Thousands Evacuate Disney Park Land in Terror Amid Violent Attack
A surprise evacuation impacted thousands of Walt Disney World Resort guests on Monday morning. Reports state that Disney cast members frantically rushed guests out of The Land, located in the World Nature neighborhood at EPCOT.
Ride evacuations are common at Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Whether because of a real technical issue or because a guest threw a child off of Space Mountain or dropped their hat onto the ride track.
When an entire building shuts down, it’s typically because of a tripped emergency alarm or guest misbehavior. On Monday morning, some guests claimed it was the latter.
“At EPCOT now and they just completely evacuated the entire Land pavilion,” Redditor u/Extreme-Fajitas-67 wrote. “…Any intel on what might have happened??”
“A drunk, shirtless guest assaulted a cast member, got tazed, swung a stanchion at other guests before getting arrested,” u/NothingReallyandYou replied.
As Inside the Magic reported, the man pulled a metal pole out of the ground and swung it at guests and Disney cast members. He was previously asked to leave the Italy World Showcase pavilion and grew violent toward the front of the Disney park, near Mission: SPACE and Space 220 restaurant. Police apprehended the guest.
@alexis.ringel Disney? Whats going on? #huh #disneyfight2024 ?
However, reports indicate that the man was arrested on Sunday, June 16. The incident occurred in the World Discovery neighborhood, a significant distance from The Land in World Nature.
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The Disney Park guest later added more details that provided context to Monday’s evacuation:
“We were just about to get off of Living with the Land when they said the ride was experiencing technical difficulties. While we were sitting there waiting to offload the CMs started running around and frantically instructing people to leave the building through a backstage exit. Been coming here since 1989 and never seen anything like that!”
Other EPCOT guests shared their experiences with The Land shutdown. One agreed that it was related to the Living with The Land attraction.
“I was eating at Garden Grill when they evacuated the riders off the Land ride,” u/Silent_Run_2257 recalled. “I didn’t see anything else besides that.”
“Everything has been closed all day, ruined our day so far,” said u/SicklyNick. “Everything is a super long wait that is open.”
Wait time issues were exacerbated by the recent closure of Test Track for modernization.
“Everyone went [to The Imagination Pavilion] and to Seas,” u/HeirofZeon wrote. “40 minutes each for Figment and Turtle Talk. Eeessshhh.”
Walt Disney World Resort didn’t comment publicly on Monday’s The Land evacuation. It’s unclear what caused the urgent shutdown, but Living with The Land operated normally at the time of this article’s publication.
Have you been subjected to a sudden evacuation at Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort? In the comments, share your story with us.
