Reader Submitted Story
More Hijinks: Water, Haunted Mansion and PeopleMover

Hello again,

I've previously written in about my various explorations during my six year run at Disneyland and that got me remembering (and laughing) about a lot of other stuff that my buddies and I use to pull while working there.

In addition to the places I mentioned that we had discovered previously, there were a few other cool spots as well. One of these was what I called the boneyard. I don't know what the official name for it was but it was basically a big lot in the back Northwest end of the park where they stored all sorts of excess Disney refuse. You'd see old decaying Jungle cruise animatronics, a "herbie" Volkswagen, skyway buckets, Autopia cars, small world / pirate boats, old trash cans, fake scenery and all sorts of stuff, all decaying underneath the hot Southern California sun. It was like Disney's island of misfit toys or something.

One of the most interesting things back there was a melted PeopleMover car that was involved in a fire (I think) in the old speed tunnel around 91 or 92. I remember that day with everyone downplaying the whole thing, saying it wasn't that bad and all, but I'll tell you, judging from the damage to that vehicle, I think it was worse than they let on.

The long-gone (but not forgotten!) PeopleMover

And speaking of the PeopleMover, another great spot that I found once and only once was the PeopleMover maintenance area. It was located on the top of the America Sings building just on the other side of the speed tunnel. The great thing about this shop was that when you walked in you could tell that it once housed the old city of the future model from when the place was the Carousel of Progress. Again there was the curve of the room along with the wooden handrail that separated the guests from the model. And if I remember correctly, the walls were still painted to look like the evening sky. Again, another great spot to sit for a moment and soak up the history. I imagine the whole thing is gone or at least redone since they put the Rocket Rods in. Of course now you can probably sneak up there and reminisce about when they had the Rocket Rods, right? Anyway, moving right along...

With all the fun I had at that place there always seemed to be a common element and that was "water." Whether it was "baptizing" new skippers on Jungle as someone wrote earlier, or just pushing someone in, or just taking out the skiff for a ride, water was always there and part of the fun. Perhaps the funniest thing I ever witnessed (more than once) was what a buddy of mine that I worked with on Big Thunder would like to do. There is an area back in train storage that is called "gate 18". There's a picnic table back there where CMs will take a break once in awhile cuz it's usually cool and shady and close to the station. Anyways, this area actually backs the tunnel that you go thru just before you climb the second hill on the ride. There is a hose on the wall that is used to hose down the trains by maintenance at night. On the other side of this wall you can hear trains constantly going by in the darkness.

One day I'm sitting back there and my buddy says "hey watch this." He then takes the hose and sticks it thru a little knothole in the wall and turns it on as a train passes by full of guests! One of the funniest sounds I've ever heard in my life was hearing the guests screams go from "Yaaayyyy" to "AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!" as the train hurled them thru an unexpected stream of water in the darkness. We were howling! Of course it got to be somewhat addicting to do this and each time he did he got more and more bold until he totally soaked one train and they all came back drenched with one guy screaming that a pipe had broken! At that point the lead (who was unaware) shut down the ride and went to investigate only to find nothing. That was a close one but it didn't stop it from occasionally happening again.

The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland

Another place to have fun was the Haunted Mansion. Obviously its dark and spooky and there are a million places to hide (along with a million very real black widow spiders already hiding there) but sometimes all you needed to do was watch the guests to have a good laugh. Of course Mr. Koenig and others have already told of the various activities that take place when guests think they're alone in the dark but there were other entertaining bits as well.

One was what a friend of mine called "the Mansion Shuffle". This of course was the little "dance" that always took place whenever folks would step onto the moving walkway and try to board the doom buggies. It was always chaos. Ok I know what you're thinking. I'm some sick jerk who likes to see old folks fall down, right? Wrong. I would almost always stop the belt for these people and help them board but sometimes it was really entertaining to watch a huge group of obnoxious grad niters try to negotiate a moving sidewalk in the dark at 3 am. They could never do it. My job was to "guide" them into each buggy but sometimes for kicks, I would just let 'em try to figure it out for themselves and I'm telling you, they could NEVER do it! You'd always end up with forty kids standing (or falling) at the other end of the belt and wondering where to go.

The Haunted Mansion also had a ton of doors that go every which way. Sometimes on my way to my shift at the Country Bears I'd swing into one of my favorites which dropped you off in the hallway above the ballroom scene where I might sneak up to an unsuspecting doom buggy and yell "AAARRRGGHHHH" before making a quick exit. Also I used to enjoy folks who had to loudly recite every piece of dialogue in the stretching room to show what a veteran guest they were or something. I use to enjoy turning off the elevator on the way down so that once the lights went out then came back on, you'd reach the bottom and then just sit there while everyone would turn to whatever wall they thought was gonna open up. And then it wouldn't.... And we'd sit there.... And sit there.... And sit there.... And then they'd look at me like "what's going on?" But I'd look straight ahead. And we'd sit there.... And sit there.... And sit there.... Till finally it would just start to reach that uncomfortable and claustrophobic level and then I'd finally turn it back on and the doors would promptly open up with everyone muttering, "was it like that before?, I don't remember that, I think it broke."

So there was another little taste of what we got into while I worked there. Sometimes you really needed this kind of stuff just to break up the boredom that comes with pushing a green button for "go" and a red button for "stop" for eight hours at a time. Though this stuff might seem mean or controlling to some, rest assured we really aren't the control-freaks that we sound like. At least not as much as Walt was....

— Anonymous