The Secrets of Disneyland Park's Underground

Finally...THE scoop...all the information you've been curious about! If you are a terrorist, please go away.

Underground Disneyland!

What exactly is under the famous theme park?

You may have heard bits and pieces about this heavily guarded secret. You may have asked Disneyland cast members (employees) about it during your last visit. At great risk I'll now reveal all of the secrets. Many people died to bring you this information. Many lawyers sacrificed their sanity to fight those who didn't want you to see this. Many people spent countless hours secretly documenting the vastness of what is under that piece of Anaheim land. We finally managed to sneak out a few pictures, too, and hope to acquire more.

Many people know that there's a whole city under Disneyland Park, but they don't know the details. What I'm about to give you is a detailed account of what exactly is there. Without any further delay, here's the story:

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The main entry point for this immense development is located at the north end of the Disneyland Resort, just off of Ball Road. There is a security checkpoint there, a parking structure, and the famous Team Disney Anaheim (TDA) structure, which is right next to the I-5 (Santa Ana) Freeway. (A little known side-note: this building was originally designed by Frank Gehry for Oscar Meyer's hot dog division, which I understand has something to do with the coloration.) The ramp to the underground, known as DUG (Disneyland Under Ground) is very heavily guarded.

Even more heavily guarded is the underground portion of the TDA building. There are two entrances: one from the upper levels of the building, and one from the DUG. TDA is the main administration building for the Disneyland Resort. It is where they do their hiring, where park executives have their offices, etc.

The underground portion, which few know about, was designed by folks from the Research & Development department of Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as the FBI and CIA, with many of the same features that are used in the Pentagon and the White House. Disney is still reaping the benefits of Walt's work for the FBI.

Each person entering goes through biorhythm identification systems, metal detectors, and uses an identification card in conjunction with an alphanumeric password. This portion of the building is more than adequate for any disaster, including nuclear fallout. There are ample emergency supplies for the executives and senior staffers. Special meeting rooms are located here, for supersecret meetings and planning. There is even an emergency-only helicopter stored here that can rise up through a secret hatch.

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There is a large tunnel that moves southward from this initial portion of the DUG. Mostly, you pass by big storage rooms until you reach the area that is under Fantasyland.

Taking up the area from about Dumbo's Flying Elephants all the way to Sleeping Beauty Castle is the famous Command Center. Here, there's a massive computer system that controls EVERYTHING at Disneyland, from the firing of a cannon in Pirates of the Caribbean to the lights in the Gag Factory shop in Mickey's Toontown. You can tell when there's a problem here, because lots of attractions in the park will be temporarily inoperable all at once.

The next time you encounter this situation while visiting, say to a cast member "So, there's a problem with the DUGCC, eh?" He or she will usually deny that they know what you're talking about, but you'll instantly distinguish yourself to them as someone "in the know."

Moving eastward, from the CC, you quickly come to a huge cavern. This is directly under the Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction. In the event of a major catastrophe that threatens the mountain, the attraction will retract into this cavern and be protected from harm. In recent years, some of the mechanisms that make this possible have been experiencing slight problems, resulting in minor "sinking" on the part of the Matterhorn. Also, water from the Submarine Lagoon has been known to leak into this space, and cast members have been known to swim in the makeshift pool on hot Summer days. So, the next time someone tells you that the Matterhorn is sinking, or that the Submarine Lagoon is leaking, you'll know what they are talking about.

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DUG connects almost all of the buildings at the park. There are also major tunnels that go to various locations: The Disneyland, Disneyland Pacific, and Disney's Grand Californian Hotels, the various parking lots (including the cast member lot), and one that connects to Disney's California Adventure Underground (DCAUG).

There are plenty of other areas of note:

Under City Hall is a gigantic room that has a wall of nothing but video monitors, with several Security personnel keeping their eyes on them. They are feeds from cameras all over the park, ranging from ones hidden in cast member costumes to one placed in the mouth of the Abominable Snowman in the Matterhorn.

Just east of the video monitor room, under Town Square, is the famous Disneyland Jail. Twenty cells line the hallway, each named and themed to a different Disney villain, complete with mood music.

Just west of the monitor room is the underground football arena, where football players practice in anticipation of Ed Grier getting an NFL expansion team. Still further west is the underground airport, where Disneyland keeps helicopters and corporate jets.

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Under the rest of Main Street is a very busy area:

The Confetti Room is where sensitive company documents are processed into the various forms of confetti used in park parades and shows. There can never be enough of the stuff, after all. Confetti instantly increases the excitement of any show.

There is also the Experimental Cloning Project (ECP), where Disney has partnered with biotech firms to secretly work on cloning. This has grown out of the audio-animatronic artificial limb development efforts. Disney had hoped to use these clones to help staff their resorts as they continue to expand and it becomes harder to find good cast members who are willing to work for next to nothing.. Unfortunately, some of the failed clones are hard to manage and escape from time to time, often on Friday and Saturday nights, when they can often be seen congregating along the walkway behind Big Thunder Mountain. They are rather fascinating creatures. Most of them have problems figuring out such basics as appropriate attire, language, and hair coloring, and they have strong addictions to cigarettes. They travel in groups, and their social skills and public behavior have been severely retarded.

Not under the park: Walt Disney himself. He is kept in other location.

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Okay, I hope you didn't believe a word of this article so far, because it ISN'T TRUE! It's all just a parody of some of the legends floating around out there. The only thing that is true is that Walt Disney is NOT buried or kept under Disneyland anywhere.

In reality, "underground Disneyland" consists only of a few unconnected basements (the ones under New Orleans Square and Village Haus are quite large) and a prototype "utilidoor" tunnel under part of Tomorrowland. There is no tunnel to the Disneyland Resort hotels. There is no underground city. These notions probably come from the fact that the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World (that's Florida, folks, not California) has a utilidoor system that the park is built on top of. The utilidoors aren't even truly underground. They form the first level.

There are underground portions to the hotels, including a gigantic area under part of Downton Disney.