Things like...there is an apartment in Disneyland above the fire station where Walt used to stay. To this day there is always a light left on for him. True story
There is a basketball Court for the Cast Members in the Matterhorn
The Haunted Mansion streching room is actually an elevator and the entire ride portion takes place OUTSIDE the park.
The names above Main Street USA are all the people who helped create the park.
Disney used to have a "land" that's only function was for special events. Its where Indy is!
The Water on the Jungle Cruise is dirty on purpose to hide the relative shallow water (at most 8 feet)
California Screamin is one of the longest roller coasters in the world
After an old Disneyland worker died building POTC, you have to say good night to his ghost, or the next day, something bad might happen!
In the boulder scene of the Indiana Jones Adventure, the truck is not actually moving backwards, nor is the boulder moving forward...The boulder rolls in place on an axis, the vehicle rocks while staying in place, and the room itself moves backwards, giving the illusion that the car is "running away" from the oncoming boulder
Also from Indy, there is only one door in the opening scene..The room rotates and the light shines on a different door, and lighting and other special effects change the theming of the hallway leading to Mara
Casey Jr Circus Train was originally meant to be a roller coaster
All of the AAs from America Sings are a part of Splash Mountain, except for the two hosts of the show, due to their iconic stature, and a couple of birds that are now droids in the Star Tours queue
While a Little Mermaid ride is being built at DCA, a Little Mermaid ride was in the planning stages for Disneyland around 1994
Also planned for Disneyland but never built were Alien Encounter, the Great Movie Ride, and Superstar Television
The original idea for DCA was Westcot, as West Coast version of Epcot...in the planning stages for Westcot, the idea of a Sea Port themed park (much like Tokyo Disney Sea) was floated around, to be built in Long Beach
Disneyland was originally going to be built in Griffith Park in Riverside, across from the Disney Studio, but when the plans got bigger, a bigger site was needed, and the Anaheim site was chosen
Disneyland was built in just one year
The idea for Space Mountain was first suggested by Walt Disney, even though the WDW version didn't open until 1975, 8 years after his death, when Walt decided he wanted an indoor Matterhorn...Space Mountain was the world's first computer-controlled roller coaster and the first ever indoor coaster
The Matterhorn was the first ever steel coaster, and the world's first dual-track coaster
The Autopia originally did not have guard rails, but the rails were instituted when crashes became too frequent and too dangerous
The land that has undergone the most change is Critter Country, which started off as the Indian Village in Frontierland, then became Bear Country, and then Critter Country
The Enchanted Tiki Room was Disney's first Audio-Animatronic show, and was originally intended to be a dinner theater show
When the submarine voyage underwent the Nemo retheming, the subs were repainted Yellow and changed from diesel gas to electric, to be more enviornmentally friendly....the coral reefs in the ride are painted using crushed up painted glass, to avoid the wearing down the water would cause on real paint...Alexander Gould does not voice Nemo in the ride (even though he does in The Seas with Nemo and Friends at Epcot), because Imagineers felt he had grown up and he no longer had that distinctive innocence in his voice characteristic of Nemo
Pirates of the Caribbean- was originally going to be a walk through ride substantiated in "Disneyland Inside Story" by Randy Bright. Walt originally wanted to make it a walk through attraction but everyone advised against it because no one would want to walk through the attraction. Also "It's a Small World" was also planned this way. Walt finally made It's a Small World a boat ride. And, when they built Pirates, they used the same flat bottom boats as Small World.
Big Thunder Mountain-
If the train travels too slow/fast through an area it will cause the computers to initiate an Automatic Emergency Stop (AES).
If it's your birthday (no, I'm not talking about the free admission thing), you should go into the City Hall building and tell a Cast Member it's your birthday. They'll give you a sticker or button (forgot) that has Happy Birthday on it with your name written below. As you walk around the park, cast members will sometimes come up to you and sing happy birthday or even let you cut into the front of the line. I still haven't confirmed this one, but I hope to do so on my friend's upcoming birthday.
Also, what is behind the "Biological Clock"? in Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I hear that the time is set to the exact hour and minute in which Walt died.
Thanks
Walt's personal favourite was the Disney railroad.
As far as the stopped clock hanging in the castle being the time of Walt's death--do a Google search for Walt Disney's death certificate and you will find he died at 9:30 a.m. I do wonder why the stopped clock is set to 5:05.
If you bought the special edition Little Mermaid DVD when it came out it had a concept ride through of the ride planned in 1994.
The Dumbo elephants were originally planned to be pink, and a concept for the Storybook Canal boats had the boat fall out of Monstro's mouth on a flume slide.