Walt Disney theme parks are, apparently, a final resting place for countless dead people.
Custodians at the two U.S. locations of the “Happiest Place on Earth” — Disneyland in Anaheim, California and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida — revealed to the Wall Street Journal that the parks are a preferred place for people to scatter their loved ones’ ashes.
“The Haunted Mansion probably has so much human ashes in it that it’s not even funny,” one Disneyland custodian told the Journal.
It happens so often, in fact, Disney staff have a specific code for ash scattering — HEPA cleanup, referring to a powerful type of vacuum. When a park employee becomes privy to one of these unconventional ceremonies, the ride is typically shut down for cleaning as guests receive apologies for “technical difficulties.”
Park visitors are known by Disney to smuggle in their friends’ and families’ remains via plastic bags, sandwich baggies and pill bottles hidden inside purses and pockets.
One scatterer explained to the newspaper that she decided to lay her father to rest near Disney World’s gates to remember their summer trips together.
“He wasn’t my tired, graveyard-shift Dad (at Disney World),” the 41-year-old mourner said. “He was, ‘Let’s get you the Mouse ears! Let’s get your name stitched in it!’ It’s like, ‘I love this dad! Can we stay forever?’”
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