LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – When you visit Walt Disney World most visitors would agree, there's a certain amount of magic found in all the parks. One of the parks is even called Magic Kingdom, and of course, their new program is called MyMagic+.
[WEB EXTRA: How to get your own Behind the Magic Tour at Disney ]
But have you ever wondered how the cast members that work there create all of that magic?
A lot of it is done right on property, steps from the Magic Kingdom at the Central Shops.
"We have machinists, we have welders, we have carpenters, painters, scenic artists, sculpters," said Mark Todd, vice president of Engineering and Manufacturing Services. "So just about any trade you think of, any skill set, we have it at our fingertips."
Todd said that means the 350 cast members that are a part of the Central Shops are taking care of just about everything from their 300,000-square-foot building.
"We have over 70 registered attractions at Walt Disney World," said Todd. "We have over 4,000 ride vehicles, we have about 1,500 animatronic figures that we maintain and we have about 500 animated props which we maintain."
Some of the props and attraction elements in the parks are maintained by local mechanics and technicians right at the park, but for a lot of the bigger work, that's where the Central Shops come in. Todd said they also sometimes create some of the pieces from scratch right there in house. As far as the ride vehicles go, he said they're all on a set maintenance schedule to keep them looking fresh and to keep them operating safely before problems occur.
"You have these vehicles on a schedule, so you bring them in, get them refurbished, get them repainted, just to keep them looking brand new," said Todd. "Even more than that, we actually disassemble the vehicles based on our engineers' guidelines. We have them inspect to make sure everything is in perfect condition. Parts that may be wearing, that are made to wear, we replace those and then we assemble the vehicle. Then we send it to the paint shop to get it ready to be Disney show quality for our guests to enjoy."
They also work on and test out the latest animatronics before they hit the attractions. Everything from computer-controlled animals that appear and feel lifelike, to more cartoon-ish animatronic figures like the clock that appears on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train ride.
In the figure finishing area, a lot of work is done by hand to create some of the more intricate details on the figures. For example, when Local 6 visited, a cast member was hand-gluing feathers one by one onto tiki birds.
There's a lot of history in the shops, some we saw firsthand while in the figure finishing area. That's where a cast member was handpainting carousel horses from the Prince Charming Regal Carousel. The horses were actually made in 1917 by the Philadelphia Tobaggan Company. The carousel, including the chariot, was originally called the Liberty Carrousel and originally lived in Detroit.
There's an urban legend among cast members that before it made its debut at the Magic Kingdom in 1971, the chariot was separated from the horses, but then was reunited at Disney.
To keep it looking shiny and new for guests nowadays, Todd said they occasionally bring the horses, sandblast them down, prime them, and handpaint all the details back. There are photos taken of each item, so when the artists repaint the horses, they can match every detail to how the horses were originally.
Todd said It's that kind of attention to detail makes the cast members at the central shops who they are.
"That's very important to us, that we maintain that legacy. When you walk through the shop and you look at our artists taking those final touches to the paint, they look like new," said Todd. "They actually, you might say, in some ways look better than new because the craftsmanship that they put in those horses 100 years ago, it's really hard to find that now."
But it's not just the upkeep of the ride vehicles, animatronics and props around the park the cast members in the Shops are responsible for.
If you have been to Disney's Hollywood Studios recently to have a good time, you may remember a lot of signs and posters used as part of Frozen Summer Fun Live! Cutouts of Olaf, Elsa and Anna were all around the park, and those are also a product of the Shops. They make tens of thousands of temporary signs a year, for all kinds of events, including the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival.
They can also make more permanent signs using one of their newly acquired pieces of equipment, a huge laser cutting machine.
"We got it about six months ago. It replaced some of our equipment that was about 10 years old, but one thing we always want to do is we want to stay up with technology," said Todd. "We want to stay current. You know, Walt Disney was someone who was all about the cutting edge. He always wanted to be changing and evolving with technology and that's something that we try to do on a regular basis. I think our laser cutting machine is a great example of that. It's a piece of machinery that can up to a one inch piece of steel with a laser, which is pretty impressive."
But to get the best idea as to what goes on inside the Shops, you don't have to look any farther than the front door. That's where a sign hangs saying they're the "can do" people.
"I don't think we've found anything we can't take on," said Todd. "When you a put a task in front of our team, they just come through time and time again. Whatever it is we're asked to do, we do it and we love doing it, we love being that 'go-to' and that 'can-do' team."
