Part 2: Disney Tidbits, Magic Kingdom

It's Friday, so that means another installment of magical Disney tidbits!  We left off at Magic Kingdom so that's where we will begin today.

Did You Know? 

• When you are at Adventureland and in line for the Jungle Cruise, just before boarding the boat look for an "Employee of the Month" sign.  It will read E.L. O'Fevre which, if you didn't get it, stands for Yellow Fever.
• Near the beginning of the Jungle Cruise there will be tribal head carvings on the three canoes at Pygmy Beach.  They bear a strong resemblance to Mickey, Donald and Goofy!
• There is an airplane tail in the ride, the front half of the airplane is used in the Great Movie Ride at Hollywood Studios.
• Notice the blackboard once you have exited the cruise at the end.  It will have humorous names of people and boats "missing".
• For the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, if you are directed to the right-hand queue for the ride, you will see a window.  If you look in the window you will see two skeletons playing chess-supposedly a stalemate game.
• Also on the right-hand queue, just before boarding, there is a cave and if you listen closely you can hear someone digging, maybe for treasure?
• In the gift shop at the end of the Pirates ride, there are items sitting on a shelf just below the ceiling.  Look around at these items and see if you can spot the movie props that were given to the shop from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.   (There is a Gold Coin from the first movie, a Key from the second movie, see if you can spot any references to the other two and if not, ask a Cast Member!)
• Beware of a spitting camel just past Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride as you are headed toward the castle!
• The Swiss Flag flying over the Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse is the only flag of another nation that is on permanent display above a Disney attraction.
• When you get to Frontierland, and are in line for Splash Mountain, you might notice bird houses in the trees.  If its quiet enough, you can hear what sounds like talking or arguing coming from them-this is actually Chip and Dale talking and arguing! 
• Once on the ride see if you can notice a little critter coming out of the ceiling upside down at the part of the ride where you are in a cave-like room, just before the last drop.  Some say he says "FSU" (see what you think!) and it is speculated that his imagineer was a graduate from FSU!
• Notice the claw marks on the floor of the Country Bear Jamboree.
• This is one of my favorite tips!  If you get to Tom Sawyer Island at its opening in the mornings (it opens at 10 am usually) and you are on the first raft over, search the island for paintbrushes.  If you find a paintbrush, you can turn it in to the raft captain for a fastpass to Splash Mountain!  Each morning there are new paintbrushes hidden but once they are found, that's it for the day! (My family had a blast finding these-found I think 9 in all but later found out that they would've given us a fastpass that would've covered all of us for just one! It was fun anyway! And we did give a couple of paintbrushes away to other people once we found enough to cover each person in our group.)   
• While on Tom Sawyer's Island, while at Harper's Mill, look closely at the wooden gears operating. On one of the gears operating horizontally you will see a little blue bird sitting there.
• A good place to beat the heat on the island is in Injun Joe's cave.       
• When you venture into Liberty Square, the Liberty Square Christmas Shop is actually three different shops with walls between them. They are representative of three different colonial families owning them-a German family, a woodcarver's family and a musician's family.   
• The 13 lanterns hanging in the Liberty Square Tree (the big tree to the left of the Paddle Wheel Boat) represent the 13 original colonies.
• Look at the 2nd story windows in Liberty Square.  One has a rifle and another has 2 lanterns-"one if by land, two if by sea".
• In Liberty Square there is a gate around a door.  In the door guards a marble slab that used to be the threshold/step at Monticello.
• In the section of Liberty Square that has different styled building fronts next to each other, observe the details and stylings progressing through the 19th century.  If you place an "18" in front of each house number, that will be the year of that style.

I will stop here because next up is the Haunted Mansion, and that one will have a post of its own!  There is WAY too much on that one! So be sure to tune in next Friday!