It was 7:14 a. m. , and visitors were starting to line up outside the doors to start their day at the Magic Kingdom. But inside the park, out of sight, the last two wreaths of the night were still settling right below. the station. When the enthusiastic visitors arrived 30 minutes later, they wouldn’t know what had happened moments before.
For visitors who left the park much later with the Halloween decorations still in place and returned the next morning to see the Magic Kingdom completely remodeled for the holidays, they might feel like it had to have happened with a wave of a magic wand. . And that’s not all bad, because it’s magical, even when you see the magic happen.
In reality, transforming the Magic Kingdom from a Halloween-themed country to “the happiest place on earth” overnight requires months of planning, preparation, hard work, and a few sleepless nights.
This year, TPG had the opportunity to stay up until the wee hours of the morning and witness the magical transformation of Disney vacations into action. Here’s what it takes to make Magic Kingdom even happier between about 1 a. m. And the park opens at nine a. m.
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The joyous makeover began when the last visitors left the Magic Kingdom at 1:17 a. m. In just 3 minutes, at 1:20 a. m. , a conscientiously planned procession of vans and aerial lifts paraded through the Magic Kingdom, in a condition to descend. business.
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Around 1:30 a. m. , the first Halloween garlands fell. With just over seven hours left to complete the transformation, there was no time to waste. The next few hours were full of activity, with the actors cutting all the Halloween lines and replacing them. with Christmas cheer.
In the first hour, elevators removed banners from outlets along Main Street, USA. In the U. S. , actors on the stairs, consciously indifferent, dropped garlands from their suspension points, and carts loaded with wrapped Christmas decorations were placed along Town Square, Main Street, and downtown in front of Cinderella’s Castle.
By 2:30 a. m. , most of the Halloween decorations had been dismantled and removed from the park and had already been replaced with ornate green garlands. At the same time, Disney’s horticulture team cut down the fall-colored plants and prepared the flower. Planting beds with red and green vegetation.
By 3 a. m. , the park fell silent as most of the actors took a short break before continuing with the rest of their work. Truth be told, this is also the component where it’s a bit tricky to keep your eyes open.
Around four o’clock in the morning, the horticulture team set about painting by adding new plants to the flower beds. The speed and precision with which they dug tiny holes in the ground and filled them with amazing flowers.
It was also around this time that the park began to feel more cheerful and cheerful as the wreaths were unwrapped and colorful light fixtures began to remove the darkness from the already hanging décor.
By 6 a. m. , less than two hours before the first visitors entered the park, there was no hint of Halloween left at the Magic Kingdom.
Wreaths and garlands hung and were securely fastened, and the symphony of sounds and beeps from the trucks that had temporarily taken over the park began to dissipate.
About an hour later, around 7 a. m. , the sun began to appear and the streets were virtually clear. Only a few actors were still in the park, putting the finishing touches on it. Surprisingly, or maybe not, given Disney’s meticulous attention to detail. – As visitors covered the front doors, the cast was still sweeping the last lines of the evening’s events.
It may sound like chaos, but it’s a painstakingly choreographed production where no detail is left to chance.
“Every night our team meets here at Holiday Services to get a map of where they’re going and what they’re going to do. It’s all planned for them,” Ed Miles, lead designer and client of Disney Holiday Services, told TPG.
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It takes two full nights to fully set up the Magic Kingdom holiday décor. The second night is reserved for completing touches like candle wreaths on Main Street, nutcrackers in Town Square, and the park’s striking 65-foot-tall Christmas tree.
Each year, the tree is transported in sections on trucks and installed piece by piece via crane the following night, while visitors are comfortably ensconced in their beds (perhaps with visions of dancing peladillas on their heads). It decorates each and every piece of the tree, so this grand stage has its own compromised stage night due to the weather and crane paints involved.
Seeing Disney’s magical transformation into a user was a sight to behold, yet it was only made imaginable in just a few hours thanks to the other 364 nights each year that Disney spends preparing for the big night.
So how exactly does Disney prepare 365 days a year for whatever that night is?Well, they have full equipment and plenty of room for beginners.
A few days before the big stage replacement, TPG visited one of Holiday Services’ warehouses at the Magic Kingdom with Miles while arrangements for the stage replacement were in full swing.
A few days before the “big day,” the warehouse was strangely quiet when we visited. If you were to visit Holiday Services at any other time of the year, everything would count on that time of day. However, in the week leading up to the holidays, most of the actors and staff at Holiday Services shift to either the night shift to prepare their bodies and the park for the big night.
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“We make sure everything is in good shape ahead of time so when night comes, they can just hang up and vent,” Miles said.
There are plenty of things to do inside the park ahead of time, without visitors noticing.
“We’re going through all the suspension issues [of the crowns and tinsel] and all the electrical wiring of the lighting fixtures to make sure everything is safe,” Miles said.
Back in the warehouse, Holiday Services has a plethora of decorated semi-trailers, vans and flatbeds.
“The logistics are amazing because we have to know precisely which devices are being shipped to which location and where we can park them,” Miles said.
He also explained that due to time constraints, each truck will have to be loaded according to how it is going to be unloaded.
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Just as Santa and his elves strive year-round to prepare for Christmas, Disney has an engaged Christmas team that spends 365 days a year decorating parks, hotels, cruise ships and resorts in Vero Beach and Hilton Head.
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The Holiday Services team employs about 60 full-time actors and even has its own edition of Santa’s workshops in the form of 3 warehouses with a total of 175,000 feet of garage area for over 45,000 pieces of holiday décor.
When the team rarely rushes to the Magic Kingdom as we’ve seen, they inspect, renovate, and replace each and every element of the stage to make sure they’re fit to be displayed. Every day, we see actors bowing (they use cord mesh to help them maintain their shape), testing rope lights, adorning ornaments, adding foliage to wreaths, and modifying all kinds of tree ornaments.
They also paint with groups from around the hotel to create trees and themed décor for the various Disney parks and hotels and the Disney Springs Christmas Tree Walk to create a detailed master plan for nighttime transformations.
In preparation for the big night, all décor is neatly packed into numbered, color-coded carts and trees up to 70 feet tall, arranged in sections on flatbed trucks, all in a condition to be transported and installed in their designated spots.
Each cart has a map indicating exactly where and how its contents will be installed, and each branch of each tree is lit and decorated so that it is ready to be installed.
When it’s time to go, everyone knows exactly where to go and what to do to turn Disney completely into a winter wonderland.
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One of Miles’ favorite things to do the day after the Magic Kingdom’s Christmas transformation is over is to be on the platform at Walt Disney World Railroad Main Street in the U. S. When the park is open during the day.
“I like to look at what other people gravitate towards and hear them say, ‘Wow!I wasn’t there yesterday. Christmas came overnight,'” Miles said. “Parents are just as amazed as children,” he added.
We couldn’t think of a better way to end our long evening than by following in Miles’ footsteps. After an afternoon in the parks, we headed to the Magic Kingdom as the sun rose and climbed the stairs to the most sensible of the Main. Street exercise platform to practice joy.
The astonishment on the faces of the visitors was none other than ours, although we had noticed everything spread before our eyes. After living it, we’ve learned that the true magic of Disney doesn’t lie in Tinkerbell’s fairy dust or the beloved fairy tales we grew up with; These are the other people who put all their pride, passion, and hard work into making the fantasy a reality.
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