- 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.
