What might appear to be Epcot's The Living Seas on one side looks like a big warehouse from the backstage area. The backstage area is underground at the Magic Kingdom, which was built in 1971 as Disney's first Florida theme park. Because Florida's topography precluded building basements, a floor of hallways, known as ''the tunnels,'' was built on the first floor. The actual theme park was built on top of it. The tunnels have changing rooms, food machines and pipes overhead that suck out garbage from the theme park.
Workers have to check back their costumes after each shift.
In warehouses, out of sight of everyday tourists, artisans repair or build damaged animatronics floats and costumes. It's a Small World'' ride. At Disney-MGM Studios, the backstage tourists spend an hour learning how to sketch Goofy and paint animation cells of Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald while watching movie clips from The Lion King, Aladdin and Pocahantas. The backstage visitors ranged from grandmothers to 20-somethings. All had a love of Disney and came to Walt Disney World on a regular basis.