WALT DISNEY WORLD / AN APPRECIATION BY ROB URBAN
A thank-you
in the
costume shop.
A small backstage moment.
A generous way to understand a very large place.
The singers
came to them.
When the Voices of Liberty received their new costumes, the singers went to the costume shop and performed for the people who had made them.
Disney included that moment in a January 2025 account of the project. The audience included the stitchers, drapers, cutters and other members of the Creative Costuming team. The singers wore the finished clothes as they offered their thanks.
I love that scene. Usually, the audience sees the performers and the garments together. Here, the people who had worked on the garments got to see what their work made possible, addressed directly to them.
It is a wonderfully human way into the enormous subject of Walt Disney World. A resort can be described through parks, attractions, hotel rooms and acres. This moment describes it through people who need one another’s abilities, and who recognize what they have received.
Room in the shoulders.
There is an especially good practical detail in the same account. During fittings, performers demonstrated the movements they needed to make. Vocal captains conduct with their arms, so the back and shoulders of their costumes needed to give them room.
Costume designer Josh had taken color inspiration from a vintage American flag. Costumer Aubry helped find fabric that could carry the design and be dyed to its intended colors. The result needed to work as clothing for an actual singer, with an actual body, doing a particular job.
That last part deserves appreciation. A garment can be beautiful in a drawing. A performance asks another question of it: can the person inside move?
The fitting is where someone else’s expertise becomes visible. The singer knows the motion. The costumer knows what the fabric and construction can do. Neither has to become the other for the collaboration to succeed. Each has to take the other seriously.
Then, in the costume shop, the relationship came back around. The singers offered something they knew how to make. I cannot think of a more fitting thank-you.
IN THE SEWING ROOM
Someone
made that
jacket.
In a September 2026 profile, Disney sewing specialist Kylee described the pleasure of seeing Mickey wear a jacket she had made or Daisy dance in a dress she had sewn. She had studied costume design, worked in housekeeping and the parks, and eventually found her way to the sewing work she loved.
The article describes a craft that includes construction, alterations, repairs and work with patternmakers. That range interests me. A familiar character’s appearance is sustained through the ability to make something new and the ability to put something right.
There is a special kind of pride in recognizing your own work while everyone around you is looking at the character. The guest sees a beloved figure. The maker can also see a seam, a fit, a choice that turned out well.
Both experiences can belong to the same moment. Knowing about the sewing does not make the character less delightful to me. It adds someone else’s delight to the picture.
And the career behind that jacket makes the resort feel less abstract. Kylee’s account contains study, different jobs and a skill she wanted to practice. The clothes that help a guest recognize a story also carry part of a working person’s story.
Consider the person
wearing the hat.
Some of the care in a costume is easiest to understand through an ordinary pair of glasses.
Disney’s May 2025 account of new custodial costumes described a development process that included cast feedback, fabric samples and wear testing. Designer Nicole and development manager Danielle discussed choices such as stretch, pockets and adjustable garments. The team also kept the familiar sweeping Mickey logo.
One choice was a hat from a women-owned business founded by a former optometrist. Disney described its shape as accommodating glasses and its adjustability as accommodating different hairstyles.
A hat that works with glasses is a small thing until you are the person wearing both. Then it is part of every hour of your working day.
I admire the attention represented by that detail. It puts the employee’s experience inside the design conversation. The costume has a public role, but it also has a private, continuous relationship with the person wearing it.
Care for guests passes through people. Making room for their movement, comfort and pride is part of making a place hospitable. The person who welcomes someone into a day should have been considered in the making of their own.
Other kinds of care take much longer to become visible.
In an April 2026 profile, Disney introduced Gary, who began as an EPCOT gardener more than four decades earlier and went on to lead arborists as an urban forester. The account describes tree inspections, preservation and work supporting large installations. He had helped with every EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival since its 1994 beginning.
What stays with me is his concern for mature trees. A tree’s shade and presence accumulate over time. The people looking after it work with something that cannot simply be hurried into its finished form.
That gives a visit another timescale. The family may be there for a week. A gardener’s attention can extend across decades. The two meet for a few minutes under a canopy.
I appreciate places where skill includes continuing to care for what is already there. At Walt Disney World, a landscape can hold a person’s long familiarity with the site alongside a guest’s first impression of it.
A longer
kind of
attention.
The guest has a week.
The gardener may have decades.
The people inside the magic.
People bring different hopes to the resort. One imagines the castle. Another is thinking about Star Wars. Someone has already chosen a restaurant. They are all looking forward to the same trip, through different doors.
The four park stories follow those doors: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Each has its own pleasures and its own people to appreciate.
Across the resort, I am drawn to the work that lets another person enjoy being there. Room in a costume’s shoulders. A hat that accommodates glasses. A tree that has had someone looking after it for years. These are concrete contributions to someone else’s day.
We often use the word magic for the result. Looking closely enough to recognize the work makes that word warmer for me. It puts people inside it.
And sometimes the people making one part of the experience get to thank the people making another.
The singers come to the sewing room. Everyone can hear what they helped create.
If you enjoy stories about the people who make a place, there are more in Florida stories. To talk with me about yours, start here.
Rob Urban
About this story.
Which theme parks are part of Walt Disney World?
Walt Disney World’s four theme parks are Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The resort also includes hotels and other destinations. Use Disney’s current information for admission, operating calendars and access.
What is the costume-shop story based on?
Disney’s January 14, 2025 account of the new Voices of Liberty costumes describes the performers visiting the costume shop to sing a thank-you for the Creative Costuming team while wearing the finished garments.
Is this a current guide to tickets or employee opportunities?
No. This is an independent appreciation using dated accounts of the people and crafts behind the resort. Disney’s official website and careers pages are the sources for current ticket terms, schedules and job openings.