Stories to Tell in the Dark

Disney's Catacombs

So, a couple years back, my buddies and I tried to stay in the park after closing time. Our plan was to just take pictures. Nothing sinister or anything like that; we just wanted to be able to say we did it, you know?

Basically, we snuck from bathroom to bathroom, corner to corner, and managed to stay there, until they closed the gates and the maintenance team got to work.

We were really surprised we hadn't gotten caught; it was almost strange, considering how much talking up Disney security gets.

Our hearts were beating like crazy and we sat there for a while, hiding behind a tombstone by the Haunted Mansion. We noticed that it's true: the Disney staff had signed their names on every single one.

So, finally, we got the courage to roam about, still being careful as to not be seen. It was really eerie. The occasional guard or maintenance worker would walk by, and we would just duck or hide behind a corner. It worked... for about a half hour.

Of course, we couldn't keep this up for long, and yeah, they caught us. I mean, give us props for even attempting and succeeding, but that's not where the story ends.

So the first thing we said when they caught us was, "Are you going to take us down to the dungeon?" and we laughed. The security guard chuckled, too, so the mood wasn't too dreary.

He told us we weren't the first people to try to sneak in after hours, but he wanted to know how we did it. We explained the situation, and he actually laughed and said that wasn't a bad plan.

He told us he had to take us to the Disney jail to be further interrogated, which we thought was odd, but we figured from the beginning that if we had gotten caught, they'd take us down there. It might have been our plan all along; maybe we wanted to see the Disney "catacombs" more than we wanted to be in the park after hours.

So he called for more workers to come and help him escort us, and we went on our way towards Toontown. Then they took us down in this elevator.

Right into hell...

The first thing we noticed was how expensive-looking the elevator was. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's hard to explain. It was like a stainless steel interior, with mirrors all around, and the floor was this tacky red carpeting. But it looked expensive. There were only two buttons in this elevator (not counting the emergency buttons). One said "up"; the other said "down".

I had forgotten to mention they never handcuffed us or zip-tied our hands. They just kind of walked beside us, expecting we'd follow. Not that we would have tried to make a run for it. I mean, these people seemed decent. Like how were we supposed to know what was going to happen?

The elevator stopped and we started walking down this perfectly shining, bleach-smelling corridor. There were no doors on either side; it was just a plain, empty corridor. We walked for what seemed like an eternity, and no one was talking any longer.

It was me, my friends, the security guard, and two other maintenance workers. Finally, we reached a heavy metal door that had a security code and card reader.

One worker put his card in; the other typed a code on the keypad. I watched the code he typed in: 121566. I only remember it, because I found out later what its significance was, and it makes me laugh, looking back. Strange. It's strange that I could laugh, looking back...

They led me and my friends into another corridor. This one had doors down the hallway walls. Each door had a little Plexiglas square - a 10x10 inch window - at the top right corner. Looked sort of like a psyche ward, to be honest. Not so much like a jail.

He led us to room 1901, and inside was a single desk, with, surprisingly, three chairs for me and each of my friends. Then they left us in there alone, closing the door on the way out. We sat in the chairs like obedient little children and waited for them to return, but they never did. Two hours went by, and no one came back for us. My buddy Tim went to the door, and surprisingly, it was unlocked. He didn't open it, though. He was worried there'd be a guard on the outside and that they'd think we were escaping, and we weren't looking for any more trouble.