#utilidor

In case you’ve never clicked on a clickbait article about Disney secrets, the Utilidors is the underground system Magic Kingdom uses for Cast Members. When Walt Disney created Disneyland, he didn’t think about the pathways Cast Members would have to use to get from one side of the park to the next. The story goes that he was particularly bothered by a cowboy walking through the futuristic land of Tomorrowland. This shattered the illusion of being truly transported to that world, so a tunnel system was created beneath Magic Kingdom so park operations could be hidden from the guests’ eyes. Magic Kingdom actually sits on the second floor while the tunnels are on the first floor. While images of the Utilidors are strictly forbidden, the tunnels are no secret. In fact, the entrance to the tunnels is actually visible using Google Maps Satellite. 

See that pink-ish square? That’s the bus drop off loop. One white bus is actually stopped, letting Cast Members off. You can see the shadow from the building indicating that Magic Kingdom is indeed on the second story.

Anyway, the tunnels system sounded confusing and terrifying to me. I kept imagining myself getting lost underneath Magic Kingdom and not being able to find my way back to where I needed to be. Several more experienced Cast Members told me that it was basically one large circle, and super easy to navigate. Fun fact, most Cast Members get to see the tunnels during their Traditions training. Even if you don’t end up working in Magic Kingdom, you get to see the tunnels when you walk through Magic Kingdom the first time as a Cast Member. I, however, didn’t get to do this because I was rained out of the walk-through portion of Traditions. The park was 101, which meant that lightning in the area prevented Cast Members from safely walking outside and our tour of Magic Kingdom was cancelled. This made me extra nervous as I had no idea what to expect. Now, while the park itself relies on a “hub and spoke” system, the castle being the main hub and the rest of the lands accessible from that main hub, the tunnel system is one big circle with a path straight down the middle. At the time, this made little sense to me. I had walked into Magic Kingdom a hundred times by that point, and still couldn’t imagine an entire system of tunnels beneath me. But, I decided it was time to explore. I think I would’ve regretted it for a long time had I not just gone and experienced it at least once.

I picked up a shift in Tomorrowland. I had heard that was a pretty easy land to be new to, in part because it was fairly easy to find. I wasn’t convinced. My shift was just one zone of Tomorrowland: Merchant of Venus, Mickey’s Star Traders, and some random cart. The day of my shift, I drove to Magic Kingdom. The cast parking lot to Magic Kingdom was easy to find because it was the same place that Disney University was. I had driven there for a few trainings and to visit Company D, so that part wasn’t nerve-wrecking at all. It’s actually a pretty easy drive if you go the back way instead of through Magic Kingdom’s parking lot. I found a parking spot and walked towards the small double doors to Magic Kingdom Costuming.

Not surprisingly, this costuming building was one of the largest on property, if not the largest. Racks of costumes I had seen a thousand times as a guest filled the warehouse. I found my way towards the Tomorrowland merchandise costumes, found everything I needed, and headed out. It was a fairly plain costume in comparison to some of the other ones Magic Kingdom had. I checked out the unflattering black pants and matching belt, along with my grey t-shirt with outdated pink and purple accents that was probably what we predicted the future would be like back in the 70′s when Magic Kingdom first opened.

You can’t check out a costume while wearing it so I changed back into my regular clothes and headed over to the West Clock bus. West Clock is what they call the bus stop between the Cast Member parking and the entrance to the tunnels. When I got on the bus, I saw another person in the Tomorrowland merchandise costume. Naturally I decided to follow them to see where to go. When we got off, I wasted no time and followed them towards the Tomorrowland lockers and break room, trying to keep my distance so I didn’t make it too obvious. But if you worked in Tomorrowland in spring of 2016 and felt strangely followed by a lost-looking Cast Member out of costume, that was probably me. Sorry about that.

I had time to kill so after finding out where I needed to be, I walked back towards the locker room to get ready for the shift. It was another partial closing shift, there long enough to do a closing duty or two but didn’t have to stay until absolutely everything was finished. As I walked back through the tunnels towards Tomorrowland, I tried to take everything in. The tunnels have a certain specific smell. Sometimes it’s distinctly garbage (thanks Cosmic Ray’s for stinkin’ up all of underground Tomorrowland) and other times it’s who knows what. Every so often, a map was posted on the walls for the inevitably turned around Cast Member. The map listed out all the different staircases that led to various stores or restaurants in the park. It also included a “You Are Here” type picture that gave you an idea of what you were standing underneath. The walls of the tunnel were painted too, to give you an idea of what land you were in. Tomrorowland had purple paint. I followed the hallway down to where I needed to be and found everything I needed pretty easily. Even if I hadn’t followed that Cast Member, I think I would’ve found things pretty quickly with a glance at one of the maps. 

After clocking in, I was given the tour of my possible rotation. They showed me Star Traders, Merchant of Venus, and the one cart. Both Star Traders and Merchant of Venus were ride dumps, meaning that an attraction emptied out into the store. For these two stores it was Stitch’s Great Escape. It definitely encouraged foot traffic throughout the store but it wasn’t necessarily busier than my location. My shift was a short 6 hours, but still granted me a 30 minute break. This was one of the most interesting parts of working in various parks. 

See, Walt Disney World is so large that it actually stretches over two different counties: Orange County and Osceola County. The two counties have different labor expectations, so picking up a shift in Magic Kingdom is different from picking up a shift in Animal Kingdom. In Animal Kingdom, if you work a 6 hour shift, you get a 15 minute paid break. In Magic Kingdom, you get a 30 minute paid break for doing the SAME EXACT JOB for the same number of hours. (This is usually what I bring up when people argue that Magic Kingdom Cast Members should get a premium for working in “the busiest park”. That’s an entirely separate argument that I guarantee you don’t want to get me started on.) 

Anyway, I went to get my assignment and my little slip of paper told me it was time to go feed Stitch. I have to say, this was one of my favorite parts about picking up shifts in other places. Animal Kingdom’s main entrance didn’t have any fun Disney-themed or magical work assignments. There was no magic hidden backstage that only Cast Members could experience. There was nothing to bring that small smile to your face to remind you that you worked at the most magical place on earth. You just pulled an assignment and stepped out in the Florida humidity. I took my 30 minute feeding Stitch assignment in the smelly Tomorrowland breakroom, texting everybody I knew about how fun it was to work some place completely different.

My next assignment was again in Star Traders. I didn’t mind. Star Traders was fantastic. Every so often, the People Mover would pass by and I would wave at them with a Mickey glove. The store’s pin board (most merchandise locations have a board that belongs to the location in addition to all the Cast Members wearing their lanyards) was a Stitch plush wearing a lanyard. A few rotations later (mostly just to different registers) “Wishes” started up. I couldn’t see the fireworks but I could hear them go off. The music interrupted the classic space-y music that plays throughout Tomorrowland and I could easily see why Cast Members would fall in love with it. Maybe if I worked in Magic Kingdom my entire program I’d be as attached to Wishes as other people were. Instead, I was an outsider judging the show for exactly what it was, with not much emotional attachment. The store emptied out during the show and we all pretty much stood in front of the registers, waving at the one or two guests who were on People Mover at the time, listening to Wishes.

Magic Kingdom closed for park guests and it was time to start closing up the shop. I realized I had gone the entire shift without going outside once. Because I was never rotated outside of Star Traders, and the break room was underneath Magic Kingdom, I hadn’t been outside at all. Some Cast Members begged for the cart rotation and had mentioned to me that it was because sometimes they go an entire 12 hour shift without ever going outside. I started to appreciate my location a little bit more. I liked that we spent so much time outside. I could do with a little bit more air conditioning, but overall being outside most of the day was enjoyable. A Cast Member decided to have me help pull registers since I wasn’t familiar with any of the other closing duties and they didn’t have the hands to walk me through what to do. I’m sure I could’ve figured it out, but I wasn’t complaining. I enjoyed closing registers. It was also a chance to see the other half of Tomorrowland. Because I wasn’t “photo trained” (adjusting ride photos and printing them out) I wasn’t allowed to pick up a shift in the zone that included Buzz Lightyear’s store. That meant that the store after Space Mountain was off limits too. We closed the registers in those stores down though, so I at least got to see a little bit of what it was like working there. 

When all the registers were closed, we walked around and collected all the strollers people left behind. It seemed as though no matter where I went, these plastic strollers would follow me everywhere. He asked if I knew how to stack them and I explained that my home location was Strollers. In fact it turns out, he was stacking them incorrectly and what we deem as “unsafe”. I realized the special stroller training my location insisted upon meant virtually nothing to other locations. We were told that we were absolutely not allowed to stack strollers without this training. Come to find out, every land in Magic Kingdom stacks strollers at the end of the night and brings them to the hub to be collected so that stroller Cast Members don’t have to search the parks for left behind rentals. Our stacks were left at the hub and I caught a glimpse of the absolutely empty Main Street. I turned around to see Tomorrowland’s neon land marker lit up over a deserted path. The entire park was empty and closed, and there I was standing in front of it all. Once again, I fell in love with being a Cast Member. This is what it was supposed to feel like. Even on the dreariest of days, the small amount of magic that can only be experienced by a Cast Member was supposed to make it worth it. And yet, our location wasn’t anything special. We didn’t even get to see the Tree of Life after park closing like most DAK Cast Members.

Our job was done but we still had about 15 minutes left of our shift. The Cast Member said we could go ahead and head back to CDS (where Cast Members clock in/out and get new assignments) and wait to clock out. 15 minutes seemed like a long time to be standing around, but by the time we got back to the computer, we only had 10 minutes left. I was told to go ahead and clock out and was reminded of walk time. Because Cast Members have to take a bus to get back to West Clock before walking to their cars, they’re granted “walk time”. It’s essentially 10 paid minutes after your shift is over to help compensate for that travel time. I’m going to be honest, Magic Kingdom isn’t the only park that has a backstage bus system. EPCOT requires it if you’re working in World Showcase and DAK has one in case you don’t want to walk all the way around the entire park. In my mind, Magic Kingdom was the place to be. Better breaks, paid walk time, and more magical moments, even if it meant less time outside.