Marching Band Practice

This picture was take 11/26/2019 (Thanksgiving day) backstage at Magic Kingdom. Disney invites High School marching bands to participate in a parade on Thanksgiving day, so this appears to be one of the band practicing back stage.

Festival Kiosks

The Flower and Garden and Food and Wine festivals have become very popular at Epcot and are there for a good part of the year. Ever wonder what happens to all the extra kiosks when they are not in use?

The kiosks are stored backstage around World Showcase when not in use. Here is a picture from 2016 showing a bunch stored in the area between France and Morocco. 

From Google Earth

Here are some more behind Morocco:

From Google Earth

More recently a concrete storage area was built backstage near China.

Mickey Solar Field

Back when the Epcot Universe of Energy pavilion opened in 1982 it’s roof was covered with 80,000 photovoltaic solar cells which generated 77 kilowatts of power. These panels were removed as part of the ride’s conversion to a Guardians of the Galaxy Attraction in 2017, but it appears new ones might be coming back.

In 2016 a new 5 megawatt solar field was build near the entrance to Epcot. You can see the panels when going to and from Epcot on the monorail and also when driving on World Drive, but it’s hard to see the actual shape unless you see the field from the air.

From Google Maps

Electrical Water Pageant

If you have ever been around the Seven Seas Lagoon after dark, you might have caught a glimpse of the Electrical Water Pageant. Premiering shortly after the opening of Disney World in 1971, the pageant is composed of 14 floats with animated lighting displays set to a musical soundtrack.

Jeff Kern on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/35602564@N00/20212023985/  CC BY 2.0

When not in use the floats are stored in a canal that runs along the west side of Magic Kingdom. The canal connects the Rivers of America to the Seven Seas Lagoon and is also used when the riverboat needs to be taken to the drydock for maintenance.

From Google Earth

From Google Earth

Walt's Plane

Back in the 1960's Disney owned a Grumman G-159 Gulfstream 1 that Walt used to fly to Florida when scouting locations for what would become Disney World. The plane was retired in 1992 and was moved to the Disney Hollywood Studios Backlot Tour in 1993. You can read more about the plane's history over at Yesterdayland.

Is that Really Walt’s Airplane at Disney’s Hollywood Studios?

Here is a picture of the plane on the Backlot Tour in 2015

Image from Google Earth

In 2016 the plane was removed when the area was cleared to make room for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. It's location remained a mystery for a while until it was spotted in a backstage area North of Animal Kingdom.

Image from Google Earth

In the time since it was removed from Hollywood Studios it was re-painted back to it’s original color scheme.

Image from Google Earth

More recently the plane had a protective wrapping put on it and a chain link fence built around it.

Image from Google Earth