Disney Lies

For a magical start to your Magic Kingdom morning, stop in Tinkerbell’s Treasures, the shop where Tinkerbell spends the night in a comfy little treasure chest! If you’re the first guest to the store, poke your head in the door and yell, “Wake up, Tinkerbell!” The cast member behind the counter will respond, “Okay, she’s up. Thanks!” That’s it — you woke up Tinkerbell!

(Note that if you try to wake “Tink” later in the day, cast members will just ignore you or give you an annoyed look. This is a treat reserved for the first guest in the shop each day!)

Because this is a favorite (and not particularly secret) Disney treasure, you may want to take extra steps to make sure that your child gets to wake Tinkerbell. A good plan is to arrive at the park a few hours before opening and claim a place at the front of the first turnstile that will open. When the park opens, get in as fast as you can, pick up your child, and run at full speed through the park to the Castle, ignoring calls for you to walk and avoiding security and other obstacles as necessary. If other parents are trying to horn in on your magic, a few caltrops improvised the night before from cut-and-sharpened hotel hangers should help you maintain your lead.

After you’ve had your magic moment, you might want to head to the entrance to Mickey’s Toontown Fair for a “meet and greet” with Tinkerbell. Be sure to tell her that you are the one who woke her up that morning (she may have some choice words for you, particularly if she was up drinking the night before!) and ask her how the heck she sleeps in a little treasure chest when she’s so tall.

One of the wonderful things about Walt Disney World is that, in addition to all the shows and attractions you lean about in travel guides and on unsubstantiated-rumor Web sites, there are secret treasures and experiences to be had by those lucky enough to stumble across them. For the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting a number of these treasures, telling you both how to find them and how to make sure you get to them first so that they are not used up by some less-deserving tourist.

Let’s begin by discussing one of the secret treasures of Disney’s Animal Kingdom — DiVine.

If you keep your eyes peeled as you walk through Animal Kingdom, you may be able to spot a bit of shrubbery that seems a little different. Its leaves are a bit big, its grapes are a bit out of place, and there’s a lady’s head in the middle of it all. Also, it moves much more quickly than any plant (other than carnivorous swamp moss, which is native to central Florida but largely absent from Walt Disney World).

What could it be? It’s DiVine, the half-human, half-plant AK inhabitant! If you spot her, be sure to watch for a moment, enjoying the poetry of her occasional gentle motions and laughing at people startled by the sudden mobility of what at first appeared to be simply a woman’s corpse overgrown with vines.

Because she blends in so well with the native foliage, DiVine can be quite hard to spot. To find her, watch roadside plants and tree tops carefully as you walk, or do what expert visitors do and listen for the screams of surprised adults or watch for crowds of parents changing the pants of their crying, startled children.

Although DiVine is the most popular of the nature-living characters wandering through the park, she is not the only one. During times of heavy attendance, guests may also be able to spot DiRock (a woman made from stone), DiWind (a woman dressed only in air), and DiVille (a woman who wears dead puppies).

Trivia: Before she came to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, DiVine had a significant film career, most prominently starring in a number of John Waters films.