Subsonic Radio

Spotted this on the BBC News website this afternoon, thought you might enjoy a chuckle: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6189521.stm

From the article:

When James Worley paid a visit to Disney World in Florida his portly frame and white beard soon had kids asking: "Are you Santa Claus?"

Not wanting to disappoint, Mr Worley, 60, played along with some "ho-ho-hos".

But Disney officials descended, telling him to stop the impersonation or get out of the park. They said they wanted to preserve the magic of Santa.

Wow, that's crazy. I can't believe Disney thinks he's confusing the kids when there is a different Santa at each country in Epcot. Talk about confusing!

If I were a Disney official, I'd seriously consider offering him a job. The kids already think he's Santa and he'd look a lot better in a parade than one with a fake portly frame and beard!

I'm surprised they'd go to those lengths but I can understand why they may. If he were to then say something that would not go with the image of Santa I'm sure parents would be upset - especially if they think he is an employee of WDW. They do that sort of thing at many Halloween events as well, where if you wear a costume you get turned away so people won't confuse you with employees. This is a lot different than him wearing a costume (I think, it didn't mention a Santa suit), but if he's playing along that might be a real issue.

With that being said, if Disney officials descended on this guy while saying ho ho ho I'm sure that's an issue too as now those kids think "Why is Disney telling Santa to stop saying 'Ho Ho Ho'?'"

Mr.ToadWildRider: They don't turn people away for wearing costumes at the Not So Scary Halloween Parties at the Magic Kingdom. The night I went to that I saw far too many Snow Whites to keep count, and many other characters (including a *very* convincing Captain Jack Sparrow, and one that left a lot to the imagination ) In fact, they encourage people to dress up for that. The official website, indeed, says: "Characters decked out in their favorite costumes — so wear yours, too." (This page)

And no, before you ask. I wasn't in costume. Mainly because I didn't have time to sort one out inbetween getting back to Vista Way from work and leaving for the Magic Kingdom (which amounted to less than 10 minutes as I recall.) The people I was there with were, though, and as we took the ferry from the Transportation and Ticket Centre to the Magic Kingdom, the captain on the ferry commented on the tannoy (he was doing the welcome announcement already as we were last people to get on the boat, arriving just as they were closing the gates) on the "scary looking Mickey Mouse" that was boarding the boat

Andy.

I wasn't specifically commenting on WDW in the instance of Halloween, I was referring to Haunted "Theme" Parks that many cities/regions put up with haunted houses, hayrides, etc. Also I know that Universal doesn't (or at least never used to) allow costumes at Halloween Horror Nights as they explicitly put "Guests wearing costumes will not be permitted to enter"

Ahh, my mistake. I read it as talking about Disney

I write freelance at a site called Associated Content, and so do a lot of other people, some of whom do nothing but whine. Such a person wrote an article about this issue, making sure to add in that Walt was anti-semitic (because that was obviously very important to the article). It was just a big excuse to complain about Disney (he has since wrote an article complaining about Dominos as well; he's a great crusader for people who can't follow the rules, get in trouble, and then whine about it). Disney is private property. They can ask you to leave for any reason. Disney felt that this man was impersonating Santa Claus, and Disney has their own Santa. Disney does not claim to own THE rights to Santa, but it's their property and they get to say who is Santa. It's the same thing as if I went to the Magic Kingdom dressed like Tinker Bell and started signing autographs and telling people I was her.

Here's a link to the article if you're interested, and I'm Kristen Miller in the comments (there are a few pages of them): http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... us_is.html