Walt Disney World vacations are supposed to be escapes from reality, but for one Florida woman, it appears that the fantasy has come crashing down around her, as she faces a lifetime ban from the entire resort following a drunken incident at Disney's Hollywood Studios where she attempted to strike both a taxi driver and a police deputy.
The woman has been identified as Ellen McMillion of Brandon, Florida. The incident took place last week when a cast member at Hollywood Studios noticed a commotion going on just outside the park gates. McMillion was having an altercation with a cab driver. She had apparently tried to bum a cigarette off him, but as he did not smoke, could not help her. However, his refusal caused her to attempt to strike him. While he blocked her attempt to slap him, she continued to try to strike him.
A security employee could smell alcohol on her and was afraid she was a potential threat to other guests. It was at this point that the police got involved.
According to the police report obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, Ellen McMillion stated she was drunk to the officers multiple times, but also refused to cooperate with them until she was given a cigarette. She was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor disorderly intoxication, but then she apparently kicked a deputy in the leg at least twice, leading to an additional charge of third-degree felony battery on a law enforcement officer.
Walt Disney World has officially requested she be trespassed from all resort properties. A spokesperson told the Sentinel that violence of any kind is not tolerated.
This lifetime ban from Walt Disney World looks to be a particularly harsh sentence because, based on McMillion's Facebook page, she was a frequent Walt Disney World visitor.
This incident follows a collection of high profile altercations at Disney resorts that saw people ejected, likely forever, from the parks. A couple months ago a woman punched a Walt Disney World cast member at the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror after not being allowed to use the FastPass+ queue without FastPasses.
Even more well known, a fight broke out between members of the same party at Mickey's Toon Town at Disneyland, leading to the entire group being removed from the parks and multiple charges being filed after video of the incident went viral.
Drunken incidents are unfortunately no stranger to Walt Disney World, though they rarely reach these levels. While Magic Kingdom was originally designed to be a dry park, all the other locations at Walt Disney World, which were conceived without direct input from Walt Disney, have allowed alcohol from the beginning. Magic Kingdom now serves been and wine at its table service restaurants.
Even Disneyland, the last dry park in North America, now serves adult beverages at Oga's Cantina inside Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Drinks can't leave the building and there are limits on how many drinks you can consume, in order to help prevent such incidents, but at a place like Disney's Hollywood Studios where alcohol can be purchased and transported freely around the park, no such restrictions are possible.
