Pirates Of The Final Resting Place

LOCAL6.COM: Possible Scattering Of Human Remains On Disney Rides Reported
Ride Closed, Police Alerted After Woman Seen Dumping Substance On Ride
POSTED: 10:10 pm EST November 15, 2007
UPDATED: 7:44 am EST November 16, 2007

Disneyland workers were recently forced to close the "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction after a ride security camera caught a woman apparently dumping human remains, in what may be a growing trend.

Workers at the Anaheim theme park spotted the woman sprinkling an unidentified substance into the water on the "Pirates" ride. Anaheim police were notified of the incident.

The woman told Disney park workers that the substance she dumped was baby powder, but officials are investigating the possibility that she sprinkled human ashes, Local 6 reported.

Some Disney watchers said park-goers tell them that people smuggling in the cremated remains of their loved ones and then sprinkling ashes on rides has been going on for a while.

They said it started at the Haunted Mansion, but now the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride is growing in popularity.

Al Lutz, who runs Miceage.com, told KABC that it is not unusual for people to scatter a loved one's remains at the happiest place on earth.

Disney officials said they were unaware of any confirmed ash-scattering incidents in the park and didn't believe it to be a problem, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Park officials said there was no real way of knowing if cremated remains were dumped into the "Pirates" ride.

Making Lemonade

Unfortunately, there wasn't a toy show in San Mateo yesterday (the conflicting calandars was an ominous sign). My friend Roger tried to warn me, but Anita and I had already left, only to discover a car show there instead. Now I like spiffy, cool-looking old cars, but I was in a toy-hunting mood - and a car show just wasn't gonna cut it. It was a sunny day, so we decided to throw some good $3.20 a gallon after bad, and check out the Great Mall in Milpitas.

The Great Mall is located in a converted Ford manufacturing plant, so it's HUGE. In truth, there's only three or four toy spots there - a sad-looking KB Toys, a Spencer's Gifts, a Hot Topic and a Disney outlet store - but there's so few good brick-and-mortar toy stores outside of San Francisco these days, that I thought I might find a surprise or two.

I didn't find anything - it's a little too early for the summer toy releases. The latest new mainstream-toy thing is that series 1 of the 300 figures is out. I'm not all that interested in the film or the toys, so not much of a find for me. Series 2 of the Hanna-Barbera figures are out too, but no one has that many of them, and I like to look through them to check the paint jobs (somethings that's become increasingly erratic with McFarlane recently).

We did, however, find a full set of the 50th Anniversary Disneyland plates at the Disney outlet store - something that Anita had wanted on one of our last visits to the park. This store had a great deal - the plates originally went for $30 each, and we were able to buy all six plates for under $90.00! So Anita was psyched, and we didn't burn all that petroleum in vain. I picked up a shirt for Danielle's imminent baby girl, and Anita found a book she'd wanted to read at the Borders outlet store for $3.00 or so.

I wasn't at all satisifed toy-wise, so we stopped by the dreaded Wal-Mart a little further up the 880 on the way home. I found some Chub City figures, and picked up one I liked (I had most of the others that I wanted at this point). Then it was back home for dinner and a nap after all the walking around. There's another toy show in San Jose in a couple of weeks - hopefully, it'll actually be there this time!

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Blue Parrot

Please welcome Roger Colton's new entertainment/pop culture website, The Blue Parrot! Roger's written lots of articles for Jim Hill Media, and now he's striking out on his own. Keep your eyes peeled for lots of fun posts - especially if you like Disneyland!

Sometimes, Progress Is Good

The new Disney character costumes have articulated mouths and working eyelids - it certainly helps bring them to life! Check out these video clips from the Dream Along With Mickey show. I'd post the footage instead of a link, but YouTube isn't cooperating right now...