Did You Know?

Do Disney Parks have underground tunnels?

When Disneyland was built in 1954, it was built at ground level - no basements, tunnels or sub-basements. After the park was successful, Walt lamented the fact he didn't have more land to expand and keep the encroaching outside world of motels and billboards at a distance. At the same time, he noticed cast members crossing the park in costume to get to work creating incongruous images: Frontierland western garbed people in Tomorrowland, for example.

Over the years, Disneyland has built new areas with sub-basements, but none of them connect. New Orleans Square has an underground kitchen that serves all the area restaurants including a cast member cafeteria. Tomorrowland has the elevator band stand that can be accessed underground. And Fantasmic has a series of lifts and pits that were built underground to house that show's mechanics. But none of these systems are interconnected nor can they be accessed from one to the other. Indeed, for Fantasmic all the cast members, technicians, and props must be floated over to the island on barges before the show; they didn't even build a tunnel for easy access under the Rivers of America.

As Disney World was in development, Walt designed the system of tunnels to be built at ground level in Florida, with the Magic Kingdom on top allowing access to any section of the park unseen by the public.They are referred to as Utilidors.  Here is a map of the Magic Kingdom's Utilidors.