A massive brawl that erupted at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom this week has resulted in two arrests as well as bans from the theme park for several alleged participants, according to a report.
The wild fracas between at least 10 people erupted outside Mickey’s PhilharMagic theater at the Orlando, Fla. theme park on Thursday after two families got into an argument while waiting in line, sparking a mass of fisticuffs that landed at least one man in the hospital.
One of the alleged participants, who was hauled off in an ambulance and hospitalized due to a large cut on his chin, confirmed the clampdown in a written message to Disney blog Walt Disney World News Today.
“We got banned from Disney forever unless we contact the head,” the alleged participant wrote. “2 people from other party got arrested and the rest left, no one from our fam was arrested yet and they still have us here.”
The guest claimed that his family had been banned from the Magic Kingdom as well as other Disney properties including their hotel. Meanwhile two members of the other fist-throwing family — all of whom had been dressed identically in red shorts and white, Disney-themed T-shirts — were arrested, the guest claimed.
“They r making us leave our resort which is riviera even though we are here for another 2 weeks,” the guest lamented in the message. “We have to leave Disney property including typhoon lagoon, and disney springs.”
A rep for Disney World did not immediately return requests for comment.
The nasty fight was caught on camera by witnesses, who posted the fracas on social media. According to reports, the saga kicked off after one family member left the line to retrieve her phone. When she tried to rejoin her group, the other family, all dressed identically in red shorts and white T-shirts, tried to block her from regaining her spot.
Walt Disney World News Today reported that the two families confronted each other at the theater’s exit, with a member of the girl’s family saying to the red shorts clan: “We don’t appreciate you guys pushing my younger sister.”
A shouting match ensued, with both groups hurling profanities and gradually stepping closer to each other, soon triggering a all-out fight that spilled onto the street outside the theater.
Bystander video posted to social media captured children crying, while panicked adults can be heard shouting for security to help. Eventually, the two groups were broken up by security and law enforcement, according to reports, and hauled to the park’s security office.
The Disney blog reported that one family, dressed alike in red shorts and white shirts, allegedly “stole or broke several personal items belonging to their opponents including mobile phones and designer clothes.”
One man involved in the scrap was taken away in an ambulance due to a large cut on his chin, the blog reported. Other family members had minor cuts and bruises.
While fights at Disney parks are hardly new, incidents of mass violence have ticked up considerably since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Florida resort reporting more than a half-dozen this year alone, according to reports.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
