Fact Check: Disney World Rolls Out Tickets for Your Four-Legged Friends?
Claim:
In September 2023, the Walt Disney World Resort began selling park tickets for pets.
Rating:
On Sept. 11, 2023, Mouse Trap News published an article claiming that the Walt Disney World Resort was now selling park tickets for all pets:
Disney World Now Selling Park Tickets for All Pets
Disney World is widely known as a place for families. Typically when people think of families, they think of parents and kids. However, nowadays, pets are widely considered part of the family. In fact, people aren't having kids anymore and instead own pets. Disney is promoting this child-free lifestyle with the announcement that all pets are now welcome at Disney World.
The website also promoted the claim in social media posts, including a TikTok video that had over 399,000 views at the time of this check:
@mousetrapnews Who is excited to bring their pets to Disney World?! #disneyworld #disneynews #disneydog #dogsoftiktok #magickingdom #disneytickets ♬ Disney-style fanfare-style BGM - harryfaoki
Social media users appeared to believe the claim was true. "My question is what about service dogs? Do we now have to pay for them to get in or is that going to be included in our ticket," one TikTok comment said.
But the claim about pet tickets was false. Mouse Trap News isn't a real news site. On its About page, the website says that every story on its website is fake:
Mouse Trap News is the world's best satire site. We write fake stories about Disney Parks stuff. From Disney Park announcements to Disney Hotel and resort news to made-up Disney partnerships, you can be assured that anything you read here is not true, real, or accurate, but it is fun.
According to the official Walt Disney World website, only service animals were permitted in the resort's theme parks at the time of this fact-check.
We've previously fact-checked other satirical claims from Mouse Trap News about Disney World, like the resort supposedly removing the drinking age in their theme parks.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.
Sources:
About. 22 Dec. 2022, https://mousetrapnews.com/about/.
LaMagdeleine, Izz Scott. "Disney World Officially Removes Drinking Age?" Snopes, 12 Sept. 2023, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/drinking-at-disney-world/.
Mikkelson, David. "Why We Include Humor and Satire in Snopes.Com." Snopes, 15 Aug. 2019, https://www.snopes.com/notes/why-we-include-humor-and-satire-in-snopes-com/.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/best-friends-pet-care/. Accessed 13 Sept. 2023.
