Disneyland Paris is doing damage control. Social media was furious after a video went viral of an overzealous employee interfering in what would have been a fairytale marriage proposal inside the theme park.
The video shows a couple standing on a dais overlooking Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, which has just been restored. A man wearing all white kneels, offering his partner an engagement ring while applause is heard in the background.
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A Disneyland employee then robs the man of his ring just seconds later while he is kneeling on his platformed stage. Afterward, he gestures to the couple to leave the scene by extending his arms. The couple is beckoned to step off by another slightly off-frame worker.
“She said yes,” the man says. The worker answers, “Yes, that’s great — over here will be even better.” In the last seconds of the video, jeers can be heard.
Initially, the awkward scene was posted on Reddit, with one user stating that the man “asked for permission” before proposing at the park. The employee has since been criticized almost uniformly online. “We regret how this was handled,” a Disney spokesperson informed Newsweek. “We have apologized to the couple involved and offered to make it right.”
There are plenty of proposal requests at Disneyland or any other Disney park – so many that Disneyland has a dedicated page. According to the guide, “While you are not required to contact Disney in order to propose, you may want to if you’d like to plan something more elaborate.” PhotoPass cast members at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim can even take pictures of engagements if guests alert them in advance.
One Reddit user claimed that he knows a Disney employee who said the company tells its employees that guests should never be touched without what is explicitly agreed on verbally or in body language. “We’re not allowed to take their property under any circumstances, and doing so results in termination.”
“We’re also trained to do anything we can to keep our guests happy and continue to sell the image of ‘most magical place on Earth,’” the Redditor was allegedly told. “This employee will be terminated pretty swiftly should this video make it to the right people. All he had to do was wait 10 seconds. Get it out there and he’s a goner.”
The Disney employee handbook from 2016 specifies that employees are subject to disciplinary action or even termination if they engage in “conduct toward the employee’s managers, co-workers, or anyone with whom the employee comes in contact while performing work for the Company that is unprofessional, discourteous or disrespectful.”
Similar wedding proposals have been documented at Disney parks, including one in March inside Disneyland’s California Adventure theme park, blocked by Disneyland security. Though unconfirmed, it was reported that the gentleman included non-Disney balloons in his proposal, which was unpermitted. Another man sued the company in 2018 both for interrupting his proposal at the Magic Kingdom and for allegedly physically harassing his partner, even making threats to “punch” him.
