Disney World Employees Share The Ultimate List Of Park Secrets and Bizarre Stories
Disney may call itself "The Happiest Place On Earth," but workers at the acclaimed theme parks reveal a different story. Amidst all of the cheer, chaos can happen at any given moment, and it's up to the folks working there to brush it away with a smile. Employees both past and present talk about the wildest thing they've encountered on the job.
151. 40 Minutes Too Long
I used to work in Magic Kingdom from 2007-2010. I pulled a week at the strollers are and saw this at the gates: A guy comes up to the gates and realizes he forgot his tickets. So he decides to go back and get them from the car. So far so good, however, Super Dad leaves his three kids at the gate unattended. Two of them looked to be between seven and twelve but the youngest had to be no more than four. So for anyone who doesn't know, in order to get back to your car from the gates, you have to take either a monorail or boat back to the lot and then a tram to your car. On a good day, this round trip can take over 20 minutes. This guy was gone for almost an hour. After the first 10 minutes, Disney security took the kids to the child care center and left two Florida state troopers in their place. The guy got a thorough scolding upon his return. Not sure what happened after that.
150. We'll Never Forget
I was a cast member during 9/11. It was a scary time, but amazing how quickly Walt Disney World responded and closed the parks. I worked for one of the All-Star resorts. They had Disney characters come to the resorts to entertain the kids on the day of 9/11 while parents could focus on news. In the following days, I was placed in the lobby of the hotel, with a computer and phone to assist travelers with finding trains, rental cars, and buses home since air travel was suspended. Those families that could not get home were given free hotel accommodations for up to five days until airlines resumed full service.
149. Wait Right Here
I did the management intern program in 2006. I got a call while managing over at Everest. It seemed that the person up front had a husband, wife and child walk up trying to ride. The child was wearing one of those child pet leashes they have where it connects to a strap around the chest. He was completely all over the place.
Well, the cast member told them that the child was too short to ride. So they offered them a pass that allows one parent to cut the line and ride then another pass to let the other parent cut the line. So someone could sit with the kid.
They didn't want to do that as they both wanted to go together and get a picture taken. Then then walked the kid over to a fence and tied him to the fence and went to ride the ride. I show up and security and my boss are all standing around a child tied to a fence.
148. If Looks Could Kill
I was a lifeguard in the kiddie section and a little kid dropped his pants and was peeing in a bush. When I told him he can't do that he just stared me down until he finished and went down the slide I was on without saying a word. He established that he was the alpha male.
I worked in Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World) from 1987 to 1989. Someone has posted that not much happens due to Disney's operational controls. That is not how it works in real life. When I worked there, usually at least once a week I witnessed something out of the ordinary happening. For example, two the ferry boats connecting to and from Magic Kingdom one night came within 10 feet of each other. It seems that one of the pilots was talking to a couple of cute girls and did not give up the right of way. Another day one of the ferries ended up outside of the channel and grounded with a full load of guests. It took about three hours to clear that mess up. The old monorails use to have a problem with overheating brakes which would cause smoke entering into the cabin. One time, the guests seeing the smoke went out the emergency exits and onto the top of the train and onto the rail. That one was a real mess with helicopters, media, supervision, and lots of angry guests. A lot of complimentary passes were handed out that day.
146. Show Me The Bathroom
I was put on a break from my position in Frontierland at Pecos Bill's, which shares a break room with part of Adventureland as well. I desperately needed to go the bathroom, but when I got back there, 30 or so employees were just standing around, blocking the entrance (very unusual, most people would be outside smoking or down in the tunnel grabbing food).
I pushed my way to the front and was met by Disney Security, telling me I can't go to the bathroom. So I turn around to walk to a different bathroom down in the tunnel, and as I do, everyone sort of gasps and smiles. I turn back around to see Tom Cruise and his daughter walk out of the bathroom. MY BATHROOM. I wasn't mad anymore after that!
So that was by far the strangest thing - Tom Cruise and his daughter using my gross, tiny, employee bathroom.
145. Aw, Phooey!
I worked there 1993-97. One day I was walking to the Cast Member Bank to cash my paycheck. The bank is behind the bank on Main Street, and the gate to go "Onstage" is a little further down. As I walked up, the gate slammed open, and Donald Duck came stomping through, followed by Minnie and several other characters. Donald yanked his head off, threw it on the ground, and screamed, "Dumb kid! Kicked me in the Balls!"
Donald was played by a 4'4" man. Seeing an enraged little person in half a duck suit was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. (I couldn't laugh, or he'd kick ME in the balls.)
144. The Circle Of Life
While I was working on Dumbo, these intoxicaed people removed their infant from the seat belt and held the baby like Simba outside of the carriage while the ride was up 18 feet in the air so their other wasted friends could take pictures of them doing it. We had to emergency stop the ride. They were escorted away and I heard they were arrested once outside the park gates.
It was very scary to witness.
143. The Sound Of Walking Away
I worked at the front desk of one of the Disneyland Resort Hotels. A lady, followed by another lady with like an 11 year old kid, walked up and asked if there is a place where people leave messages for their family if they are separated. I said, "not really" and inquired more about the situation. Apparently, the first lady was helping the other lady, who didn't speak good English, and her kid. The lady and her kid were in line for Indiana Jones when the father said he was going to the restroom, but never returned. They later went to the car, and the car was gone. They were hoping he left a message for them somewhere. The English-speaking lady and I realized he left them, probably for good. The father was probably thinking, "At least I left them at Disneyland." I spoke to my manager later about it, and apparently, this happens every so often: a father decides to leave his family and thinks if it's at Disneyland it softens the blow. It ruins Disneyland for the Family if you ask me.
142. Goofy Is A Real Person
I was 19 years old when I worked for Disney World, and my heart still skipped a beat when I saw Goofy take off his head for the first time.
Yes, I KNOW that Goofy is just a guy in a costume. Of course I do. I'm a grown man.
And yet...actually seeing it? I would equate it to seeing a human take off their own head and revealing that there's a smaller human inside working all of their joints for them.
I used to work in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique as a Fairy Godmother in Training (FGIT from here on out), and one time we had a very Christian family come in and have their daughter done up by a friend of mine, in the chair next to me. We like to tell the girls stories about the real princesses coming in to get their hair done every morning, all of us having sleepovers, using "jellyfish jelly" (from Ariel, of course) to style their hair, that we're 200+ years old (since to be a bona fide Fairy Godmother you have to be 1,000), etc. Every story my poor friend told this little girl, she would scrunch her face up and would say things like "That's not true!" and "Stop saying fibs!" It's adorable when the girls react so cute and don't believe it at first, so we're all laughing. Then my friend tops it off with the fact that she's 230 years old, and the girl nearly stands up in the dang chair and screams at the top of her lungs "LIARS GO TO HELL."
140. Puking On The Seven Seas
I drove the boats on The Seven Seas Lagoon (Lake outside the Magic Kingdom) for my internship. I had a lady get physically sick on my cruiser while on our way from the Campgrounds to the Magic Kingdom. So we shut down at the dock. Thank god I got taken off my shift (no clean up), or so I thought. I took the lady to the first aid station under the train station and took my 15 minutes. On my way out this lady is at our assignment station with my manager. Turns out she was not staying at a Disney Resort. So I am assigned to the van to drive her to her resort off site. I spent the next 20 minutes getting directions fed to me from my co-castmember while this lady is periodically puking into the bag. Interesting night, but, watercraft assignment for college interns was usually interesting like that.
139. There's No Control
I have hundreds considering I worked mainly Guest Control. I once had a woman with no teeth grab my face and kiss my cheek once I helped get her new sweatpants after her dog pissed all over her. I later saw the same woman begging for money on Harbor. Guest control was always an experience.
138. Wild In The Woods
When I worked at Wilderness Lodge we had a guest that was visiting the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds. He stripped down to his red boxer shorts outside one of the restaurant windows and then proceeded to run through the campground from security. Somehow he found a backpack leaf blower and put it on and continued to escape security. They finally found him passed out in a utility shed all curled up to that leaf blower wearing nothing but his boxers and covered in scratches from the woods.
137. A Horrid Family
I worked at one the Restaurants in the Magic Kingdom. I had a family abandon their adult son, who was in a wheelchair with a slew of health complications, in the middle of our walkway while they went on rides. He was there for about 2-3 hours.
136. Down By The River
I fell in the Rivers of America working on the canoes on my first day in attractions. They said nobody had fallen into the river in years. I just tell myself that's not true. Minute 12 into my first day, dunked into the green abyss. It took me days to get that smell of duck poo out of my hair (oh man, I forgot about people dumping their loved ones ashes). I got my new costume, and proceeded to slip in the canoe on my very next trip and slam my head against a seat. Knocked myself out cold. They sent me up to medical and that was my last day on the canoes.
135. Lost In Space
As a space mountain cast member at Walt Disney World, we all would rotate positions every 45 minutes. I was at load (where people start the ride) and this guy was very nervous in line, arguing with his friends in another language (maybe Portuguese?). He got on the rocket, even though he seemed nervous and before I sent him off, I made sure he wanted to go. He nodded and continued into light speed (27 miles per hour, by the way). After a few minutes, the ride was emergency stopped and a code that was familiar but I couldn’t recognize was called over the intercom. I saw my supervisor sprinting downstairs to the doors to the ride. He has gotten off the ride. You see, at the beginning of the ride, you are going pretty slow as you climb the coaster. He had just decided to get off. The creepy part of this story is that we all searched the building for about an hour (lights on, about 50 people searching) and no one found him. So this man got off the ride, went down about 200 steps, and somehow found the exit, never to be seen by us again.
134. Ashes To Ashes
I used to work at the box office. I once had a woman come up and ask for a ticket into Disneyland, she then placed a box on the counter while looking for her wallet. I don't know how she managed to get that box past security. I see a picture on it and then I see dates I realize that they are the ashes of her little girl. I had to keep her at my window while I waited for security. It broke my heart but a lot of people like to dump ashes on rides and it literally just gets vacuumed up at the end of the night.
133. Hungry, Hungry Hippos
I worked the night shift at the Animal Kingdom, and was working on the safari at like 3 a.m. As I was struggling to get something working near the hippo river, I heard one of the hippos do their crazy loud noise out of the pitch blackness like five feet away from me. I then had the terrifying realization that if I fell in, I would most likely be killed within a minute and wouldn't be discovered until the morning when they would find my truck on the ride path.
I was much more careful in that area after that.
132. Everyone, Say "Cheese"
I'm a former photographer at Disney World and worked very closely with the characters. There were some creepy regulars. There was this couple who’d pretty much come in every day and would get super mushy with the cast members, like a first name basis kind of thing. They would make sure to catch specific performers during their set. No one knows how they know this info, we think they just stalk them. Some cast members think it’s harmless but I think it’s incredibly odd. They even expect some special treatment because they are regulars. I’ve only encountered them a couple of times but they managed to find me on Facebook just based off my name tag info.
131. Somebody's Watching Me
I was a cast member from 2007-2014. It was said that there is a ghost of a little girl at Soarin' on B side. They say she died in the parking lot before Disney California Adventure was built, but no one can say exactly how. Some have claimed to hear footsteps coming up the metal stairs that lead below the screen during a flight. But the tower cast member is the only one there since the room is closed off during a flight and an open door would stop it immediately. So imagine sitting there, basically tuning out the show you’ve heard SO many times, and then starting to hear metallic footsteps. It’s dark; you feel like you’re being watched. Very uneasy feeling.
130. Bringing Disney To Its Knees
I had a woman who was so unbelievably angry at my hotel, I honestly don't remember why, that she was literally screaming at my supervisor that it would just take "one military girl like her" to bring Disney World "to it's knees". This was almost 10 years ago so I forget most of the story now, but I recall she had a giant trash bag of merch and I think she was angry about a long distance bill charge too. It was genuinely so insane.
129. Public Bathroom To Go
Monday night during the parade, a mom and her kid came running up to Splash looking for the restrooms. We (myself, 3 other cast members, and two coordinators) told the woman the restrooms are closed and directed her to the Tangled restrooms. She freaked. She started screaming that her kid wasn't going to make it that far and that we needed to open the Splash restrooms for her. As the restrooms were gutted at the time, this was not happening. She then screamed, "Well he's just gonna piss HERE," and leads her kid behind a sign in front of the ride. One of the coordinators threatens to call security and the mom screams "DO IT!" as she's holding her kid's willy in her hand. Coordinator immediately whips out a radio and calls for security. You could tell the mom didn't think she'd actually go through with her threat. As soon as the kid was finished, the mom picked him up under one arm and literally booked it out of Frontierland toward Liberty Square.
All we could do was laugh.
128. We All Scream For Ice Cream
Former Walt Disney World cast member here.
The most bizarre thing I saw was a kid throw his ice cream (this was at Sunshine Tree Terrace) at the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom portal because his sister couldn't beat the villain (I wanna say it was Yzma).
127. Moon Over Disney
An intoxicated guy got permanently banned. He was smoking and I was told to tell this very large man to please move around the corner to a smoking area. I am not confrontational and this was not fun for me. He was not happy and flicked his cigarette butt at me, which I had to promptly put out and toss. He went over to the smoking area loudly and vulgarly protesting. Thankfully the manager took over after this and tried to make the guy happy. I found out later the guy mooned the manager and got kicked out.
126. No Two For One Deal
I did the College Program from May 2012 until May 2013 and worked Attractions in Tomorrowland. People would do a lot of dumb stuff, but the most bizarre was when I was working at Space Mountain I was on rotation in a position called "mountain 3". Basically, I stood by the handicap entry to the ride, helped people get on, and took wheelchairs to the exit. Anyway, it was middle of summer and really busy when a lady wearing a big Disney hoodie was going through the normal line. I thought it was a little weird to wear a jacket during the summer, but whatever. She then gets to restraint which is the last check point before the ride begins. At restraint, they just check your lap bars and then press a green button. While there, the cast members hear a whine coming from the lady's jacket and found that she was trying to smuggle her infant daughter on the ride. So he calls me over because I have a radio and we kick her off the ride, call our managers, and security. She ended up getting blacklisted from Disney World.
125. Return To Sender
I used to be a Cast Member at the Disneystore. My craziest story was during the beginning of the holiday season. I had a man come in to return 14 princess dresses for his girlfriend. Since he had so many dresses, the transaction was going to be a bit long. I went through the process while he was arguing on the phone with his girlfriend. He complained that she should be doing this herself, since he doesn't know anything about the transaction and she was complaining that it's because she is sick. Well, Disney has a policy that whatever form of payment you paid is the form it will be returned. His girlfriend didn't give him her credit card for the return.
At this time, the line was getting long and my manager wanted this guy out. So she made an exception for this one and allowed the girl to send a picture of her credit card to the guy's phone. I put in the numbers in the front and asked to see the back for the code. The man swipes and it wasn't the credit card back, it was a thumbnail of a video with a girl's privates spread.
I had to act professional but the guy was super embarrassed and got out of there as quickly as he could after the return. I bet he would never do returns for his girlfriend ever again.
124. Get On Your Feet
I used to work in the stores and there was this one guy who came in and sat with a little girl (who was left alone in the theatre by her nanny). He started asking her weird questions like who she was with and how old she was. It wasn’t until my fellow cast member (also a guy) noticed and approached them that the guy stood up and left immediately.
We also had another incident where a guest complained to one of my stage leads that there was a man going around and asking children how old they were. Turns out he didn’t know the size of his own kid’s feet and he was trying to find another kid who is the same age to figure it out. My stage lead pretty much yelled at the guy.
123. They Used The Force
I worked in stores at Disneyland just out of high school. One day, while stocking the shelves in the part of the store where Star Tours lets you out into, I see what looks like mud tracked around the store. I'm like WTF where did that come from. Then I see and then smell what looks like a somewhat intact soft turd on the ground. I immediately run to tell someone to call custodial then run back to try to block people from walking all over it but by then it was too late. It had been smeared all over. The wait for custodial felt like forever since I was trying so hard not to gag at the smell and not laugh at the guests who walked through the poop stains. I just couldn't figure out how someone managed to poop on the floor in the middle of the store without anyone noticing.
122. Pose For The Camera
Once while sweeping the line for the Finding Nemo subs, I noticed this Asian family secretly taking pictures of me and recording me on video. So when I confronted them about it, I gathered from their broken English that their daughter thought I was attractive so they started taking pictures. I had a good laugh about that and took a picture with her as well.
121. A Zac Attack
I used to work in attractions at California Adventure, and would occasionally get scheduled for crowd control on parades and special events. In 2007, they held the premiere for "High School Musical 2" at the resort. The after party was at one of the hotel pools, and my job was to keep people away from a stage that was being constructed for the event. All weekend, people were buzzing about the fact that the cast was there, and flocks of teenage girls would break into a sprint whenever they saw the plaid-vested tour guides that typically wrangle our celebrity guests. It was the subject of a fair amount of complaining among my coworkers. As I'm standing near the stage under construction by the pool (which was still open to the public and very crowded), I noticed Zac Efron 20 feet away shirtless and hiding in plain sight. No hoodie, no sunglasses, nothing. Just him and those abs lounging right under everyone's nose.
120. Tower Of Zero Toilets
I work at Tower of Terror in Orlando. Guests do silly stuff all the time. A week or so ago somebody just straight up pooped in the queue. On top of that, only ONE guest told us about it. It was in a section of the queue that cast members only walk once at the end of the night. But one guest was like, "Hey, there's a poop back there." I half didn't believe him because he was the only person to tell us about it.
119. Walk The Dinosaur
I got deployed (they needed people, so they moved me there) to Animal Kingdom for a week. I was at The Dinosaur ride in merchandise and was leaving at night when everything was stocked and clean. I forgot where I was for a second when I heard screeching noises. They still hadn't turned off the Dinosaur noises and it was pitch black outside
118. How Big Was He?
My uncle worked at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Magic Kingdom, one day the ride got stuck and he had to fix it. After about a half an hour of trying to get the ride going, he saw a large man in the front row, he asked the man to slide to the right, and the ride then became unstuck and went off like normal. A group of about 25 people had to sit in a boat for 30 minutes because a big man decided to sit on the left side of the boat instead of the middle.
117. Not So Finger Licking Good
In 2007, I was a lifeguard at one of the resort pools. I was just having a normal day walking my beat, I hear a four-year-old girl bellowing to my left.
She was in a one-piece swimsuit that started expanding because she was pooping herself, like a grown man who'd ate a bucket of KFC. The mom grabs a towel from the deck and wraps it under the girls crotch, and they scamper at full speed to the restroom.
This girl was standing on the steps of the pool when it began. No poo went in the pool. My coordinator inspected the floor and saw none in the water, only on our pool deck. The pool did not close at all.
The family never returned, I never saw them again, and on a hot July day, I was the only one who saw anything happen.
116. A Photo To Remember
I used to work for Disney. I was a PhotoPass cast member, which meant I got to randomly patrol the park and snap pics of people next to iconic Disney marks. I got to take people’s photos, give them a card, and then they could buy them after their vacation. It was an awesome job, people loved me, and I got to use the corniest lines to make people smile.
So one day I was wandering through the park, and I notice this kid. He wasn’t that old, maybe six or so, and he didn’t appear to be with any of his parents. Thinking he was lost, I walked towards him, when I realized he didn’t look that good. He had his hand on his stomach and was kind of hunched over and moaning. Now, an upset stomach isn’t that uncommon at Disney (especially when you know what goes on in their kitchens - but that’s another story), so I could kind of sense what was about to happen. I called out for him to wait, but it was too late.
The kid proceeded to try to tug his pants down, when all of a sudden he starts violently pooing. I mean like furious, possessed, massive fire-hose style liquid poos. And he didn’t stay still, either. He started flopping around, doing this weird bucking style dance, trying to avoid the colossal amount of poo spraying every which way out of his pants, and his ass. I watched in shock. He looked like a sprinkler system. And he just kept pooing, unrelenting. Did I mention this was right in front of Splash Mountain, as well? The kid was putting on a show for every boat that came sliding down the mountain, as the poo kept sliding out of his ass.
Eventually, the kid stops pooing, and I think everything’s over. It’s not. The kid’s bawling at this point, and I feel really bad for him. He tries to run away, but slips and falls face-first into a pool of his own poo. He doesn’t get up. I look around, praying there’s another cast member around for backup. There isn’t (probably all ran away, come to think of it). I step towards the kid, wading through his pool of liquid poo. It smelled AWFUL. I rolled the kid over, just so he wouldn’t drown in his own poo. “You OK?” I ask. He coughs, and then proceeds to puke ALL OVER ME. It’s horrible puke too, all red and foamy. At this point, all my senses are overwhelmed, so I vomit too, and fall into the devil’s brew of liquids on the ground. I panic, and struggle to get up, and that’s when I hear the click! of my camera wrapped around my neck.
And as luck would have it, the kid’s parents came running around the corner to find me laying on top of their son, covered in poo and puke, and freeze. I could only give them a grin before I fainted…
I’ll always have the poo-stained photograph to remember the moment by.
Photo by Meghan Holmes on Unsplash
115. Lets Play Pretend
Cousin's old theater teacher used to be Peter Pan. They were doing a character breakfast and a couple had a baby wrapped up in a blanket. They ask if they can pose with the baby and Peter Pan. The teacher goes up to take the picture... THE BABY IS A DOLL. They brought a doll to Disney and were those whack job kind of people who treated it like a human. The teacher just had to play along as if it were a real kid.
Photo by Jerry Kiesewetter on Unsplash
114. Professional Coverup
05 Disney world college program former cast member here. I suppose the most bizarre things were what the guests didn't see. A man is found dead from an apparent suicide in his hotel room. The room's windows and entrance are immediately concealed by those, "pardon our dust" renovation ply boards as costume characters/castmembers have an impromptu meet and greet diverting attention away from the room as police arrive to process the scene. The lobby of the Grand Polynesian Hotel features a rather elaborate waterfall foliage atrium where a poisonous snake is found. In the utmost efficiency, dressed as janitors animal control has captured the snake within a 15 minute window while the guests were once again distracted this time by fire jugglers.
Photo by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash
113. Family Effort
Disneyland: 1997: Toontown Head Room: A family attacked a Pluto. Pushed her into the fountain. I didn't actually see the attack, just got to deal with the aftermath backstage. I got to dry all of pluto's costume and clean the head. Later Pluto told me the family was mad that she had to take her break after they had waited to get a picture. I think Pluto either broke her arm or her leg. I can't remember. The family was arrested.
112. Pirate Secrets
Worked at WDW Magic Kingdom for two years. 1.5 as ride ops for Pirates of the Caribbean and .5 as an electrician for MK Lighting Dept.
Pirates saw its fair share of sex acts in the grotto scene of the ride (hooray night vision cameras!). Not to mention the cast member shenanigans that happened in the catwalks above the grotto.
Working the unload section of the ride I was doing a quick look for trash in the boats and I found a bra and a pickle lying on the floor (not sure what happened there).
Same location, a mother hauls her kid to the corner where wheelchairs are kept and reaches into the trash can for a cup so her kid can piss. Unfortunately, the bottom of the cup had been ripped off so he just peed right onto the floor.
As an electrician I was party to some fun stuff. We would take our electric carts and pop them onto the Speedway at night and race. I've gotten to install light fixtures where the fairies changing room used to be and let me tell you, they have no shame strutting their stuff even with guys around.
111. Unexpected Birthday Surprise
I'm not an employee, but a few years back I went to Disneyland Paris with my SO, brother and his wife. I happened to turn 21 while we were there so the morning of my birthday we went to "Café Mickey" for breakfast. The others had asked for a surprise birthday cake and when it came out it was accompanied by Mickey, Minnie and somewhat randomly, Prince John (of Robin Hood).
Mickey & Minnie were cool, we were dancing and celebrating my 21st birthday in true Disney style. But Prince John on the other hand... That guy is a complete jerk!!
All of a sudden he grabs hold of me and starts throwing me around. Then he pushes me onto the bench and basically starts dry humping me!
I imagine for the employees and our fellow diners this would have been a pretty bizarre thing to watch. A little different from the usual tame birthday celebrations they do for the little kids. In all honesty, it was absolutely hilarious and even now it makes me smile just thinking about it.
Flickr
110. Gift Shop Difficulties
I didn't work there, but I had a fantastic experience in the Gift Shop at Disney World.
My wife and I are there, and we hear a man starting to get loud with what we assumed (correctly) was his wife. We look, and it's a family of adult male, female, and two children. The man is getting very irritated, and then launches into "I WILL FRICKING KILL YOU!!", and then proceeds to storm out of the gift shop.
The best part is that this must have happened countless times before, because the wife didn't even care about it or acknolwedge it happened or anyone was watching. She just kept looking around at items, placing them in her bag, and leisurely paid for stuff and left.
109. A Pirates Delight
When my uncle was younger, and security was not as tight, him and his friend snuck in beers and cigars onto the old pirates ride, hopped onto one of the islands, stuck a cigar in a skeletons mouth and started drinking and smoking.
Next ride comes by with guards. They were taken to Disney land jail under main street which has a tunnel all the way to the police station.
My uncle is banned from Disney land.
108. What Am I Supposed To Do About It?
I worked at the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street. On Christmas day Magic Kingdom was PACKED, obviously. The fireworks were about to start and our shop was pretty much empty because everyone was more interested in getting a spot for the fireworks and all. A couple groups are milling about, pretending to be looking at the menu or discussing what to buy; not because they were actually going to buy things, but because they were looking for a less crowded spot to hang around in.
We kind of turned a blind eye to it because, whatever, they're not bothering anyone right now, not blocking anything, etc. I was on register chatting with some of my coworkers when in storms this man in a rage.
He starts screaming at all us, demanding to see our manager RIGHT NOW. We all stop and stare, having no idea what's going on or what's happening-- most of us had just clocked in about an hour ago, so anyone who might have been in earlier and known what this man wanted has left for the night, since we all assumed he was an earlier customer come to flip out on something someone id earlier.
Turns out, not the case. He starts screaming at us that it's too crowded, he can't see the castle very well, he doesn't have a good spot for the fireworks, etc. etc. Just really letting it go (ha) at us. He ends his rant with, "ME AND MY FAMILY ARE RELIGIOUS AND THIS IS UNFAIR." He then turns around and storms right back out, leaving a totally silent, stunned ice cream parlor in his wake. None of us knew what to do and then the "what the hell was that??" chatter broke out.
I'm still not sure what he expected the manager of an ice cream parlor to do about his situation.
107. I Like Trains
Not employee but i was in Disney World with my wife like two years ago. At the beginning of the park we got on the old time train thing that takes you around the whole thing. While we were waiting we met a lady who started telling us about the whole train and where it goes and the history of it and i thought she was a worker but it turns out that she just loves the train and rides it all day. Like she really loved that train. Who the heck pays the admission just to ride that train?
106. What Code Word?
This was about ~15-16 years ago now, but when talking on headsets, you're supposed to use different codes for things; for example, a medical situation was usually a "balloon" for blood, I think it was ("there's a balloon in the parking lot.")
So, you can imagine my surprise when we get a call in saying "Wee have a code Pooh, Piglet is on the loose." Like, what? Turns out some crying toddler-aged kid was using the sandbox as his public bathroom, and when someone approached him, he just.. ran away.
Photo by Ostap Senyuk on Unsplash
105. Behind The Scenes
Had a woman overdose at the front desk of the Disney California Adventure Tower of Terror. It was peak season and I was faced with closing my attraction with like an 80 minute wait (I was the working lead). Instead I rerouted the line through an emergency gate with the held of every manager and security cast member. Never stopped loading guests with paramedics consulting a woman who had two many narcotics. (I found out afterwards from my friend in security).
104. Not Very Clean
I used to work on Main Street at Disneyland in one of the cafes. On my first day, I noticed that there were flies hovering around on the pastries in the glass display cases at the counter and told my supervisor. She then tells me that they turned off the lights in that particular case so customers wouldn't be able to see the flies, and we could continue selling them.
Photo by Dieter Pelz on Unsplash
103. Poorly Treated Employees
As said before, Disney is really on top of their stuff. I have worked there in 2011 and all I can say is: they are not really kind to their employees. A friend saved a child from being ran over in one of the parades. My friend got ran over instead of the child and got fired.
102. Serious Disney Fan
My mom used to be a costumer for Disney World and she told us a story that during the 20th or 25th anniversary she was in the park and saw a man walking around shirtless with the map of the Magic Kingdom tattooed across his entire back
101. Watch where you take photos
I was at Disneyland and I stopped in front of the castle to take a picture. Behind me there was a lady in a mobility scooter yelling at her kids. Much to my surprise, she suddenly barrelled into me from behind at full speed and knocked me to ground. My knees were cut up and bleeding, and my new iPhone screen was basically shattered. She barely slowed down to say anything, just half-heartedly muttered sorry as she rode off into the distance. I was so perplexed that I just sat on the ground for a while thinking it all over.
Pixabay
100. Becoming a woman at Disney
My dad (who also let me watch Deliverance, Don't Look Now, etc growing up) decided to take me on the Alien Encounter ride when I was about 10 or 11. I was so scared, I thought I had peed myself.
Turns out I had gotten my first period at Magic Kingdom while freaking out about some alien licking the back of my neck.
99. Awkward Proposal
A few years ago I went to my boyfriend's family reunion. I flew from D.C. to the West Coast to meet his massive Mormon family and stay with them for three weeks. I was so stressed about it all that I couldn't poop at all for the first two of them. One of the uncles was a doctor so I told him about my constipation and he prescribed me something. It didn't help. I ate fibre one bars and fruit. Didn't help. We were all sharing a cabin in the mountains at the time and only had one bathroom to share...I remember setting my alarm for 2am to try and go number two in privacy.
One day towards the end of the trip my boyfriend and I found ourselves alone at Disney Land (suspicious because we didn't get much alone time then). I guess I was finally relaxed or something because mid wait in a long Pirates of the Caribbean line something smashed into my lower intestines like a brick. I grabbed my stomach, looked at my boyfriend and told him I had to go...NOW. I bolted out of the line to the nearest restroom and busted open the stall door. I produced one solid unit that I have reason to believe consisted of two weeks worth of meals. It was traumatizing but also kind of amazing and cathartic. I couldn't believe such a turd had come out of me--I'm really small! Anyway, my boyfriend proposed like three hours later.
Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash
98. Heartbroken at the entrance
A kid back in Middle School invited me on a trip to the Animal Kingdom with his family and a few friends. It was implied that this trip was going to be a date and I was excited about it because that would have been my first date. He gave me my ticket the week before.
My mom waited with me at the entrance on the big day until they arrived. The kid who invited me pulled me aside after she left (out of his parent's sight), and asked me for my ticket back. He said he invited a different friend to come and would rather hang out with her. He told his parents that I got scared and left with my mom while their back was turned. I noticed the other girl waiting nearby with her dad.
I stood there and cried for a while. When I remembered that I didn't have a cell phone I asked a lady at the ticket counter for hers. A Disney security guard waited by my side until my mom came back for me. She called that kids parents later that night and ripped them a new one. The kid got grounded for 6 months but he bullied me for the rest of middle school.
Photo by Kenrick Mills on Unsplash
97. Fighting while waiting in line
When I was in my mid-teens my family went to Disney World. We were in line for Pirates in front of a family of 3 (mother, father, and young son). The mother for some reason was standing really closely behind me, so much so that I could feel her breath on my neck.
After a few minutes I became really fed up so, naturally as a teen, I started messing around. Whenever the line progressed I would take big steps forward and then right as she was about to approach me, I'd take a step back.
I lost my footing at one point and kind of fell off to the side. After getting myself up and composed, I was nudged from behind me. I tried to ignore it but I was nudged again and this time harder. I turned around to face my aggressor and saw the dad making a "go!" motion with his face. Him and his family began complaining that we were moving "too slow". A large kerfuffle broke out between us before they decided to cut in front and blow past everyone else in line as well.
The worst part though was how the confrontation left my mom in tears. I still get riled up thinking about it.
Photo by Guilhem Vellut on Flickr
96. Destroying the bathroom
This was a few years ago at the park with my father--I think I was maybe 20 years old. I ate waaaay too much cheese (like, honestly, just insane amounts of cheese) and chocolate and everything else at the France pavilion in Epcot. I went to bed feeling awesome.
Woke up still feeling fine, a little bloated, but okay. Of course, as soon as we get into the park, my gut began screaming at me. I knew that the ooey gooey goodness would soon be coming out from one end or the other. I'm extremely emetophobic (fear of vomiting), so I opted for the south side. I ditched my dad with barely a word, bolted to the bathroom and bombed an empty stall.
I don't quite remember what it was like coming out, only that I felt immense relief when I was done. The relief didn't last long though because after I flushed the water began to rise.
Honestly, for a second I was in denial. "The water will stop when it gets to the top," I reasoned, "No need to paniOHMYGODITSOVERFLOWING."
I got the heck out of the stall and ran for a custodian. I apologized over and over but she just gave me a look of pained resignation-- "not the worst I've seen, today, honey," it seemed to say.
Photo by Alexander Maasch on Unsplash
95. Small World turns into a small nightmare
I fell out of the boat in the It's a Small World attraction. It was years and years ago, I was about four maybe. The boats don't have any safety bars, or at least they didn't back then. Just bench seats. My dad says I was a little too enamoured with one of the puppets and tried to touch it, leaned out and fell in.
Apparently the water is disgusting and I smelled awful the rest of the day.
Photo by Robert Metz on Unsplash
94. Ride into the park turns into a hospital visit
I was about 10 years old and went to Disney World for the first time. My Grandma and grandpa lived relatively close, about an hour outside of Orlando.They came with us to Disney and some of the other theme parks around Orlando. Now, my Grandma was pretty old and needed to have a wheelchair to get around. Her wheelchair in turn needed to be strapped in securely on the bus. However, the driver/attendant failed to do this.
And so, when they at one point slammed on the brakes my Grandma's momentum carried her out of her chair and onto the ground. We called an ambulance and took her to the hospital where she ended up being for 3 days. She got better eventually but the bus driver didn't ever apologize to her and Disney refused to pay for her costly hospital stay. They even refused to refund us for the tickets we had purchased for the days we stayed in the hospital with her.
Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash
93. Knocked out by Space Mountain
I was riding the Space Mountain ride when I was really young. They stopped it really suddenly, and I hit the safety bar and was knocked unconscious. This was before they added more lights around the ride so my grandpa didn't realize I was knocked out until the end of the ride.
Photo by Oscar Keys on Unsplash
92. Stuck in Pirates of the Caribbean
I ended up getting stuck on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for over 2 hours.
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Have some tar rum with your old pal Bill now, eh? Oohhhh!! Ye be a FEISTY little kitty!!! HEH heh heh heh! -COUGH-cough-cough-cough- ... Here kitty, kitty, kitty...."
The definition of a living nightmare.
Photo by Jonas Vincent on Unsplash
91. Pick pocketed during a parade
Last year at the electrical parade my dad got pick pocketed. He had his wallet in his back pocket and my brother on his shoulders. He didn't realize what had happened until we got to his hotel room where he immediately cancelled the credit card. In the meantime Disney had caught the pickpocket and later returned the wallet--yes the money was still there, every last dollar! We spent the last 3 days without a credit card though.
Photo by Julius Drost on Unsplash
90. Watch out for low ceilings
When I was a kid (Like 7), we went to Disney world. We were staying in Pop Century in the 70's part of the resort. We were on, I believe, the 2nd floor and my dad wanted to carry me on his shoulders.
The ceiling was too low though and I was left with a serious concussion. Needless to say I wasn't good for any big roller coasters the next day.
Photo by Aaron Torres on Unsplash
89. Lost and found
I was about 10 and had spent the entire day on Tom Sawyer’s Island exploring the caves. Just as my parents and I were leaving we heard a kid crying.
I ran back into the caves and looked for the source of the cries. Eventually I found a little kid who had managed to get lost in the ONE section of the cave where you can actually get lost. He was a blubbering mess and worried about being trapped there forever. I took his hand and guided him outside where his mother was waiting for him. She explained that he had been missing for well over 30 minutes.
Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi on Unsplash
88. Toilet malfunction
During my first Disney trip I had a toilet upchuck all over me on Tom Sawyer Island. I was 8 years old at the time. I don't remember everything that happened but I do remember being passed from cast member to cast member all over the park while my parents became increasingly angry and I more stinky. Finally my mother harangued one of the managers. I remember being shocked because my mom hardly ever swears (seriously she apologizes for using the word crap). She got her way though--we were escorted to the big tent-store-thing in Toon Town and told to pick out 3 outfits and a toy. I remember my dad telling me to pick the most expensive things I could find. We also were given a free dinner at one of the character buffets. Every single Disney Princess there knew my name.
Photo by Gabor Monori on Unsplash
87. A not so happy birthday
I went for my birthday this year. It was hot as hell, probably 90 degrees or so. I wasn't feeling great in the morning but trucked on anyway. Went on all the vomit-inducing rides (Indy, Thunder and Roger Rabbit). When we checked out the new Pirate's Island/Lair I met Jack Sparrow and was wished a happy birthday. Soon after I started feeling...messed up. We were on the ferry back to New Orleans when I began to sweat profusely and grabbed my friend's shoulder. She and my other friend had to help me hobble onto the dock where I collapsed from dehydration in front of a large group of people.
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
86. Left out in the sun
While my family were on the log ride it became stuck on an outside part. Being stuck wouldn't have been so bad had it not been 101 degrees that day. For 25 bloody minutes we cooked in the sun with that same damn log ride song looping. By the time the ride started again I started to lose my vision from being so dehydrated. When I got off I could barely see or hear, and so began having a panic attack. Luckily I was able to whimper water to my family and I think an employee was able to get me a bottle before I completely passed out. I was fine but had to head back to the hotel for the rest of the day. Still gives me anxiety thinking about it.
Photo by fishermansdaughter on Flickr
85. Traumatized in the Haunted Mansion
My first trip to Disneyland was in January and about 1/4 of the rides seemed closed for maintenance. All of them except perhaps the one that most deserved to be, the Haunted Mansion. I was sitting between my parents when about halfway through the ride we came to a halt. There was some sort of electrical malfunction and so we ended up stuck there for an hour or so. I remember being quite upset when we finally got off the ride and utterly uninterested in going on any more, much to my mom's chagrin. My dad decided that he'd also rather not go on any more rides, opting instead to get day drunk and so my mom spent the rest of the day in the park on her own.
Photo by Nathan Wright on Unsplash
84. Stuck in mid-air
I worked at Disneyland as a sweeper. One night I was on Parade Route duty--this is where a team of janitors cleans up along the route after the parade is over. We were on our merry way when I noticed something terrible between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. There on the ground next to a trash can was a giant turd...just laying there for all to see and only about 5 yards away from the bathroom. Best part though? I used the lead sweeper's radio to trick the other crew into cleaning up the mess.
Photo by Paul Green on Unsplash
83. Rejected by Tigger
My Grammy and I joined a line for taking pictures with Tigger when all of a sudden he just walked off. My Grammy turned to me and said something along the lines of "Darn it. You just run up there and hug him" and so I did. Instead of hugging me back though he pushed me away and said "you have to wait in line Princess". The guy's tone was so hateful it brought me to tears.
82. Food poisoning
I ate a turkey sandwich at Hollywood studios with a green sauce on it. I thought it was a special sauce but after a bite or two I realized it was just really old Mayo that had gone bad. Got salmonella poisoning and threw up for 6 days.
81. Paycheque wasted
After I got my first good job I took a bunch of my family members to Disney. The splurge ate up my entire first paycheque plus a chunk of my savings but I figured it was worth it because most of them had never been.
Unfortunately, my cousin's one-year-old had messy diarrhea in the vehicle within the first hour of us entering the park. Due to the fact we all took the same car and had to drive very far, we ended up having to leave immediately. It's not the kids fault, of course. But I lost a whole lot of money that day.
80. Rude Star Wars Imperial Guard
I was 9 or 10 when the re-mastered Star Wars trilogy came out so when we went to the Star Wars themed part of the park I really wanted to take pictures with all the characters.
It went fine until one of those red suited imperial guards (the ones from Jedi) refused to oblige. My dad complained to a supervisor and I got my picture but he pinched me hard during it.
Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash
79. Characters getting a little too friendly with guests
I think it was 2003 because characters still walked around freely. I had my hair dyed bright blue and workers were commenting all day. Fun stuff, no big deal. The park was about to close, but my aunt wanted to check out one last shop so I waited on the main street with my mom. I guess the shops on Main Street close later than the rides so the street was super crowded but very well lit. Pluto and Goofy were walking through but stopped when they saw us. Goofy started fluffing my hair, kind of pulling on it and Pluto licked it. There were a lot of people there taking pictures. Very embarrasing.
78. Mass food poisoning on a Disney Cruise
I went on a Disney cruise when I was 12 or 13 with my parents. On the last night my dad and several others got food poisoning from the veal. He had to be sedated for the plane ride home.
Photo by Peter Hansen on Unsplash
77. Avoid Those Turkey Legs
I was there with my wife and two school aged daughters and in-laws about six years ago. One night my wife and I got the chance to leave the kids behind with her parents. We went on Pirates about three times since it has always been my favourite despite all the Jack Sparrow stuff. I then made one of the worst culinary mistakes of my life and got a turkey leg from a cart near Tom Sawyer's Island.
My insides felt like they were on Space Mountain as we rode the bus back to our room. I got into bed but soon had to crawl to the bathroom where I proceeded to send that turkey leg to Davey Jones' locker. I honestly wasn't sure I was going to survive but in the end I obviously pulled through since dead men tell no tales.
Photo by Alison Marras on Unsplash
76. Thievery During A Girl Emergency
I got my second period in Magic Kingdom. After crying and freaking out in the bathroom my mom had to go find some pants to buy for me. In her haste, she left her camera on the bathroom counter from where it was stolen. I felt so bad.
Photo by Yoann Siloine on Unsplash
75. Don’t Cut The Line
If you're wanting a story about line-cutter justice, I got ya.
A few years ago I'm getting into the Fast Pass line for Thunder Mountain with my dad and sister when two teenagers in the regular line jump over in front of us. At first we were pissed but then remembered that there's always two checkpoints for the Fast Pass line for this exact reason. Sure enough, when we got to the 2nd checkpoint we found them being sheepishly escorted all the way to the back.
74. Disney Brings Out The Worst In People
During the first and only time I went to Disney we were waiting for a ride (myself, my younger brother, nana and mum) when some younger kids tried to push past us. When I asked them to stop the whole group of like six teenagers became so belligerent that they were escourted out of line. Later on outside a gift shop in Hogsmeade we witnessed a brawl...apparently Disney makes people crazy.
Photo by Ali Yahya on Unsplash
73. Queen Of Hearts Steals A Sip And Terrifies A Kid In The Process
When I was little (probably six or seven), I was drinking a soda at Magic Kingdom with my family when the Queen of Hearts strolls up and takes a sip of my drink. That entitled maniac had me so upset I probably cried for a whole ten minutes.
72. Dying At Disney
Oh Jesus. Where to start.
The first time I saw somebody die was there. He was waiting in line in the early morning at City Hall, probably a ticket problem or something, and he just dropped like a board, eyes open, back onto the concrete.
His adult son started performing CPR and a cast member grabbed an AED but got no response. Three seperate people called 911 and the paramedics arrived about five minutes later. They continued CPR but to no avail.
What struck me most was that his eyes were open the whole time. I just kind of knew that he wasn't coming back from that and it made me really sad for his family.
71. The Family That Stays Together Gets Sick Together
My entire family (parents, sister, and I) all got food poisoning at the Polynesian luau the night before going to Epcot.
So needless to say we had an extensive tour of the country's bathrooms.
70. They'll Catch Your Kids Most Devious Plans
At attractions, most things we do are for safety. When I worked at the Tower of Terror, we started doing the thing where we have all the guests put their hands up before we send the ride off. One time on my last vehicle of the night I only had one family, so we were being kind of casual and having a conversation. They all sat wherever they wanted throughout the vehicle, and as I did my safety checks, the dad asked me why we have everyone raise their hands. Just he is asking this, his son raises his hands, and we all hear the sound of a seatbelt zipping into a tightened position. The kid was holding his seatbelt loose so that he would dangerously fly off the seat during the ride. All I said was, “because of that” and sent them off.
69. Having Cute Kids Finally Pays Off
WE WANT TO HELP YOU!
I can't speak for every cast member, but most of us want to work there because we want to be a part of the magic. And we are encouraged to be helpful and make things more magical.
When you are talking to cast members, be nice, kind, fun. Tell us fun things about your day when we ask you about it. Tell your kids to be adorable. You will probably GET FREE STUFF because we want to and can do nice stuff for nice or adorable people.
If you have a problem, getting angry and rude will result in us doing the bare minimum to fix it and make things right. Being nice about it and simply letting us know something is wrong, we will give you something better than what you ordered to fix it!
I worked at the ice cream shop on Main Street. About once or twice a day someone at some point would mess something up and give a guest a wrong order (even Disney makes mistakes). When someone would start immediately getting angry, we'd fix it and get them their proper things (usually adding some chocolate Mickey ears). But if someone was calm and understanding that mistakes happen when they let us know the mistake, we'd usually fix it with an absurd amount of ice cream, the toppings they want, and a cookie.
Also, IF YOU WANT FREE STUFF WEAR AN "IM CELEBRATING" OR BIRTHDAY OR SOMETHING BUTTON. AND IF YOU CAN, A COSTUME OR A DISNEYBOUND. Cast members give a lot of free things or free upgrades out every day. Nine times out of 10 they go to people with buttons or costumes or whatever (if it wasn't just to people we had a nice conversation with).
68. There Are People Who Solve Problems, They Aren't Ride Attendants.
Talk to managers or Guest Relations or your server or someone who can get near a phone (NOT SOMEONE SENDING BOATS OUT AT PIRATES OR SOMEONE WHO IS RUNNING A CASH REGISTER OR IS ALONE AT A FOOD CART) if you have an issue. They can help you. They want to help you. They are there to help you. Waiting until after you leave the Parks and writing in or calling in does NOT get you anything special. We all work at the same company; we all provide the same compensation. If you don't want to spend the rest of your vacation in a funk get it together and taken care of before you leave and write in about how your food was too salty or how you got stuck on a ride.
Also, be nice to the people on the phones - whether it's reservations, ticket sales, or guest service. They will be happy to assist you with real concerns much more easily than if you are saying they suck at their jobs.
67. Disney Magic Is Not-So-Secretly... Money.
We have lost our minds in pursuit of quarterly growth to impress Wall Street. Nothing we do is for the guest; it’s to grow revenue or cut costs.
Example: Annual passport pricing was recently increased to dissuade lower-value guests from coming. We don’t need you. We will have enough people coming for Star Wars and paying full price. And if you do come for Star Wars, most of you won’t get into the land, let alone the rides. We currently have no plans to deal with this.
Other prices increase every year just because we can. We call it “taking our annual increase.” We know you can’t afford it, and we read all the Facebook comments about it being too expensive. But we will keep raising prices until the parks stop being full. And even when they are full, we will find ways to get more out of you by increasing food costs and reducing portion sizes. We have over a hundred people whose job it is to maximize revenue on things like food & beverage.
We increase parking costs to help pad the bottom line. We add parking fees to hotel guests because we can, not because parking is a problem.
To sum up, the Magic is a cover for grabbing cash. And the cash is just to make our c-level executives happy, so they look good to Wall Street.
66. Ice Cream Bars Aren't For Your Sneakers
No, putting ice cream bars in your kids' shoes will not count as them being tall enough to ride Thunder Mountain.
We do not need your help to group yourselves into seats on rides; we can seat your "party of 52" much quicker than you can.
It means the WORLD to a cast member when you treat them like humans. I almost burst into tears on Christmas when someone said: "thank you for being here, I know you're giving up time with your family to help make mine have a great vacation."
I understand there are very high expectations for a perfect Disney vacation, but the rides are old, Cast Members are tired, it's hot, there's so much you may not see. I will never forget bringing a Make-A-Wish family through our separate entrance, essentially the front of the line, to have a nearby mom say "maybe I should pretend my kid has cancer too."
Oh - and there are cameras literally everywhere.
65. Cast Members Take Classes On How To Love Their Job
Within the first week of getting a job at the Disney Parks, everyone, from the third shift custodians to the high-level executives, goes through a class called Traditions where they go hard on the pixie dust and try to instill in people an emotional attachment to their job.
At the end of the day, though, the people who stick around genuinely like making people happy and giving people great experiences. There is room for initiative on the part of cast members, which helps get them invested.
64. Adults Throw Fits To Put Their Kids In Danger
A mom flat out yelled at me because I would not let her small children ride alone, and I felt uncomfortable with strangers watching their child. She was screaming at me. I finally said, "Look, if god forbid anything were to happen to them on the ride you would blame me. It is not worth it. I’m sorry." She then told me how dare I, judge her. It will stick with me for life. I was trying to do my job. And I knew deep down if something happened I would be blamed. Not the mom and not the strangers who agreed to watch them on the ride. Before she started yelling at me, I was actually getting ready to tell her I would take them myself. But when she is yelling at me making me feel like scum I’m not going to help you.
Also while the college program is amazing, they don’t pay enough I hurt for money badly.
63. Would You Pay To Work At Disney? These Kids Do.
At any given time, there are between 10-20k college students working at the parks and property. They make minimum wage and are not union. They have very strict rules. They provide housing. Think fancy dorms 1-4 bedroom apartments with two people in each room. They provide buses to all locations. They charge for housing. And it’s not cheap. It was $110 a week when I did it in 2011, and I shared with five other people. So they were making 660 dollars a week on this apartment. Some colleges offer credits for things like hospitality degrees and such.
62. Just Keep Swimming... Or Moving!
Leave an area when it’s done, waiting around won’t give you special privileges or opportunities, we just look at you and hope you leave soon so we can do our job, most times you are putting us behind schedule.
61. Record A Ride And Break A Nose?
When we tell you to put away your loose belongings on a ride, it's not a suggestion. Our main concern is safety, and the last thing anyone needs is a broken nose because a phone from row one flew back and hit a guy a couple of rows back. But aside from harming others, you're also inconveniencing yourself. We can't stop operations to go get your hat, cell phone or Mickey ears. So unless you want to wait until park close to possibly collect your items, please just listen to the cast members when they say that you should store your items away. It's easier for you, and it's easier for us.
60. The Monorail: Boring and ... Unsafe?
I drove the monorails. DO NOT RIDE THEM. DO NOT STAND UNDER THEM.
There have been so many incidents of people stranded on the monorails. They break all day long. Pieces of the trains, concrete beams, and debris fall of the monorails on a near-daily basis.
Even if that won’t get you, Disney paid (more like scammed, that’s another story) a Canadian company to automate the monorails. These things have been blowing station stops, running spacing limits (hold points), and are having malfunctions on anything the computer controls. It’s scary.
To make it worse, when the automated tech fails the monorail “pilot” has to take over. Well, guess what! Disney is so cheap that instead of extending training to include both manual and automatic operation of the monorail, they just cut the manual operation training down. Even before that the training to manually operate, the monorail was 9 days. nine days to be trained to operate a 40mph, and 206ft train loaded with 350 people.
I swear I hope somebody lashes out on the company one day.
59. Stories of Cremated Remains In The Haunted Mansion Are Wrong.
I worked at The Haunted Mansion for years. A few times a year people would try to spread their loved one's ashes on at the ride. Please don't do this! All that happens is a custodial Cast Member gets a special vacuum we keep locked in a closet, and they get sucked up and thrown out. Or, if its outside and it's the summer we just wait for the midday rainstorm to do the work.
58. "Bear Hugs" Are Not Welcome.
Dear god people can’t seem to realize characters are just humans in a suit half the time. A lot of people try to come and pick up Chewbacca performers claiming them to be “bear hugs,” and a lot of poor Goofys get banged around too. Not even going to get started on the stalking/harassment issues face characters deal with.
57. Where Cafeteria and Storage Space Became "Secret Tunnels"
Fun fact: Magic Kingdom in WDW is actually built on the second story. The first story is a massive underground Utilidor tunnel system that has cafeterias, storage space, a barber shop, locker rooms, and more, as well as a vacuum system to suck away trash bags.
56. Wall-e Is A Better Employee
I get really frustrated when I’m alone at the merge, and my coordinator is just standing there instead of helping. Most of them do, but others don’t.
In the particular instance I mentioned, our queue line was over 3 hours, with a phase 3, and the air conditioning in the queue was out. The two families I sent through the standard line were single riders, and I let both families through without going back to my Fastpass line because I knew I hadn’t sent any single riders in a while and wanted to help out my grouper. So instead of trying to think critically to solve the problem and have sympathy for my standard queue, I should have just acted like the little mindless robot that they expect you to be.
55. Everything Is For Sale!
Former Walt Disney World merchandise cast member here. Was on the Disney College Program last fall, and I worked primarily in the Star Tours gift shop "Tattooine Traders". This is one of my best stories.
We had several autographed pictures behind the counter; Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie was $10,000. I was on the register near the pictures when this older gentleman asked me how much the center piece was. I told him "ten thousand dollars sir!". He looked at me and said, "that would look great in my theatre room, how many do you have in stock?". I said "two including the one on display," he said "perfect I'll take both!". The total after taxes was a bit over $20,000. I was a bit flustered swiping that credit card, I know there are some rich people out there but never really got to see it first-hand. My favorite part is that as I offered to ship it home for him he says "no thanks! I brought my plane with me!"
54. Cast Members Need Security More Than You Do
One time our ride caught on fire (it did that a lot), and we had to evacuate, everyone. This was at the end of the night, so the recovery FastPasses we gave the guests were pretty useless. One guest decided he was going to FIGHT my coworker out at FastPass and I had to run and get a Leader to go get security. That was fun.
53. Is Stalking Ever Harmless?
Former photographer at Disney World and worked very closely with the characters. There were some creepy regulars. There was this couple who’d pretty much come in every day and would get super mushy with the cast members, like a first name basis kind of thing, and they would make sure to catch specific performers during their set. No one knows how they knew this info; we think they just stalked them. Some Cast Members think it’s harmless, but I think it’s incredibly odd. They even expect some special treatment because they are regulars. I’ve only encountered them a couple of times, but they managed to find me on Facebook just based off my name tag info.
52. Reservations Ruin Vacations
I worked in restaurants making reservations 15 years ago. If eating at this place was the most important part of your vacation and you decided to wait until the day to try and book any time between 5pm-9pm dinner, then you are an idiot. There is a multi-hour line for everything in the park, but you think you can just walk in anytime and be seated? I'm not sorry that I personally RUINED YOUR WHOLE VACATION!
51. Chipmunks Aren't Meant For Florida Weather
This was a while ago now but it still makes me smiley and nostalgic.
Character performers, such as myself, are only out during specific time slots during the day for pictures. When those times end, usually guests aren't allowed to enter the queue anymore, and we finish up taking photos with those remaining. Unfortunately, this day was particularly hot, and fur characters had been experiencing issues (i.e., fainting) due to the heat, so they were packing us up rather quickly at the end of shifts. Dale and I (Chip) were waving our goodbyes to the guests when we heard this child absolutely WAILING her lungs out over not being able to meet us--she wasn't being bratty, she sounded genuinely upset.
My attendant is the best. The crowd dispersed a bit, and she was able to catch up with the parents. She found out they would be returning tomorrow, and since we all had shifts the following day, we pulled some strings to set up a small meeting. Here's how it went down:
The parents, as instructed to, brought her to Critter Country a while before the first meet and greet of the day. I crept up behind her and gently put my paws over her eyes, and pulled them back to reveal Dale striking this wonderfully heroic pose in front of her. I still remember how she screamed in excitement when she realized her favorite Disney characters had come out just to spend some time with her. We gave her autographs and did photos, then spent the rest of the time playing tag.
50. Don't Ask Kids Their Age Or Shoe Size, It's Creepy.
I used to work in the stores, and there was this one guy who came in and sat with a little girl (who was left alone in the theatre by her nanny) and started asking her weird questions like who she’s with and how old she is. It wasn’t until my fellow cast member (also a guy) noticed and approached them that the guy stood up and left immediately.
We also had another incident where a guest complained to one of my stage leads that there was a man going around and asking children how old they were. It turns out he didn’t know the size of his own kid’s feet, and he was trying to find another kid who is the same age to figure it out. My stage lead pretty much yelled at the guy
49. Official Custodians Have Maps, Pins, and Special Occasion Buttons At All Times.
At Disney, the ones who wear all white are the "official" custodians - in that they're the ones with the broom and pan, changing out garbage bags, cleaning bathrooms or obvious messes (vomit, food, spills, etc.). But all cast members do basic cleaning. See trash, dispose of it. The result is astounding.
Fun fact: The ones who wear white also usually have park maps tucked away in their half-aprons, in case you need one. A few of the ones I've approached also had a variety of buttons (first time at Disney, birthday, anniversary, celebrating: <write occasion here in sharpie>)
48. Disney World Is The Best Place To Watch Disasters Become Amazing Family Stories
Not so much "behind the scenes" stuff, but one of my favorite stories. I worked at Epcot for eight years, and this happened sometime in the early '90s.
There was a couple from somewhere in the Midwest that had driven to Miami to adopt a disabled child (their 9th?). On the way home, they decided to stop at Disney World for the kids. After pulling into the Epcot parking lot, their handi-van caught fire. They got all the kids out, but the van was a total loss. Disney put them all up in one of their hotels while the couple tried to figure out what to do next. Turns out, there was a convention of Rotary International at the Swan hotel. One of the members saw the story on the news and at breakfast the next morning, passed the hat among the members. They ended up collecting enough to buy the couple a brand new van, extra equipment for all the kids, and a hefty check left over. I have always held a certain amount of pride in the Rotary club for this amazing generosity.
47. Free Passes Are Often Passed On To Unsuspecting Guests
My brother worked at Disneyworld for a long time. My son and I visited him, and he took us into the park on one of his passes. But the pass let him take in four guests, so he found a young couple waiting in line to buy tickets and invited them in for free. They were unsure at first (is this a scam?), but when we got inside my brother just smiled and said "have the best day ever," and we walked away. They both screamed with joy. It was a beautiful thing.
46. There Is No "Beating The Crowd"
There really isn't a time where it isn't crowded. Between seasonal festivals, and local crowds your best bet is to go during the week when kids are typically in school and take advantage of the Disneyland app and Maxpass.
45. Being An Annual Passholder Doesn't Make You Special
Really early into my College Program, I had a 6-foot tall adult man who was an ANNUAL PASSHOLDER scream at me while I was alone where the line came together. We were at maximum capacity for fastpasses and the family from standby that I just let in was like eight people. He was literally sitting there screaming at me (a short 22-year-old man) in front of his family while I was just taking it and trying to keep count of FastPass on my counter/clicker thing. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and pulled down our ratio chart and tried to explain it to him as nicely as possible. BUT HE WAS AN ANNUAL PASSHOLDER and had a RIGHT to get on the ride.
44. Chip and Mickey Aren't As Manly As You Might Think
All of your weird myths about working in the park are wrong.
Also, most of the mascot characters are played by women because you have to be really short to play them.
43. Job Requirements: A Sense Of Humor
Whenever our ride was down a friend, and I would tell guests that the other one tripped over the power cord to the ride. It was especially good when the guest was like on the verge of just way too upset. A good 75% of the time the casual joke crack would get them to at least not explode at us.
42. Walt Still Keeps The Park Clean.
Walt Disney himself instituted a precedent that trash cans be no more than 50 feet apart. They are colorfully painted and blend in...but take a look next time at how many are strategically placed EVERYWHERE.
He noticed that at fairs and carnivals, people would often look around for a trash can, and if none was in sight, they would just drop their cups or wrappers on the ground.
41. No Tips In the Magic Kingdom
Cast members in most positions are not allowed to accept tips. Going to guest relations or letting their manager know they’ve done a great job is significantly more helpful to the cast member.
40. They Judge How You Dress and Want You To Keep Your Distance
THE 3D GLASSES BINS ARENT TRASHCANS IF YOU PUT YOUR KID’S POOPY DIAPER IN THERE I WILL HATE YOU FOREVER—same goes with dip cups and gum
The number of grown adults wearing extremely inappropriate things was too high. Disney nominally has a dress code (that they don’t actually enforce anymore) but wearing shirts with Mickey getting high or a pin-up picture of a Princess, you’re trash, and I will defend that point forever. ALSO, WEAR A SHIRT. It’s literally a health hazard for us to let you get on a ride shirtless because of your sweat and other gross stuff that could be on your body. We will tell you to put on a shirt. A SPORTS BRA IS NOT A SHIRT).
Don’t creepily flirt with the cast members. Don’t grab a cast member. Don’t stalk cast members.
Annual passholder?
In sum: I loved my time at Disney because of the friends I made and the time I got to spend in the parks and the fact that I literally know the ins and outs of all what’s going on at Disney. But the actual job sucked so much. I’m never going back to work on a park again. But it’s definitely a cult and my friends are still there and loving it, and I visit them regularly. They keep me updated on the Disney gossip, and I definitely feel like I’ll never leave that College Program cult. Also, watching your home park change is really hard.
39. You Can Officially Open Blizzard Beach If You Survive The First Wave
Former Blizzard Beach Lifeguard here (2002): every morning, whatever kid is first in line at the waterpark gets to ride the first slide - whichever one they want; and that's how they open the park.
Lifeguards ride every waterside and attraction right before opening to test them as well
Also, once or twice a year they open up the park at night for a lifeguard - only party. The booze flows, anything goes, and it is an absolute show. Then everyone cleans until daybreak.
38. Lose Your Kids In The Happiest Place On Earth
Guests, unfortunately, try to do unsafe things all the time, which force attractions to stop and usually be down for a while to be reset.
Truly dangerous things rarely happen thankfully, the biggest thing is unattended children...please don't forget your kids in strollers by themselves, it's never nice coming back to a crowd of security cast members. Happens EVERY day.
37. Some People Do Hate Disney, But They're Usually Employees.
All of the Cast Members at my location were treated terribly. The College Program members especially. It wasn't uncommon for someone in my location to be yelled at or crying because our managers were garbage.
Looking down at the register then looking back up at a guest? The guest thinks you're rolling your eyes at them, then here comes a manager to tear you a new one. Suggesting they move to another line to check out quicker because you have so many people in your line during a rush and the person next to you's register is wide open? You were disrespectful, even though you got them out of there quicker. Not knowing how to speak Spanish and not having a backup and getting in trouble because of the language barrier? Commonplace.
I have so much more I can say. My roommates were miserable. The people I worked with were miserable. I wouldn't trade getting to go to the parks for free for anything.
36. No Rock Goes Unpolished, No Stone Goes Undusted
Actual Disneyland Cast Member here. Just to clarify this isn't the coolest part of Disney. However, I feel this is impressive and should be at least recognized.
Every evening after the park closes and everyone is emptied out (during the summer this is around 1:30 am), hundreds of cast members clean, repair, trim, paint, and do everything else necessary to get the park ready for the next day. And when I say everything, I mean everything. There are some areas of the park that they repaint every single night just to make sure they are show ready for the next day. Horticulture cast members replace entire planters with fresh flowers, so they are consistently beautiful. Others power wash every road surface every night. If I were to list everything they do I would probably fry my laptop.
To some, a better word for all this work may be "impressive" or "over-the-top." For me, though I think it's incredibly cool that Disney spends so much time and money perfecting the details. As best as I can tell there is little that goes overlooked. I myself work inside the park; I have nothing to do with this 3rd shift stuff. However, I greatly respect their work and feel they deserve to be recognized.
35. Secrets Of The Disney World Property
There is a podcast called “Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know” that goes deep into the secrets of how the Disney World property was bought and how they blamed the Ford Motor Company for buying up all the land so they could get it for cheap. Lots of shell companies used to purchase real estate are now the names of the stores on Main Street.
34. Through The Swampland To Mickey’s House We Go
Disney World is actually on a "second floor." When you enter the park, you must walk up. This is because on the ground level or "first floor" is where they put their "underground tunnels" to transport workers secretly throughout the park. They couldn't actually build underground tunnels since Disney World is on swampland, so instead, they built up.
33. I’m Friends With Mickey
If you meet someone who says they work for Disney and you ask them if they dress up as a character and they say, “No, but I’m friends with Mickey.”
They are Mickey.
32. Size Matters
I went to college in San Diego, the job boards used to advertise for summer jobs at Disneyland. The jobs for characters all stated “Must be 4’8” to 5’2” or 6’5” to 7’0”. It always cracked me up that they had no character positions in the average height range.
31. When You're Walt Disney, You Have A Fire Pole
Walt's apartment in Disneyland used to have a fire pole in it that Walt would use to leave the apartment, but one day an adventurous guest climbed up it while Walt was talking with some friends. They removed the fire pole shortly after.
30. If You Need A Break From The Crowds...
If you're tired of the crowds or the heat, either go to the Hall Of Presidents between showtimes and chill in the shop part or to the Stave Church Gallery in EPCOT Norway. It's rarely got people in it. There is also an outlet where you can charge your devices.
29. Who Let The Cats Out?
I knew someone who worked at Disney World in Orlando and said they release cats at night after the parks close to control the rodent population. They collect the cats at the end of the night and keep them in the underground series of offices and pathways they use to make navigating the parks easier.
I wonder whose nightmare job it is to herd the cats back to their lair.
28. Clean Bathrooms Are Serious Business
Not much a secret, but a testament to their attention to detail: My parents once ran into a "confrontation" in the bathroom. Two janitors were being chewed out by a guy in a suit. The Suit takes a glove and wipes the sink to show the very minimal amount of grime and is chastising them pretty seriously, and then takes a towel to clean too.
Two weeks later, they see a magazine cover and realize that guy in the bathroom was the exec who ran Disneyland. A guy making millions was paying attention to the jobs of janitors.
27. Not Waiting In Line Is Indeed Magical
If a cast member asks you if you want to “have a Magical Mickey Day”, they are asking if you’d like to skip the entire line. I’ve been to Disney World probably ten times. This only happened the one time I took my daughter who uses a wheelchair. It truly WAS a magical day. Best Walt Disney World trip I ever had (besides my first, when I was eight).
26. The Beatles Broke Up At Disney World
The Beatles officially broke up at Disney World. John Lennon signed the contract that legally dissolved the band while he was staying at the Polynesian Resort across from Cinderella’s castle.
Also, Nixon’s “I am not a crook” television address was filmed inside Disney’s Contemporary Resort where he was staying as a guest.
25. The Only Place There Isn’t Music
Every "land" in the parks has its own unique soundtrack, and when you transition between lands the music is a cross between what you hear in both lands so that's it seamlessly transitions. Except between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, as there is no natural way for those soundtracks to blend. So outside of the Tomorrowland Speedway is the only place in any Disney park where there is no music.
24. The Most Visited Theme Park In The World
Walt Disney World takes up more space than the city of San Francisco and is twice the size of Manhattan. Why is it so big? So businesses couldn't be close to the parks like they are at Disneyland.
The Magic Kingdom is the most visited theme park in the world.
23. The Best-Kept Secret
Anyone reading this PLEASE visit the Moroccan pavilion. It's gorgeous, and the restaurant (I believe it's called Marrakech) is great as well with some amazing architecture and live performances. There's even a neat fountain room that feels secluded from the park with a few benches and again and gorgeous tile work. I say this because every time I visit the pavilion is one of the emptiest parts of the park. One trip we ate there twice and there were only a few other families dining.
Although the last few times I have been there have been more people, but not enough in my opinion. More people need to see it.
22. Cast Members Only
There’s a cast-member-only recreation area called Mickey’s Retreat. It has all sorts of recreational activities like basketball courts, baseball diamonds, etc. It also has water sports equipment like paddle boats! It's only for cast members and their immediate family though.
There are hidden cast-member-only stores inside the parks.
The underground tunnels actually smell and are incredibly hilly. It used to take me 20 minutes to walk from my location in the park to the employee shuttle via the underground tunnels.
A lot of things at Disney are designed to tell a story. Ever notice how you can’t just drive to the Magic Kingdom and you have to take the monorail, a boat, or a bus and walk in? That's because the Imagineers want to transport you back in time to a town called Marceline where Walt grew up. Main Street is modeled after a typical small town Main Street, but with his hometown playing a role in a lot of details. From there, the Magic Kingdom is set up like a hub-spoke system to help manage traffic in the park. Most people naturally head towards the left and go clockwise. The spokes (the hub being the castle) lead to each land.
At Hollywood Studios, there are offices hidden in the parks as well. Imagineers work in these offices. They come out every day for the Dining with Imagineer guests.
Imagineers aren’t just people who design rides, movies, games, or the like. Imagineers can also be librarians, historians, and even chefs!
21. If Your Kid Breaks It, You Don’t Have To Buy It
I had a friend who worked as a cashier at Disney and she told me a few fun facts:
No gum is sold in park shops.
Security personnel are often dressed normally to blend in, and they won't immediately apprehend shoplifters because they don't want to break the atmosphere. Instead, they follow shoplifters until they can confront them more discreetly.
If a child breaks a souvenir they've purchased, the staff has permission to give the child a free replacement.
20. The Secret Parade Door
In high school, my marching band was part of a parade. They had us come around the back, and drive through this very dense forest area with a road. It led to a massive area with a building for changing and a few restrooms. The buildings were only at ground level so they didn't overtake the trees hiding them. When we were starting the parade, they led us out to a large gate that opened. When we looked back it was a false wall for the area. We saw it close because we were the last group in the parade. When we came back the next day to have fun and relax, I decided to go and look at the wall. There is no way you could tell it was a large door from that side.
The amount of effort put into all of the areas is phenomenal.
19. It Looks Way Bigger Than That
Despite looking monstrous from the train station end of Main Street, Cinderella Castle is only 183 feet tall (still pretty big). This is thanks to forced perspective, as the castle is on elevated platforming and the ground you walk on is not.
18. Tinker Bell Really Does Fly
Tinker Bell flying over the Magic Kingdom is one of the most iconic parts of the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular, but it doesn’t happen with magic alone. Tink is given a hefty push from the window of Cinderella’s Castle, but if she’s not shoved hard enough, she won’t have enough momentum and will need to hand-over-hand her way towards the end. Cast members who audition for this part are said to need major upper body strength—turns out, they really do have to fly!
17. How To Score Big With Buzz Light Year
Here's how you max out your points on the Buzz Light Year shooting ride thing at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando: Once you pass the orange robot, turn around. There's a Target on the back of his fist. Shoot that 10 times. You're welcome.
16. Where’s Mickey?
Not really a secret, but finding the hidden Mickeys is always fun. Because they are just everywhere.
15. Disney Pulls Out All Of The Stops
I've been in the Cinderella castle hotel room. We didn't get a night as they don't have guests anymore outside of the very rare contest winner. It's a very cool room that features a sitting area with a TV behind a mirror on the wall, a single king-sized bed, and a very ornate bathroom with a really cool star scene on the ceiling.
My daughter was sick and Disney put together an amazing experience for us that included that visit. We were met by the fairy godmother because Cinderella was busy getting ready for the upcoming parade. While in the sitting room area we heard a troubled voice only to discover that Cinderella had forgotten her gloves and was desperate to find them in her room. My daughter found them in a chest next to the couch after she got over her amazement.
The fact that they told us Cinderella couldn't come to meet us just ramped up the magic of it all in the end. Disney does some truly unbelievable stuff for people.
14. It’s All An Illusion
The buildings on Main Street are carefully designed to look like they have three or four stories but that's a design trick. The first floor is normal scale; the second floor is something is slightly smaller in scale, and the third floor is an even smaller scale. For example, if you see a vase of flowers in a third or fourth story window on Main Street it is likely just on the floor, not a shelf.
13. Not All Super Heroes Wear Capes
I was at Disney World with my mom and little brother (who's severe on the spectrum) a few years back. She leaves me with him on Main Street so she could go and find her wallet that she left somewhere halfway across the park. The second she leaves, he turns to me and starts talking about this ice cream parlor he saw, demanding an ice cream cone. I try to prompt him that we need to wait for her to get back (because I didn't keep track of his diet like she did). After he realizes I'm not budging on the decision, he goes into a full-blown meltdown. I take him aside and try to calm him down, frantic and praying mom will be back soon, as the last thing I want is us getting thrown out of the park since he was now drawing a lot of attention with his screaming. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a cast member appears and asks why he's upset. I explain to her about his condition and what triggered him and she nonchalantly goes up to him and starts to calm him down like the most professional habilitation tech I've ever seen. Finally, he becomes manageable, yet still, she is there distracting him from all the lights and sounds stimulating him (the Electric Parade was going on). Mom gets back and the cast member explained what happened. My mom starts prompting my brother and doing therapy with him, until he's eventually calm again and playing games on her phone. She starts talking with the cast member and asks her where she learned to work with special needs children, to which she just hems and haws. After my little brother has calmed down enough, we thank the cast member again, and say our goodbyes. As we start walking, my mom turns to me and asks if I remember what her name was so she can recommend her to management. I turn around to find her, thinking I'll see her heading back to wherever she was stationed only to find a dead end. That's when I realized she didn't have any shop costume or anything indicative of her park duties. That's when I realized she didn't have a station and it clicked.
Not only did the park have your ordinary accommodations in place for guests like my brother, they apparently had trained therapists/hab techs to help deal with these situations. They could have simply thrown us out of the park because my little brother was being loud and disruptive. Instead, someone somewhere had seen the episode play out and called for someone to come handle it.
It may seem small to everyone else, but honestly, this is the most beautiful, memorable thing I have about Disney: that instead of ushering in security to escort us out to "preserve the magic", they sent a specially trained cast member to miraculously appear and help when things got out of hand. That's what I call magic.
12. Rise And Shine For An Early Breakfast
I don't know if it still applies because I think they changed the morning rules but you can get breakfast reservations way before the parks open. They let you in and only the paths to the restaurants are open...but the photographers are out! It's a great way to see a quiet Magic Kingdom and get low crowd photos. It was awesome!
11. Have Your Cake And Extra Presents Too
We took my daughter to Disneyland for her birthday this year. We dined at Ariel’s grotto and had ordered a cake. They were unable to find it after bringing out the wrong cake. She was visibly upset, but we assured her it would be okay.
To make her happy, they gave her any dessert she wanted, got the cake to us later in the day, and asked her favorite princess. The manager went to one of the nearby stores and got her a rather expensive collectible toy for that princess.
The rest of the day she had a smile on her face and kept telling anyone who would listen that “Disneyland got [her] a birthday present!”
10. New Clothes, No Problem
If a kid is sick all over themselves they will give you clean clothes or at least they did to my nephew when he was ill a few times (he had a medical issue and it caused him to puke randomly). They just ushered him aside and asked what size he was and came back with some clothes for him.
9. Disney Actually Enforces A No Frowns Policy
Disney takes their No Frowns policy seriously. Which means fewer children crying for everyone!
8. Shoes Required
My flip-flop broke in the park. I was on a high school trip and didn’t want to spend money on a new pair so I was walking around barefoot (gross, I know). An employee saw me and gave me a voucher for a free pair of shoes; it was good at any store in the park.
7. When Ursula Freaks You Out
When I was little, I got super scared at the Little Mermaid play (Ursula freaked me out). My parents brought me outside and within seconds Disney employees converged and we got led to another door, I got to go to a taping of Bear In the Big Blue House which at six, I found SO COOL. It’s a great policy.
6. Just When You Thought Avatar Couldn't Get Cooler
All of the woven art, signs, ceilings, etc. in Pandora: The World of Avatar are made from an invasive species of vine that was polluting waterways in tropical parts of the world. Keeping with Animal Kingdoms theme of conservation, the vines were removed and dyed for the decorations, in the process cleaning the waterways and helping remove the invasive species.
5. Say Hi To Your Dead Cousin
My husband’s cousin is an Imagineer and does the ambient music for the park. His face is one of the pictures in the Haunted Mansion of the dead husbands. We always say hi when we go by.
4. Don’t Pay For Water
Ice water is always free. People always bring their own water bottles and fill them up at the fountains, but all you have to do is ask.
3. In Case Of An Animal Escape
Why do the restrooms at Animal Kingdom have doors on them when the other parks don't you ask?
Well if an animal escapes, guests will be instructed to go to the nearest restroom and close and lock the door once full.
2. No Kid Loses A Balloon On Their Watch
If your kid drops their ice cream or loses their balloon, you can ask a cast member for a replacement.
1. Free Pins For All
If you're a first-time visitor, as you enter the Magic Kingdom, head the o town hall. You can get a free special pin that identifies you as such. ALSO, if you've been quite a few times, they have free pins that designate you as an Honorary Citizen.
