The Dark Side of Disney - Leonard Kinsey [11]
Unfortunately for Disney’s bottom line, this method of sneaking in seems fairly foolproof. Especially in the mornings during holidays there is simply no way you can be stopped if you decide to walk through a handicapped entry gate. The gate attendant will yell at you to stop, but assuming you’ve worn non-descript clothes you will blend into the crowd in a millisecond.
I’ve personally seen this method used many times, and the best part is it’s usually done by foreign tourists who have no intention of sneaking in, they’re just oblivious to their surroundings and think they’re bypassing the first of many long lines!
Honestly, sneaking into the parks is just plain stupid unless you’re only there for a day and don’t care if you get kicked out. Because do you really want to spend every day of your vacation worrying if that’ll be the day you go to Disney Jail? Wouldn’t you rather just pay for tickets (a relatively small amount compared to the rest of your vacation expenses) for some peace of mind?
Then again… go ahead and do it! Sneak in, get caught, and take pictures of Disney Jail for me so that I can exploit the fruits of your misfortune in the next edition of this book!
That said, there are ways you can get free tickets to WDW, which is almost the same as sneaking in, except it’s (mostly) legit. You have two options for free tickets: 1) timeshare presentations, and 2) becoming good friends with a 15-Year+ cast member.
Free Tickets from Timeshare Presentations:
Do you have nerves of steel and the willpower of an annoying mule who won’t move no matter how much you yell at him? Do you not mind wasting hours of your precious vacation touring a resort that can’t hold a candle to any of the WDW Deluxes and listening to a greasy salesman who is going to berate and insult you? Do you really, really, really not want to pay for your tickets? Well then, you might be a perfect candidate for a Timeshare Presentation!
Drive down International Boulevard and you’ll see plenty of booths advertising these things. Or just go to the lobby of one of the multitude of cheap off-site motels and they’ll likely have a kiosk promoting “FREE DISNEY TICKETS!!!” Tell the person at the booth or kiosk that you’re interested in attending the timeshare presentation, and they’ll tell you when and where to go. Make sure you get the details up front! Usually you AND your spouse need to attend, and in return for 90 minutes of your time you’ll get two free tickets to a WDW park. If these conditions are not specified in writing, move onto the next booth.
But getting into one of these presentations is the easy part. Getting out is the chore. My wife and I discovered this unpleasant dichotomy when we went on a timeshare presentation pretty soon after we were married. We didn’t have a lot of spending money, so free tickets seemed like a great way to have some extra cash for a romantic dinner at La Cellier. Wrong!
We scheduled a presentation with a company who’d sent us a mailer months earlier and they told us they’d pick us up at our Disney resort, so we didn’t even need to rent a car. Since we’d used DME, renting a car to get free tickets wouldn’t have made much financial sense. But we learned the first lesson of timeshare presentations: Never, EVER get into a car with your salesman!
Anyway, the sales guy drives up in a nice BMW, and he’s got this charming Greek accent and is wearing a white suit and looks like George Hamilton, except not quite as leathery. So there goes my wife, right? She’s fawning all over him, and I have to admit the guy is pretty suave. We get in the car and he actually seems nice and he shows us pictures of his family and then tells us how he was a double-agent spy for the UK in Greece, which doesn’t make much sense, but why would someone lie about that? And then I realize I’ve been sucked in by this guy and we’ve already driven 35 minutes and I have no idea where we are! Like, we’re in the middle of a swamp somewhere!
I’m a little freaked now, but I try my best to calmly ask George Hamilton where the