One of the perks of being a Disney Cast Member is all the cool things you are able to do through the company. One of these cool things is being able to put your name into a drawing to get free resorts stays, merchandise, and behind the scenes tours! The company does this at large with the group Backstage Magic, so the odds of you being picked out of everyone working at the Walt Disney World Resort are very tiny. However, some locations do special behind the scenes tours just for their staff of Cast Members so then your odds of being able to participate in a backstage tour dramatically increase.

I was fortunate enough last Monday to be chosen to go on a backstage tour with some of the staff from Tony’s to go on a behind the scenes tour of one of the largest decoration warehouses in the world!

The Disney Holiday Warehouse sits right behind the Magic Kingdom and is located right by Disney University. It is 1 out of 4 warehouses that holds all the holiday decorations for the Walt Disney World Resort, Disney Cruise Line, Castaway Key, and Hilton Head. Basically what we gathered from the tour is that this particular warehouse we visited is like a giant Hobby Lobby, whenever they need to replace decorations they come to the warehouse and gather all the materials to construct a specific decoration

Some fun facts about the Warehouse is that

• Mostly everything in the Warehouse is custom built, they make it industrial strength so the decorations can handle multiple seasons
• Outside decorations typically last 2-3 years, depending on how much they have faded. They are made to handle the elements but will be replaced if they look faded
• Inside decorations last 5-6 years
• The warehouse stores some of the bigger decorations during the off-season, such as the Huge Christmas trees at all of the parks, hotels, and Disney Springs
• Refurbishments are made here, so if they need to remake an item such as a wreath or they need to retheme a particular areas decorations it is taken to this warehouse where they can either gather all the materials to recreate an item or play around with different themes and get creative and create a new item.
• They Micro-theme within each area –> Each area of the resort has a different theme and each Christmas decoration has to meet that theme
  • Disney Springs = Old Florida (succulents)
  • Disney Springs Marketplace = More Decorative theme (Egyptian Ornaments)
  • Art of Animation = Animation (White trees and wreaths to resemble blank paper with colored tinsel that matches the resort and square ornaments to represent pixels)
  • Wilderness Lodge = The Great Outdoors (Wilderness animals, Native American themes, Camping)
  • Animal Kingdom Lodge = Safari & Africa (Jungle animals, ornaments with recycled items on them, handwoven ornaments

Since this was a backstage area that we were touring we weren’t allowed to take pictures or videos, however, I found the below video from ABC where they were given access to document the backstage area.

We were able to get a group picture though, so pictured below are some of the Tony’s Town Square staff in front of the giant Magic Kingdom Tree that sits right on Main Street by our restaurant