On Aug. 22, 2022, Mouse Trap News published an article claiming that Disney World would remove Cinderella Castle after the park's 50th anniversary. On Nov. 21, 2023, the site followed up with an article claiming that the park had suddenly followed through on its plan in just one night. The article began:
BREAKING: Disney World Removes Cinderella Castle Overnight
Anyone who has visited Disney World knows the magic of entering the Magic through the train station, turning the corner, and seeing Cinderella Castle for the first time. It’s a magical experience that people remember forever. Unfortunately, we have breaking news that Disney World permanently removed Cinderella Castle overnight.
The story was also shared on Mouse Trap News' TikTok page, where it was viewed over 1.7 million times. Comments on the post suggest that many people who saw the TikTok believed the story was real.
@mousetrapnews We aren’t crying, you are… okay we are too ? #disneyworld #disneynews #cinderellacastle #magickingdom #disneyworldnews ♬ Married Life (From "Up") - Sergy el Som
But neither story was a factual recounting of real-life events. Snopes fact-checked the original Mouse Trap News piece in August 2022 and found that it was not true. Mouse Trap News is a satire site whose articles have no basis in reality, as noted on the site's about page.
Mouse Trap News is the world’s best satire site. We write fake stories about Disney Parks stuff. From Disney Park announcements to Disney Hotel and resort news to made-up Disney partnerships, you can be assured that anything you read here is not true, real, or accurate, but it is fun. So technically our slogan The Moused Trusted Name in Disney News isn’t true, but we thought it was creative and funny, so we are running with it.
Since the 2022 announcement of Cinderella Castle's upcoming removal was fictitious and satirical, we conclude that Mouse Trap News' follow-up article claiming it was removed overnight is also false (some recent park guests also left TikTok comments confirming that Cinderella Castle was still there). Because Mouse Trap News describes its output as satire, we rate this claim as Labeled Satire.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.