The world's fastest garbage

Image: Morbotron

As you explore the tunnels, you’ll notice a thunderous sound every 20 minutes. Some of those gigantic, uncovered pipes that are ubiquitous in the utilidors are an integral part of Disney’s trash system. The Automated Vacuum Collection System (AVAC) stands as one of the greatest engineering triumphs at Magic Kingdom, and it wasn’t even possible for Disneyland only 16 years prior.

During the early 1960s, a Swedish corporation deduced that they could set up tubes capable of whisking garbage to a centralized location offsite. Imagineers studied the concept and had the epiphany that the utilidors would be perfect for this implementation. Park planners hired Aerojet-General Corporation to construct a trash removal system, and Magic Kingdom became the first place in America to use a trash tube system to relocate garbage.

While the AVAC system never caught on in the United States the way that it has in Europe, it’s wildly effective for Disney. It zaps trash from Magic Kingdom receptacles at a speed of 60 miles per hour! At that velocity, a full water bottle could knock a person unconscious or worse. That’s why the trash vessels are impenetrable. It’s also why many garbage cans in the parks don’t have standard liners. The AVAC sucks the trash straight out of the can and transports it over to an area behind Splash Mountain. During the trip, it whooshes through the utilidors, and that’s why a thunderous sound roars through the cavernous hallways several times an hour.

The least Disney aspect of the utilidors is the overall cleanliness of the place. I mean that in two different ways. The company wisely dedicates most of its resources to keeping all the parks at Walt Disney World spotless. The space below ground is less important. Once you exit the park via utilidor, you’ll quickly notice a stark change in fastidiousness. The below-park area is dirtier than Disneyland Paris.

The other big difference is the large amount of debris visible. In order to keep Magic Kingdom running perfectly, the utilidors section suffers through a great deal of upheaval in a given hour. Cast members filter through items they need, quickly discarding anything that has lost its efficacy. The prop that Disney removed from the parade last week becomes the garbage strewn on the floor of an underground tunnel today. The scale of these flotsam and jetsam is rather difficult to comprehend. Magic Kingdom is notoriously impeccable in terms of order and sanitation, yet the area directly beneath it is the most chaotic office space in North America.

Not every part of the utilidors is in a constant state of pandemonium, though. One of the most orderly parts of Walt Disney World resides in a special section of the cavernous utilidors. This place is called Engineering Central (EC) today, but Disney historians reflexively call it by its original name, Digital Animation Control System (DACS). If the utilidors are the heart and arteries of Magic Kingdom, EC is the brains.

Guests who have absent-mindedly wondered who or what controls all the powerful machinery operating Magic Kingdom will discover their answer within this facility. Even though it’s underground, EC is the eye in the sky for the world’s most popular theme park. Within its walls, some of the world’s most powerful computers assimilate countless terabytes of big data. Their all-consuming goal is to optimize the efficiency of everything that takes place at Magic Kingdom.

A series of computers and other Imagineer-exclusive devices all monitor the various mechanical parts of the park above. Some test the Audio-Animatronics to predict potential failures more quickly. To a Disney Imagineer, systems functioning at 99 percent are not optimal, but they’re within acceptable parameters. Anything under 99 percent, even 98.9 percent, is insufficient and deemed in need of immediate servicing.

The staff at EC handles many duties during the day. They note crowd flow issues in congested areas, regulate problems with line queues, activate and deactivate stage lighting, handle various parade assignments, and even monitor potential fire hazards. The complexity of Magic Kingdom is such that EC systems monitor more than 100,000 data points each second. And all of this takes place in an unheralded series of rooms hidden beneath the ground of Main Street, U.S.A.

How to Get Behind the Curtain

Image: Disney

Now that you’ve read all about the brilliant labyrinth that resides directly underneath Magic Kingdom, you likely want to see it for yourself. While the videos and images above can give you a taste of the utilidors, experiencing them firsthand is highly recommended. Since you don’t work for Disney, you only have one (legal) option currently.

The Keys to the Kingdom Tour at Magic Kingdom is a five-hour informational journey through the heritage and history of the park. This tour is largely for Disney trivia buffs and those superfans who want to experience the park in a novel way. One of the side benefits is that guests get to visit some of the utilidors, starting with an entrance near Casey’s Corner.

Tour participants spend about half an hour traversing the utilidors. It’s a fascinating way to see behind the curtains at Magic Kingdom, and the cost is less than $100 per person, which isn’t horrible as far as Disney upsells go. Presuming you’re not a cast member, the only other way you’d get to see the utilidors in person is illicit, and that could get you banned for life. Nobody wants to get locked out of Magic Kingdom forever, so just pay the money and take the tour.

The next time that you need some work inspiration, remember this instance when Disney turned a problem into a pair of architectural triumphs that have stood the test of time. Utilidors might look junky in pictures, but they’re one of the greatest innovations in theme park history.