Have you ever been at Disney World and something felt off?

Yep! Us too! We go to Disney World every day and tend to notice if something is not right. Sometimes, rides malfunction or certain experiences are quietly removed. Here are seven things that Disney World hoped we would not notice.

Have you been on a ride and noticed an error message on character’s faces? Or maybe you noticed a continuity error in a ride. We compiled a list of seven mistakes that we noticed at Disney World.

Ariel’s Mouth Not Moving on Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid

You can go under the sea with Ariel and her friends on Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid over in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom!

Recently, Ariel, Sebastian, and some of the other fish’s mouths are not moving anymore. This can be disappointing for some riders, but fear not! Disney makes sure to give attractions some TLC during refurbishments. 

While it is not always fun to see walls around attractions, it just means that they are getting the extra love that they deserve! Disney takes this time to make updates to attractions, do safety checks, and sometimes they even add new things into the rides! Hopefully when this attraction goes under its scheduled refurbishment, Disney will take the time to fix the mouths and have them sync up with the music again!

Click Here for Every Ride Refurbishment Happening in 2024 at Disney World!

Rides in B Mode

Disney has released state-of-the-art ride technology over the last few years. Rides like Rise of the Resistance and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway feature a trackless ride system!

With new technology, ride breakdowns are bound to happen, but Disney has implemented a backup system to allow for rides to continue to run.

This mode is called “B Mode” and is seen quite often on rides like Rise of the Resistance and on Na’vi River Journey. These rides have two audio-animatronics that tend to break down, and rather than stopping the ride, Disney uses screens to replace these audio-animatronics when they are not working. 

On Na’vi River Journey, the Shaman is a very cool audio-animatronic that has a wide range of motion. When the ride is in “A Mode,” you will see the actual audio-animatronic. When the ride is in “B Mode,” a screen and projected version of the Shaman will be included in the ride instead.

On Rise of the Resistance the ride is in “A Mode” when the Kylo Ren audio-animatronic is out and getting blown away. The ride is in “B Mode” when you just hear the audio and are facing the window screens instead. You can tell the ride will be running in “B Mode” if you get to this scene and the moving wall is down, hiding Kyo Ren. 

While you may want to get the full experience and ride these popular attractions in “A Mode,” sometimes it is not noticeable, and it is more efficient to have these backups in place so that the ride can still run. 

 

Projection Faces on Frozen Ever After

The projection faces on Frozen Ever After can be freaky as is, but it can be even more jarring when there is an error, and the faces show a Windows logo or error message.

These audio-animatronics have gotten heat for not looking realistic. Rides like Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train also use these projected faces on audio-animatronics.

Disney seemed to learn from its mistakes and when Frozen Ever After opened up with World of Frozen in Hong Kong Disneyland, the projection face audio-animatronics were upgraded! The new audio-animatronics in Hong Kong Disneyland are so cool and are not scary.

Speaking of new audio-animatronics, the audio-animatronics for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure do NOT feature projection faces! Instead, these audio-animatronics resemble those of overseas parks! Disney keeps giving us looks into the ride’s progress, and recently, when we saw the audio-animatronics, we were blown away! We are so excited to go down the bayou with Tiana and all her friends when the attraction opens this summer at Disney World and later this year at Disneyland!

Blending of Tower of Terror in Morocco

Have you ever been walking around World Showcase in EPCOT and noticed a building in the distance? Yeah, us too! 

If you go to the Morocco Pavilion, in the distance there is a building that looks a lot like Tower of Terror, and that is because it is! When designing Tower of Terror, Imagineers knew that it would be in the background of the Morocco pavilion. Due to this, they made the Tower of Terror color scheme match the color palette of Morocco.

This is a super cool detail and shows how much thought goes into designing the parks and resorts. This does make us question why it is okay to see resorts like Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin and parts of Yacht and Beach Club from EPCOT.

It makes us wonder why Disney did not put the same effort toward blending other resorts in with the surrounding pavilions.

Disney does have other ways of “blending” certain attractions in by using the paint colors “Go Away Green” or “Blending Blue” to hopefully divert your attention from buildings.

Mickey’s Meet and Greet in Town Hall on Main Street

When you vacation in Disney World you have to meet the man in charge, Mickey Mouse! When you walk into Magic Kingdom, Mickey has his own meet and greet in Town Square Theater.

Here, Mickey used to have an added level of interaction with those who met him. He used to actually talk! This was a magical layer that was added on to a meet and greet, as traditionally characters like Mickey do not speak. 

We would love for Disney to offer this experience again, as it was fun to get to have a conversation with the big cheese!

If you are interested in seeing articulated characters, the castle stage hosts multiple showings of Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire. Here, characters like Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Olaf, and even Lewis can talk and move their eyes! It is really cool to see.

We know Disney still has the technology to allow for Mickey to talk, so we hope that one day Disney is able to bring this offering back!

The Yeti on Expedition Everest

The Yeti on Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom is so big you may wonder how they even got him in the ride in the first place!

Did you know he actually used to move? That’s right! Unfortunately, the big guy moved so much that it started to cause structural damage. For the safety of the ride, the Yeti now runs in a “B mode,” which is just a strobe light that flashes on him to give the illusion that he is moving.

Now, the Yeti has been nick-named Disco Yeti because of this lighting effect. The difference with this “B Mode” is that it is permanent, as the “A Mode” is no longer an option. We are glad Disney came up with a solution to keep this attraction running!

Plant Donald

Do you remember that one time in 2021 when Donald turned into a plant on the Gran Fiesta tour in EPCOT’s Mexico Pavilion?

The Donald audio-animatronic stopped working and had to be removed for repairs. Disney’s solution? Replace him with a plant! We are not sure how Disney thought this was the best idea, but we are still glad that the ride was able to continue running!

We guess it was a nice way to still pay tribute to Donald while he was out getting all fixed up.

While we notice these mistakes, we are glad that Disney has solutions to continue and keep attractions up and running! Keep following DFB for all things Disney!

What is a mistake that you have noticed at Disney World? Let us know in the comments!