What Are the Scariest Things You Can Hear and See at Disney?
Happy Halloween Week, everyone!
MickeyBlog has covered all sorts of sights and frights throughout the holiday season, which started in *checks notes* July for some reason.
Now that we’re all ready to relax and eat chocolate for the rest of the week, let’s talk about the frights that are unique to Disney theme parks.
What are the scariest things you can hear and see at Disney? Well…
Please Remain Seated…
This one happens to all of us, and it’s never fun.
We’ll be riding on one of our favorite attractions when it suddenly stops.
Then, after a few awkward moments, all we hear are the whispers of the other guests on the nearby ride carts.
We’re all wondering the same thing. Why has this ride stopped, and how long is this gonna take?
Nothing can mess up a park itinerary like a delayed attraction.
That’s why we all gulp when the narration tells us those dreaded words, “Please remain seated…”
Even when a cast member performs the announcement on a happy attraction like Toy Story Mania!, I still hear it in the Ghost Host’s voice.
Maybe that’s because I’ve had this happen the most on Haunted Mansion, or maybe it’s because I mentally associate fear with this character’s voice.
Either way, when you’re on a Disney ride, the last thing you want to hear is, “Please remain seated…” That’s doubly true if it leads to…
Please Follow the Evacuation Guidelines…
Have you ever been evacuated off a Disney ride?
Thankfully, this sort of aggravation is quite rare at the parks. To the best of my recollection, it’s only happened to me three times.
None of them were seriously inconvenient, either. Instead, we’re talking about exiting a hidden side door at Pirates of the Caribbean or Space Mountain.
At times, those words happen after a prolonged wait, though. An infamous example occurred during the Disney Skyliner’s first week.
A moving gondola smashed into a stationary one on a system that expects continuous motion.
When that happened, the emergency protocols in place automatically shut down the entire Disney Skyliner.
A handful of guests unexpectedly found themselves trapped in the hour for approximately two hours.
Eventually, they realized how serious the problem was when they heard the tell-tale words, “Please follow the evacuation guidelines…”
That’s Disney’s way of saying that the fire department is helping you exit the ride.
Thankfully, such events are rare, but in a highly amusing twist, it happened on Halloween 2023.
The EPCOT monorail line suffered a weird incident with a flat tire. According to a reporter, Disney evacuated 71 people:
Update: Reedy Creek says 71 people evacuated. Took 1 hour 20 minutes to complete. No injuries. @news6wkmg pic.twitter.com/Ggl2RGBx1R
— Landon McReynolds (@LandonProducer) October 31, 2023
Happy Halloween, you poor, unfortunate souls!
Sorry, We’re Shutting Down This Ride…
I swear that this odds of this happening triple when I’m standing in line at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
You’ll hear these words when a cast member tracks a system shutdown. At that point, Disney performs a quick calculation.
Will the attraction return to operation quickly, or will it require repairs?
In the latter instance, Disney will inform guests by saying something like, “Sorry, we’re shutting down this ride.”
The cast members typically provide inconvenienced guests with a return ticket, what we used to call a FastPass.
Alas, that’s small consolation after we’ve already stood in line for a while. It’s like Disney has teased us with the possibility of a ride we won’t get for hours!
Sorry, You Don’t Have a Park Pass…
Thankfully, this particular phrase is mostly going away in a couple of months.
Throughout the pandemic, everyone hated this phrase the most, though.
Guests purchased admission tickets, just like we’d always done. Then, Disney changed the rules to ensure social distancing.
That new requirement led countless confused guests to hear those infuriating words, “Sorry, you don’t have a Park Pass.”
Without a Park Pass, guests could stand at the entrance gate at Disney theme parks, but they couldn’t go in. It was the ultimate tease.
That’s No Longer in Stock
Grr.
This one makes me angry just to think about it, as it’s so irritating.
Some jerks snag a bunch of in-demand Disney merchandise and then head straight to eBay and other third-party vendors to re-sell the gear online.
When that happens, those of us who want something at a Disney store find ourselves out of luck.
An excellent recent example was the Figment Popcorn Bucket in 2022, which created such a buzz that someone sold a sketch of it on eBay for lots of money!
Nobody ever realizes the demand for Disney merchandise until something like this happens, which is why we haaaaaaaate those words.
“That’s no longer in stock,” usually means that what we want has sold out and ain’t coming back. And that bites.
Thunderous BOOM
Everyone knows the deal here.
Thunder = rain.
Rain = closed outdoor attractions.
Closed outdoor attractions = Longer lines at indoor attractions.
All the above = No fun.
This is the worst kind of Disney Math.
Wait, Did You Say a BEAR?
Admittedly, this was a one-time thing. At least, we hope it was.
Still, can you imagine the faces of guests when they overheard why Magic Kingdom was shut down?
“Wait, did you say a BEAR???” represents one of those timeless, inimitable moments in Disney history.
People at Magic Kingdom learned via a weird game of in-person Telephone that one of the park guests that day was Ursine.
The Wait Time Is HOW Long?
Whenever anyone in my traveling party checks My Disney Experience, this statement feels inevitable.
We always want to believe that we’ll find the ideal attraction that’s close to us at that moment and requires a short wait.
In reality, that rarely happens. Instead, we often lament, “THE WAIT TIME IS HOW LONG?” It’s inevitable.
Where’s John’s Hand?
The problem with using Audio-Animatronics (AAs) at the parks is that sometimes parts break.
In the particular case of moving AAs, a broken part often means a missing part.
Do you know what’s weird? Think about John telling a story during Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress.
Let’s say that, for example, John raised his arm, but he was missing a part. It’s pretty freaky.
Sadly, this has happened on a few occasions, including here. It’s enough to trigger nightmares for children. And it’s not that great for adults, either.
We’ve watched Westworld. We know how this will end. And it’s not great for humanity.
PS: My sincere thanks to Jess Landers and Madeleine Lilly for their help in putting this article together.
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