Disney World is a place that many of us visit to feel happy, nostalgic, and care-free for a few days. After all, it’s known as The Most Magical Place on Earth for a reason!

However, as much as Disney does try to distract us from the stressors associated with the realities of everyday life, there are some things that even pixie dust can’t fix. Sometimes, bad things happen — even at Disney World. Sometimes, when you take a closer look at things, they don’t seem so magical after all. Disney has handled a global pandemic, countless hurricanes, and even hurricanes and fires. How does Disney prepare for these things, and how do they recover? Let’s talk about it!

Cast Members at the Disney Parks are trained for the worst case scenario on many fronts. Whether it be a natural disaster, unruly park visitors, or a health emergency, they’re trained to handle it all. We’re going to dive into some scenarios and talk about what might happen at Disney World if any of them were to occur. Let’s go!

Hurricanes

This is probably the most likely ‘worst case scenario’ that occurs at Disney World. Seemingly every year, the parks close at some point due to inclement weather caused by a hurricane. Rest assured that Disney World property is likely one of the safest places you could be during a storm of this extent.

First, Disney World is located in Central Florida — away from the coast. The brunt of the storm typically subsides before it heads inland, so by the time it reaches Disney World, the winds associated with the storm are usually not nearly as strong as the winds that hit the coast. Even though this is the case, each building on property is built by code to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.

Further, Disney World also has backup power generators, food, and water in the event of extreme situations.

Here’s some advice from DFB readers who have been at Disney World during a hurricane

Fires

Fires are the disaster that the Cast Members are probably trained the MOST to be able to handle. At Disney World, a “Signal 25” means fire. Cast Members have secret little ways at each location to communicate a Signal 25 with each other before panic ensues among Disney World visitors.

General locations have been evacuated, but parks as a whole have not been evacuated due to a fire. Further, several precautions are placed around the parks to try to prevent the possibility of fires spreading. For example, the tops of the buildings in Magic Kingdom have sprinklers that turn on nightly so that sparks and debris from the fireworks don’t cause a fire to break out.

Terrorist Attacks

This is one of the worst of the worst-case scenarios. It’s a scenario that you can’t prepare for, and a scenario that if it does happen, you have to implement policies swiftly and without mistake. Cast Members are in fact trained briefly on how to handle terrorist attacks. The best way to describe how a situation like this might be handled is through a story that some of you might remember very vividly.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the only times Disney World closed the gates to the parks for over 24 hours (for reasons unrelated to inclement weather) was on September 11th, 2001. Cast Members found out about the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center while in their respective break rooms, and leaders slowly began getting pinged that the Cast Members should start directing guests out of the parks. They were strictly told to not share with guests the reason behind the park’s closure.

The guests didn’t know what was happening. They were confused and angry that they were losing the money they’d spent on tickets. The haunting message that played over and over on the park speakers in Magic Kingdom will forever be ingrained in the minds of Cast Members working that day: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Magic Kingdom is now closed. Please follow the direction of the nearest Cast Member.”

No one knew what the next target of attack would be. Since Disney World was such a large tourist destination, officials feared The Most Magical Place on Earth might be next to be attacked. Of course, the “Disney way” is to distract guests from the harsh realities of life. Unless they were one of the few with a cell phone in 2001, no one knew what was happening until they exited the park.

If anything like this were to happen today, the Cast Member protocol would be to calmly direct guests out of the park — focusing on chaos control since everyone would likely already know what was happening due to the modern digital age.

Health and Mental Health Crises

This is another extremely common scenario. Health crises happen in the parks seemingly everyday. Cast Members work hard to discreetly handle situations like accidents and mental health crises in the parks and on Disney property.

As you might already know, code language is used for Cast Members to communicate needing an ambulance — referring to them as “Alpha Units.”

Food Shortages

Food shortages were especially common in the months following the pandemic, when shipping was backed up and there weren’t enough workers to make supply chain efforts flow efficiently. If anyone remembers the Great Ketchup Shortage of 2021, you know EXACTLY what we mean.

Of course, Disney World is as prepared as possible when it comes to food shortages. Disney executives have spoken on the matter and stated that they work to diversify their suppliers to help alleviate potential shortages. Plus, they’ve been known to swap some of their vendors to get the “next best thing” instead.

Staff Shortages

Staff shortages became a huge issue at Disney World due to the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to be an issue as Cast Members left Disney due to wage issues and hours, and also the fact that the Disney College Program was cancelled for a while.

Unfortunately, one of the ways that Disney World mitigates staff shortages is to close attractions for extended periods of time. Whether this be days, weeks, months in a row or simply closing before the park closes.

Thankfully, this isn’t as much of an issue anymore and we’ve seen almost everything return from pandemic closures.

Pandemics

Last but not least: the one we’re all pretty familiar with. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cast Members at Disney World worked to make sure Disney World visitors like you and me have as close to a normal experience as possible.

For starters, everyone wore masks. Cast Members stood outside sweating without relief while visitors were able to have brief respites when entering attractions and dining locations.

On top of that, rides and commonly-touched surfaces were sanitized every two hours. That took up a LOT of time out of the day! Oh, and can we please take a moment and talk about all the plexiglass? It truly felt like we were living in Elsa’s ice palace with all the transparent barriers. Can we take another moment to talk about the social distancing signs and markers on the ground to ensure everyone was 6-feet apart? (We kind of miss the 6-feet apart thing.) Oh, and how could we forget about the temperature checks upon entering the parks?!

All this is to say that those in charge at Disney World did all they could to run the theme parks smoothly while still keeping everyone as safe as possible. Shoutout to every Cast Member who worked during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Well, there you have it! Those are all the worst case scenarios we could think of — other than maybe the “it’s a small world” dolls coming to life and running rampant over the parks, or all the Kilimanjaro animals escaping and taking over the ride operations, or maybe even a Plastic Cheese shortage. (Can you even IMAGINE? Okay, we’ll stop talking now.)

We’ll continue to keep you updated with any and all Disney news, so make sure to follow along for more.

Looking for how YOU can avoid bad situations at Disney World? Click here! 

Have you ever been at Disney World when the worst has occurred? If you feel comfortable, share it with us in the comments!