Even Disney superfans may not know these hidden park secrets

I thought I knew Walt Disney World.

A new book, “The Lost History of Walt Disney World,” made me realize how much I had forgotten or didn’t know at all.

Despite decades of visits, I had no idea that Disney Legend Joe Rohde, the longtime Imagineer who shaped Disney’s Animal Kingdom, voiced one of the audio-animatronics in EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth.

And while I vividly remember 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Magic Kingdom, I don’t remember the Winnie the Pooh play area built in the same vicinity before New Fantasyland opened. I also didn’t know a Nautilus submarine Easter egg lives on a tree in the queue of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

“There is kind of this lost Disney history that's kind of hiding in plain sight that you can still interact with,” the book’s co-author Ian Wilson told USA TODAY.

At a time of significant change for the parks – including the construction of new lands in Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios – his latest book with his sister-in-law Danielle Kelly guides nostalgic fans to the kind of touchstones and lore they love.

Kelly is a Disney historian and former cast member known…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/travel/