THEME PARKS
Boulder Builder . . . Here’s one to stump your friends with. How many stones are there in Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom? NONE. The whole shell of the building is fiberglass.
Green Thumb . . . More than 30 tons of fruits and vegetables grown at The Land pavilion at Epcot are served in Walt Disney World restaurants.
Finger Food . . . More than 1.8 million pounds of turkey drumsticks are consumed every year in four Disney theme parks — Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Spaced Out . . . Spaceship Earth, the visual and thematic centerpiece of Epcot, weighs 16 million pounds — more than three times that of a space shuttle fully fueled and ready for launch. The outer “skin” of Spaceship Earth is made up of 11,324 aluminum and plastic-alloy triangles. Also, did you know that rainwater never falls off the sphere? It’s channeled into the ball and funneled away.
Water, Water Everywhere . . . If you emptied the water from The Seas with Nemo & Friends pavilion in Epcot into one-gallon milk jugs and laid them side by side, they would stretch from here to New Orleans, Knoxville or Raleigh — 540 miles. And the recipe for the artificial seawater called for 27 truckloads of sodium chloride, or common table salt.
Ready, Aim . . . The fountain at Epcot Innoventions Plaza can shoot water 150 feet in the air — within 30 feet of the top of Spaceship Earth. If all of the shooters were fired at once, there would be 2,000 gallons of water in the air.
IllumiNations . . . More than 26,000 feet of lights outline the Epcot World Showcase pavilions — a string long enough to stretch across the Golden Gate Bridge more than six times.
It’s a Tall World, After All . . . Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (just under 200 feet) is the tallest attraction at Walt Disney World Resort, followed by The Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (199 feet), Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle (189 feet), Spaceship Earth at Epcot (183 feet), Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom (180 feet) and The Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (145 feet).
Biggest Ever . . . Disney’s Animal Kingdom encompasses 403 acres, the company’s biggest theme park. The park’s centerpiece is The Tree of Life, 14 stories high and 50 feet wide at its trunk.
