One of the many legends associated with Disney theme parks is the notion that no one ever dies on Disney property. Even if a guest or worker should physically die while on Disney theme park premises, the legend holds, they are never officially declared dead until after they have been moved off the property. Thus Disney can supposedly claim, with semantic legitimacy, that no one has ever actually died at a Disney theme park or resort.
TikTok user @tcruznc (Tom Cruz) reignited debate over that legend with a "Disney Story Time" video he posted on the subject in June 2021 titled, "You can't die at Disney World." According to @tcruznc, he was working the Speedway attraction at the Magic Kingdom theme park in Orlando, Florida, when an older guest collapsed and died:
Cruz maintained that emergency services continued attempts to revive the guest well after he was seemingly dead because, a manager asserted, "Everyone is resuscitated or attempted into resuscitation until they're off the property, then they're formally declared dead":
Here I am in the summer, working at Speedway at Magic Kingdom in Orlando. It's super hot. I distinctly remember this day, we were helping people into the Go Kart ride and there was a family and they had an older gentleman with them. It was super hot on this day, the guy collapses, boom, on his face and busts his face up, it was ugly.
Of course, there was a doctor in line, he came over to help, we called emergency services. This entire time my man was not breathing. They're doing CPR on him, trying to revive him, no luck. It's 15 minutes before they finally got through the park to try to help him out. They stretchered him out and kept resuscitating him all the way until the end.
I was like, 'man, this guy's dead, why are they still trying to bring him back?' and the manager's like 'no one dies at Disney World, everyone is resuscitated or attempted into resuscitation until they're off the property, then they're formally declared dead.
Whatever may have taken place during this alleged incident (and others like it), our earlier article on this subject has documented multiple cases in which guests and workers have in fact been declared dead while still on Disney theme park property.