While Disneyland is often dubbed “The Happiest Place on Earth,” the reality behind the magic is that some visitors have encountered experiences that are far from joyful. Ranging from strange events to unsettling meetings, these 30 tales uncover a sinister aspect of this cherished amusement park.
1. An Inappropriate Memorial
“I worked custodial for a few months, and one of the stories I heard was after someone reported a weird dust/sand on one of the rides. Someone decided to spread their loved one’s ashes on the ride. Yes, the ride had to be closed down and cleaned. I don’t care how much your dear aunt Mary loved Disney, The Haunted Mansion is NOT a good place for her ashes!”
2. An Unfortunate Sight
“I saw a man with cutoff shorts so short that left nothing to the imagination. It was funny until my sister who was, like, six years old at the time saw it too.”
3. This Cat Lady
“I was with my in-laws and we were walking near the pier at California Adventure when we saw this middle-aged woman pushing a stroller. She looked disheveled and confused, and when we looked in her stroller, we saw about four or five stuffed cats dressed like baby dolls. She walked by us as she was whispering little compliments to her stuffed cats.”
4. This Sea-Seriously Weird Observation
“While sitting with my friend in front of Small World, I noticed something was crawling slowly past me. It was an actual live lobster crawling along the pathway. As I shouted to my friend to look at it, one of the Cast Members walked nonchalantly up and grabbed the lobster saying, ‘Now how did you get out?’ He then proceeded to throw the lobster into the waters directly behind us. Long story short, Disneyland breeds their lobsters.”
5. Dad’s Money-Saving Technique
“One warm day when I was working in Fantasyland, this dad was appalled at how expensive the little fan/spray bottle things were. He refused to buy one for his kids, claiming he had a better idea. A little while later when I was leaving, I saw him take a big gulp of water and then spit/spray it out onto his two little girls.”
6. This Unexpected Meal
“We were on the Ferris Wheel at California Adventure and my whole family saw a duck eating another duck… Cannibalism at the ‘Happiest Place on Earth.'”
7. The Most Neglectful Parents Of The Year
“I once saw parents tie their leashed child to a pole so they could ride Splash Mountain. They were greeted with security when they came back to retrieve the poor kid.”
8. Mom Went To Unnecessary Lengths
“A woman was about to enter the Space Mountain ride with her son, who wasn’t tall enough and didn’t want to go on the ride. She then took a pair of high heels out of her backpack and forced her son to wear them. The ride attendant gave her the sassiest ‘you’re an idiot’ look and told her to exit the line. I will always feel bad for that boy and what else his mother made him do that day.”
9. A Potluck Of Lost And Found Items
“I used to work at Space Mountain, and when the rockets came back from their cycle around the Mountain, we would check for lost and found items a Guest might’ve left behind. We found all kinds of fun things, including weaves and a glass eyeball”
10. An Interesting Character
“A friend of mine works at Haunted Mansion at WDW and told me of a guy that comes around occasionally, asking women to sneeze on him.”
11. A Woman Recorded An Entire Show With Her iPad
“I found a perfect spot one time for the World of Color show and as it was starting I was counting my lucky stars that I didn’t end up with a 7’ giant standing in front of me like normal. Just as I’m thinking that the woman in front of me stretches her arms high above her head and holds her iPad up, filming the show, blocking the view.”
12. A Woman Stood In The Way Of A 3-Year-Old
“The first time we ever went to Disney, we got on the ferry to Magic Kingdom and I got a spot by one of the windows so that our daughter (3 at the time) could see the castle as we approached. Another woman and her kids came up and she said “Excuse me”, as though she needed to get by us. I shifted to the side, and she stood directly in front of the window blocking our view so that her kids could see instead.”
13. A Party Cut In Front Of Them And Ruined The View
“My husband and I got shoved so many times during fireworks, ran over by strollers, and cut in line. We got to Main Street an hour before the fireworks only for a huge party to shove their way in front of us and block our entire view (we are both under 5’5).”
14. A Woman Left Her Baby Unattended So She Could Shop Freely
A mother left her under 3-month-old kid in the hot summer sun, unattended outside the Launch Bay store. CM made an announcement, asking whose kid it was. When no one spoke up, the CM said they were going to call security and the police if the parents or guardians didn’t step forward immediately.”
15. A Woman Held Up A Ride To Yell At A Cast Member
“Two weeks ago, when I was boarding Soarin’ Over California, a lady started yelling at a CM about how rude he was being. As far as I could tell, or anyone else, the lady was just being an entitled snob. The CM was very calm and was telling her that he was just trying to get the ride going. That made her even more annoyed and she kept yelling at him saying that he needed to be fired and all the typical entitled rhetoric you hear people like that scream.”
16. A Guest Had Some Ridiculous Requests At Disney’s Secret Club
“We had a rich guest come into Club 33 (super secret yet not so secret restaurant in New Orleans Square) for the first time I believe and he wanted a private room and some Disney princesses to “have fun with” and wondered if any of the hostesses or waitresses were interested when we told him we could not accommodate him.”
17. They Trampled An Elderly Woman With A Stroller
“My husband and I had to help pick up an elderly woman who was TRAMPLED by a stroller in front of the small world. The woman who shoved her with the stroller DIDN’T even stop to help, she just kept pushing her way through the crowd. “
18. A Man Was Taking Selfies With Flash On A Ride
“One time a guy was taking so many pictures WITH flashes in the haunted house ride. As you can tell, it was bugging EVERYONE, because he was taking selfies and angling his camera AT the other seats. “
19. They Leave Their Balloons In The Air During The Fireworks Show
“During fireworks, there are the people who don’t bring down their Disney balloons, parents who place their child on their shoulders (yes I get that they want to give them a better view but can’t you just hold them at your own height?), and the biggest one that bugs me the most; the people who hold their phones above their heads to record the show.”
20. A Man Threw A Turkey Leg At A Bird
“I was working the pin cart in Dinoland near the bridge into Discovery Island and witnessed a group of guys probably my age throw a turkey leg at one of the large birds you might see walking around the parking lot or anywhere around Florida. Like, he really gave it some oomph and hit the bird pretty hard.”
21. Not A Pet-Friendly Pal
“I once witnessed a guest trying to stuff her dog in a locker so she could go on Grizzly River Run at Disney California Adventure.”
22. Just An Incident
“While riding Everest in Animal Kingdom, I saw an object fly past my head during the drop. When the ride stopped, a man four rows ahead of me raised his hand and informed the Cast Member that his prosthetic leg had somehow fallen off during the ride. They had to E-Stop the ride and go find it.”
23. This Moo-Vement
“We were on Main Street and it got really crowded. Suddenly, someone started mooing like a cow. Not long after, a lot of people were mooing like we were a bunch of cattle. Honestly, it was the best part of my day.”
24. An Accidental Flashing
“My cousin and I had painted some t-shirts with the Colorado flag inside a Mickey Mouse head shape before we went to Disney. While we were there it started raining so we bought sweatshirts, took off our wet Colorado t-shirts, and then headed to Space Mountain. As we were waiting in line, there was a man across from us wearing a Colorado t-shirt and was with his wife and kids. My cousin then yelled, “Hey, we’re from Colorado too!!’ and then lifted her sweatshirt to show him our Colorado shirt but forgot we had taken them off.”
25. This Guy With Seven Years’ Worth Of Stories
“I worked there for seven years. I had a guy THROW HIS TODDLER AT ME. I had a guy take off his fake leg and swing it at my face. I had a young woman hand me a ziplock bag full of ashes and ask me, ‘Where can I leave grandma?’ I had numerous people ask me if I could turn on the A/C because they honestly believed Disneyland was in a giant glass dome. Oh, and I was once scheduled to spend the day at Disneyland with Gary Busey. That was fun.”
26. An Embarrassing Experience
“I’ll never forget the year we stayed at Chip and Dales campground area (or whatever the campgrounds are called) and my younger brother at age 7 or 8 almost nothing but dairy the entire day, on a hot Florida day, and threw up non stop for a half hour at the Whoopty Doo Musical Review dinner and show, then later after getting all cleaned up, getting his shirt set on fire by our younger sister at the s’mores night after setting her marshmallow on fire and freaking out.”
27. An Unnecessary Fight
“I recorded a fight that was brewing for about an hour. It was right after the parks reopened after COVID-19 and a very agitated shorter guy (with two young girls) was crowding the 20-30-year-old couple in front of the agitated guy. Crowding them in a way that would have been unacceptable even before social distancing was implemented. Eventually, the couple asked the guy to “Please back up a little and give us space” and the guy immediately started throwing punches.”
28. Poor Michael
“June 2009: my family was on vacation and leaving Animal Kingdom uncharacteristically early on the last day of our trip. We walk past a lady who says “You haven’t called me in 10 months and you call me now to say Michael Jackson died?”. We didn’t believe he died because he was always a celeb with fake death rumors. We got on the tramcar in the parking lot and my sister got a text (back when you paid per text so it was important) that he had died. Very specific wacky story.”
29. “Where Are You?”
“It’s 2000 and my parents and sister are at Magic Kingdom. I’m 9, sister is 5. It’s the era just before my parents would have been carrying cell phones. Dad takes me on Space Mountain while my mom takes my sister to the Lion King stage show at the time. Both misunderstood where we were going to meet up afterward. We spent the entire rest of the day trying to find each other.”
30. The Sleeping Beauty
“A few years back we were having dinner at Chef Mickey’s and there was this guy at the table next to us who had his head down, sleeping. We assume hungover. Donald came by and woke him up, which made him jump like 50 feet. They had their interaction and then, as Donald left, he put the guy’s head back down and patted it.
