- Ho ho, people have died in our parks!
Come on in!
(thunder crashing)
Disneyland and Disney World are known
as the happiest places on earth.
Traveling there is the goal of countless families
who want to visit a place of pure joy,
but they aren't all that they seem to be.
In fact, they hold a few dark secrets,
secrets that Disney would definitely prefer
that you did not know.
So allow me to tell you exactly what those are.
Here are 10 secrets Disney theme parks
don't want you to know.
(magical music)
Number one is people have died there.
Even the happiest place on earth has its dark days,
and believe it or not, since the first
Disney theme park opened in Anaheim, California,
on July 17, 1955, there have been many deaths
at parks around the world.
Now, a lot of people have died from pre-existing
health conditions, but there have also been
a number of freak accidents and ride malfunctions
that have claimed the lives of
both park guests and employees.
Now, the stats are kept pretty quiet,
but what we do know is that between 2005 and 2006,
there were at least four reported deaths
and 19 injuries at just the Florida parks.
The first-ever reported death at Disneyland
happened in May of 1964 when 15-year-old
Mark Maples fell out of the Matterhorn bobsleds
when he stood up in his seat.
On February 14, 1999, a custodian was killed
when he fell 40 feet from a platform
on the Fantasyland skyway.
This, after a cast member activated the lift
without anybody knowing about it.
This led to the ride being shut down permanently
later that same year.
Number two are feral cats.
Here's a disturbing fact for ya.
At Disneyland in California, there's an estimated
100 feral cats wondering the park.
Have fun!
When the cats first started prowling around,
many workers wanted to get rid of them,
but it turns out having a ton of cats hanging
around is basically free pest control
since they were hunting all the mice and rats
that were knocking at Mickey's door,
which is super ironic, if you think about it.
That, in and of itself, was reason enough
to let them just hang around, apparently.
But in all fairness, the streetwise alley cats
are able to keep their freedom,
and Disney does, in fact, make sure that
they're healthy and taken care of.
It's now official park policy to make sure
that all the cats are tagged, vaccinated and neutered.
Generally speaking, they stay away from the guests
and only come out at night when the park is empty,
but that's generally speaking.
You don't want some feral cat to walk up to you
and be like ghh, eeh, and now you have a disease.
Thanks, Disney.
(magical music)
Number three are undercover cops.
Have you ever been to one of the Disney parks
and felt like someone was watching you?
And I don't just mean all those giant
Baloos and Goofies wandering around, uh uh.
Well it turns out you're feeling that way
because someone probably is.
In fact, there are countless security guards
wandering through the grounds,
even though you can't see them.
The majority of these guards are undercover
and are blending in by wearing plain clothes
and accessories, including random souvenirs
any guest could grab from kiosks and stores within the park.
Obviously, they dress this way so they can
keep an eye on everyone without being noticed
or causing any alarm.
That way, if anyone decides to do something
against the park rules like, for example,
get drunk and start punching Goofies, or you know,
steal something from the stores, the plainclothes
cops can start crackin' some skulls.
It takes a lotta work to keep everything hakuna matata.
(magical music)
Number four are smellitizers.
If you've ever been to a busy theme park
in the middle of the summer with hundreds
of people walking around eating and, ugh, sweating,
you know that air isn't exactly yummo.
Ah, but the folks at Disney have figured that out.
They've created and patented something
called air smellitizers.
The smellitizers are hidden everywhere
and fill the air with pleasant smells that
match the locations in the park.
Some of the smells include freshly baked cookies
on Main Street USA, citrus and pine trees
in the Soarin' ride and fresh sea air
at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
They even have a musty old boiler room smell
for the Tower of Terror.
And the sight-specific scents do more than
just make something that should smell funky smell fresh.
They also get you in the spirit of wherever
you are in the kingdom.
Their hope is that you'll buy something
like delicious cookies or spend more time
in the park to feel like you're really
relaxing by the ocean.
Leave it to Disney to figure out a way
to keep you smiling and buying when actually,
you're surrounded by nasty, nasty smells.
(magical music)
Number five are underground tunnels.
Like any great place of magic and mystery,
Disney World in Orlando, Florida, is full
of secret, hidden underground tunnels,
but the magic kind of stops there.
The tunnels are actually called utilidors,
short for utility corridors, and while it's
the largest system of its kind in the world,
they're actually used for a rather unpleasant job.
That job is keeping garbage collection
away from the guests, and the tunnels get
really hot and smelly, as you would imagine,
and what's worse, unfortunately for cast members,
they have to use them too.
In order to keep the kingdom feeling magical,
Walk Disney decided that it should be designed
so that cast members in costume wouldn't be
seen in parts of the park that they were
out of place in.
The idea actually came to Walt Disney
when he was in the original Disneyland in California
and saw a cowboy walking around Tomorrowland.
Yeah, not exactly the magical, immersive
experience he was going for.
(magical music)
Number six is autograph training.
Autograph training is a serious part of the job.
Character signatures must stay the same at all times.
In fact, they have extremely strict guidelines
that they have to follow when it comes
to signing something that guests present them with.
Before a cast member is able to start
interacting with guests, they are thoroughly
trained in how to write their character's autograph,
which they have to keep practicing until it
can be done perfectly at any moment.
Anyone playing the character in question
must keep a similar signature.
Consistency is key at the Magic Kingdom,
which makes sense.
You don't want two people dressing as Ariel
giving two completely different signatures.
That would just destroy the magic.
And if you're wondering, it's not just
park wide, it's internationally, too.
You could go to any Disney theme park
in the world and all of the characters
will have the exact same autograph.
Trust me, people have actually compared them.
Number seven are no selfies are allowed.
Despite getting their picture taken hundreds
of times a day, cast members are forbidden
from taking pictures of themselves in costume
and sharing them on social media, which again, makes sense.
There's not a whole lotta magic in seeing
a Snapchat of Aladdin in a pair of Uggs
halfway through a burrito.
If any of the cast members are caught
taking selfies, they'll instantly lose their job.
But selfies aren't just banned backstage.
In fact, in the summer of 2015, Disney banned
the use of selfie sticks all through the parks
around the world.
They made the decision because not only
are they super annoying, but because they
were becoming a huge safety risk.
On June 24, 2015, a guest busted out a selfie stick
while on the California Screamin' roller coaster
at the Disney California Adventure Park.
The ride was immediately shut down,
and all passengers were evacuated due to
what park management called a safety concern.
Yeah, don't risk everybody's lives just
so you could pose for a duck face.
Why not just take the picture with Donald Duck later?
It'll be way better, I guarantee it.
(magical music)
Number eight is Disney is a world all its own.
In keeping with the no selfies rule,
all cast members must remember that Disney parks
are the only worlds that their characters are aware of.
What this means is, as soon as the outfit is on,
they must stay in character at all times,
which seems like a given, especially since they're
interacting with kids who truly believe
that they're meeting their on-screen heroes.
But it's more than just a costume and a signature.
For Disney cast members, when in character,
nothing exists outside of the Disney universe.
In other words, they're to have no knowledge of technology,
famous actors, sport teams, popular brands or even YouTube.
Unless it's been in a Disney movie, it doesn't exist.
But even if it shouldn't exist to them,
the characters aren't allowed just to say,
"I don't know," and leave it at that.
If you do ask them something from outside
the Disney universe, they have to keep it vague
and respond that they've never heard of it.
(magical music)
Number nine is picking up trash gracefully.
As magical as the Disney parks may be,
garbage still exists, and there will always
be some that doesn't make it to the trash bin.
Ah, but worry not, though.
If there's a cast member around, it's actually
part of their job to collect the rubbish
and put it in the garbage themselves.
Yes, you heard me right.
Poor Cinderella can't catch a damn break!
However, since these are magical creatures,
princes and princesses that we're talking about,
they aren't allowed to simply just bend over
and pick up litter like the rest of us would.
No, no, instead, they must gracefully scoop up
the piece of garbage.
Staying in character is incredibly important,
and jobs like this don't change anything.
Hey, at least the park is kept clean.
Plus, as Mary Poppins said, "In every job
"that must be done, there is an element of fun."
Disney has, of course, tried to keep this to a minimum
by ensuring that there is a garbage can
at no more than 30 steps away at any point
in the whole park.
Oh gorsh, is that a used diaper?
I'd be happy to pick it up, ho ho.
And number 10 is unofficial burial grounds.
This last secret is only a little darker than the first.
Not only does the Disney corporation have rules
against people participating in this particular act,
they'd rather nobody knows it's ever happened.
Since the Disney parks are so popular
and beloved by millions, it only makes sense
that some people would never want to leave,
and I'm not just talkin' about a kid being like,
"Hey Mom, can we ride the teacups again?"
No, I mean I want to stay in the land of magic
forever type of thing.
That's right, many people have decided
that after passing away, they want to have
their ashes spread at the happiest place on earth.
Several people have actually requested
to have their ashes scattered in certain places
in the parks, usually by their favorite ride
or a body of water in a scenic part of the kingdom.
Disney, of course, has to reject these requests,
but that hasn't stopped some devoted mourners
from trying to dump their dearly departed in secret.
Because of this, some staff members had to be
trained on how to safely remove human ashes,
and many rides even have filters places appropriately
so to remove any human particles from the air.
Ho ho, that was creepy, ho ho.
So, those were 10 secrets Disney theme parks
don't want you to know.
The question of the day is, did you know
about any of these or are there any other
secrets that you know about?
Share, share with the group.
Leave your comments below because I'll
be reading through them, and I'm going to pin
the best one to the top.
As always, thank you guys so much for coming
by today, and don't forget to come back
tomorrow and every week day at exactly 3:00 p.m.,
Eastern Standard Time, because I'll have
a brand new video for you.
I'll see you then.