Walt Disney World has welcomed hundreds of millions of visitors since its opening day in 1971. Inevitably, some truly weird things have happened at the resort during that time.
In fact, the bizarre incidents started even before the Magic Kingdom threw open its gates, and have continued right through to the present day. If you keep your eyes peeled, there are opportunities to see strange sights every single day – such as ducks mating on top of Jungle Cruise boats, or alligators emerging from the water near Space Mountain.
Still, some incidents are just that little bit more unusual than those everyday occurrences. Here are 6 examples!
6. A lady is blown off a toilet
When Walt Disney World was being constructed in the late 1960s, some of the first elements that were put in were enormous water and sewage pipes, designed to cope with the dozens of hotels and restaurants that would be located on the site, as well as the sprawling Magic Kingdom theme park.
Another of the first things to be put in place was the Preview Center, which opened in January 1970. Here, prospective visitors could watch a film about the upcoming resort, as well as looking at a huge model of it. It operated for 22 months, pre-selling some $11 million worth of tickets to the Magic Kingdom.
Unfortunately for one visitor, the Preview Center was the first facility to be connected up to the over-sized sewage and water systems. In David Koenig’s excellent Realityland, Bill Hoelscher (who headed up the Preview Center) recalls that on the second day the building was open, a lady entered the restrooms, did her business and flushed the toilet. At that point, a two-foot column of water blew her up off the seat and “scared the daylights out of her”. The pressure was temporarily reduced until other buildings came online.
5. A grandmother discovers a LOADED GUN on a ride
Disney is pretty clear about what you are and aren’t allowed to take into its theme parks. A number of items are banned, including skateboards, folding chairs and revealing clothing. Since September 11, Disney parks have been protected by extensive bag searches at their entrances. Bringing a knife of any kind or – even worse – a gun is really not recommended.
That didn’t stop one guest, a Grandmother with her grandson, at Disney’s Animal Kingdom from discovering a loaded gun on the seat of a vehicle in the Dinosaur dark ride. After it was handed in to security, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office was called in. The owner of the gun was found to be Angelo Lista, who claimed that he did not know that weapons were banned from the park. The gun had fallen out his pocket during the ride, which consists of a fast-paced, bumpy journey past hordes of audio-animatronic dinosaurs.
4. A US President tries (and fails) to save his presidency
You’re Richard Nixon, and it’s November 1973. It’s the height of the Watergate scandal, caused by a break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel in Washington, D.C. – and the subsequent attempted cover-up by Nixon’s administration. What do you do? Why, you head to Walt Disney World, of course!
Nixon had a long history of visiting Disney theme parks, and knew Walt and Lillian Disney personally. You can see him in the image above, helping to open the Monorail at Disneyland in 1959.
His visit to Walt Disney World 14 years later was an altogether less happy one. He faced down some 400 reporters in a room at the Contemporary Resort, famously saying: “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.”
Despite his efforts, Nixon was forced to resign on August 9, 1974.
3. A wave machine shakes itself off its foundations
Dick Nunis is something of a legend of Disney theme parks. Having initially been employed in a “summer job” at Disneyland, by 1968 he was vice president of operations in the company’s theme parks division. In 1971, he was promoted again, being named executive vice president of Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
Like many executives, Nunis had his own “pet project” during the construction of Walt Disney World. He was determined to introduce his favorite sport of surfing to the Polynesian Resort, where he hoped to rename the West Beach as “Surfrider Beach”. His plan to accomplish this involved acquiring an enormous wave-creating machine from a start-up firm in San Diego, and setting it up on an island opposite the beach.
At first, things look promising. The machine, which used eight enormous “paddles” arranged in a semi-circle to generate waves, was successfully installed and the waves were indeed huge. So huge, in fact, that some feared that they could swamp the hotel if the machine was cranked up too high.
Unfortunately for Nunis, his plans were foiled when it became clear that the return current was eating away the island itself. In the end, the wavemaking machine simply shook itself to pieces, and the majority of its components were removed.
2. Mickey makes friends with rival characters
In the early 1980s, Universal’s parent company MCA was determined to bring a version of its famous Studio Tour in Los Angeles to Florida. Disney CEO Michael Eisner was not happy about this, and announced Disney-MGM Studios – a park that bore a striking resemblance to MCA’s original plans for Universal Studios Florida. MCA’s CEO, Sidney Sheinberg, was furious, but knew that a legal battle with Disney over the alleged “theft” of its ideas would be costly and unlikely to be successful.
Still, Sheinberg would not give up, focusing on drumming-up anti-Disney press coverage. At one point, he sent a horde of Universal-licensed characters, including Dracula and Woody Woodpecker, to the gates of the Magic Kingdom, where Disney refused them entry. Mickey and Minnie did become friendly with the Universal characters, though – Disney allowed them to pose together for photographs.
1. A golf cart is taken for a joyride along the Boardwalk
It sounds intriguing: a “grand theft” is committed at Walt Disney World. Has the cash storage room located beneath Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom been broken into? Has someone stolen lorryloads of unsold tickets? Or perhaps someone has nabbed an expensive artwork from one of the resort’s hotels?
Nope – instead, two drunks had made off with a golf cart. The vehicle in question had been parked outside a restaurant at Disney’s Boardwalk by a Cast Member, who left it there while he was removing rubbish. Along came Daniel Rossi, 33, from New York and Michael Kulesza, 38, from Massachusetts, both somewhat the worse for wear, who boarded the cart and sped off on a joyride.
Unfortunately for the pair, deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s office spotted them racing along the Boardwalk, forcing guests to jump out of their way. A deputy wrote in his report that both men were “yelling, shouting and laughing as they drove past where we were standing…They rounded the corner fast enough to cause the extended golf cart to almost tip over. I gave immediate chase and caught the subjects at the back entrance to the Swan Resort.”
Both men apologised immediately, and continued to profess their regret over the incident as they were taken to jail.
