Opening in 1955, Disneyland has many secrets that it doesn't want you to know. Let's uncover the hidden secrets and little-known facts about Disneyland that the park doesn't want you to discover!
Secret Tunnels
Behind Disneyland’s smiling faces and joyous façade, dark secrets lurk. Legend says that one day Walt Disney was at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, when he spotted a cowboy strolling through Tomorrowland on his way to his post in Frontierland. He thought such a jarring sight distracted guests and spoilt the illusion of the park. So, for his next park, he swore to do something about it.
In 1971, Walt’s brand-new resort opened in Florida and underneath it was dug over
390,000 square feet of utilidors, a network of tunnels where park operations were kept out of sight from the public. Here, costumed characters can secretly move around from one section of the park to another and other less glamorous operations, like trash disposal, can go on with guests none the wiser.
Strictly out of bounds for visitors unless they have a special pass, the utilidors have been subject to some nefarious rumors, like being used for child trafficking! On November 4th, 2024, podcaster Joe Rogan reported that a child had been abducted into them!
There’re a few things wrong with this video. Firstly, the utilidors are most associated with Disney World, not Disneyland. Problem two: California police have stated that no reports have been filed regarding missing children. This brings me to problem three, which is the most egregious of all: that video is clearly fake AI garbage! His mouth movements don’t match what he’s saying and the generated images make my eyes bleed. So, before you cancel your trip to Disney just yet, you should know that there’s no proof of Disney stealing people away down crazy tunnels.
It’s A Small World
Of all the rides in Disneyland, one of the most famous is It’s A Small World. First opened in 1966, the ride takes guests on boats through a water tunnel filled with over 300 smiling dolls, each dressed in attire from all over the globe. If these things weren’t eerie enough, when the ride closes, the music stops and the lights go out, but these animatronics keep moving.
Silent Small World by suomynonayhs Whether the ride is open or closed the dolls move 24/7. But why? Disney are suspiciously tight lipped. And that’s not the only thing. According to the internet, the dolls’ hair grows, so much so that they supposedly get it cut every year! So what? Are they actually alive? The product of some twisted experiment? Well, probably not. Their hair is reportedly made of yarn, which stretches over time due to humidity. And they could be kept on all night to save the wear and tear of constantly shutting them off. Even so, all this perpetual movement and hair growth have led to some terrible tales. Some netizens tell of living children being stolen from their parents and gruesomely turned into living dolls. Afterwards, they’re doomed to remain forever dancing in Disneyland.
Disney’s Frozen
Ever since humans have existed, we’ve sought to cheat the inevitable and achieve immortality. And rumor has it that beloved Uncle Walt was no exception. To fulfil his dream, he allegedly had his body, or just his head, cryogenically frozen, waiting for the day when medicine would finally conquer death.
Over time, the legend has evolved, with some claiming that Walt’s frozen head is stored beneath his own theme park, possibly in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Just imagine wandering through the depths of Disneyland, only to see that icy visage staring back at you!
However, and this may come as a surprise, there’s not much evidence to support this story. Walt’s body was actually cremated, so the opposite of frozen, and then interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. So how did the legend begin in the first place? Well, Walt died in 1966, around the time newfound interest was picking up in the science of cryogenics. The legend that he was frozen likely started in 1972, when Bob Nelson, President of the Cryonics Society of California, claimed that Walt wanted to have his body preserved but the pair couldn’t finalize the paperwork in time. Again,
Nelson’s story is probably boloney. There’s no proof Walt even knew what cryogenics were. Regardless, the story grew in popularity and remains prevalent to this day. And if that wasn’t strange enough, there’s another rumor that Disney’s 2013 hit Frozen was made purely so that when people googled
Disney frozen, they’d get results for the film, not stories about Walt’s chilly head!
Deborah Stone
For many, the idea of working at the happiest place on Earth is nothing short of paradise.
Yet for Deborah Stone, this place quickly became hell. At Disneyland, workers are called cast members, and in 1974 the 18-year-old joined the cast hoping to earn some extra cash before heading off to college. She worked as a hostess tasked with greeting guests at the newly opened America Sings attraction.
The theatre housing the show rotated as audiences watched animatronic animals sing tunes from US history. As guests entered, cast members guided them onto one of several rotating stages, and between acts the cast would move between these stages as they rotated into position for the next scene.
But on July 8th, 1974, just nine days after the attraction opened, tragedy struck. At around 11 p.m., it’s believed that Stone got too close to the gap between the rotating wall and the stationary stage wall and got caught between the two.
Audiences watching the show heard her screams but assumed it was just part of the performance. By the time staff were alerted and arrived at the scene, it was too late to save her, horrifyingly, the walls had completely closed in. America Sings was promptly closed. However, contrary to popular belief, this heartbreaking incident didn’t shut it down for good, just three days later it reopened, with added safety lights and break away walls, giving someone a chance to escape if a similar event happened. It continued running for another 14 years before being re-done, and legend told that Stone’s ghost haunted the attraction, telling guests who get too close to the rotating wall to be careful.
Haunted Rides
First opened in 1967, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride became famous for inspiring the film franchise of the same name, as well as having a few outdated scenes.
Disneyland Park | Auction: Take A Wench For Bride (Original Scene) by eyezonjim68 But this is far from the weirdest thing about this place. Before the attraction opened, the Imagineers (that is, the creatives behind Disney Park operations) needed some props to add a certain spooky je ne sais quoi. They wanted skeletons, but the technology at the time couldn’t create anything realistic enough and they’d already blown a whopping $15 million on the attraction, that’s over $140 million today.
So, needing a cheap but authentic looking alternative, the Imagineers nabbed the next best thing! They went to the University of California’s medical center, got their hands on some real skeletons, and put them on display! Surely, these bodies aren’t still there today? If you believe Disney: no. Apparently, as technology improved, the Imagineers decided to ditch the real skeletons, replacing them with convincing models. But of course, legends persist. There’s some speculation that the remains remain. Just take a look at that skull mounted on a headboard in the bed chamber. Back in 2014, one Disney cast member confirmed that it’s the real deal! Who was that person, and what did they do to tick Walt off?
Real Human Skull in the Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland Confirmed By Cast Member by DisneyDose
Unsurprisingly, displaying actual human remains on a family ride led to legends that Pirates of the Caribbean is haunted by the souls of the dead. And it’s not the only ride filled with specters. Legend has it that if you board the Space Mountain ride at Disneyland alone, you’ll be greeted by a man dressed in 1970s clothing with red hair and a red face. Sitting down next to him, he’ll be amiable and chatty, but by the time the ride ends, he’ll have vanished. Check the security footage and all you’ll see is his faded outline. This is Mr. One Way, the ghost of a man who lost his life on the ride and remains there to this day.
Ghosts in Disneyland DEBUNKED! by disneyghostdebunked Then there’s the Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. According to the story, one of the bellhops working at the attraction suddenly dropped to the floor right there on the platform while loading guests. To this day, he supposedly haunts the ride, causing eerie occurrences like freezing temperatures and flickering lights. It's definitely creepy, but the videos were debunked years ago by the aptly named YouTuber DisneyGhostDebunked. The Mr One Way video is probably just the reflection of a guest on the polished floor, and when the ghost sits down, it’s actually the ride operator’s reflection on frosted glass.
As for the Tower of Terror clip, the low frame rate combined with strobing lights creates the illusion of a ghostly figure, when in reality, it’s just reflections of the maintenance man. It’s true, spooky things do happen at the Disney parks, but it probably ain’t phantoms. For years, Disneyland and Disney World have faced a very real problem: fans sprinkling the cremated ashes of their loved ones! Ash dumping happens at least once a month, with Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion being the most popular site. There’s even a story of a spirit-boy haunting the place after his mom spread his ashes there!
It's said that Disney prohibited this practice because the parks were becoming too overrun with ghosts. In reality, it’s because it’s illegal and leaves a big mess. Rides have to be shut down so the ash can be vacuumed up and unceremoniously thrown in the trash, and the scatterers themselves are quickly removed from the park, and sometimes banned. Forget about ghosts, you should be scared of the living!
Club 33
Hidden away on New Orleans Square in Disneyland is a mysterious building with a mosaic in the shape of the number 33 in front of the door. This is the entrance to Club 33, an ultra-exclusive private Membership club that first opened in May 1967 as a place where Walt could entertain VIPs, at least, on the face of it.
Members of the club can beat the crowds and enjoy gourmet cuisine, and around the park, they can skip lines and have parking fees waived, if they cough up the $60,000 fee just to get in, along with $25,000 in annual dues! Everyone from Elton John to Katy Perry are in the super hush-hush club, and Tom Hanks and his family reportedly spent their Thanksgiving there. But there may be more to Club 33 than fancy meals and celebrities. That name for example. The number 33 is commonly associated with the secretive fraternity the Freemasons and it’s been claimed that Walt himself was a member.
One Masonic organization, the Scottish Rite, has a series of degrees a member can obtain. The 33rd degree is the highest, only conferred to members who’ve shown exceptional dedication and service to the fraternity. Powerful men, from politicians to royalty, have long held positions in freemasonry and been accused of orchestrating global politics. Could it be that Mickey Mouse is moving the chess pieces of world events?!
Iit’s true that at age 19 Walt joined DeMolay International, a masonic organization for young men. Though, there’s nothing to prove that he went onto become a freemason proper afterwards. Even so, there’s something undeniably shady about an exclusive members only club in the middle of a family theme park. Two former 33 members, Scott and Diana Anderson,
described it simply to The Hollywood Reporter in 2024: It is a cult, and Walt’s the Messiah.
Forced Perspective
If you walk through Disneyland and look closely at the buildings on Main Street, USA, you’ll notice something odd: the second and third floors are far too small for any adult to comfortably stand in.
Indeed, almost all the buildings are designed to be 7/8 scale on the first floor, 5/8 on the second floor, and a measly 1/2 on the top floor, with only the first floor open for guests to enter.
We’re tricked into thinking the buildings are normal size because the first floor pretty much is, and we assume the upper floors only appear smaller because they’re further away from us.
The Science of Forced Perspective at Disney Parks by Art of Engineering At Disneyland, space is at a premium, and these seemingly unused floors are actually used for storage and mechanical systems, basically stuff guests never get to see. Similarly, Main Street is built at a slight upwards angle toward Sleeping Beauty’s Castle to make it look all grand and big in the distance. In reality, the castle stands just 77 feet tall, that’s shorter than the base distances in baseball!
Like the buildings on Main Street, the designers of the castle used forced perspective to make it appear larger than it actually is. While the lower sections are full scale, the windows, bricks, and turrets gradually shrink in size as they go higher, tricking the eye into perceiving greater height. For the most part, the illusion is seamless, unless someone were to climb up it!To trick the brain further, the Imagineers even created their own colors, like
Go Away Green. This is designed to subtly divert guests' attention away from certain objects and areas. Go Away Green works similarly to camouflage, it blends things into surrounding vegetation, making them easy to ignore. This can be anything from trash cans and fences, to the old entrance of Club 33.
Disney's Go Away Green Camouflage Paint by TruePrepper But Disneyland has an even more manipulative way it plays with our minds! See, inside our brains lies the limbic system, that’s the emotional center. This houses something called the olfactory bulb, which processes smell and connects it with memory. Imagineers wanted a nifty way of triggering memories of childhood nostalgia so you’d associate them with the park. What better way than with smell! Dotted along Disneyland are contraptions that look like speakers called smellitizers, named after the howitzer cannons used in World War I. But instead of firing deadly shells, they fire delightful smells!
Along Main Street you’ll smell freshly baked goods and at California Adventure you’ll get a whiff of woody pines, adding an extra level of immersion. Taking deep, heavy breaths to inhale these smells actually reduces stress by lowering the heart rate and cortisol levels. However, there’re those who claim that smellitizers do more than shoot out nice aromas. One TikToker, hangryblogger, claimed these scents are actually designed to brainwash visitors into buying merchandise!
Working Conditions
You may still be trying to guess the color of Charli XCX’s underwear, but you definitely don’t want to guess the color of the Disney cast’s! From 1999 to 2001, workers who donned costumes to portray characters like Mickey or Cinderella used to share Disney-issued jock straps, tights and bike shorts. At the end of the day they’d turn them over to be washed, and the next day, they’d be given a different set to wear.
Why on earth did Disney impose this grotesque rule? Apparently, it’s because regular underpants bunched up and were noticeable under their costumes, but all this sharing meant things weren’t the most sanitary down there. Despite Disney’s assurances that garments were washed in hot water, workers still complained about receiving stained and stinky underwear. Just imagine having to wear Beast’s sweat drenched Y-front’s!
Mickey and the Magician - Beauty and the Beast @ Disneyland Paris by VideoWesley There were even three reported cases of cast members contracting pubic lice and scabies from wearing these things. Finally, in 2001, workers won the right to have individual garments that they could wash at home. But moldy underwear isn’t the only thing workers have complained about. In recent years, Disney cast members have repeatedly called for better pay and working conditions. Working at a Disney park is notoriously demanding and the company is unsympathetic to anyone going through a family crisis or falling ill. This all came to a head in 2008, when 2,300 maids, bellhops, cooks, and dishwashers at three Disney-owned hotels staged a demonstration in Anaheim, some dressed as Disney characters! After an hour-long march,
32 of them were arrested. I never thought I’d see Mickey carried off by police!
But even after all that, things didn’t improve much. By 2024, a staggering 73% of Disneyland workers reported that they didn’t make enough to cover basic expenses each month, with 1 in 10 experiencing homelessness whilst working at the park. One overnight custodian told the BBC how she slept in her car since the average apartment rent in Southern California is $2,000, far beyond her means with a salary of just $20.65 an hour. However, on July 29th, union groups agreed to a three-year contract that increased the minimum wage to $24 and introduced a more flexible policy on sick leave, avoiding a load of strikes. Seems like even the happiest place on earth can have its rough days.
No-Fly Zone
If you’ve ever wandered around a holy site or place of historic importance, like the Taj Mahal or White House, look up to the sky and you won’t see a plane in sight. That’s because they’re designated no-fly zones due to their cultural significance. What’s more surprising is that both Disneyland and Disney World have been designated permanent no-fly zones too.
In fact, the Orlando park is the only zone of its kind in all of Florida! No planes are allowed below 3,000 ft or within 3 miles of either park. This has given rise to the rumor that Disney somehow cajoled the government into granting them this status to maintain the illusion of the Disney parks as their own separate worlds.
The truth is a little simpler. After the world was rocked by the tragedy of 9/11, the Federal Aviation Administration granted Disneyland and Disney World this temporary special status for their own safety. Two years later, it was made permanent, and has remained that way ever since. Yet new government legislation could fly in the face of Disney’s special status. In 2023, Republican Congress members began working to rescind Disney’s
no-fly zone designation. This was apparently retaliation for the company’s opposition to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his so-called
"Don’t Say Gay" bill, which restricted schools from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity.
Abandoned by Disney
You may‘ve heard of a story that went around the internet back in the 2010s, where a blogger ventured into Mowgli’s Palace, a resort based on the 1967 toon The Jungle Book. Disney had dumped millions into turning the land into a tropical paradise, complete with a hotel built like an Indian palace, surrounded by jungle.
Shortly after opening however, they mysteriously shut the attraction down. Disney cordoned the place off and erased any reference to Mowgli’s Palace from every map and leaflet until it was forgotten, except by our blogger. Unable to suppress their curiosity, the blogger got hold of an old map and managed to track down the aged resort. Safe to say, it’d seen better days. Walking up to the towering wooden gates, they saw a metal sign with the words ‘ABANDONED BY DISNEY’ scrawled in black paint.
After sneaking in and trudging through the overgrowth, they came to the palace, it was open. Once inside, they made their way downstairs to a basement that twisted and turned like a maze, until eventually they came across a room filled with old Disney costumes hanging from the walls. Lying in the middle of the room was a Mickey Mouse costume, but not just any costume. Its fur was rotting and patchy across its rank body, and the whole thing was like a photo negative: black was white, white was black, and the normally red trousers were light blue. Something was very off.
After snapping a few photos, the blogger was about to get the hell out of there when the Mickey Mouse costume suddenly began to shuffle, then, it stood up. Staring straight at the blogger, the creature reached up and removed its head. The blogger heard a sickening tearing sound as yellow pulp spurted from its neck.
Terrified, they fled, leaving the creature behind. But just before escaping, they glanced up at the door and saw something scratched into the wall above: ‘ABANDONED BY GOD.’
That’s where the blog ends. But, thankfully, it wasn’t really a blog at all! It was written by writer and artist Slimebeast, who
posted his tale on the Creepypasta Wiki in November 2012, where it picked up traction and a number of articles were subsequently released assuring people that it wasn’t, in fact, true. In reality, there was no creepy basement-dwelling Mickey, and Mowgli’s Palace never existed. However, there was an attraction that met a similar fate. In 1974, Disney World opened
Discovery Island, an 11 acre wildlife park. Today, it remains shut down and abandoned since 1999. In its heyday, this wasn’t the wildlife sanctuary people were expecting. In 1990, Disney World was ordered to pay $95,000, over $230,000 in today’s money, to settle 16 animal cruelty charges against the company and five employees. Staff reportedly kept tortoises in overheated, cramped sheds with no food or water, shot hawks and falcons, and beat the life out of vultures.
Though that hasn’t stopped others from trying to visit Discovery Island. In 2018, Youtuber Matt Sonswa uploaded footage of his visit. As far as I know, he didn’t find any disgusting zombie mickey mice!
Disney's Forgotten Theme Park - Abandoned Discovery Island by MattSonswa However, travel just off Discovery Island to River Country, and you’ll find somewhere with an even more sordid past. This lake and water park first opened in 1976. Designed in the style of Huckleberry Finn, it was built like an old timey water hole. All was going swimmingly, until 1980, when disaster struck. An 11-year-old boy was swimming in the lake when he contracted naegleria fowleri, a rare and deadly amoebic infection. The parasite is found in warm, untreated water and entered his body through his nose before eating away at his brain and nervous system. He didn’t survive.
Then, two years later, a 14-year-old boy had an accident on a slide and lost his life too, and in 1989, a 13-year-old met the same fate. Despite these tragedies, River Country remained open for years. It wasn’t till 2001, when the aftermath of 9/11 saw a sharp drop in U.S. tourism, that Disney claimed they were temporarily closing the park for maintenance. But the years rolled by and the attraction has remained shut ever since. After everything that happened there, I’m not surprised. Today, River Country is abandoned, its murky lake surrounded by vegetation. Visiting the area is strictly prohibited, with guards preventing tourists getting within 160 ft.
But in 2016, one daring explorer, photojournalist Seph Lawless, lived up to his name. Using a drone mounted camera, he captured images of
what the park has now become. Seph’s curiosity had consequences. After releasing these photos, he was banned from Disney World. What do you think they’re hiding? Either way, you know what they say: don’t mess with the mouse. If you were amazed at the secrets Disneyland doesn't want you to know, you might want to read about
abandoned Disney projects. Thanks for reading!
