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 take to Reddit to talk about the wildest thing they’ve encountered on the job.
49. 40 Minutes Too Long
I used to work in Magic Kingdom from 2007-2010. I pulled a week at the strollers 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.
48. 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.
47. 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.
46. 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.
45. Everyone Gets A Ride
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 of 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.
44. 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 run over in one of the parades. My friend got ran over instead of the child and got fired.
43. Aw, Phooey!
I worked there from 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 junk”!
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 junk).
42. The Circle Of Life
While I was working on Dumbo, these inebriated 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 inebriated 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.
41. 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.
40. 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.
39. Where Do Liars Go?
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 DOWN BELOW”.
38. Throwing Up 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 getting sick into the bag. Interesting night, but watercraft assignment for college interns was usually interesting like that.
37. 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 peed all over her.
I later saw the same woman begging for money on Harbor. Guest control was always an experience.
36. 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.
35. A Horrid Family
I worked at one of 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.
34. 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.
33. Lost In Space
As a Space Mountain cast member at Walt Disney World, we would all 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.
32. 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.
31. 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 finished 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.
30. 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 knew 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.
29. 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 passed away 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.
28. 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 its knees”.
This was almost 10 years ago so I forget most of the story now, but I recall she had a giant trashbag of merch and I think she was angry about a long-distance bill charge too.
It was genuinely so insane.
27. 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 pee 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 junk in her hand.
The 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.
26. 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).
25. Moon Over Disney
An inebriated 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 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.
24. 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.
23. 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 in a revealing position.
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.
22. 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.
21. 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 where did that come from. Then I see and then smell what looks like a somewhat intact soft poop 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.
20. 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.
19. 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.
18. 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.
17. 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
16. 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.
15. 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 bottom, 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.
14. 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.
13. 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 apparently taking his own life 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.
12. Family Effort
Disneyland: 1997: Toontown Head Room: A family attacked a Pluto. Pushed her into the fountain. I didn’t actually see the attack, I 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.
11. 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 intimate 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 ladies undergarments 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 pee.
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.
10. 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 dancing on 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.
9. 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 an adult male, female, and two children.
The man is getting very irritated and then launches into “I WILL FRICKING DESTROY 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 acknowledge it happened or anyone was watching.
She just kept looking around at items, placing them in her bag, and leisurely paid for the stuff and left.
8. A Pirates Delight
When my uncle was younger, and security was not as tight, he and his friend snuck in beverages onto the old pirates ride, hopped onto one of the islands, stuck a cigar in a skeleton’s mouth and started partying.
The 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 Disneyland.
7. 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 of 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 of 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 or someone 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 heck 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.
6. I Like Trains
Not an 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?
5. 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.
4. Behind The Scenes
Had a woman go a little over her limit 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 help of every manager and security cast member.
Never stopped loading guests with paramedics consulting a woman who had too many substances (I found out afterwards from my friend in security).
3. 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 checkpoint 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.
2. 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 to 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.
1. 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
