17 Disneyland Secrets They Don't Know Want You To Know‏

7. They Control Your Mind With Smells

Not dark enough for you? Well, buckle your seatbelts and put entirely too much faith in the ability of a piece of plastic to keep you rooted in a shonky rollercoaster cart, because from here on out, things are gonna get pretty bumpy.

A concept coined at the original Disneyland by the man himself is the Smellitzer, a patented scent generator which ensures you're having the exact sort of Proustian sense memories and associations that Uncle Walt wants you to. It's been picked up by other theme parks since then, too, even if they haven't quite cracked the House Of Mouse's special formula.

That means that if you're in a Western-themed area of an amusement park, you will be greeted with whiffs of desert dust, horse manure and sarsaparilla. The air around haunted houses will actually be thick with dust and disturbed topsoil from the fake graveyard outside.

Not so weird, right? Well, it wouldn't be if Disneyland didn't feature multiple pumps and vents which launch and then suck up the right smell at the right time. It also means that food smells better than it actually is and you're unlikely to come across what would otherwise be an ubiquitous stench of post-ride puke - so Disney parks are literally controlling one of your major senses.