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4. It’s a Small World

Image: Disney

14)   The original plan was for several different songs instead of a single monotonous one. Walt Disney intended for every doll to sing the national anthem of its home country. The combating sounds proved dissonant.

15)   The climactic area where all the children of the world sing that infernal song is called The White Room.

16)   The room immediately after it with Goodbye posted in dozens of languages is (fittingly) called the Goodbye Room.

17)   While the ride was originally built for Pepsi, the initial sponsor at Walt Disney World was Mattel. There is no current sponsor, though.

5. Jungle Cruise

Image: Disney

18)   Do you know the names Nile Nelly, Wamba Wanda, and Sankuru Sadie? Of course not. They’re three of the 15 boat names for the vessels currently used on Jungle Cruise. Other great ones include Congo Callie, Amazon Annie, and Senegal Sal.

19)   Sankuru Sadie holds the unfortunate but almost prophetic distinction of being the only boat ever to sink at Magic Kingdom. Disney restored the boat and kept it in service. So, if you ever ride it, you have the added thrill of knowing that it’s Walt Disney World’s Titanic.

20)   The part of the downed airplane by the Hippo Pool is the back half of the plane Disney falsely claims was used in Casablanca. You can find the other half on The Great Movie Ride at Hollywood Studios. Yes, it’s during the Casablanca scene.

6. Pirates of the Caribbean

Image: Disney

21)   While Walt Disney died three months too soon to see this ride open at Disneyland, it was the last one that he officially supervised.

22)   The Walt Disney World version of the attraction is the only one that lacks a series of cannon fire shots made by drunken pirates.

23)   If you visited the park prior to 1997, you likely remember the Pooped Pirate who was too tired to chase women. He got a makeover to become the Gluttonous Pirate, possessing a treasure map complete with an X marking the spot. Disney decided the entire scene was a bit serious (some might say sexist) in tone, so they lightened the mood a bit by having an incompetent pirate lament his ability to deduce an obvious treasure location.

7. Soarin’ (Closed in 2016)

Image: Disney

24)   You ride Flight 5505 on your flight. This is an inside joke. The opening date for Soarin’ at Walt Disney World was May 5, 2005 aka 5/5/05.

25)   The scenes at Yosemite Park involved a nightmarish amount of bureaucratic red tape. Disney had to negotiate with the United States Department of the Interior, who grudgingly agreed to allow the company to film for no more than four hours. As you might imagine, the film crew was under a tremendous amount of stress that day.

26)   Soarin’ was originally intended as an attraction at the World Showcase. Disney executives couldn’t settle on which country would be the best fit for a ride about…California, so it wound up as a part of The Land.

8. Space Mountain

Image: Disney

27)   Most steel roller coasters are warmer during the day since the heat conduction is more significant when it’s hotter outside. Space Mountain operates differently as an indoor ride that requires lubrication. This gel solidifies as the day progresses. When it’s jelly-like, its friction slows down the ride cart. At night, the substance is harder, thereby providing less resistance, and less resistance means a faster ride. Ride it at night, folks!

28)   Space Mountain appears in the wildly underappreciated Disney animated film, Meet the Robinsons. It’s in…I kid you not…Todayland.

29)   All six living astronauts from Project Mercury, the first true spaceflight mission involving humans rather than animals, attended the opening of Space Mountain. Gus Grissom, the second man to fly in space, was the only one who couldn’t be there because he died in a tragic fire several years before.

 
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"29) All six living astronauts from Project Mercury, the first true spaceflight mission involving humans rather than animals, attended the opening of Space Mountain. Gus Grissom, the second man to fly in space, was the only one who couldn’t be there because he died in a tragic fire several years before."

You need to check your sources.

"the first true spaceflight mission involving humans rather than animals" - in the United States.

"Gus Grissom, the second man to fly in space" - Internationally, Gus wasn't second, he was third. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_spaceflights

Ah, the Sadie. She's got a special place in my heart. While Sankuru Sadie gave most of the other skippers trouble by always stalling, she worked flawlessly for me.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Orinoco Ida was my least favorite boat of the fleet. When I was navigating the rivers of adventure, the Ida was pulled aside one day to have a new engine installed and test it to see how it compares to the older engines on the rest of the boats. The Ida was the loudest boat, and gave poor skippers assigned to her migraines by the end of the day. Turns out, after several months of agonizing head aches, one keen eyed mechanic found a part was installed backwards, and thus fixed the loud engine problem. Now when you ride, all of the boats have this newer engine correctly installed.

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