PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS Disney tour shares behind-the-scenes experience

Walt Disney World is decked out in holiday decor, from 65-foot-tall trees in front of each park to the Grand Floridian’s giant gingerbread house and the Christmas Tree Trail at Disney Springs. But have you ever wondered how Disney prepares for the most wonderful time of the year?

Disney’s Yuletide Fantasy, run by Adventures by Disney, offers guests exclusive, behind-thescenes opportunities to tour Holiday Services and the Disney Event Group as well as decorate a cookie only available during this three-hour, seasonal experience.

A lover of all things Christmas, and Disney, I recently checked it out.

My group hopped aboard our “sleigh” — a Mears coach bus — and headed for our first stop: Holiday Services, where Disney’s seasonal décor is stored, repaired and created.

Visiting this location is so exclusive that only Holiday Services’ 42 full-time cast members — and those they add during the holiday season — and Disney’s Yuletide Fantasy guests can enter.

After donning our safety goggles, we meandered through the largest decoration warehouse, which is 54,000 square feet — 11½ basketball courts could fit inside, according to Dave Griffiths, a Walt Disney World VIP tour guide.

We saw rows and rows of decor, neatly stacked and organized by season. There were hundreds of baskets stacked with ornaments of every shape, size and character as well as an entire wall of ball ornaments sorted by color, size and texture that could be used to create new decorations or to replace broken pieces of existing trimmings, Griffiths ex