What Not To Wear – No Adult Costumes in Disney Parks---What Not To Wear – No Adult Costumes In Disney Parks, Fifteen-year-old April Spielman’s flight of fancy to a magical kingdom over the weekend did not have a fairy-tale ending. That’s not to say there wasn’t plenty of drama, though.
The long awaited trip to Walt Disney World on Sunday started out calmly enough for the Tampa teen. She and her family, along with her 15-year-old boyfriend, had been planning the trip for months. April would wear the Tinker Bell costume she had bought online; boyfriend Clayton Covey would dress up as Peter Pan.
April’s father, Rich Spielman, said his daughter and her boyfriend “had been saving money to go to Disney World for a year and a half.” “She finally got enough and decided to wear a costume to the park,” he said. That’s where the problems started.
April’s wings, hair and makeup were perfect. So perfect, patrons of Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom may have mistaken her for the real Tinker Bell, or at least the one hired to portray Peter Pan’s fairy pal. Some park-goers asked her to pose with them for photos.
Things came to a head at the Animal Kingdom. “We walked to the first ride and looked behind us and there were a lot of people following us,” Rich Spielman said. “One came up and said, ‘You can’t be wearing that.’ ” Spielman said other park patrons, some of them teenagers, wore costumes, too.
“There were Snow Whites and Cinderellas, all the same age as my daughter,” he said.
“They escorted us with a full security detail; it was like escorting out a murderer,” he said. “My daughter was bawling. It was like a parade coming through.” Spielman said the family was taken to guest relations and a back room.
“The guy in charge, he started laying into us, like we committed a crime,” he said. The Tinker Bell costume was too good, the family was told, and that could create confusion with other park patrons who may have thought the teen worked for Disney.
“I asked, ‘If her wings were on crooked, would that make it better?’ They said, ‘Yeah, possibly.’”
The long awaited trip to Walt Disney World on Sunday started out calmly enough for the Tampa teen. She and her family, along with her 15-year-old boyfriend, had been planning the trip for months. April would wear the Tinker Bell costume she had bought online; boyfriend Clayton Covey would dress up as Peter Pan.
April’s father, Rich Spielman, said his daughter and her boyfriend “had been saving money to go to Disney World for a year and a half.” “She finally got enough and decided to wear a costume to the park,” he said. That’s where the problems started.
April’s wings, hair and makeup were perfect. So perfect, patrons of Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom may have mistaken her for the real Tinker Bell, or at least the one hired to portray Peter Pan’s fairy pal. Some park-goers asked her to pose with them for photos.
Things came to a head at the Animal Kingdom. “We walked to the first ride and looked behind us and there were a lot of people following us,” Rich Spielman said. “One came up and said, ‘You can’t be wearing that.’ ” Spielman said other park patrons, some of them teenagers, wore costumes, too.
“There were Snow Whites and Cinderellas, all the same age as my daughter,” he said.
“They escorted us with a full security detail; it was like escorting out a murderer,” he said. “My daughter was bawling. It was like a parade coming through.” Spielman said the family was taken to guest relations and a back room.
“The guy in charge, he started laying into us, like we committed a crime,” he said. The Tinker Bell costume was too good, the family was told, and that could create confusion with other park patrons who may have thought the teen worked for Disney.
“I asked, ‘If her wings were on crooked, would that make it better?’ They said, ‘Yeah, possibly.’”
