Considering that the Walt Disney World Resort and its various theme parks contain over 50,000
visitors on the average day, it's no surprise that sometimes things don't go as planned.
In fact, Disney has to fight off hundreds of lawsuits each year over incidents at their
theme parks.
Just how bad do some of these vacations get?
Here's a look at some really weird things that happened to people at Disney World.
Be sure to bring your certificate
Over the years, cast members and custodians at the Haunted Mansions in both California's
Disneyland and Florida's Disney World have had to deal with multiple guests smuggling
the ashes of their lost loved ones and scattering them somewhere around or inside the attractions,
according to the LA Times.
The attraction's macabre landscape certainly looks like an opportune place for a person
to leave the ashes of a beloved friend or relative, and whole online communities have
sprung up around this bizarre practice, but Disney's staff advises against it.
If you're caught, those ashes just get vacuumed up and dumped in the trash.
And once you get thrown out of the park, you'll probably have to hitchhike home.
Baby smuggling
Let's say you're a parent with an infant, but you really want to go on a thrill ride
with a height requirement, like Space Mountain.
What do you do?
Well, if your first answer is "smuggle the baby onto the ride," congratulations, you
just earned a visit from Disney security.
According to one account, that's exactly what happened when one guest did in fact try to
sneak in a 6-month-old baby onto Space Mountain by stuffing it into a bag.
Houston, we have a problem.
The place on Earth
Since the park opened in 1971, there have been dozens of passings at Walt Disney World,
most commonly due to heart attacks triggered by pre-existing conditions.
Turns out those health warnings posted everywhere are deadly serious.
And so are the safety warnings, as several guests and cast members have also passed over
the years by not following basic safety rules.
For instance, back in 2000, a guest expired when he tried to exit his Splash Mountain vehicle
while the ride was still going.
And the Skyway attraction was permanently closed shortly after a cast member was gone
when another employee turned the ride on while it was being cleaned.
Perhaps the most unusual cause of demise at Disney parks, however, is animal attack.
In 2016, a woman suffered a heart attack after her grandson was bitten by a wild snake at
the Animal Kingdom park.
And later that same year, Disney World made front page news for all the wrong reasons
when a 2-year-old was attacked by an alligator.
"After a desperate 16 hour search by air and boat the heartbreaking news: two year old
Lane Graves, found."
Disney has since posted warning signs near their hotels, and removed several humorous
references of alligators from attractions around the resort.
Please stand clear of the doors
Though it's meant primarily as a way to get from one park to another, the Monorail has
become one of the most popular and beloved institutions at Walt Disney World.
It's also one of the most dangerous, as there have been numerous accidents over the decades,
including a crash in 2009 that left one employee.
"Some of us tried to jump in there and pull it apart pulling the train apart trying to get.. and see if anybody was in there."
Perhaps the scariest incident on the Monorail, however, took place back in 1985, when the
silver monorail caught fire.
Trapped passengers had to smash the windows out of their car and climb onto the roof of
the monorail in order to avoid being burned to death.
Following this incident, Disney upgraded the Monorail with emergency exits and a fire detection
system.
Good thinking!
Plane crash
In 1984, a family from South Carolina embarked on a trip to Disney World in a somewhat unusual
fashion, flying to Florida in a single-engine private plane.
Their trip ended in tragedy, however.
As they neared their final destination, something went wrong, forcing them to attempt an emergency
landing in the EPCOT parking lot.
Unfortunately, the plane's wing clipped a light pole, causing the plane to crash into
several parked cars.
Miraculously, nobody on the ground was injured, but the pilot, his wife, and their 1-year-old
daughter were lost.
Hostage crisis
Disney World is the last place you would expect to face a hostage crisis, but in fact it has
happened twice.
In 1992, a man named Allan Ferris entered EPCOT after hours armed with a shotgun and
demanding to see his ex-wife, who worked at the park.
When he was rebuffed, he fired at security, taking two guards hostage before eventually
ending himself.
And in 2000, a man named Bismark Rodriguez held his 4-year-old son and a Disney cast
member hostage with a .357 Magnum after luring the worker to their hotel room with a fake
room service request.
Rodriguez apparently was trying to find a different hotel employee he suspected of having
an affair with his wife.
After a tense standoff, Rodriguez was safely apprehended by police.
And you thought Cruella de Vil was the scariest Disney villain.
Thanks for watching!
Click the Grunge icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!