Disney Worker Recounts Ghostly Experience on 'Haunted' Children's Ride
It's no secret that Disney World and Disneyland are haunted - or at the very least, there are thousands of people out there who will vehemently claim that they are haunted. Rides like the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Tower of Terror have long been rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of tourists and cast members who met an unfortunate fate there. It doesn't help that many people have tried to release their loved ones' ashes in the Disney parks, further adding to these spooky rumors.
But there's one supposedly haunted Disney ride that you might not suspect would have such a creepy reputation, due to its very gentle, kid-friendly theme. Despite appearances, though, one Disney cast member told the paranormal podcasters from Watcher that he's had more experiences at this particular ride than at the Haunted Mansion!
... Winnie the Pooh? Really? If you've ever been on Disney's Winnie the Pooh ride, you know that it's about as intense as you'd imagine a Winnie the Pooh-themed ride to be. The scariest thing about it, at least on its surface, is that it's a dark ride. However, a Disney cast member who worked on that ride told @wearewatcher that there's definitely something paranormal going on behind the scenes. He even claims to have seen a ghost there once!
According to the cast member, he once had to hit the emergency stop on the ride because he thought he saw an older woman walking past the vehicles, seemingly unnoticed by the other passengers. Thinking that someone had climbed out of the ride, the cast members evacuated the entire ride and did a full walk through. However, they didn't find the woman, the guests didn't report seeing her, and nobody matching her description came out during the ride evacuation. The confused cast member might have just shrugged it off as a trick of the eye... were it not for the fact that his coworker shut down the ride an hour later after supposedly seeing the exact same woman!
A History of Hauntings at Disneyland
The comments section clarified that he was talking about the Winnie the Pooh ride in Disneyland California. If you're a Disney World fan, you can breathe easy... for now, at least. Other cast members confirmed in the comments that something was definitely eerie about Disneyland's Winnie the Pooh ride:
"I worked at WTP in Anaheim as well... one night, I witnessed doors on the vehicles shutting by themselves while getting back to loading," recalled @kalindagray. Shudder...
The more you look beyond the usual suspects like Haunted Mansion, the more you realize how many Disney rides have some eerie tales surrounding them. The stories didn't stop with Winnie the Pooh. In fact, according to Disneyland cast members, some of the ghosts even have names.
"When I worked at Disneyland's Toontown, at Mickey Mouse's House, as a CM you are by a door, waiting for another CM to knock to let a family in to take pictures with Mickey," began @sheridanraeee. "Not once, but twice, I heard knocking, so I opened the door and no one was there. There was a cast member, but like a few feet away. I asked them, 'Did you knock on the door?' and they said, 'No, that must be Timmy'."
Some cast members even claim that Walt Disney, the man behind it all, still haunts his old apartment in Disneyland Anaheim. "I was backstage by Walt's apartment. I was waiting for someone. Nobody was around. Suddenly, I smelled a freshly-lit cigarette," said @hodgesart.
Could somebody just around the corner have been breaking Disneyland's "no smoking" rule? It's possible. All of these stories could have a potential explanation grounded in reality, like camera glitches or pranks between cast members. Still, with so many Disney cast members sharing weird paranormal stories, it's hard not to wonder if maybe there's more to the Disney Parks than meets the eye...
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