A Few More Ghosts Won't Hurt

The deep spooky voice on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland tells you there are 999 "happy haunts" in the mansion, but "there's room for one more! [evil laugh]" Apparently some folks have been volunteering their dearly departed loved ones to fill the role:

Speaking of vandalism, there's been a growing list of incidents perpetrated on attractions at Disneyland that are not only illegal but that are increasingly, well... let's just say disturbing.

The big problem isn't graffiti or hot-to-trot teens in a back row, it's park visitors smuggling in the cremated remains of their loved ones and then spreading the ashes inside a favorite attraction. The Haunted Mansion is by far the most popular location for this, but you'd be surprised where else people are dumping cremated remains at Disneyland.

The craze seems to have gotten its start at the Haunted Mansion, with the earliest known incident taking place in the late 1990's. Ever since then the practice becomes more popular by the year, and it happens so frequently now that Disneyland has trained the ride operators how to handle such an incident and what to do when remains are discovered inside the attraction. Sometimes the person spreading the ashes is seen on the surveillance cameras and the Cast Members can respond quickly.

Because they have been instructed by the Security and Legal departments to never actually detain a park visitor, most of the perpetrators spreading the ashes are never actually caught however, and they disappear into the park. But when a Haunted Mansion Cast Member sees ashes being spread from a passing Doom Buggy, the attraction is cycled out and shut down for hours at a time while the Custodial department comes in and begins the clean up. The Anaheim Police are also involved in the incident, but there's rarely anything they can do about it either.

Sometimes however the cremated ashes aren't found until the end of the night when the Cast Members close down the rides and walk the tracks looking for lost and found. Just last month that situation occurred when a Cast Member at the Haunted Mansion found several piles and a trail of ashes alongside the ride track. The Anaheim Police and Disneyland Security were summoned, and judging by the large amount of ashes this deposit was likely a small group of deceased people, or perhaps a very large married couple. The police identified the substance as human remains, and the custodial crew came in for the clean up.

I find this particularly interesting because in the summer of 1975 I was a sweeper at Disneyland and my territory all summer was the Haunted Mansion. At that time the park was only 20 years old and I never heard of anyone dumping ashes in the Mansion or anywhere else (apparently Pirates of the Carribean is also a popular spot with the ride being shut down for 15 minutes the other day after a woman was seen dumping ashes in water). When I was there the worst thing we had to deal with could be handled with "barf dust". I'd rather sweep up the remains of Little Jimmy's Grandma than Little Jimmy's lunch.

Now that the park is 52, there are undoubtedly many people who have spent their whole lives enjoying the park to the point where they would like to be "buried" there. Since the graveyard at the Mansion is not open for business, dumping ashes has become the next best thing.

Now that Disneyland allows weddings to take place in the park (with proper approval - they used to be banned altogether), Disney may have to start allowing some sort of memorial service for those dedicated Disneyphiles who just can't stand to be away too long. Maybe they can charge them the cost of an annual pass (without parking - the dearly departed won't need that).

My daughter will be home from college during the Thanksgiving break and one thing she really wants to do is go to Disneyland, so the day before Thanksgiving we'll spend some time over there. However, only the four of us will be going - we're not bringing along anyone we plan to leave behind.