As somebody who gets to visit Disneyland and Disney World on a somewhat regular basis, it doesn’t matter how often I am there, I never want to leave. Many people in my position have considered taking up permanent residence in a Disney theme park by trying to get their ashes spread inside the parks, and Ariana Grande’s mother is apparently one who seriously wants to make it happen.
The soon-to-be Glinda in the upcoming Wicked movie recently appeared on the Ive…Been Through podcast when the topic turned to Walt Disney World. Grande knows the resort well as does her family. She told the hosts that her mother legitimately wants her ashes sprinkled over Cinderella Castle, and is serious enough about it that the topic has apparently come up more than once. Grande said…
My mom tells us too often that she wants her ashes sprinkled over [Cinderella’s Castle]. And I’m like ‘Mom, it’s Christmas do we have to talk about this right now?”And she’s like ‘Yeah, you have to make sure that that happens.’ And I’m like ‘I don’t want to make sure that that happens.
While I completely understand where Ariana Grande’s mom is coming from, I also understand what Ariana is saying, because being the person who tries to sprinkle ashes inside a Disney Park is tough because Disney really doesn’t want you to do that.
A lot of people have wanted to have their ashes sprinkled inside a Disney park. The Haunted Mansion is a particularly popular location, for obvious reasons, as is the water of Pirates of the Caribbean. Somebody even reportedly dumped human remains on Rise of the Resistance. It happens often enough there's a term for it. It's called a HEPA cleanup because the custodial crew needs a specialized vacuum with a HEPA filter to pick up the debris.
The issue is that sprinkling a person’s ashes like that is a biohazard, so Disney Parks can’t allow something like that to happen. While it’s usually impossible for the park to stop it from happening, it results in a massive clean-up effort after the fact that often results in attractions being shut down. Nobody wants their favorite attractions at Disney World closed for a biohazard cleanup.
Even if we remove the hassle and difficulty that doing this causes for other people, there’s the fact that following the massive cleanup, the mashes won’t even be in the place where the deceased person wanted them. They’ll be disposed of or destroyed in a way that will be far less magical.
It doesn’t look like Ariana Grande is planning to honor her mom’s wishes, which is ultimately a good thing. Grande would almost certainly be banned from Disney World for even trying, and based on the way she talks about the parks, that would be the worst possible punishment.
