Ghosts, ashes and a bride's ring: 5 creepy haunted legends and rumors from Disney World
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Want Disney to scare you? You could checking out "Haunted Mansion," the 2023 movie based on the popular Disney attraction that premiered to good-but-not-great reviews, or even check out the widely mocked but underrated first one with Eddie Murphy 20 years ago.
But it might be more terrifying to just... go to the Magic Kingdom.
Walt Disney's theme parks have long been rumored to have haunted areas and spooky occurrences. Is any of it true, or are they just ghost stories passed along from Disney Cast Members to freak out guests?
Here are some of the most famous creepy legends about Walt Disney World. Read on, if you dare.
1. Walt Disney's frozen body is underneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride
Let's go ahead and get this one out of the way, as it's one of the oldest urban Disney legends and the most easily debunked. Walt Disney was known to be a futurist, and rumors of his cryogenically-frozen body being somewhere on the premises of his greatest creation started spreading within weeks of his death in 1966.
In January 1967, according to PBS, a reporter from a tabloid newspaper called The National Spotlite claimed he snuck into the hospital where Disney was being treated for circulatory collapse and saw his dead body suspended in a cryogenic metal cylinder. Cryogenics, the science of freezing humans so that future, more advanced societies could bring them back to life, had just been featured in a popular book a few years previously. Other papers picked up the "eyewitness account" and ran with it, with some suggesting Disney was interred in a freezer underneath the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyland.
The rumor gained steam thanks to two more recent Disney biographies that both suggested the man had a deep interest in cryogenics and extending his life, Leonard Mosley's 1986 "Disney's World," and Marc Eliot's 1993 "Walt Disney — Hollywood's Dark Prince." Neither book offers any proof of this at all, according to debunking site Snopes.com.
Over the years some Disney cast members have helped creep out guests by hinting that the man himself, or even just his head, was underneath the Pirates ride in California, or Florida, or maybe under Cinderella's Castle. There was even a crowdfunded, feature-length indie movie, "The Further Adventures of Walt's Frozen Head" released in 2018 about "the unlikely friendship between the frozen head of Walt and Peter, a low-level theme park employee," parts of which were secretly shot on location at Disney World without the park's knowledge or permission.
In fact, Walt Disney was cremated two days after his death and his ashes were interred in a family plot at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Sorry.
But, speaking of ashes...
2. There are dead people's ashes at the Haunted Mansion
"We have 999 happy haunts here, but there's room for a thousand, Any volunteers?" the Ghost Host has asked amused guests for over 50 years at the Haunted Mansion, the Magic Kingdom's spooky, New Orleans-inspired attraction full of ghosts, ghouls and goblins.
Apparently, there are lots of volunteers, the story goes, as guests regularly spread their loved ones' ashes there and elsewhere around the park.
Turns out this one is actually true. The Wall Street Journal verified it in 2018, and Disney is kind of annoyed by it.
Guests reportedly sneak in their family members' ashes in plastic bags or pill bottles hidden inside purses or backpacks. Once inside, visitors spread them through landscaping in the park, flower beds and water rides, including Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World. But the most popular place by far is the Haunted Mansion.
“The Haunted Mansion probably has so much human ashes in it that it’s not even funny,” one Disneyland custodian told the Journal.
Do not do this. Releasing human ashes violates Disney's rules. They may clog irrigation drains. They can disturb other guests, either by their presence or because if human ashes are spotted on a ride everything gets shut down. No matter how sneaky you might be, most of Disney is watched at all times and a "HEPA cleanup" alert means the ride will be closed and employees will bring out the Dustbuster with a powerful filter to collect the scattered ancestor in question. Any guests caught doing it will be escorted off the property.
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3. The Curse of the Wedding Ring
There are four Haunted Mansions celebrating the dark and macabre: Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and "Phantom Manor" in Disneyland Paris. But only Florida's grim graveyard has the cursed bride's wedding ring.
Years ago, park employees removed a turnstile stanchion along the waiting line to get into the mansion, which left a metal circle with a small square on one end embedded in the ground. Guests waiting in the long line noticed that it resembled a wedding ring, and the story began to grow.
In the current version of the Haunted Mansion's backstories, the Bride (Constance Hatchaway) murdered her seven husbands with an axe. Guests in line decided the ring was hers (although some claimed it belonged to Madame Leota, the witch and medium in the seance scene). But the story of how it must have gotten there changed over the years as fans and then Cast Members continued to tell the tale.
According to the Ghost Gallery, an unofficial collection of the Haunted Mansion's backstories compiled by Cast Members, Master Gracey planned to put on the ring at his bride's funeral to show his devotion and discourage rumors of his involvement in her death) but the ring fell off the bride's finger during her funeral procession and the hearse ran over it, forcing it into the ground.
It was jammed into the road after she plummeted to her death from suicide or from being murdered.
Master Gracey, furious at his bride for cheating on him, threw it from the mansion where horses trampled it into the road, dooming the residents of the mansion.
The bride threw it off the balcony after she murdered her last husband.
Gracey flung it off the balcony after the bride's death and vowed to give away his worldly possessions, which is what caused the ghosts' eternal anger.
During a remodel the ring was removed, much to the disappointment of fans, but when the new queue area was built the Disney Imagineers added a custom-made ring to keep the legend alive. Look behind the brick planter containing the graves of Grandpa Marc and Xavier.
The Haunted Mansion has plenty of supernatural rumors. Reportedly the ghost of a small boy has been seen and guests have said they heard crying. Some people have claimed to have seen an old man with a cane riding the doombuggies in the area after guests have gotten off.
Some say the spellbook in the seance room is a real one from the 14th century and Cast Members have to keep putting it back after it moves. (It's a prop.)
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3. The ghost of a dead employee haunts the Pirates of the Caribbean ride
Have you met George? The Pirates of the Caribbean Cast Members have, or at least they talk to him regularly. They have to, if he gets annoyed the ride breaks down.
As the story goes, George was working construction on the ride, possibly welding, when he fell to his death (or possibly was crushed by a falling beam). There is no documented evidence of this, but since the day the ride opened, it has been plagued with mysterious breakdowns and uncanny happenings. According to one detailed account from a former Cast Member 18 years ago, reposted to Reddit in 2020, an old woman regularly boarded the ride during the first few months and asked for a boat by herself.
"On the in-ride security cameras, she could be seen weeping and talking to nobody," the post by MesaVerde87 said. "Eventually, it was discovered that she was having imaginary conversations with her deceased son, George."
George is said to be a mischievous spirit and loves to wreak havoc. Doors open by themselves and people claim to feel tugs or taps, and chilly areas. The control room gets calls with no one on the other end. Glowing orbs have been captured on film. The ride glitches in different ways, some minor, some serious. They say George's initials are carved on the bottom of the tall, windowed tower (called "George's Tower" by staffers), and bleed through if anyone paints over them. If the light is on in that tower, Cast Members get extra watchful.
A small door behind the dog holding the jail cell keys in its mouth is "George's Door" and it must be kept closed at all times. If it's left open, experienced staffers know the ride will probably break down soon. To keep their supernatural coworker appeased, with any breakdowns blamed on Cast Members failing to show respect. "Hello, George" is boomed over the PA every morning and that door is checked every night.
Reports of George aren't as frequent as they used to be. According to a Reddit AMA from Pirates of the Caribbean Cast Member "disneymagic" in 2014, Crew Members were asked to stop telling the story to guests after a little boy "got really freaked out" and his parents complained.
Is George real? Or was he a good excuse for recurring problems with a notoriously complicated and finicky ride that Cast Members used to scare new employees and guests? Or is he both?
"I still say goodnight to him every time I close the ride though. :)," disneymagic said.
4. There's a creepy doll in Liberty Square
Cast Members are happy to point out the disturbing-looking doll lurking in a window of a building in the Liberty Square Market, behind a wheelbarrow and a cellar door. Sometimes they'll mention, offhandedly, that they've seen it move.
According to themainstreetmouse.com, the doll is there because in colonial times, dolls were often placed in windows to alert firefighters that children lived in the house.
5. Disney World is haunted by people who have died there
George is the most famous of the Magic Kingdom spirits, but any time something tragic happens to someone in the Magic Kingdom — or people think something tragic happened — their story becomes part of the Happiest Place on Earth. Some of the notable ghost stories spread over the years include:
A guest died on the Space Mountain ride in the 1970s and Cast Members will tell you his ghost will grab any empty seat to ride it again.
A 4-year-old boy died on the Mission Space ride at Epcot in 2005. Cast Members claim to feel cold spots there, and sometimes shuttle doors close at the wrong times.
A "bellhop" cast member reportedly died of a heart attack in the Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Cast Members will tell you. His ghost haunts the ride still, and Cast Members won't ride the Platform D elevator alone because lights might flicker and he may appear.
A persistent urban myth claims that someone hanged themselves on the "It's a Small World" ride in the late 1990s and it was caught on film by a guest. There was never any evidence of this, and an image that later went viral online was actually one of the animatronic characters moving along on a zipline.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Haunted Mansion among Disney World Florida ghost stories: 5 legends
