These are the 10 best smells you can only find in Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World is filled with some unique scents but these are ten odors you can only smell in these parks!
Tiana's Bayou Adventure Opens June 28 at Walt Disney World - credit: Disney
Tiana's Bayou Adventure Opens June 28 at Walt Disney World - credit: Disney /
facebooktwitterreddit

Disney is known for wanting to control every part of a guest’s experience. It’s only natural and many fans are used to it. That includes the smells and we’re not talking the natural ones of any theme park. Because Disney is unlike other companies so they don’t just let the natural smells of the park be all they offer. Instead, the company is famous for using “smelleitzers” to pipe in specific scents at certain places.

That can sound sinister, but under Disney, it becomes something special. It gives attractions and areas a certain flavor and often helps pull a guest more into the overall experience. Some rides shine so well thanks to the scents abounding and some areas feel more vibrant as well. It’s tricky, and some folks may have preferences, but these have to count for the ten best scents you can inhale at Walt Disney World and why a visit there is unlike any on Earth.

PhilharMagic Pie

Magic Kingdom
Mickey's PhilharMagic. Image courtesy Brian Miller /

Brian Miller wrote a nice piece on why Mickey’s PhilharMagic shouldn’t be skipped over like too many do. There’s the animation, the music, the humor, the love letter to classic Disney animation. But the smell is something else, that apple pie scent wafting from the lobby to the theater.

Why Disney chose that specific smell is unknown, but it works. It’s a bit spicy but not too much, a comfortable scent that wafts in your nose and puts you in the mood for some great music. Disney even has a cologne for the scent to show how this pie smell makes this movie all the more magical. 

The Resort Charms

The genius of a Disney resort is how each one seems to have their own distinctive aroma as soon as you enter the lobby, each themed to the resort’s atmosphere. The Wilderness Lodge has the aroma of being in the woods, pines and other natural scents mingling around. The Yacht Club has a smell like a coastal club, a bit “gentlemanly” while the Beach Club is more vibrant and laid back, almost like ice cream.

The Contemporary feels modern, the Polynesian has a variety of scents matching the islands (especially the floral arrangements), the Grand Floridian with the clove and jasmine, Port Orleans can mix a “city Cajun feel” for the main resort with the Riverside boasting a “bayou” scent of Southern flowers. This can be its own list as it’s brilliant how each resort has an aroma as distinctive as their themes. 

Soaring’s Smells

EPCOT - Soarin Around the World
The 2nd best attraction at EPCOT - Soarin. Photo credit: Brian Miller /

Whichever version of Soarin’ you get, the Imagineers have you covered. If it’s the original California version, you get every scent of the Golden State: The orange groves, the pine trees of Lake Tahoe, the ocean mist of Malbu, it makes you feel like you’re immersed in the state and adds to the experience.

For the All Over the World version, it’s even better, with each nation having its own flavor, from roses for the Taj Mahal to sea breeze for Fiji and more. The smells are another reason why this ride makes you feel like you’re truly flying over these areas, so either version of Soarin’ is immersive. 

Main Street’s mix

Aug 31, 2004: Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA: Lenny Krayzelburg, Michael Phelps and Ian Crocker wave to the crowd as they parade down Main Street, U.S.A. at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. 
Gold medalists Krayzelburg, Phelps and Crocker visited Walt Disney World today to kickoff a national tour called "Disney's Swim with the Stars". The trio will embark on to 12 cities around the country. Scheduled tour stops include: Atlanta, New York city, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake
Aug 31, 2004: Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA: Lenny Krayzelburg, Michael Phelps and Ian Crocker wave to the crowd as they parade down Main Street, U.S.A. at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Gold medalists Krayzelburg, Phelps and Crocker visited Walt Disney World today to kickoff a national tour called "Disney's Swim with the Stars". The trio will embark on to 12 cities around the country. Scheduled tour stops include: Atlanta, New York city, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake / USA TODAY Sports

Main Street USA is the entryway into the Magic Kingdom and so first hits the guests with the unique smells. Walk past the Confectionery and the smell of cotton candy makes your mouth water and you want to buy a batch yourself. Go by the ice cream parlor and it’s vanilla and chocolate which smells bigger outside than indoors.

There are the smells from Tony’s Town Square and the Crystal Palace, not to mention the iconic popcorn you can only get at a Disney park. There’s also an “old-school” aroma to fit this throwback to olden times. It’s little wonder folks love to wander Main Street just to take in these great aromas. 

Avatar Otherworldly 

Banshees at Avatar land
Take home a banshee from the Avatar gift shop. Photo Credit: Brian Miller /

It makes total sense that Pandora has a fragrance unlike anything on Earth. True, the movies show Pandora’s atmosphere is unbreathable for humans, yet the park version manages to create its own unique air. The Animal Kingdom area has a few nice smells, mixing from the bright gardens to rainy mist for the boat ride to even a bit of sulfur here and there. 

The topper is easily the moment in Flight of Passage when your banshee stops in a mushroom cave and you can smell the actual mushrooms with a touch of mildew there. It’s among the many reasons this ride is a mind-blowing experience and Disney pulling off the illusion of being on an alien world. 

Motor Oil of Big Thunder

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom. Image courtesy Rob Schwarz Jr. /

Big Thunder Mountain can feel like a dry spot to capture the Old West feel. A few nice scents for the desert plants and caverns are good. But it’s the locomotives that really shine, with Big Thunder’s trains smelling like fresh motor oil like the old-styled locomotives of the past. 

It makes it feel more vibrant and exciting with the rush of the trains in the tunnels, the smell echoing around and so it feels like you’re on a real runaway train. The oil is just one of those fun touches that make “The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness” such an epic blast. 

Salt Water of Pirates

90338768.jpg
“Pirates of the Caribbean” Ride at Disneyland (Photo by Barry King/WireImage) *** Local Caption *** / “Pirates of the Caribbean” Ride at Disneyland (Photo by Barry King/WireImage) *** Local Caption ***

Something about a water ride at a Disney park just feels different. The waters of so many attractions, past and present, abound, from the Seas at Epcot to other boat rides. But Pirates of the Caribbean is something else. It’s the salty taste of it, the way it hits you like you’re really putting out to sea, and it combines with the musky caves you first ride through.

It’s a fun touch with the splashes and adds more of an exotic air to the attraction. Of all the boat rides of a Disney Park, Pirates is the one whose water carries a scent that fits its location perfectly. 

Musty Haunted Mansion

Disney World The Haunted Mansion
Disney World The Haunted Mansion. Photo taken by Matthew Liebl /

This is one of the first cases of Disney using smells nicely and it’s always worked. It’s a tricky thing to pull off but the moment you step onto the ground of the Haunted Mansion, there’s something in the air selling the history of the place, like it really has been around for centuries. As you go deeper, the musk seeps in further, making you believe you’re in a house not visited by a living person in years. 

The smell continues throughout the ride, some areas a bit thicker than others. It combines with the dust (both legitimate and planted) and the air of something other-worldly happening all around you. That musky smell is perfect for the ghostly goings-on at this classic ride. 

Mexico’s flavor

Epcot World Showcase - Mexico
The Aztec themed pyramid in Mexico is the first country you come to when entering the World Showcase at Epcot. /

Every World Showcase pavilion has its great aromas to pay tribute to their host nation. There’s something about Mexico that feels so lively as soon as you step onto the grounds. It’s the spirit of the land, showing its history and flavor and that counts for the scents. It seems to mix all you’d expect from Mexico with the spicy food of its restaurants and the indoor setting makes it better.

It can also mix with the water of the boat ride and the torches inside the perpetual twilight of the interior market. It sets the mood nicely, and the actual spice-like flavors make it one of the best-smelling of all the World Showcase pavilions, making a great pavilion even better. 

The burning of Rome, Spaceship Earth

EPCOT Spaceship Earth
The EPCOT ball is seen from the monorail in an image prior to the massive construction project that will bring huge changes to the park. Image courtesy Brian Miller /

It’s one of the oldest on this list but it still ranks as amazing. Spaceship Earth has changed a few times over the years yet still impressively managing to capture the history of communication. A key scene has long been the fall of Rome, meant to emulate the sacking of the city and the loss of so much writing.

Someone in 1981 decided that piping in the smell of burning ash would fit the scene, and it’s perfect. The smell of ash, of burnt concrete and paper, it sells how this glorious civilization collapsed and the ruin made clear much better than a larger AA scene would be. Just one smell tells the story and why this effect remains top-notch after so many years.