As the modern legend goes, Walt Disney was in Disneyland when he saw a cowboy walking through Tomorrowland to get to Frontierland. He realized this broke the magic of Disneyland and brought the problem to his team of engineers. When they began planning the Disney World Resort here in Florida, they came up with utility corridors, or Utilidors.
The result is a vast network of corridors that is often called Magic Kingdom’s “underground city.” This area is off-limits to anyone under the age of sixteen (in case children see costumed characters without heads, or princesses eating lunch and acting un-princess-y.) and contain sanitation crews, locker rooms, cafeterias, a hair salon for employees (Kingdom Kutters), costuming; empty rehearsal rooms, check cashing…. It really is a “world under the World”!
Now, a common misconception is that the Utilidors are located at basement level. In truth, the nine-acre Utilidors are located at ground level- over seven million cubic yards of soil from the Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon was piled up on top, and the Cinderella castle is actually on the third level, with most rides being on the second.
The only way to get into the Utilidor tunnels are as a cast member, and by bus. Showing ID, the cast members go through the entrance, out of view of the guests. No matter what job they have, be it ride operator, character, or clean-up duty, as soon as a cast member exit’s the Utilidors they are “onstage.” There are entry points in all of the Magic Kingdom areas- Tomorrowland, Adventureland, and etc., with the tunnels arranged in spokes with the castle as the center of the well-oiled ‘wheel.’