Originally Posted By Westsider At about the same time that some crazy guy was climbing up the Disneyland marquee and hijacking Harbor Bvld. on Halloween night, another person was spreading the cremated remains of a loved one inside the Haunted Mansion! Word from Attractions and Custodial CM's who were working Halloween night is that the Haunted Mansion closed for two hours after human cremated remains were found spilled inside a Doombuggy as it passed through the loading area. The Lead stopped loading the buggies in that part of the chain and called over the manager, who took a look at the ashes as they passed through the service area and then had the ride shut down. Once the attraction was cleared of guests and the Omnimover was brought to a stop, the Lead went inside the ride and found several more piles of ashes throughout most of the ride. Security management and the Anaheim Police Department came over and interviewed all the CM's present, and then Custodial was finally cleared to go in with their special HEPA vacuums and sterilizing equipment to clean it all up. After about two hours, once the ride was cleaned and all the ashes were removed, the Haunted Mansion finally reopened around 6:30 pm and developed a 90 minute line. I still can't figure out why people do this with the remains of close friends and family. Whoever it was that was spread in the carpeted areas of the Haunted Mansion ended up being disposed as medical waste in the bags of a couple of very expensive vacuums, if not just wiped away off of the hard surfaces by heavy duty detergents. I doubt a HEPA vacuum is the final resting place the deceased had in mind when they wrote their will, don't you? And I doubt the deceased (who must have been a Disneyland fan) wanted to close a popular attraction on Halloween and cause a few thousand fellow Disneyland fans to be frustrated and upset with the long downtime and attraction closure. What an odd way to be remembered.
Originally Posted By Westsider But then of course if you ask the Disneyland spokesman in TDA he'll tell you and any media outlet that will listen that this sort of thing doesn't really happen at Disneyland and it's just the musings of a few crazies on the Internet. That two hour downtime on Halloween didn't really happen, and the two dozen Cast Members involved and interviewed by the police don't really know what they are talking about like the TDA spokesmen, now do they? Also, the circa 1964 boats at Small World have absolutely no problem with bottoming out when some large 21st century people ride in them either. The TDA spokesmen would never lie about that! ;-)
Originally Posted By DyGDisney >>Also, the circa 1964 boats at Small World have absolutely no problem with bottoming out when some large 21st century people ride in them either. The TDA spokesmen would never lie about that! ;-)<< LOL! Last trip to DL I got REALLY soaked on Pirates of the Carribean when we went down the waterfall. I couldn't figure out why, I had never gotten so wet before! Then my husband pointed out we had 4 or 5 large 21st century people in the boat with us!
Originally Posted By EmmaJayne I have to say, when I was at Disneyland, I said to my brother 'If I die, spread my ashes through Fantasyland' but luckily he realised it was a joke. I can't believe anybody would be so crazy as to write this in their will and then have somebody act on it..surely they knew it could only end badly.
Originally Posted By -PLP- You have brought up a good point Westsider...on our second or third training shift for Custodial they trained us for the ash clean-up & said that 90% of the time it occurs in the HM.. other times it is in the deceased persons other favorite attraction. And then the deceased end up in some Bio waste dump. That's too bad. I hear that the ashes show up like snow under the black lites from a CM who has cleaned it up before. As for the clown on the marquee,I was curious why the shuttle took us the long way to our parking lot instead of down Harbor. I didn't see any traffic that direction, now I know why... LOL Now they will probably figure out some kind of neat design addition to prevent future sign climbers. I Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween... :')
Originally Posted By Ghost Hostess We were at the mansion at around 7:30, and the line was going out the gate. I overheard people saying that the line was probably so long because it was Halloween. If only they knew what was REALLY going on!
Originally Posted By Kira If that is true than I would personally like to thank the idiots who dumped the ashes...because that would explain why mansion had a horrid line the rest of the night and the line was the very reason I didn't go on it last night. So thank you ash dumpers for ruining my hopes of going on the ride in the few hours I was at the park last night I want to know more about the crazy that climbed the billboard though lol.
Originally Posted By ecdc I genuinely understand that DL has very special memories for people. For someone who may have recently lost a loved one, especially a child, I can understand the pull of DL as a place to spread some ashes. But people really need to think through this, even in a time of grieving. Even if you do manage to sneak a small portion in and dump it somewhere undetected, it won't last. It's gonna get cleaned up sooner or later. If people have to have the connection to DL, go buy a piece of memorabilia and place it with the ashes.
Originally Posted By Anatole69 They should just install a special urn inside the ride itself for people to dump any ashes they might have with them. It is a Haunted Mansion after all, it wouldn't be out of theme to have a community urn... and Disney could claim they are doing it as part of the recycling effort. lol. - Anatole
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>Also, the circa 1964 boats at Small World have absolutely no problem with bottoming out when some large 21st century people ride in them either. The TDA spokesmen would never lie about that!<< The last time I was stopped behind a boat on iasw, the boat stuck on the curve was EMPTY.
Originally Posted By pecos bill A very thoughtless and ignorant deed. So much for a romantic eternity inside the Mansion, only to be wrapped in plastic bags and disposed of like common bio-waste! Based on the relatively frequent number of these cases, I am surprised that some poor demented soul has not actually done themselves in on the ride. Another idea for cremated remains would be to bury them in the HM graveyard, for a substantial fee of course. I could honestly see people paying tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig There is a new process now whereby they can take cremated remains and compress them under heat and tremendous pressure and turn them into a cultured diamond. This is true, I'm not making this up. The cleaner course of action would be to have this done to the remains, then quietly toss the gemstone onto the pile of riches in the treasure cave in Pirates of the Caribbean. Nobody would ever notice it there nor would they know where to find it and retrieve it. As to spreading actual ashes around in the rides, especially the indoor rides, how selfish, thoughtless, and yucky.
Originally Posted By Route66 This is a recurring problem. People are doing this all over Disneyland and OVER Disneyland for that matter.
Originally Posted By danyoung My thought for the spreading of my own ashes (and you can borrow this if you want!) - have someone sit in the very back row of the SF&DRR train, and discreetly sprinkle out ashes a bit at a time into the winderness outside the tracks. Simple, discreet, not liable to be cleaned up, and guaranteed to remain as a permanent part of the park.
Originally Posted By monorailblue How about this--have your cremains buried or kept in some urn. Have the tiniest pinch scattered somewhere out of the way, and natural (plants, dirt, sprinklers, feral cats). Nothing inside an Attraction, please. And when I say "tiniest", I mean like 1 gram.
Originally Posted By NJ AP Wow! We were there in Coke Corner listening to Robert and was totally oblivious to it all.
Originally Posted By Route66 Just a tablespoon or so, would make the most sense. I think the whole urn of remains is too much, it would be symbolic enough to have a bit added to earth in Disneyland or put in the Rivers of America. Not in an attraction unless you want your remains caught in a filter or swept up and then thrown in the garbage. Choose some other places that are meaningful to you for the rest.
Originally Posted By mele <<There is a new process now whereby they can take cremated remains and compress them under heat and tremendous pressure and turn them into a cultured diamond. This is true, I'm not making this up. The cleaner course of action would be to have this done to the remains, then quietly toss the gemstone onto the pile of riches in the treasure cave in Pirates of the Caribbean. Nobody would ever notice it there nor would they know where to find it and retrieve it.>> Hey, thanks for blabbing my plan to everyone.
Originally Posted By Westsider There were also cremated human remains spread through the Haunted Mansion about a month ago, just after the Holiday version of the ride opened for the year. But as I remember it, that incident was on a Monday and the weekday crowds were smaller and it didn't cause as big of an impact as the Halloween incident did. It happens fairly regularly at Haunted Mansion, and less frequently at other attractions. As for throwing a remains gem into the Treasure Scene at Pirates, you might want to know that scene gets a lot of attention during rehabs. The props people come in and clean and repaint the jewels and props during every rehab, because the sparkling reflection is important to the look of that scene. That scene is also regularly wiped down and dusted by third shift custodial, again to keep it looking sparkling and shiny. The next Pirates rehab starts in February for about five weeks, so if you threw Grandma onto the pile of jewels she would last there only for about three more months.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt I would much rather be "sprinkled" out in the graveyard grass!! Does Madame Leota have a head stone at DL? At WDW her stone opens her eyes & moves her head..quite cool!!
