Most of us have heard the old adage that Disney theme parks are the happiest places on Earth. Of course, it sounds positively magical when you say it like that, the phrase practically rolls off the tongue, and we kinda wish we’d come up with it.
However, things aren’t all sunshine and rainbows at Disneyland, Disney World, and all the other theme parks, large and small. In reality, there’s a lot more depth, effort, weirdness, and goofiness (pun very much intended) that goes into the experience than you’d think. At least according to the people who have actually worked or visited there.
Our team here at Bored Panda has collected some of the most interesting stories about Disney’s theme parks, as shared by former employees and customers, from all over Reddit and its dusty, cobwebbed archives. (We think we even met Indiana Jones along the way, but it could’ve been our imaginations.)
You’ll find the good, the bad, and the downright bizarre below, Pandas! Scroll down for some of the things that Disney ‘cast members’ (aka employees, but ‘cast members’ just sounds way cooler) love and hate about their jobs and the customers the most.
Bored Panda wanted to learn more about what lies at the core of job satisfaction, when we should think about switching careers, and what managers can do to be aware of any issues on their colleagues’ minds, so we reached out to Kierra, a cloud engineer and Data Analytics consultant. Kierra helps people pivot into tech, especially data-related roles, and you can find her newsletter right here. Scroll down for our full interview with her.
#1
I was Pocahontas, & I met a little girl named Emily. she was about 7 & with her dad. She came up & said, “Hi Pocahontas, I made you this card.” I opened it & it said
“Dear Pocahontas, I drew some flowers for you. I hope you have a lovely day. Love, Emily.”
I thanked her, & she left. Two days later, I was Silvermist, & guess who comes into Pixie Hollow? Emily. & she gave me a card:
“Dear Tinkerbell & her friends, I drew some flowers for you. I hope you have a lovely day. Love, Emily”
Her dad didn’t recognize me, but I was excited to have two cards from the same girl. a few days later, I was Mulan, & GUESS WHO COMES UP TO ME?
So I said, before she started talking, “I know you , you’re Emily! I heard you’re really good at drawing flowers, all of my friends told me.”
This girl’s face lit up like the Fourth of July & she pulled a card out.
“Dear Mulan, Shang, & Mushu, I drew some flowers for you. I hope you have a lovely day. Love, Emily.”
I have three cards for all three of my face characters from the same girl.
Image source: too-tsunami, Jennie Park mydisneyadventures
#2
I was in line at Disney Land California with a group of Japanese teenage tourists were ahead of me in line. I speak Japanese, so I could understand that they were making fun of Americans. They were mostly saying things to the effect of “On TV they seem so cool, but all of these Americans are so fat and ugly.” They were laughing and even occasionally pointing at people. I was just staying quiet but then one of the cast members who evidently also spoke Japanese walked up to them and told them in perfect Japanese “You guys should really be careful, most Americans can speak Japanese.” They all froze up and looked around at people, many of whom were giving them dirty looks. I nodded at them like I was backing him up, and they were horrified.
Image source: O7Knight7O, Kentaro Toma
#3
So my friend went to the parks dressed as Anna, and this was Anna’s reaction upon spotting her in the crowd
Image source: DEADLYDISNEY
#4
overnight cast memeber here. Please PLEASE leave your cremated loved ones at home. stop dumping them in Haunted Mansion. They just get vacuumed up and disposed of.
Image source: overnight_cm_girl, fortherock
#5
The woman came up to me and told me that she didn’t like the wet stuff coming from the sky and that I should tell my boss to turn it off. At first, I laughed because I thought she was kidding, which only pissed her off more.
“Don’t they know that this stuff ruins people’s vacations?” She said.
“We have no way of controlling the rain, ma’am. This is Florida and we get quick storms like this in the summer, but it might go away after a while,” I said.
“What about the bubble?” She said.
I was thoroughly confused by what she meant by bubble so I had to ask that she was saying “bubble.”
Apparently she thought that all of Disney was under a big bubble and we controlled the weather, like Risa on Star Trek.
I confirmed that there was no bubble, that this was the real deal.
She walked away insisting that something should be done about it.
Image source: unicornCornUnique, Jeff
#6
People sexually harass the characters super frequently. I was working with Ariel and cast members will always count down before they take a photo so people have time to get into position. I counted down and this teen boy decided to try to rip off one of Ariel’s shells. I had to open his camera and expose his film so the photo didn’t get developed and passed around. I found out later that I was supposed to take it to the Kodak shop to have the film developed and that one removed – but I’d always heard the rumors about ruining the film and nobody really trains you on that so I just went with it.
Image source: leopoldisacat, Ashley
#7
My whole day gets improved when someone says thank you and uses my name and actually acknowledges that I am a human being
Image source: liluzienthusiast, Mimi Thian
#8
This couple were trying to ride Space Mountain, and had a black duffelbag. He heard something come from the bag, so he asked them to open it. They refused. Security comes, forces them to open it. It was their 6 month old baby.
Image source: broken_long_thumbkey, Taylor Beach
#9
I worked at a restaurant in Downtown Disney in California as a host. James Spader came in once, tried to get a table with his dog. Who was obviously not a service dog (and even if it was an emotional support dog, they don’t have to be legally allowed inside a restaurant.) I told him I would be happy to seat him if he left his dog at the Kennel, right across the esplanade, but I could not seat his dog inside – what if a health inspector came in? He yelled at me so much, his face turned red. He told my manager to fire me. Luckily, the restaurant had a patio, and the manager sat Spader at a table on the patio closest to the exit so we wouldn’t get in trouble. My manager actually stood up for me, told Spader I was right. Spader still tried to get me fired. This was 10 years ago, I still hate James Spader with a red hot passion. Such an entitled a**. And since he always plays a**holes, I know he’s not even a good actor. However, Christian Slater was very polite when he came in.
Image source: MeleMallory, Thibault
#10
Not me, but I witnessed this happen to a fellow CM. She was ringing up a guest for an item and he looked a little upset. She did the Disney thing and asked, “how’s everything been going sir? Happiest place still the happiest?” He responded with “no, something happened today.” “What’s wrong? What happened?” She asked. “I wanted to get my Mickey ears embroidered, but they wouldn’t do it,” he replied. She inquiries, “what did you want embroidered on it?” “I wanted it to say, ‘God Hates Gays,’ but those pricks said it was against policy.” he said bitterly.
She wasn’t so nice to him after that.
Image source: mishins6111, rickpilot_2000
#11
Woman inappropriately touches Gaston
Image source: evansnead
#12
My friends and I were there in June, and waiting to meet Gaston. There was a little girl ahead of us, dressed as Belle, and plainly terrified. Like, she did NOT want to meet Gaston. Her mother, meanwhile, was yelling at her for running around in her dress, and for getting it “dirty” and was just being awful. Gaston comes out, and it’s the little girl’s turn, and she’s FREAKING out. Crying, trying to go anywhere else, all to no avail. Her mother is being an a** and yelling at her to meet Gaston and behave, with a nasty look on her face, and then smiling, all charm, to an increasingly worried Gaston. Everyone in the line was muttering at this point, wondering if interfering was the right thing to do to help this crying child. Gaston, however, handled it wonderfully. He flipped through the book the little girl was holding and was incredibly nice, and told her she had nothing to be afraid of. He calmed her down, and the person with Gaston was talking to the mother. It was an awful experience because the parks are supposed to be magical for the kids, and this mother was AWFUL. Berating the girl for being a little girl and running around, and not understanding why she didn’t want to meet characters.
Image source: ravenclawrebel, Loren Javier
#13
When doing meet and greet with Ariel, the people right in front of us were 4 college age guys. One of them asked for a hug then went in and squeezed both of her “clamshells”.
Image source: geekandwife, John Veldboom
#14
I worked at one the Restaurants in MK. 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.
Image source: Eticket15, Ricardo IV Tamayo
#15
We went to an amusement park, and a guy came in to get a disability pass for his girlfriend to ride the roller coasters… the disability was pregnant. The employee was like; um we can’t give a pass for that because roller coasters aren’t recommended for pregnant women- the guest tried to reassure him that it was fine she was only “ a little bit pregnant”
Image source: Julie Kasik, Derick McKinney
#16
We had a lady try to smuggle an infant onto Indy at DL one time. She put a huge jacket on (in the summer) and stuffed her child down near the bottom in an attempt to look pregnant.
Several cast members warned her that it is not recommended that pregnant women go on the ride, but she insisted, and we couldn’t stop her. So she manages to get on the Jeep, and puts the seat belt on, and that was when her stomach started screaming and crying.
Image source: atheistpiece, Camylla Battani
#17
One woman came up and asked where the bathrooms were, so I told her. She then decided that the line was too long so she tried to just pull down her pants and pee in the lobby. Security came VERY quickly!
Image source: contaminatedesert, Possessed Photography
#18
“The opening of our parks depend on guest behavior.”
Guest behavior:
Image source: misslyss96
#19
I once got yelled at for not speaking Spanish because apparently “Veronica” is a Spanish name… I am the palest ginger I know…
Image source: reddit, Chermiti Mohamed
#20
I won’t say what I do but I will say that the best way to raise my mood and or compliment me is to actually laugh at my jokes when I tell them so we’re not sitting in silence for seven and a half minutes.
Image source: liluzienthusiast, Priscilla Du Preez
#21
there was this man that had scissors on him. Not sure how he got passed security with that. He approached a little girl from behind with the scissors drawn and cut the string of her balloon.
Image source: intrinsicentity, Aleksandar Živković
#22
I was at Food and Wine in early September, and it was HOT and HUMID. A child was SCREAMING in his stroller because he was on the brink of passing out from the heat, and his parents were ignoring him while they got beer from a booth. After they got their beer, the mom casually gave him a sip of water from a water bottle. It broke my heart.
Image source: aka_chela, Steven Miller
#23
Thank yous in any form will always be appreciated, especially right now. It’s not stupid, we can’t really accept money and many people throw away edible gifts (not me tho lol) so a thank you card is perfectly acceptable.
Image source: WifeAndPsycho, Kelly Sikkema
#24
People not ready to scan their fast passes. You know you need your ticket or phone, have it out and ready to go.
I actually had a guy get mad at my friend and I because we got ahead of him in line at Small World because we were more efficient scanning our passes. It’s not my fault that there are two scanners and we did it faster.
Image source: crysta6149, HarshLight
#25
A guest came in to get disability pass told me their daughter had chicken pox.
It was a major health issue. I’ve never had them before – and it became a huge health issue for me. thankfully, I didn’t get them.
I won’t go into the legal aspects of it.
Image source: Knightro2011, Marufish
#26
A lady pushing a stroller while getting irritated that the guy in front of her was walking too slow…so she rams him with the stroller and then plays it off as an accident.
Image source: GATORinaZ28, Humphrey Muleba
#27
I was at the end of the queue admitting guests to the show building when I see this 6 or 7 year old kid crying saying he doesn’t want to go in. It’s dark. It’s loud. It’s not safe. Oh great I think to myself, gonna have to let them in the side door so the kid doesn’t have to go through the ride. NOPE But wait… usually the dads just drag them in anyways against their will. This one does it with some serious flair though.
Dad, as he holds the kid’s hand, walks in the building saying “OH YES, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE. IT’S QUITE LIKELY. IT’S A TORNAAAAAAAADO OF DOOOOOOOM”. Etc. Etc. Etc. 10 minutes later I see them walking out and the kid is hyped up. He has just had a great time. He wants to do that again.
Image source: secretly-a-throwaway
#28
We were in the queue for Tiki Room and the woman in front took off her shorts, stood in her not very full underwear then put a fresh pair of shorts on,.. in front of 10 people.
Image source: Nataliyana, JeffChristiansen
#29
It’s probably mild compared to what some of you have experienced, but I was in line for Winnie the Pooh (of ALL rides!!) with two early 20 ish looking guys talking loudly about the face character princesses they’d encountered throughout the day and which ones were most “f**kable”.
Image source: Kycb
#30
Got asked about putting the dome up when it was raining
Image source: Bkbee, Stephen Gidley
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