The Dark Side of Disney - Leonard Kinsey [51]
Google Earth has made finding the Utilidor entrances from the comfort of your own home fun and safe. It’s like a scavenger hunt! For example, load up Google Earth and type in coordinates Lat 28°25'10.69"N, Long 81°34'53.32"W, with an eye altitude of 30m (go to the Ground-Level view of around 100ft). You’ll see a lovely 3D rendering of our first and most beloved Utilidor entrance, WITH THE FUCKING DOOR OPENED!!!
BACKSTAGE AT EPCOT
While there is no complex Utilidor system at Epcot (just a very small set of rooms under Spaceship Earth) there is an extensive backstage area that circles the entire park, along with some very interesting sights to be seen. If you want to see some of them legitimately you can take the “UnDISCOVERed Future World” tour, which, for fans of the park who probably already know most trivia, is 75% fluff, 25% cool stuff. However, it’s just as easy to get backstage yourself and walk around!
Probably the easiest access is from The Land. There are two ways to get backstage from this pavilion: you can either go out the large set of doors on the bottom floor to the left of Soarin’, just past the bathrooms. If you sit there waiting for your significant other to finish taking a massive dump chances are you’ll see at least a few CMs exiting through these doors. The other way to get backstage from The Land is to hang a sharp right immediately after getting off of Soarin’, instead of walking down the exit hallway with everyone else. There’s a single door that leads outside.
Path from Soarin to Omnimover maintenance area and back out to Imagination
Both of these exits will place you in the back of The Land, and you can travel east to get behind the Imagination Pavilion. On the tour they show you an area in the back of Imagination, across from the Canada Pavilion, where the 3D glasses are washed. But of more interest (and what is not elaborated on in the tour) is that next to this glass-washing station is the repair area for the Omnimovers used in the ride. If you’ve ever wanted to see up close the underside of an Omnimover you can duck underneath the raised track and take a gander. Spare parts and repair tools line the walls, and you can even walk back to the left to see where the track splits off from the main ride, designed so the disabled cars can be moved off the main ride track without having to pick them up with a crane or forklift.
Once you’re done browsing this area you can exit back into Future World through a door that leads to the rear of Imagination, near the almost always empty restrooms on the right side of the pavilion.
Another relatively easy access point is via the Mission: Space queue. Apparently when they built this ride they expected a much larger crowd, because there is a huge abandoned stretch of queue on the side of the pavilion. The easiest way to get to it is to go up the ramp on the right side. This leads to a winding area, and just before the line snakes into the building there is an exit to the right that leads to a loading dock. Take the steps down and you’ll find a dirt path that actually runs under the Test Track exterior track, and from there to a series of parking lots and roads that wind around the entire park. If you head south you’ll find the Costuming and general CM building on your left. It’s worth looking at, as there’s no ID required to enter. Continue south past China and around the docks where they store the Illuminations globe, and you’ll find yourself behind the “Africa” area, which was once supposed to house a Pavilion (and might still yet, if Disney execs ever get their asses in gear and throw some more cash at Epcot). The land is cleared, but there’s nothing there except a dumping ground for old props and Food and Wine Festival booths. What’s dumped back there seems to rotate (and rot) but right now the boneyard features various ride structures and is the rumored burying ground of some of the 20K Leagues subs!
Path from Mission: Space queue to CM Costuming