mean things can't quickly go wrong on a vacation.  There's a two-hour line for everything from It's a  

Small World to the restroom, your little brother  is terrified of the guy in the Mickey costume,  

and they want HOW much for a hot dog? But those  minor annoyances of vacation aside, you can be  

sure that everything runs smoothly at this little  slice of heaven in Orlando, Florida. Right?

Well, usually. But even at Disney's vacation  haven, things can go very wrong. And over their  

nearly fifty-year history, there have been some  truly shocking incidents at their rides, hotels,  

water parks, and even on their transportation.  Some rare incidents are caused by negligence on  

the part of maintenance or ride workers, but more  often these incidents are caused by guests going  

rogue. And then there are the generic accidents  or health issues that no one could predict.

These are some of the most messed-up things  that ever happened at Walt Disney World.

Sometimes the chaos starts even before people  enter the park. Disney World is full of lakes,  

and boating enthusiasts often like to rent small  boats to surf the waves. The only problem is,  

they're not the only ones using the  water. A couple from Celebration,  

Florida was enjoying the water in 2010  when the husband darted in front of a  

Disney ferryboat transporting guests to the  parks. Unsurprisingly, the ferryboat won,  

and the wife was taken to the hospital  with fractured ribs and a collapsed lung.

At least they were easy to rescue,  unlike the people in the next incident.

The Disney Skyliner is one of the most unique ways  to travel to and from the Disney parks, shuttling  

people from some of the resort's outskirt hotels  to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios via cable car.  

People can enjoy stunning views of the park - at  least when it's working. It was only weeks after  

the Skyliner's opening in 2019 when one gondola  got stuck leaving a station, and a line of other  

cars got stuck behind it. The entire system got  shut down, with a backload of trapped and scared  

passengers having to be evacuated by the local  fire department. Not exactly a smooth opening.

But what about the most famous way  of traveling around Disney World?

The Monorail has been shuttling people from the  central hotels to Magic Kingdom and EPCOT since  

the resort's opening, but it's not without  its own troubled history. There are several  

incidents of train cars colliding, but a  few incidents were more serious. In 1985,  

one car burst into flames while leaving the  EPCOT station, and passengers were forced to  

kick out the side windows and climb onto the roof.  Seven passengers were taken to the hospital for  

smoke inhalation. The culprit? A flat tire that  received too much friction from the concrete.

But it was 2009 when the  Monorail had its darkest day.

The busy monorail lines rely on tracks switching  seamlessly to avoid collisions but on July 5th,  

this failed to happen. As a result, Monorail  Pink slammed directly into Monorail Purple  

at the transportation hub, killing the pilot  of Monorail Purple instantly. After everyone  

was evacuated and the injured passengers were  treated, one of the biggest investigations in  

Disney history began. The National Transportation  Safety Board was brought in to find the culprit,  

three monorail employees were suspended, and the  feds put the blame on the shop panel operator  

for not properly aligning the switch  beam. The biggest lasting change?  

Guests were no longer allowed to ride in the front  cab car when on the monorail to keep them safer.

Disney World is a busy place and its  transportation system can be chaotic,  

but at least its hotels are a place of  refuge where nothing goes wrong - right?

Not exactly. While Disney's hotels are considered  among the best in the world, they can't prevent  

everything. While the theme parks have some of the  best security anywhere, the hotels are slightly  

easier to access - and that can mean trouble when  someone enters with bad intentions. In June 2000,  

Disney had one of its scariest moments when a  hostage situation broke out at the Boardwalk  

Inn. A child and a room service waiter were  taken hostage by the boy's disturbed father.  

He demanded to speak to his estranged wife, and  Disney quickly evacuated the hotel and called  

in hostage negotiators to talk the gun-toting  man down. Bismarck Rodriguez kept the hostages  

well into the night, but the incident ended  without bloodshed when he surrendered to police.

It wasn't the only time people at  Disney feared gun-toting maniacs.

It was May 2018 at the Contemporary  Resort, Disney's futuristic centerpiece,  

when a man caused a panic. Smelling of alcohol,  he went around the resort telling everyone that an  

active shooter was loose at the hotel. People went  into a panic, and the hotel was put into lockdown  

as the police searched for the culprit. They  couldn't find any shooter, and they eventually  

tracked the man who started the rumors to the  bushes outside where he was hiding and watching.  

It was all a lie. Why did he cause a panic?  To get traffic for his YouTube channel.

All hotels have dangers, and Disney hotels are  no different. The hotels have had their share  

of drownings at the pool and deaths  in the rooms. But one lurking danger  

is nature itself. Disney World might be a  vacation haven - but it's still in Florida.

Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort is billed as a  little taste of nature in the middle of a theme  

park, but one family from New York experienced  that the wrong way in 1980. An eleven-year-old  

boy was having a relaxing day at the now-defunct  River Country water park. Soon after swimming,  

he became very ill and died. The culprit? A rare  brain infection called Naegleriasis caused by a  

single-celled organism. Disney might work to keep  its water clean, but they can only do so much.

The next water predator they couldn't  keep people safe from was much bigger.

It was a picturesque night in July 2016  at the Grand Floridian Resort, bordering  

the Seven Seas lagoon. A two-year-old boy from  Nebraska was playing by the water when suddenly,  

an alligator lunged out of the water.  Quickly, the boy was grabbed by the  

large reptile and dragged below the water.  Search-and-rescue experts were quickly assembled,  

and it wasn't until the next afternoon that the  boy's body was found. The family sued Disney,  

but Disney argued that they couldn't be held  responsible for the presence of alligators.  

Disney eventually settled out of court, and  put up rope barriers around open water to  

protect people in the future. They even removed  alligator figures from some of their rides.

Phew. Things are more dangerous than expected  at Disney resorts. Time to head to the parks,  

where everything is secure and safe - right?

While Disney parks are among the  most secure places in the country,  

things can still go wrong. Many of Disney's rides  are rough and fast, and people are warned not to  

ride if they have certain pre-existing health  conditions because an otherwise healthy person  

could die suddenly. There's only one problem -  not everyone knows. Some health conditions hide  

completely undetected - a tiny heart malformation  that could trigger a massive heart attack.

There have been multiple times  when a ride comes to a stop,  

and one of the happy riders simply doesn't get  off. They died mid-ride from the wild motion.  

It's happened at all four Disney parks,  on rides including Star Tours, Dinosaur,  

Expedition Everest, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster,  Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and even the  

relatively gentle Toy Story Mania. In all these  cases, the investigation showed that the death  

was related to a pre-existing health condition  and the ride was able to continue operating.

But one ride at EPCOT developed  a reputation for danger.

It was 2003 when Mission Space promised  to blast visitors into the future.  

This high-tech space-themed pavilion promised a  thrill ride that would give people the closest  

thing they've felt to the sensation of blasting  off into space. Combining a motion simulator  

with a centrifuge, it was an interactive  thrill ride that simulated a trip to Mars.  

Everyone who rode it said it was the most  intense thrill ride Disney had ever debuted.  

Too intense for a four-year-old boy from  Pennsylvania, who died suddenly on the ride  

in 2005. His parents sued, but the cause of death  was proven to be an undiagnosed heart condition  

and the lawsuit was thrown out. It  seemed to be clear for blast-off.

That is, until it happened again.

Less than a year later, a German woman became  sick after riding and was taken to the hospital  

where she died of a brain hemorrhage. Although  doctors found she had severe high blood pressure  

that led to her death, people were getting  more worried about Disney's newest thrill ride.  

This wasn't unfounded, as in  the ride's first few years,  

paramedics had to be called to treat  almost two hundred riders of Mission Space!  

People were passing out, having difficulty  breathing, or reporting symptoms of a heart  

attack. Most were okay soon after, but it  was clear this virtual mission to space  

was pushing many people to their limit. Disney  soon introduced a milder version of the ride  

without the centrifuge as an option, and the ride  continues to thrill daring riders to this day.

Not all incidents happen on intense rides,  as people on a relaxing cruise found out.

The Jungle Cruise is one of Disney's oldest rides,  known for a slow ride through a river full of  

animals captained by jokey tour guides. But the  river cruise got a little wet for some riders  

in February 2020. Suddenly, with a boat full of  passengers, one of the ships started to sink!  

This was the age of social media, and soon  pictures were flooding the internet of people  

climbing on the boat railings to try to stay out  of the water. The local fire department showed up,  

the people were evacuated, and the ride  opened shortly after - with everyone thankful  

the jungle creatures surrounding  them were just audio-animatronics.

It's not just the rides that can  cause danger at Disney World either.

There's no better way to end a day at Disney World  than with a spectacular fireworks show, and most  

nights it goes off without a hitch. But one night  in 2014, those watching the Wishes fireworks show  

got a major scare. Falling embers from the show  traveled into Fantasyland, where they landed on  

the artificial grass surrounding the Seven  Dwarfs Mine Train. This created a blaze that  

caused the ride and everything around it to be  evacuated. While there were only minor damage and  

no injuries, seeing a blaze in the middle of the  happiest place on Earth scared a lot of people.

Fireworks can be dangerous, but what  could be dangerous about lunch at a cafe?

A family visiting Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in  Tomorrowland found that out the hard way when they  

sat down to lunch in 2010. Their four-year-old  son sat down and nearly fell over in his chair,  

so he grabbed a tray of food to stabilize himself.  That caused a plate of hot nacho cheese to fall on  

him, burning him. The family sued Disney,  claiming that the cheese was served at an  

unsafe temperature. Disney settled out of court,  an expensive ending to a traumatic cheese crash.

But it's not just the rides, fireworks, and food  that can be a hazard. Sometimes it's the guests.

A Florida woman was waiting in line for the  Mad Tea Party when she was suddenly attacked by  

another guest from Alabama, in one of the nastiest  fights ever in a Disney theme park. The attacker  

was arrested and sentenced to ninety days in  jail, but that wasn't the end of the story.  

Disney was sued not just by the victim, but by  her husband! He claimed that his wife's injuries  

caused him to lose her support and companionship  and that Disney was responsible for not having  

enough security to protect her. Disney did NOT  settle this lawsuit and quickly won in court.

It's not just the guests that can cause trouble,  though. Sometimes the cast members can go rogue.

The Haunted Mansion is one of  Disney's most popular attractions,  

filled with thousands of special effects  and props. But in 2018, there were a few  

less of them. A disgruntled former Disney employee  snuck into the haunted ride and stole about seven  

thousand dollars worth of costumes and props.  But you should always assume that while you're  

in a haunted mansion, you're being watched. He  was caught in the act and the authorities were  

informed of the stolen items. Police eventually  tracked him down and found the stolen items,  

which have since been returned to their  proper home with the 999 grim grinning ghosts.

At least those costumed characters  are always friendly, right?

Well, if you don't count Tigger. He was  always a little too energetic. In 2007,  

a teenage boy from New Hampshire was taking a  picture with a cast member dressed as Tigger when  

the big orange cat hauled off and punched him!  The cast member first claimed it was an accident,  

then said he was acting in self-defense and that  the boy was pulling on the back of his costume  

and making it hard for him to breathe. The case  was referred to the local authorities, and they  

decided not to press charges. Sometimes what  happens in Disney World, stays in Disney World.

One of the craziest incidents in Disney history,  

though, didn't happen in the park.  It happened in the parking lot.

It was 1984, shortly after EPCOT opened,  and a small plane came into view. But it  

was flying a little low, and suddenly  it crashed into the EPCOT parking lot,  

shattering the calm of a vacation day.  The husband and wife piloting the plane,  

along with their one-year-old daughter, were  killed instantly, but two other children in  

the plane survived their injuries. The plane was  on course for Disney from Greer, South Carolina  

as the family decided to fly their small plane  directly there instead of dealing with the  

airports. Something went wrong in the air and they  made an emergency landing, only to clip a pole in  

the parking lot and lose a wing. Instead of making  a smooth landing, they crashed directly into  

several cars in the parking lot. And suddenly,  everyone in Disney was watching the skies.

For all these crazy incidents, people still flock  to Disney in the millions every year, completely  

unafraid. That's because the notoriously cautious  Disney company learns from every crisis and  

takes new safety measures. Anything can happen at  Disney World - but it probably won't happen twice.

For more on chaos at amusement parks,  

check out “The Worst Amusement Park Ride  Disasters”, or check out this video instead.