‘What is he doing up there?’ Disney World guest walks onto Cinderella Castle
A video went viral on TikTok, reaching more than 780,000 views, after a Walt Disney World guest strolled up the steps of the iconic Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom on Thursday — an area off-limits to visitors.
The towering Cinderella Castle, the 189-foot-tall landmark inspired by the Disney film “Cinderella,” acts as the gateway to Fantasyland within the park. As the trespasser walked across the balcony, waving and smiling to the guests below, visitors are heard saying, “He’s in trouble.” And: “What is he doing up there?”
As part of the “Walt Disney World’s property rules,” guests are not permitted to access or enter areas designated for cast members only or engage in an unsafe act that may impede the park’s operations.
Shannon Shaffer, a guest and TikToker who posts Disney-themed videos, wrote in an email that she had never seen something like that happen at the parks before. She presumed that he was allowed up there because of how easy he made it look, she said.
Nico Vacca, an Instagram influencer, told indy100 that because the door was open to the stairwell, he climbed up and had one of his friends take a picture from below. Afterward, a cast member called him down.
“When he saw the cast members, he walked down and just went about his day!” Shaffer, 24, wrote. “I was shocked the cast member didn’t stop him!”
Vacca told indy100 that a security guard approached him later that day about the incident and gave him an order not to trespass again. If Vacca returns to the parks within the next six months, he can be detained, according to the indy100 article.
“It’s definitely not a good idea to do things like this because it can get you banned from Disney,” Shaffer wrote.
A Disney representative did not immediately respond late Tuesday afternoon to the Miami Herald’s request for comment.
This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 5:31 PM.