Credit: DisneyChaos broke out at Disney Park this week when a guest started “twerking” in the middle of Avengers Campus.
Since 1955, Disney’s theme parks have set themselves apart from the competition by providing magical, fun-filled hubs for the entire family. Disney takes its reputation as a provider of this family-friendly fun extremely seriously and has a track record of cracking down on features or behavior that don’t meet this description.
For example, Disney won’t hesitate to remove or deny entry to guests whose clothing is deemed inappropriate. “The parks are a casual, family-oriented environment,” Disneyland Resort writes on its website, where it lists “clothing which, by nature, exposes excessive portions of the skin that may be viewed as inappropriate for a family environment” and “clothing with objectionable material, including obscene language or graphics” as forbidden.
In the past, guests have called out other parkgoers who’ve violated this dress code by wearing t-shirts emblazoned with inappropriate slogans such as “good sex, no stress, one boo, no ex” or couple shirts bearing phrases like “I gave her the ‘D’” and “I wanted the ‘D.’”
While it’s relatively easy for cast members to intervene when a Disney theme park guest wears something inappropriate (usually by simply refusing them entry), one thing that’s harder to keep a cap on is inappropriate guest behavior.
We’ve reported on plenty of incidents at Disney over the years, ranging from full-blown fistfights in Toontown to guests getting too intoxicated at the parks. The latest shocking incident took place in Disney California Adventure Park, where one guest reportedly started “twerking” after being admonished by a Disney cast member.
A parkgoer took to Reddit to recount the incident, which occurred while they were waiting to see “The Amazing Spider-Man!” – the stunt show in which Spider-Man flips through the skies above WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure in Avengers Campus.
After arriving early, the user witnessed a group of girls arrive and sit at the front of the viewing area. However, as the show began, a male cast member reportedly asked them to move “as they effectively ‘cut’ the viewing line.”
While most of the girls began to move, one Disney guest apparently decided to make a scene. “[She] walks about 4 feet away from the CM and starts twerking at him,” the Reddit user recalls. “Yes, turned around, bent over, and started shaking her ass at him. She did not say a word, just shook her ass.”
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Cast members reacted swiftly. “In what seemed like a millisecond, 5 or more female CMs surrounded this girl and were clearly chewing her out/telling her to knock it off and to move along,” the user wrote.
As the Reddit user added, this wasn’t the only “deplorable” behavior they witnessed from guests during their day at California Adventure. However, they praised “the amount of grace and professionalism exhibited by the CMs” in response to this behavior.
“Bravo to the brave CMs that deal with this crap daily,” they concluded. “Thank you for making the park [experience] all the better!”
Cast members truly are the glue that keeps Disneyland’s magic together. That’s why nearly 14,000 cast members across Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure Park, Downtown Disney, and the resort’s three hotels (Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and Pixar Place Hotel) recently threatened to walk out en masse as negotiations for higher pay and fairer working conditions continued at the resort.
Fortunately, cast member unions and Disneyland Resort managed to come to an agreement in late July. This included a three-year contract containing significant wage increases for all cast members (starting at $24 per hour, which the group has called the “biggest wage increases ever” at the resort), seniority increases, and additional premiums.
It also apparently included negotiations on issues that will improve attendance and sick leave policies for cast members.
Do you think guest behavior has gotten worse at Disney theme parks?