LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The monorails and buses are packed, taking you to your car for your trek home after a day of magic and wonder. Your day may have included riding “It’s a Small World,” or possibly enjoying one of the 1.1 million Dole Whip cups served, or the iconic Cinderella’s Castle as the backdrop for your Instagram story.
But have you ever taken a moment to think about who maintains the magic while you sleep?
News 6 went behind the magic to ask the question: What does it take?
We found a group of Disney cast members working overnight to make sure your first steps into the Magic Kingdom are as magical as your last leaving the park.
"We literally have a small army of people that come in every night as the last guest is shuttling out and the first cast member is shuttling in," Steve Schreiber, general manager of Frontierland, Magic Kingdom said.
Schreiber told News 6 anchor Ginger Gadsden that cast members are working every night in various areas of specialty including horticulture, engineering, food and beverage and custodial teams.
“They are making sure every detail is taken care of through the night,” Schreiber said.
The park overnight takes on a life of its own as the teams work with Cinderella’s Castle illuminating in the background to get the job done.
"Even the smallest light bulb...you take a picture and if that one light bulb is out you can see that. I like to make sure every picture shows every light bulb on and lit," Disney electrician Robert Everett said.
Everett and his team are responsible for the nightly process beginning at 11 p.m. to ensure every light in the park are lit, an important task that they make sure to accomplish each night.
"The Magic Kingdom is a staple of Disney," Everett said.
The perfect workday for him is simple, he told Gadsden.
"Every day is perfect," he said.
"You see it (our work) from afar and make sure everyone thinks it's magical and that's the greatest feeling," he continued.
As the lights are being checked through the park, the scene in front of Main Street U.S.A. train station is full of cast members with hedge trimmers and lawn mowers.
You can hear the sounds of the mower and trimmers, as workers perfectly analyze and maintain each and every piece of foliage.
Will Callahan is a gardener at the Magic Kingdom.
His responsibility is to take care of any general plant maintenance around the park, including watering, mowing and trimming shrubs to ensure every annual, shrub and plant is flawless.
We got a closer look at the maintenance, trimming and mowing of Mickey floral.
Trimming occurs each Monday, with the team mowing miles of turf each year on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The team plants over 60,000 bedding plants each year.
Each member aims to make sure every angle in every photo in front of Mickey floral is perfect.
"It has to look perfect. There have to be no weeds, everything is the right height and Mickey looks like Mickey," Callahan said.
The team trims hundreds of shrubs each year and produces more than 3,000 hanging baskets each year.
"The park closed hours ago, but you guys come alive. Right,” Gadsden asked Callahan.
"The park is never a dull moment, it's always alive, it's always full of magic," Callahan said.
While the lights are being checked and the Mickey floral is in the process of being landscaped, on the corner of Main Street, U.S.A is a shop with a group of cast members making those sweet Mickey-inspired treats you can take home.
The sweet aroma of chocolate hits your nose when you walk into the Main Street Confectionery.
Main Street Confectionery sells anything your sweet tooth desires, including Mickey Krispies treats.
Gadsden visited Lisa who gave us a tutorial in making Minnie-inspired candy apples.
Take a look at this video to see how it is done:
Voila' - you have a candy apple that looks just like Minnie.
Nearly 1.9 million apples are consumed each year. To break that down, that would be enough apples to equal the length of the monorail track 39 times.
Apples are a part of a larger spread that people consume each year at Walt Disney World Resort in the food and beverage department.
The food and beverage department was able to provide us with a snapshot of the amount of food that is served annually.
Sixty million meals are served each year.
Over 1 million gallons of pineapple juice are consumed each year, or enough to fill “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland Park and Walt Disney World Resort.
When you are trying to cool down, you may have enjoyed one of the 3.5 million premium ice cream bars.
As food preparations are being made at Walt Disney World Resort, preparations are underway to restock the shelves of the iconic Disney souvenirs.
The merchandising team makes sure that 35,000 items are available for you to purchase on any given day. That also includes the character-inspired costumes.
The fabric from all of the costumes is enough to drape the entire Magic Kingdom Park.
So what about those Disney Ear hats you purchase?
The number of hats sold annually would stretch over 350 miles, or enough to cover almost every head in the Greater Orlando area.
If you are interested in the trading pins, there are 19,000 cast member trading pins at Walt Disney World Resort, ensuring guests can trade 225,000 pins daily with cast members.
Cast members have 82 million opportunities to interact with guests to create moments of magic.
Schreiber told us about his first trip to Disney when we was 16-years-old and experience.
"My family took a trip to Disneyland and it was kind of the first trip where I was really independent. I was really independent, I was a teenager but my parents let me be fairly independent and we spent four days at Disneyland. And I can't really describe all of the things that happened during that four days, but is a memory and a feeling that I will never forget,” he said.
Making each and every memory special for each guest is a goal for the cast members.
"Our job as cast members many years after Walt is gone is whether it is the first experience or the 50th experience, that experience is magical. We do everything we can as cast members to protect it," Schreiber said.
As the sun comes up over the horizon, the countdown continues to open the Magic Kingdom.
The cast members behind the magic fade into the background seamlessly, as guests take their first steps onto Main Street U.S.A. toward the iconic Cinderella’s Castle.
Each month, ClickOrlando.com will take an in-depth look into various topics, asking, "What does it take?" to make big things happen in Central Florida. From attractions to sporting events to businesses and more, ClickOrlando.com finds out what goes into these events to pull them off.