What the title said. I can anticipate reactions anywhere from “duh, of course” to “why not?”
Apparently, there is a list of 100 items you can’t bring to Disney, and one of them is “musical instrument”. It never crossed my mind that I couldn’t bring my Clarke original, that is always in my pocket, with me. In fact, was joking with the security girl when she pointed at it and demanded frostily “what is that?” I played it for her, presuming she thought it was a weapon of some sort. Then she informed me that it was not allowed. This put me in quite a bind, as not only could I not go into the park with my family, but I was not even allowed to cross the plaza to where my bus could pick me up. I asked her if she had any options and she suggested I throw it away. I then asked to see a supervisor. When the boss came, she let me know that I could rent a locker for $15 to put the whistle in. I did struggle with spending $15 to save a $15 whistle, but in the end, did this. Another girl was called to escort me over to the lockers. These lockers, by the way, are located outside of Disneyland, in a “Staff Only”-looking place between the park and Downtown Disney. There is a hidden picnic area there where well-informed and thrifty folk can bring their own meals instead of spending big money on the terrible stuff you must buy inside.
Being without my whistle felt very strange, as I was used to playing it when I was bored. For two previous visits that week I had done that, generally when the female members of my family were spending 30 minutes or more waiting in line for the restroom. None of the dozens of Disney people inside seemed to care, nor did I see any nasty looks from other visitors. Also in my defense, I would say that I did keep away from other people so not to spoil their line-waiting time with my poor playing and avoid the areas of the instrument that are too shrill or piercing. That being said, I understand the policy.
I think this is a world wide policy as I had a similar experience at Disney Sea in Japan. I was heading to a Tokyo Irish trad session later that evening and was going to bring my bag of whistles in with me just for safe keeping, but I had to check it at the lockers outside the park. Not a big deal, thefts in Japan are super rare to my understanding. I believe it has to do with safety and keeping the ambience of the parks consistent. Those dreaded selfie sticks are banned at Disney Parks too, so all the better!
On the bright side, if anyone has ever been the the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, they sure welcome whistles there! I was able to play some tunes from Totoro and Princess Mononoke outside (with permission from staff members). One even clapped in appreciation!
Back in the end of the previous millennium I was offered a job at Disney World in Orlando coding. The pay was fantastic, but the anti-perqs were the reason I walked away:
If you are on your own time in the park, and you buy an adult beverage at a restaurant, you will be fired.
If the waitress or waiter serving you doesn’t report you for said adult beverage, she or he will be fired as well.
If you are out with your wife/girlfriend/whatever - off Disney property - and Disney management doesn’t like their clothes or lipstick color, or shoes, they will tell you to tell her to change them - forever - under penalty of get getting fired. Mind you, this is if she doesn’t work for Disney. If she does, they’ll tell her directly.
I told them they could keep their job…
They told me Disney never offers someone a job twice…
Anyone who plays Joe Hisashi on their pennywhistles is a friend of mine . For some reason, I always thought an ocarina would be the natural choice. One of these days, I am going to learn how to play the theme from Howl’s Moving Castle on my classical guitar.
Disneyland is a fascinating and sinister place. Not so sure about Dismaland. I do admit that I enjoy how attentive and friendly the staff is, although that does require some cognitive dissonance to ignore why they’re so customer oriented! (beatings will continue until morale improves) My daughter went from 5 years old, wanting to meet every “princess” and get her autograph, to 7, now just wanting to ride the roller coasters. The piano player did let her play some tunes on his upright, so there is that, too
I feel bad for you. I was one of those who managed to get tickets for Dismaland last year and it was great, I too always have a flute or whistle in my coat and even though they had security (fake security) I got through with an keyed F Flute and played the Belfast Hornpipe whilst sitting on one of their attractions. The expression of the Dismaland staff member s priceless, obviouslyit’s a piss take of Disneyland and you are told off it you look like you are enjoying yourself. My Daughter took this pic of me playing.
p.s the wet floor isn’t what you think it is, there are puddles all over the site.
I don’t mean to make you more jealous, but I make it a habit to go to the Ghibli Museum every time I stop in Japan (I have family in Asia, so it’s on the way). Catbus short is charming and delightful and there is a super cute sequence where you get to see every type of feline transport they can think of, including a double decker Nekobus! I do hope they release the shorts in a future compilation, the three I got to see were absolutely charming!
Pennywhistles make a great substitute for ocarinas. Also, playing a low whistle on Princess Mononoke songs works out incredibly well! I believe they use shakuhachi and some other Japanese flute/fife on the soundtrack? Not too sure…
Having worked at Disneyland now for over 25 years I must point out that this statement is misleading.
There are two possibilities depending on what you mean by “on your own time”
Employees, during their work day (including their lunch and breaks) are not allowed use of the Parks in the manner of a Guest: they’re not supposed to shop in the shops, or ride the rides, or order food or drink (adult or otherwise) from the restaurants, and so forth. You are expected to spend your breaks and lunch “backstage” and eat and drink at the “backstage” employee cafeterias. If you are reckoning your lunch break during your work day as being “on your own time” you are not correct in this regard.
Employees can, at times other than during their work day, come into the Parks as a Guest. This could be before or after their shift, or on an off day. When employees are in the Parks as a Guest they can do anything any other Guest can do: ride rides, shop in the shops, have any manner of food or beverage they wish. (Of course the Magic Kingdom Park in Florida and Disneyland Park in California serve no alcoholic beverages anyhow.) Believe you me, I’ve had plenty of “adult beverages” in Epcot in WDW during my Disney employment and it’s just fine. When you’re in the Parks as a Guest nobody cares what you drink; you’re “on your own time” in Disney’s eyes.
So, if you worked in a Park which did serve alcohol, and during your lunch break in the middle of your work day you went to an “onstage” Guest restaurant and ordered any sort of food or drink you would be in violation of Park rules. I have never, in over 25 years, heard of anyone being fired for that. In fact it’s a rule that at Disneyland is commonly violated by Managers who are not in costume but in “office dress”. They will take off their nametags and hide their ID cards (which must be worn on a lanyard at all times when “backstage”) and go have lunch in the “onstage” Guest restaurants.
Once in a while a costumed employee will try to disguise themselves as a Guest and ride a ride or shop in a shop or eat in a restaurant. If caught they get a write-up, not fired, unless they’ve accumulated so many write-ups that one more means termination.
When Disneyland banned Selfie Sticks a while back they put in a procedure for dealing with banned items: when the Disney person discovers that the Guest has a Selfie Stick or what have you they tell the Guest they’re not allowed and explain that the item will be tagged and stored for the Guest to pick up as they leave. The Guest is given a tag to fill out with their name and contact information. The bag-check people do this hundreds of times a day and are all quite familiar with the procedure.
What the deal probably is, is that there’s a list of items which 1) are banned from the Parks and 2) Disney doesn’t want to be responsible for storing. For example, if you showed up with a weapon I’m sure Disney wouldn’t want to store it for you. Perhaps musical instruments are on that list? If I can think of it I’ll ask the next time I’m at the Plaza.
As an Employee I can bring in musical instruments but only through the Employee entrances. I’ve spent many an hour practicing my flute, uilleann pipes, and even Highland pipes in an upstairs room in New Orleans Square that’s quite soundproof. Alas that room is gone now, victim to the expansion of Club 33.
What if a Guest is trying to listen to some Disneyland entertainment or enjoy a show or parade but there’s a guy beside them with a big boombox on his shoulder blaring out rap with obscene lyrics or whatever?
To the person with the boombox, the music is part of them enjoying themselves. To most other people, families who have travelled thousands of miles and spent their hard-earned money to come into Disneyland and enjoy what Disneyland offers, they’re an annoyance.
There’s a point at which a person’s right to “enjoy themselves” starts impinging on other people’s right to enjoy themselves. It would be nice if everyone understood that and respected the rights of others and monitored their own actions, but there are self-absorbed people who don’t care about others, and Disneyland must protect the majority of the Guests from that small minority.
I wouldn’t have minded at all if they had taken the whistle and kept it for me. It was being put in a bind and then forced to pay $15 for duffel-bag sized locker for a pencil-sized instrument, while being delayed, put in an unwinnable situation, and made to feel like a criminal, that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I don’t think anyone meant to make me feel this way, but the bag-checker person probably didn’t handle it as sensitively as she could have. With very few exceptions, in about 12 visits in 3 years, I have been pleasantly impressed with Disney staff. It would be interesting if you could find out what the policy actually is. Not that I intend to test it again.
Unfortunately, in some situations, that principle tends to be interpreted rather selectively. When I lived in an apartment, musical instruments were considered an annoyance to neighbors, but not televisions for some reason. No matter how loud. People got to watch TV, right?
There would be far too many competent musicians, writers, tennis players, etc. if people didn’t watch TV! Perhaps it is the modern day version of “circuses”–and so convenient!
Thanks everyone for the advice with this one, needless to say the event was last night and I feel that it went well. If anyone is interested in how it went read on..
The event was to perform solo to patients in a secure hospital close to where I live as part of an Arts/Mental Health initiative. Having never performed solo playing ITM on flute and whistle to an audience I was a little nervous and unsure how to pitch it.
The first group I played to were mainly pensioners with Alzheimers and although I did introduce each tune and explain a little about the flutes, woods and origin of the tunes, I doubt most of them knew where they were. Whilst I saw two of them getting up to dance, others sat with their eyes closed, one had her fingers in her ears and another old chap waited until I had finished before standing up and talking about someone called Stanley Baxter. It was amusing for me and I enjoyed it. 45 minutes later I was whisked away to the secure unit.
After setting out the chairs and my flutes etc the othe patints atarted to arrive, they were younger and each had an orderly with them, when we started there were as many orderlys as patients. This goup were much more responsive, lots of foot tapping, questions and genuine interest in the tunes and different styles. I told a few stories, some funny and a bit on the ancient pipers and harpists, they were especially interested in Turlough O Carolan, I played sets of ITM tunes on D flutes & whistles, a couple of airs on Boehm concert flute, which some sang along to (Londonderry Air) and i finished with fife tunes from the North played on Bb and F fifes.
Afterwards they each came up and thanked me and it was hard to work out why they were here, they seemed as sane as I am. Afterwards the lady who had organised the event asked if I would be interested in doing a small workshop on whistle or flutes in the future, so I may be back.
Any aprehension I had about doing this soon melted away when I got started and I have decided that I really need to push myself into doing more things like this. Thanks again for your advice.
Nicely done. Yes, you’ll find all of the varied interests/attentions from the individual patients.
Even if it is just a few individuals that have a more serious interest in learning the music/instruments you may enjoy the experience. Keep it simple and see how it goes. Glad you shared.
An update about Disneyland’s handling of items not allowed in the Parks: I talked to a person who is one of the people who inspects the backpacks/purses/strollers/etc and she said they no longer tag and store Guest’s items. The Guests are turned away, and have to figure out what to do with their items on their own.
Trouble is, the Guest lockers are past the check point.
I think they should build a group of lockers right outside the check point to accommodate people. The potential problem is that Disneyland would thus have no control over what’s put into those lockers, and people might put toxic or otherwise dangerous stuff in them, shove their pets into them, who knows what. (A friend works for TSA, X-Raying checked baggage, and said people stuff their pets into their checked luggage all the time, not realizing or not caring that the storage area isn’t warmed or pressurized.)
