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Credit: DisneyIf you’ve spent time in the Disney corner of the internet, you’ve likely encountered the rumor that being born in a Disney park guarantees you a Lifetime Pass.
Despite the fact that Disneyland Park opened nearly 70 years ago, there hasn’t exactly been a huge number of births to test this theory. Immersive though the parks may be, all sit close enough to medical services that your odds of going into labor and actually giving birth before you can be whisked to hospital are extremely slim.
However, one baby did, in fact, defy the odds back in 1979, giving us an idea of exactly what happens if you go into labor on Disney property…
Baby Born at Disneyland
On July 4, 1979, Rosa and Elias Salcedo were visiting Disneyland and riding the Submarine Voyage (now known as Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage) in Tomorrowland when a heavily pregnant Rosa started experiencing sharp pains. The pain got worse throughout the ride and by the time they were out in the open, Rosa was in labor, ultimately giving birth to a baby girl named Teresa Salcedo – the first official baby born at Disney!
Where Do You Give Birth at Disney?
Ignore those rumors about Disney building a maternity ward (call it a hunch, but somehow, we don’t think Disney CEO Bob Iger has allocated any of that $60 billion theme park investment into top-tier birthing facilities).
The average labor for a woman’s first baby lasts 12 to 24 hours, and while it can be considerably shorter for subsequent births, you still usually have hours between the first signs and the actual moment that your baby is born.
Teresa, however, was a different case entirely. While Disney cast members and medical staff from First Aid fully intended to evaluate Rosa’s situation and assumedly have her taken to the nearest hospital, things were moving too quickly. As a result, Teresa was born on Main Street, U.S.A. That’s obviously not the ideal location to give birth, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Do You Get a Lifetime Pass?
Let’s be real for a second: if Disney did hand out a free Lifetime Pass to those born at Disney, there would almost definitely be an uptick in heavily pregnant diehard fans spending hours roaming the parks in their third trimester.
Seeing as how Disney 100% does not want its parks turned into makeshift birthing facilities, offering a Lifetime Pass as a potential incentive for doing so would be a not-so-smart idea. With that in mind, you shouldn’t be shocked to discover that, no, Disney does not offer a Lifetime Pass.
This rumor probably started because Teresa did get some kind of honorific for being the first Disney baby. When she was an infant, her family returned to Disney as guests of honor. Teresa received a “birth certificate” that read “Disneyland Birth Certificate No. 1,” awarded in a ceremony in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Cute though this may be, this clearly wasn’t intended as the beginning of a brand-new Disney park tradition. In fact, other babies have since been born at Disney and have not received the same fanfare as Teresa. In 1984, a woman gave birth to her daughter at Disneyland’s First Aid center while the rest of her family rode Space Mountain.
Over at Walt Disney World Resort, a newborn baby girl was found in a restroom (coincidentally enough, it was a restroom near Space Mountain) at Magic Kingdom Park in 1997. The baby was later identified as the ninth child of a 43-year-old tourist from the Philippines.
It was later reported that the baby – who was named Jasmine by social workers after Aladdin (1992) – would potentially be adopted by her aunt and uncle, who lived in New Jersey and had already adopted another of their niece’s children.
Two more births have also occurred at Disneyland – both sans-Lifetime Pass. In 2002, a baby was born backstage after the mother went into labor outside the entrance. Ten years later, another baby was born outside Disneyland when a woman unexpectedly went into labor in the Anaheim parking lot.
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