Behind the Scenes at Disney World

Backstage Safari, Animal Kingdom ($65, 4 hours)

Animal care is a daybreak affair, and the first shift is almost half over when we pass through an unobtrusive gate by Animal Kingdom's Rainforest Cafe. We board two vans and pass huge stretches of Florida pastureland now planted in willow, acacia, bamboo and other greens suited to exotic palettes. Food techs cut tons of it every morning before the sun comes up, and now, as we pull up to the massive elephant barns, a couple of pachyderms are happily tucking in to piles of the stuff.

A female munches away as our tour guide, Paul -- a retired biology teacher from Michigan -- recounts the challenges of elephant sex in cringing detail. Animal Kingdom is a fully accredited, state-of-the-art zoo, active in wildlife breeding programs around the world and clearly committed to top animal care. And its backstage tour, popular with critter lovers, is heavy on true-fact science.

But even in the nonpublic technical areas, the creative hand of Walt is obvious. Paul points out a lone, tall pine rising behind the employee commissary. "That's a Nextel tower," he says. "It was visible from a few spots within the park, so they turned it into a tree."

We drive slowly along the high earthen berm that encircles the park (more sightline management). An electric fence runs along one side of the lane (to keep out deer, mostly), and animal holding areas line the other. We see off-duty cheetahs, rhinos and giraffes taking the shade.

At the rhino barn, a keeper explains care and feeding, and we're allowed to stroke the thick hide of a young female white rhino as she scarfs alfalfa on the other side of the bars. Later, during a bathroom break in the administrative building, a keeper joins us for brownies with a breathtaking spectacled owl on her arm.

At the vet clinic, they're scraping a callus off a goat. And in the nutrition center, they're cutting up restaurant-quality fruits and vegetables and packing individual plastic bins with the next day's meal for more than 300 species. For the big cats, techs measure out horse meat at a separate station. For the littler carnivores -- reptiles and raptors -- a row of frozen dead rodents thaw on a counter, from bald newborn pinkies to full-grown white mi . . .

"We try not to use the M word," Paul says. "Mickey gets upset."

But the tour isn't all biology. Good old human smugness kicks in when Paul leads us into a private holding area within the park for the popular Kilimanjaro Safari (essentially, the ride through the zoo section of Animal Kingdom). Paul even invites us to twist the knife a bit, smiling and waving at those who have been waiting for more than an hour as we drive by.

Kilimanjaro Safari essentially realizes Walt's original vision for the Jungle Cruise, a fake tour featuring real animals. But it took decades to figure out ways to provide both proper habitat for the wildlife and guaranteed viewing for the visitors.

Paul starts pointing out tricks. The huge baobab tree is fiberglass, with a camera in its trunk. The hanging lantern is really a signal for the driver to hold position. And that pond crowded with leggy red birds?

"Take a closer look at the shape of Flamingo Island," Paul says. "It's a Hidden Mickey."

Epcot Seas Aqua Tour, Epcot ($100, 2 1/2 hours)

It's pretty hard to stand out from the crowd at Disney World. But try walking around in a neoprene wet suit, and watch the heads turn. About 10 of us march through the public areas of Epcot's Living Seas like a crew of astronauts. We file down curved corridors lined with people peering through fish-filled windows. Through a secure door, up some metal stairs, and we're in a cavernous space above the 203-foot-wide, 5.6-million-gallon tank. A crew of technicians hands out flippers and fits us for the mini air tanks that will allow us to swim face-down along the surface for up to half an hour. Certified divers can go to the bottom on a separate scuba tour. But anyone over 8 years old can suit up for this glorified snorkeling.