When guests walk into Disney World, they are stunned by the smiling faces of Disney workers, or, as Disney World likes to call them, “cast members.” Their noses are greeted by the enticing scent of baked goods. Few know that this scent is actually pumped through pipes along Main Street; there are no baked goods in sight.

Disney World has invited all visitors, young and old, to enjoy its many rides, characters and attractions. Fewer, however, are aware of the hidden world behind Disney, consisting of utilidors, actresses and quirky rules that Mr. Walt Disney, cofounder of The Walt Disney Company, himself imposed on the park.

History tells us that Mr. Disney was inspired to build the utility-corridors, or “utilidors,” when he saw a cowboy romping through Disneyland’s Tomorrowland on his way to his post in Frontierland. Mr. Disney decided that the sight was jarring to his guests and ruined the carefully crafted world that he had worked so hard to create.

Thus, the utilidors were born. The utilidor is a long tunnel that runs underneath Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. It connects the different worlds so that cast members are able to get to their stations in different parts of the park without crossing lands that they were never meant to be in.

The utilidor houses locker rooms, cafeterias, barber shops, computer systems, kitchens and rehearsal rooms. Entrances to the utilidor are numerous and “hidden in plain sight,” an anonymous cast member, said. “They’re the quickest way to get from place to place… Everyone uses the tunnels.”

Before cast members can even hope to get a glimpse of the utilidors, however, they must first be hired. Casting at Disney World may not be as magical as everything else.

Reddit user too-tsunami, a former Disney cast member who played Pocahontas, Mulan and Silvermist the fairy, said that there is little say in what character you get to play. She revealed, “There is an entire casting team who chooses which role you play. You attend auditions that involve acting like the character, dressing up like the character and having photos taken of you. You then wait, and they call you if you are approved.”

After the casting process, all potential new princesses must go to princess training. Once they are there, the girls learn how to become their assigned princesses. They watch the films of their princesses; for example, a girl assigned to play Belle would watch “Beauty and the Beast” with a trainer in order to learn the mannerisms, voice and personality of Belle.

Once hired and on the job, there are lots of rules to learn and follow. For one, Disney characters have to “greet 172 guests per hour. Disney decided that was the magic number,” revealed an anonymous former Disney worker.

Cast members are trained to never reply to any question with the answer “I don’t know.” If they don’t know the answer, which is unlikely, they have to pick up a phone and call an operator in order to find an answer for the guest. In addition, all cast members, from princesses to cashiers, must pick up trash whenever they see it using a scooping method; they are not allowed to simply bend over and snatch trash from the ground.

Furthermore, they must point with two fingers for two reasons: one, pointing with one finger is considered rude in some cultures, and two, it is easier to see for children.
While the magic of Disney remains strong and engrossing, think twice about the time and effort that goes into Disney World.