5. Devouring of rodents

Most Disney fans have heard of the feral cats that live at Disneyland, hiding in the trees and shrubs by day and emerging at night to feed on rats and other small creatures. Disneyland's animal handlers control the population through spaying and neutering, and by re-homing some kittens. They've even set up permanent feeding stations in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Not everybody is keen on snakes, but Walt Disney World is happy to allow species such as Black Racers to thrive on its property. They are non-poisonous, and help to keep the rodent population contained.

4. Underwater maintenance

Each resort employs dozens of scuba divers who are responsible for maintaining and fixing attractions and other equipment in their extensive waterways. This, of course, means that the divers have to possess other skills besides scuba diving, including being electricians and machinists. After the parks close for the day, the divers don their gear and check crucial elements such as tracks, the undersides of vehicles and animatronic characters. Often, they do this in the pitch dark using flashlights or headlights. Temperatures can be freezing, making wielding bolts, wrenches and pneumatic tools underwater even more difficult. Spare a thought for these hardy souls next time you ride Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage!

3. Cleaning...carefully

Image: Disney

You've probably noticed that Disney does not sell chewing gum at its theme parks. That's an attempt to keep the amount of sticky goo stuck to its sidewalks to a minimum - but custodians still have to pry it off every night. Pressure washers are also used to hose down the streets and sidewalks. Cleaning Walt Disney World's theme parks, hotels and other attractions is an immense task undertaken by a vast army of staff. The resort consumes more than 700,000 gallons of bleach in a typical year. But cleaners have to be careful not to be tooefficient. Imagineers have specified exactly how dusty and cobweb-covered the different areas and items in the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror should be, for example. Occasionally, even bodily fluids have to be cleaned up. On Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, 1,000 black lights shine on painted mesh screens to create "floating ghosts". The effect can be ruined by guests spitting at the ghosts. Disney developed a special saliva-cleaning solution to wash this off, as traditional cleaning products bleach the screens.

2. Tending the plants

Every Disney park features dozens of species of plants. At Walt Disney World, for example, the resort's horticulture staff plants 3 million bedding plants and annuals, along with 4 million shrubs, 13,000 roses and 200 topiary every year. Much of this work takes place at night.

1. Checking the "health" of characters

Disney's rides are packed full of audio-animatronic characters. These are checked by engineers and mechanics to make sure that they are functioning properly. This can be tedious task - the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland, for example, features 225 moving birds, plants and tikis, and the show runs for 17 minutes. The only way to check that they are all working properly is to watch the entire show repeatedly.