SATURDAY SIX: 6 Things We STILL Can’t Believe Happened at Walt Disney World!

Every November the SATURDAY SIX takes a look back at the craziest stories of the year in our annual Theme Park Turkey Awards. We’ve covered some pretty crazy stories over the past decade, including the Three Caballeros audio animatronics being replaced by cardboard cutouts at Grand Fiesta, Disney CEO Bob Iger throwing shade at Expedition Everest, and even a TouringPlans blog post being used in an actual court case.

However, a whole bunch of “can you believe this actually happened?!” stuff took place before we started the Turkeys back in 2014. Even with photographic evidence it’s hard to believe some of this stuff actually happened, but today we’re going to look at the six most incredible moments, starting with…

# 6 – Teenage Mutant Turtles at Disney-MGM

The turtles are popular now, but in the late ’80s and early ’90s they were a phenomenon. Cartoons, video games, movies, comic books, breakfast cereal, traveling stage shows, and enough merchandise that would make both Stitch and Bluey jealous. Starting in 1990, TMNT performed a stage show in the New York area of Disney-MGM, followed by a meet-and-greet. TMNT left Disney in ’96, but the Turtles have proven the test of time, connecting with each new generation of kids.

Considering their worldwide popularity and faithful fanbase, it seems crazy that neither Disney nor Universal have made a push to get the Heroes in a Half Shell back into the parks. Here’s my pitch: We all know how instantly popular that the Pizza Moon was when Epic Universe opened. In fact, despite the park having a throttled capacity, the restaurant is still so popular that it recently opened a mobile order pick-up station outside the restaurant for guests to grab and go.

Earlier this year, the first ever Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizzeria opened in California.

TouringPlans’ own Guy Selga was able to experience this TMNT pizza place and it exceeded all expectations.

The venue even offers a themed pizza box!

Licensing this TMNT Pizzeria and bringing it to the Orlando theme parks would give Disney or Universal the ability to just print money. At Universal I’d place it in Toon Lagoon and for Disney I’d have it replace Pizzafari in Animal Kingdom.

For guests we’d have better pizza, for TMNT fans we’d finally have representation back in the parks, and for Disney/Universal they would have a popular restaurant that would also sell a ton of merch. That’s a classic Michael Scott Win-Win-Win scenario if I ever heard one.

# 5 – Barbie celebrates her birthday at Epcot ’94

It is not easy to figure out which part is harder to believe in this story: that the Mattel character Barbie celebrated her birthday at Walt Disney World, or that the actual name for EPCOT back in 1994 was Epcot ’94.

The name of Epcot ’94 would stay on top of the Dumb Decision Leaderboard for just half a decade, when Universal took the crown away with the debut of Universal Great Escape in 1999. This was a marketing decision so bad it set the entire resort back a decade until the Wizarding World of Harry Potter could right the ship.

The video itself was only available with the purchase of certain Barbie dolls, and speaking as a kid who sent away for the GI Joe versions of Sgt. Slaughter and William “the Refrigerator” Perry, this is certainly an interesting add on. While the 30 minute movie is exceptionally cheesy, for me it has the same charm as seeing the old episodes of Full House or Family Matters that were set in Walt Disney World. There is also the joy of seeing the two main characters of the movie (Lisa and Stephanie) visit various World Showcase pavilions such as Mexico, Japan, and Italy.

In a surprise twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan, the birthday party video is less an actual movie and more of ad for the Barbie cellular phone and the Magical World of Barbie show that would be making its debut at the American Adventure pavilion in World Showcase later that year. So you get a lot of behind-the-scenes information on the making of a stage show which not many people remember fondly. However, while the live show did not last that long, the VHS tape can still be yours relatively cheaply at eBay and Amazon. As for Barbie, with Mattel no longer a sponsor at Walt Disney World, she has taken her talents down the street to SeaWorld.

Entertainment Factor: 1/10

Nostalgia Factor: 10/10

Overall Score: Still better than Tron Ares.

For many young girls at the time, the Barbie Birthday Passage was a beloved artifact. Those girls grew up and still fondly remembered the Birthday Party tape and Barbie’s short-lived attraction at Epcot ’94 the same way Guy Selga and I still love our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One of those guests is Courtney, who themed her 2023 bachelorlette party around the video.

Here is the bride to be in front of Spaceship Earth.

As a surprise, Courtney was greeted by the actual “Ken” from Barbie’s EPCOT ’94 attraction. How great is that?!

Here’s a look at “Ken” back during his performance in Epcot ’94.

Love this group photo of Courtney, Ken, and Courtney’s gal pals. Ken even signed the VHS box supplied by one of Courtney’s bridesmaids. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, and nowhere else on Earth can you get in bigger doses than at our favorite theme parks.

# 4 – Cinderella Castle becomes a pink birthday cake

If you are an Orlando local, or a two time runDisney medal winning theme park blogger like your humble author, multiple trips per year (if not per month) to Walt Disney World can start to make you focus on the little things rather than seeing the big picture. The average guest returns to the vacation kingdom once every three to four years. So imagine that you are an average guest, finally having saved up enough money to take the family to Orlando. You board the monorail from the TTC over to the Magic Kingdom, walk through the main gates, and turn on to Main Street USA to see this….

In 1996, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Walt Disney World, Cinderella Castle was turned into a giant pink birthday cake for over a year. For people who went to the parks all the time this was something different and unique, for those who rarely visited, well, not so much.

The artist SonderQuest included the birthday cake castle as part of his “infaMOUSE” series of paintings. These were done as tribute to the controversial icons of the parks that – over time – have become fan favorites through their infamy and nostalgia. Other items featured in the series include the giant wand on top of EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth and even larger Sorcerer Mickey’s hat in Disney Hollywood Studios.

However, if this type of change happened to Cinderella Castle today, the line at Guest Services would be backed up all the way to Ocala, FL. Cast Members working the Grand Floridian Wedding Pavilion would probably suffer from PTSD. But believe it or not, this pink nightmare was not the strangest thing ever to happen to Disney’s iconic castle. NAY NAY. That award goes to the day….

# 3 – Stitch covered Cinderella Castle in toilet paper

On November 16, 2004, Cinderella Castle was covered in toilet paper and was “tagged” with the phrase Stitch is King to mark the opening of the Magic Kingdom’s newest attraction, Stitch’s Great Escape. This prank, which seemed to come out of a 1980s John Hughes film, has the same fundamental problem that the attraction does: believing that guests like “bad” Stitch. One day Disney is going to understand that everybody likes “good” Stitch, similar to how we like Beast in his Beast form and not Prince Adam, and Rapunzel with long hair instead of her short hair cut at the end of Tangled.

Looking back, we should be happy that WDW stopped at just toilet papering the castle and didn’t put forks sticking up in the hub, pour soap into the fountains, and light a flaming bag of Pluto’s waste on the front stoop of Mickey’s house in Toontown Fair.

# 2 – Disney’s Flying Dragon

To celebrate the opening of New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom, Disney unveiled a flying fire-breathing dragon. Pretty much the coolest thing that ever happened in a theme park, right?

Well, not exactly.

The dragon was brought out for one night only, during a media event, and has not been seen since. In fact we’re probably more likely to see Steve Bartman make public appearances in Chicago than see this Dragon in Orlando again. While no one has outright come out and said it, there have been rumblings that the Dragon sounded extremely loud, thanks to the huge fan that helps operate its “flying.” It also has to be seen in the perfect lighting situation, otherwise a lot of the illusion is lost, similar to why the Velociraptor puppet wasn’t that effective at Animal Kingdom.

Even though it wasn’t a home run, you have to give Disney a lot of credit for this one. Their dragon walked so that dragons at Epic Universe’s Isle of Berk could run.

# 1 – Daredevil Circus Spectacular at EPCOT

While I sit fondly reminiscing over Horizons and Kitchen Kaberet, there is actually a “forgotten” attraction at EPCOT that deserves a lot more attention. In 1986-87 the park was home to the Daredevil Circus Spectacular, which used Mickey Mouse as a ringmaster for a traditional circus show set within the confines of Future World. AMAZING!

See more pictures of this incredible attraction at ImagineeringDisney.com

While we joke about some of the items on the list, seeing them together makes us nostalgic for when Walt Disney World took legitimate risks creatively. We appear to be in an era where everything we get in Orlando has been watered down by committees and is the safest possible bet. Pardon the expression, but changing Cinderella Castle into a birthday cake is ballsy. While it seems ridiculous to keep asking the question “What would Walt have done,” it is obvious going by his career that doing something crazy like that is exactly what he would have done. He was a risk taker, and often took the big gamble. When others said no, Walt said yes. And while there were a couple swings that missed, there were a lot of big hits. A lot.

So while we can’t believe these six things happened at Walt Disney World, we are sure glad they did. And we’re looking forward to next the six. Because for every Stitch toilet papering Cinderella Castle you get a Horizons, a Splash Mountain, a Wilderness Lodge, an Electrical Water Pageant, and a Kilimanjaro Safaris. We’ll take that trade seven days a week, and twice on Sunday Saturday.

HONORABLE MENTION – The Dapper Dans sing boy band songs

One day, after we get over the emotional pain, we will do an entire SATURDAY SIX dedicated to Disney’s Limited Time Magic promotion. To borrow a phrase from Charles Dickens, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

One of the next level bonkers ideas to come out of the hastily put together promotion was having the Dapper Dans – a legitimate national treasure – singing tunes from the songbook of One Direction and N*Sync.

So there you have it: Six Things We STILL Can’t Believe Happened at Walt Disney World! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on BlueSky (@derekburgan).

If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following: 

Theme Park Turkeys of the Year Archives

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SATURDAY SIX Tribute to Josh easyWDW

SATURDAY SIX Tribute to Ian Barritt

TPEI Tribute to Bret Taggart (AKA @Schmoofy)

Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, Ace Photographer Diservations, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Thickey for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by Lightning Lane Influencer Professor Leisure. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHide.