12 hidden details at Walt Disney World and Disneyland to find on your next visit

The parks are full of details placed by Imagineers for the guests who slow down and look. Here are twelve worth finding.

On the way in

• The tie on the Partners statue. Walt and Mickey stand at the hub of both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland. Look at Walt's tie: the letters STR stand for Smoke Tree Ranch, his getaway in Palm Springs.
• The windows on Main Street. Main Street's upstairs windows work like a film's credits, honoring the people who built the parks. At Magic Kingdom, Walt's name is above the train station and on the window closest to the castle. At Disneyland, a window above the Emporium honors his father, Elias, as a contractor established in 1895.
• A lamp that's always on. Walt kept a small apartment above the fire station on Disneyland's Main Street. A lamp in its window stays lit in his memory.

In the lands

• Two lanterns in Liberty Square. Find the upstairs window with two lanterns: Paul Revere's "two if by sea." The Liberty Bell replica nearby was cast in 1989 from the mold of the real one.
• A submarine in the rocks. Outside Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid at Magic Kingdom, the rockwork hides a silhouette of Captain Nemo's Nautilus, near where the old 20,000 Leagues lagoon used to be.
• The artist in her own ride. Magic Kingdom's it's a small world includes a doll of Mary Blair, the artist who designed its look, in the Western Europe scene.

In the hotels

• A goat with five legs. Mary Blair also designed the nine-story tile mural in the Contemporary Resort's Grand Canyon Concourse. Somewhere in it is a goat with one leg too many.

On the rides

• Two different stretching rooms. The Haunted Mansion's famous stretching room isn't the same trick in both parks: at Disneyland the room is really an elevator going down, while at Magic Kingdom the ceiling goes up.
• The elevator's inspection date. At Hollywood Studios' Tower of Terror, the elevator permit was last inspected October 31, 1939, the night of the story's lightning strike.

By the numbers

• Under 200 feet, on purpose. Cinderella Castle (189 feet), Tower of Terror (199 feet) and Expedition Everest (199.5 feet) were all kept below 200 feet, so they don't need flashing aircraft warning lights.
• Where Spaceship Earth's rain goes. Rain on EPCOT's 180-foot sphere runs through gaps between its 11,324 facets into hidden gutters that drain to World Showcase Lagoon. That's why it doesn't pour on the people underneath.
• Hidden Mickeys. The three-circle Mickey shapes tucked into scenery started as an unofficial Imagineer game. Once you start looking, you'll find them everywhere.

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