a good trip and leaving something to discover once you’re there. At Disney World, this can be extra-challenging. Many visitors do think it’s “all about the rides”. And the parks are designed to immerse you in a specific vision—not to feed your travel buff instincts to understand the history and significance of what you’re looking at. As a long-time visitor who prizes that perspective, here’s what I think is essential to know.

Before Your Visit

Let’s start with geography. Across Disney World, you’ll find resort complexes ranging from campground to low-rent to luxe, a sports stadium, two water parks, a mall, several marinas and waterfront recreation areas (including a Boardwalk), golf, mini-golf, and four living museums, one of which is a zoo.

All of it is tied together with a well-connected public transportation system that includes monorails, boats, gondolas, and plain old buses. Although it has nothing on many European metro transit systems for efficiency, it does better than many American cities and can get you wherever you need to go, albeit not always swiftly.

There are three “urban” districts with a dense mix of resorts and dining. Two of these, the high-rent Magic Kingdom Resort Area and the Crescent Lake Resort Area, feature Disney-operated resorts with easy access to one or more parks. Disney Springs, which has easy access to several third-party resorts, is a shopping and dining hub with a mix of theater and outdoor entertainment on tap. These “urban” hubs are mixed in with lower-rent “suburban” outposts of more widely spaced and less-connected individual resorts.

Why you care about this: Just like anywhere else, your lodging and its location can have a big impact on both your wallet and your overall experience. Unless you have an Orlando local to crash with, whether to stay on-site or off-site will be one of your planning decisions. (Lingo alert: staying on-site is often referred to as “in the bubble.”) I have done both, and as you might expect, there are pros and cons to each.

Even with “convenient” on-site lodging, your choice of resort can affect your trip quite a bit. For example, I mentioned the efficiency of Disney’s internal transportation, but it has some gotchas. It’s designed to get people very efficiently between the parks and resorts, and between the resorts and Disney Springs. Between resorts, or between the parks and Disney Springs? Not so much, or at least, not so efficiently. Your plans may influence your choice of resort, or the combination of resort and plans may influence decisions about renting a car.

Beyond the question of lodging, it’s about knowing what you can reasonably accomplish in a single day if you’d like to mix time in the parks with shopping, dining, or other activities. Which I recommend that you do!

All Around the World

As we all know, the theme parks are the raison d’etre of Disney World. But the theme isn’t just in the parks. Disney parks and resorts are created by Imagineers (a portmanteau of imagination and engineer) who design every location to evoke a specific time and place.

Sometimes, there is an elaborate (but often unpublicized) backstory to explain the location you have been “transported to”. Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort was, according to its backstory, founded by descendants of a Spanish explorer named Juan Francisco. He stumbled upon the ruins of a Mayan pyramid in 1569; centuries later, his descendants followed his charts on their own expedition and liked the location so much they decided to build houses and take up residence.

Sometimes, there is just a vague sketch; Disney’s Boardwalk Resort depicts early 20th-century mid-Atlantic shore vacation destinations such as Atlantic City and Coney Island.

In some cases, you’ll find that real-world locations inspired resort design or park features. Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort is famously modeled after the Hotel del Coronado in California. The connection between the main building of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone Park is less well-known. And to know what the entrance gate of the Hollywood Studios Park is based on, you need to be familiar with historic Los Angeles landmarks, because the Pan-Pacific Auditorium is no longer standing. (I mean, or you could look it up like I did.)

Backstory or no, real-world inspired or just “in the style of”, you’ll find extensive theming wherever you go around the World. The level of detail can be incredible, and you can choose to simply soak up the environment, or—like me—you can spend a lot of time noting those details and pondering where various locations rate on the scale that runs between “decorative theme” and “immersive theme”.

What’s the difference? Well, that can be a bit tricky, and there’s definitely some component of “you know it when you see it”. If I had to slap a definition on it, I’d say that decoration reminds you, and immersive theming transports you. The images below are from a “stateroom” on Disney’s now-closed Galactic Starcruiser, and a family suite at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

There’s plenty of visual detail to take in, but there’s a lot of operational design as well, for those with an eye for it. For example, curvy paths are common; they make interesting visuals—and also help to distribute traffic and manage crowds. But at motel-style resorts, you’ll find straighter shortcuts through central areas that help decrease traffic directly outside the rooms.

As you wander not just the parks, but also the resorts, take time to look at them with a designer’s eye. And maybe take a few minutes to look things up on your phone if you are especially curious about something. You will often be well-rewarded!

Hidden Mickeys and Easter Eggs

Two kinds of detail features can be particularly fun to keep an eye out for, kind of like an ongoing scavenger hunt. Easter Eggs are small details with hidden meaning. For instance, a UPC barcode design detail at the exit to the Slinky Dog Dash coaster bears the number 2319861011971. A judicious application of slash marks yields 2/3/1986 (when Pixar Animation Studios was founded) and 10/1/1970 (opening day of the Magic Kingdom). They’re not all so obscure; on the same ride, the wait-time sign appears to be a repurposed dog tag when viewed from behind after you have passed under it. It’s just a small detail that might bring you a smile if you notice it.

Hidden Mickeys are—as you might imagine—unique to Disney. Found throughout the parks, resorts, cruise ships, and even in some films, they are stylized representations of the head of Mickey Mouse. The most common are a large circle with two smaller “ear” circles above, but there are a few profile-shaped Mickeys as well. The shape doesn’t need to be perfect, either.

Not everyone who visits Disney World stays on-site or, if they’re not, wanders out of the parks to visit the resorts. I’ll be back soon with a similar “traveler’s eye” overview that zeroes in on the parks and rides. (Lingo alert: Disney would like you to call them “attractions”, because they aren’t all rides … )