Podcast

The Worst Theme Park Clickbait

Dis & Hers

June 6, 2026
29 min read

Getting stuck on a roller coaster is a universal theme park fear, but in the digital world, there is something even more terrifying: the relentless wave of misleading theme park clickbait websites. In this episode, Eric and Lauren break down a recent real-world coaster evacuation nightmare before pivoting to the online drama where major parks are finally clapping back against unreliable news outlets. From Reddit’s banned-site lists to the most trusted blogs in the community, discover who is genuinely delivering accurate Disney news and who is just fishing for clicks.

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The Worst Theme Park Clickbait Transcript

Eric Hersey: All right, Lauren, so it’s been a few weeks, but it was probably the most terrifying thing that I’ve ever seen and I got secondhand like i issues. So essentially I’m like, All right, if that happened to me I don’t know if I’d be well. Like I think I’d be in a hospital for a while. Lauren, did you

Lauren: Okay, but let let’s tell people what we’re talking about.

Eric Hersey: Right. There’s a lot of things I guess that could have put me in the make me not well. In this case, so there were in Galveston, Texas, there was a there was a roller coaster attraction that got stuck. For those in the Disney community, you might know Rip Ride Rocket. So over at Universal they had the one that is a ninety degree all the way up, kind of thing and then it hits over. Well, there is one called the Iron Shark at the Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier theme park, okay?

Lauren: Yeah.

Eric Hersey: So it’s a theme park that’s kind of like over the Gulf of Mexico. But they got stuck a hundred feet right before the turn and they were stranded, basically stuck there, which turns out to be about four hours from an evacuation standpoint. And so this was covered all I mean in the c theme park community. I saw this all over Facebook and Twitter and and all the other a you know, avenues. They know that the local news picked it up big time. but they had to get firefighters with a giant you know, ladder and so forth to get these people while they are harnessed, like upside not upside down, but like laying on their back, had to get them out and then climb down a crazy ladder. So this is my greatest fear. This is exactly why I like when I get on a roller coaster, I I have to think to myself, all right, what’s the worst possible scenario? What’s the likelihood of this happening? And because that being hooked in is one thing, having to climb down is another. And that is where my fear of heights kind of just kill me. So I figured why wouldn’t we just talk about this on the show and from a Disney perspective, I don’t ever remember seeing something this hor horrific. there’d be lots of dollars being given out to these people, I’m sure, from lawsuits. But Lauren, what what’s your scenarios? Have you ever thought about, you know, getting stranded or have to manually evacuate one of these coasters? Is that something you would even care about?

Lauren: As you were my gosh. Well, I I mean I’m not afraid of heights typically like you, but I think anybody would be terrified of being, you know, stuck on any ride where you’re like hanging in the air and that you have to, you know, come down, walking down. so as you were talking, the first thing that comes to mind is doing the Hulk at Universal and like in you know how it goes upside down over water?

Eric Hersey: yeah, yeah.

Lauren: That like that was the first thing that like popped in my head, but I guess as far as Disney would be concerned, I don’t know if you’d consider it an attraction, but the Skyliner does freak me out a little bit. And we were stuck on the Skyliner one time, during like a storm. and it goes over water too. I guess anywhere over water is probably where it what’s freaking me out the most as I’m thinking about it. What about you?

Eric Hersey: Yeah, I I don’t yeah, I don’t think I care for anything over water, but I I mean I guess over water, you know, depending on how deep that water is, you probably jump out and you’d nice little dive, right? Now I wouldn’t want anything. So we were we Laney and I once, our daughter, was evacuated from Space Mountain, which the fire crews had to come and I recall this was either it was either a D V C after hours party or some type of it might have been a Halloween party. It’s hard to ru I remember being like, man, we’re stuck and you only get X amount of hours to do this stuff and we’re stuck here. and it was one of those weird things where we got stuck right before there was like a walkway. So and we’re talking a couple feet, maybe two or three feet from a walkway, which if we were capable of, we probably could have been like, all right, we’re gonna just walk over top this and kind of give a little bit of a jump, but they’re not gonna risk that. It took us about a half an hour and the firefighters came and and they were able to like almost harness bring us over, which was cool to see it. you know, everything on, you the lights on and be able to walk down the tracks. But Space Mountain is inside and it’s not as high as some of these other ones. I I think all the time when we go over to Disneyland, the Incredit Coaster. Incredicoaster is the one that terrifies me the most. I’m like, if we got stuck and I’d have to walk down, because see physically seeing outside bothers me. I don’t know what that is. that would be one that is quite terrifying. but

Lauren: What about the Ferris wheel there? The Palaround.

Eric Hersey: Of course. No. Listen, that is absolutely one that I know for a fact would be terrifying. But I just don’t know how those work from an evacuation standpoint. Like the I guess it gets stuck and you’re s you’re you are stuck there. That’d be terrifying as well. Anything high up and outside is what fear I fear. So we wanted to look. I wanted to see if there was any good evacuation stories. So we went over to Reddit and checked out the Walt Disney World subreddit, and it’s the worst evacuations. So Syllabub Week basically said, I’ve seen a few posts lately about the best evacs they’ve been part of for the rides for behind the scenes. and they were hoping to hear some fun stories. So, what happens in the Disney community? You don’t hear about evacs of like you don’t you don’t think of it as a horrendous thing that happened in Galveston. You hear about really people getting stuck and wanting to get evacuated so they can see all the backstage scenes, right? So I and I guess so it’s more of a positive experience because there isn’t that many that like are super terrifying. Like Lauren, you and I kinda went through the list, right? Skyliner. You know, like

Lauren: Like we got stuck on Peter Pan and they didn’t have to like evacuate us. But like I was fine except for like you’re just hanging there. But the Disney community, like, we’re weirdos. We’re like, yeah, I want to get stuck and see what’s back there. but so somebody said Tango seven three four six eight says just two weeks ago we got stuck towards the end of Tron for thirty minutes, being forced, hunched over about long, and unable to your move your legs really suck.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, I would not want to get stuck there. here’s one from a Sons and Cinnamon. not at Disney, but I had the l absolute crappiest evacuation at Universal. I was riding Dudley Dwright, the logflume ride, and it stopped after the big drop and we’re sitting absolutely drenched, stopped for twenty minutes in the direct sun and heat until a couple teenage cast members, with a hook and ladder, like a pool ladder to to the deep end. That that would suck. That is the thing in Galveston they said it was more worried about dehydration for four hours, you know.

Lauren: Yeah. It’s hot, right? alright, then we have new Herman 136. Not Nevac, but for the first time I rode Cosmic Rewind, the ride malfunctioned, and I did the whole thing backwards. When a roller coaster goes backwards like Everest or Big Grizzly Mountain, it’s fun for a little while. When the whole ride is reversed, it’s dzzying.

Eric Hersey: No, they were sitting there. Right, right. Yeah, that would I don’t know. I kinda I would I would want to try that just to see. I mean I don’t think I’d love it, but at the end of the day that’s the funny thing. So as I went through yeah.

Lauren: I would not like that. Like we did the one in the epic that’s like backward, right?

Eric Hersey: Well, the the werewolf ride is a little backwards. I mean there’s elements backwards and forwards. I mean that’s not too different than some of the other attractions that we have. you can’t see where you’re going. So I guess it is a different experience in all. But yeah, I mean from there weren’t as many great stories in these Reddits and I searched and searched and searched to find like the so Disney’s got their stuff together and I don’t think they have too many attractions. And maybe they did this on purpose, you know, that is a matter of all right. There aren’t too many places that are super high up or super difficult or don’t have guest access. So like there wasn’t a bunch of like I was stuck here forever. There were a lot of comments of, you know, getting stuck on a ride and having to hear that the loop, which would drive you nuts. Like you said, we were stuck on Peter Yeah.

Lauren: Yeah. small world like definition of insanity, right?

Eric Hersey: Yeah, that was that was one of the ones where a lot of people were like, Hey, I was stuck on Small World, I was stuck in this scene and I had to see it over and over and over and over. And I guess that would bother you. I always enjoy and I mentioned this on a previous episode, I like getting stuck on a couple of these, just to kind of intricacy like look at the actual elements in each, you know, prop. Like I think Spaceship Earth is super cool to get stopped on. Obviously Haunted Mansion’s always great. You gotta see it. But I don’t know if I’d wanna be waiting, you know, twenty, thirty minutes anywhere. But there’s a lot of

Lauren: Eric, what if you what if you got stuck on the monorail right before Magic Kingdom over the water?

Eric Hersey: Well, that is that is the one that I was thinking the some of the worst. The monorail, Skyway, I think in Credit Coaster, Mickey’s Fun Wheel. Any of those I think would be horrifying. monorail, you’re stu like the thing is with the monorail, you seem kinda s stable. I would worry about getting super hot, right? now getting evacuated would suck.

Lauren: Yeah. And like what if you were in there with somebody that’s coughing?

Eric Hersey: well, you know, nobody likes that. But I don’t know. I I don’t think the monorail would be the worst. Skyway kinda sucked a little bit. but I kinda feel okay. It’s a it’s a nice enclosed area. I don’t feel like anything’s gonna drop. I think any of those having to get a a ladder and walk down that would dri like I don’t think I could do it. Like I I I d often think to myself, like what what kind of like energy would I have to muster up to be able to do something. That would be like heroic feat there. I’d have to really get in my own head and say, yes, you can walk down these stairs even though you can see how far up you are. It’s quite quite terrifying. but but so let’s look at

Lauren: But there’s I was just gonna say there’s something about like seeing a backstage area that’s like not you know, like taking the terrifying out of it. We’ll leave the monorail like for another nightmare situation later. But we were watching this movie last night. What was that called?

Eric Hersey: Hidden King or Stolen Kingdom. Stolen Kingdom, yeah.

Lauren: Stolen Kingdom and it was about like stealing Buzzy and these people going behackstage at Disney and taking stuff, which was not good, don’t ever do that. But like when they were showing the behind the scenes at like pirates and like looking out from the ship, like how cool would that be? I know that if you’re g getting stuck there, you’re not gonna get to like experience all that, but you’re just curious. You ride it one way over and over and over again. I think that’s why we’re all so fascinated about these kinds of things.

Eric Hersey: Well that’s why this whole th the whole thread when I said worst evacuations, I’m like, All right, we’re gonna get some really good stories of people being held upside down or something like that. And at the end of the day it wasn’t. It was everybody be like, Man, I really wish I’d get stuck on pirates so I could walk back through. And I do recall, I think it was I think it was Ellen’s energy adventure. I think the last actual ride, it got stuck and they did a manual evacue, and everybody kind of got to like take pictures and walk out. And I feel like it’s like almost to the point where like, was that on purpose? Did we do that so that way we can get some of this behind the scene stuff? And I know that everybody’s like the best stories when you go through there was lots of comments. I mean, there this thread was just full of cool scenarios, but like pirates. Pirates and Haunted Mansion and you know, like the things with like living with the land and all these things where you could just walk through and they take you through these areas. is quite fascinating and cool. And I mean, not nothing scary about it. It was just like, and tell you the truth, I think I would love to be manually evacuated from any of these dark rides. If it’s a dark ride and there’s no heights involved, please let the ride stop and let me walk through the show scenes. I think that would be the coolest thing ever. mind you, we did it with space and it wasn’t that and it was pretty cool. I was like almost scared to pull out my phone and start recording things just because I felt like I don’t know you you’re not supposed to do that, but I do think I have a little bit of footage. If I can find it, I’ll try to throw it up on the video as an overlay or something like

Lauren: Yeah, and if I mean, doesn’t T Pm vids show a lot of the like breakdown stuff if you’re interested and you wanna see people breaking down on certain things.

Eric Hersey: yeah. Yeah.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, those manual evacs are always fun. So I just want to know from you guys. what’s what’s your biggest fear? Which one do you absolutely think would be horrifying to get caught on? Or which one do you want to get evacuated on? Hopefully, I don’t recall the Ripride Rocket ever having that same type of evacuation as the Galveston one did, but I mean at the end of the day, that one is long gone and there’s new coasters to be put in place. But yeah, over Universal there’s quite some more that so if you have a Disney or Universal one that you’ve evacued story, share it with us and let us know.

Lauren: Yeah, so we talked all about some of the most terrifying evacuation situations, but these seem to be pretty rare. After the break, we’re gonna pivot and we’re gonna talk about something that is equally terrifying, but not rare at all. Theme park clickbait websites. Love hate hate mainly. but first this.

Lauren: And we’re back. I’m sure you saw this a few weeks ago, but one of our favorites, Hershey Park, called out one of the prominent theme park news outlets online.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, Lauren. So I I grabbed a screenshot of this. This is quite quite funny. So Hershey Park, you know, for those not familiar with it, it’s in Pennsylvania, nearish Philadelphia. So it’s over on the eastern side. It is, of course, I don’t know if it’s still owned by the Hershey Company or not, but it is essentially a giant, you know, it’s like a equivalent of like a six flags, I would say. Not quite to the Disney immersion level, but they do have some fun things. You know, you can meet a giant chocolate bar and and giant water park. We’ve been there multiple times, but there were some elements. And the the funny thing is over on X, Inside the Magic quoted, it basically made a a a tweet that says Hershey Park issues same day closure, three days after opening, twenty twenty six. And then it links to an article. And this was, like I said, a couple of weeks ago at the very end of May. And then Hershey Park, the official account. claps back and says, Happy to clarify your misinformation. The early closure Saturday was due to rain and temps in the fifties, as shared on Facebook and Instagram. We opened for spring April third from our winter hiatus and enjoyed seven spring weekends before we started daily summer operations on May twenty first. So I the the original article is kind of talking about the there were labor disputes and this and that and kind of just basically making it out like Hershey Park is going under. so the theme park community in general, we’re all kind of like hearting and loving the Hershey Park, basically calling out a a company. But let me let me say this before anything. We don’t I do not personally know or even care about the back how any of these companies make money or do what they do online. We understand I understand how online marketing works. I’m a web designer. So I know how websites are made and how people get paid from this. so but I do not know any of these people. So all the comments and statements, I I have my own opinions. I will share them if it’s warranted. But for the most part, we’re gonna look at what the theme park community feels about the worst and maybe some of the best outlets, where you get your Disney news.

Lauren: All right, so let see what the community actually had to say then. So, what are your favorite park news blogs and sites? Which ones are unreliable or should be avoided? So that was the question. And our our first response was yardsard. I love a yard stard onyx. don’t click on any article from Inside the Magic ever. Every single one is raging. Clickbait. Beloved WDW.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, that well that’s that’s been always the case. you know, when we’re when I’m doing any research for whether it Epic Universal shows or just learning about the parks are here, it’s just you can’t you you’re wasting time. So you’re just trying to find out if something’s real or not. Like I don’t follow a lot of these on the social platforms just because it’s like I know what you’re trying to do here, but when you’re actually going to the news outlets and going on Google and saying, Is this thing real? and you click on one of these, my goodness. So the Pop Daddy said, Skip inside the magic. They used to be Great, but got too clickbaity-y. Disney dining is the definition definition of clickbait. They’ll show a picture of Chef Mickey’s with the headline of Disney Dining Closed, Location Closing for Good, have five paragraphs about the history of WDW and restaurants, and then one of these being a food truck at Disney Springs, which is close. So I mean it just it’s getting to the point where there are a lot and people are calling them out here. But but

Lauren: Yeah. like what you’re saying, just so you guys know, I mean, with you know Eric and I doing this podcast and I’m doing I want that too and he’s doing Epic Universal. I mean we really do pride ourselves on getting accurate information. We are you know more opinion based and we’re talking about the community on this podcast. But I mean Jim is like the authority as far as like getting you the real information. So I just want to give my disclaimer and just say like

Eric Hersey: Well yeah, and and I’m I hate clickbait in general. like I I I don’t and I also hate websites that are full of like the old recipe ones where it’s like, all right, here’s twelve paragraphs before you get the thing that you want. I’ve always believed just give the people what they want, they’ll come back. You’ll get your ad revenue that way, right? Like instead of having to cram in fourteen different ads on the sidebar in the front and and and especially most of these ads look like they’re th you know, things you’re supposed to click or like hiding specific, you know, articles with with links and you end up clicking on it takes you to a totally different thing. So there are there are a lot of them out there. And I mean this is how a lot of the community gets their news when they’re not able to go witness the park themselves. So we vicariously live through some of these outlets to say what’s what’s real, what’s not here. And and you know the the greater the greater news outlets don’t cover Disney like we do. It’s not like you can get your local affiliate and find anything out unless it’s like the biggest story ever. And then typically they don’t really know what they’re talking about because they’re not Disney enthusiasts. So they’ll show a picture of Disneyland when they’re talking about Walt Disney World. So we rely on these companies, these these blogs or these you know these Disney World and Disneyland blogs to really give us the right information.

Lauren: Yeah, and so like on the flip side of this, like Roberto Paycheck said, blog Mickey, the Diz, W D W Magic are my favorites, and Poo Rocks Eleven, replied and says this is really the correct answer. Those are all A plus news sources.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, so and I will tell you, so after scanning through hundreds of comments to find out what people are thinking, Disney Tourist blog it showed up the most. So Disney Tourist blog and w in a positive fashion is hands down the best I’ve seen. He seems to have it have to post or a review about any given topic. So essentially covers a lot of it. Lots of trip plans to try. He’s always very reasonable. He doesn’t go fangirl about WDW to get clickbaity. So just continue to s I saw Disney Tourist. Blog and we’ve referenced Disney Tourist blog. I think on here. I’ve even gone to the comments and in many situations. So I’ve always found that one to be. And the the fan community says the same. I did find something that was super, super interesting. So this was on nearly every subreddit page that was Disney Disney sponsored, and that is that they make a the moderator like strictly this is part of their rules. It says inside the magic, www.n. and the Diz Insider are not reputable websites and their links are not allowed on this subreddit. So you’re not allowed, like a lot of these Disney you know, forums and stuff won’t let you reference their stuff. So it just says just a friendly reminder: websites like the aforementioned are not reputable websites and are banned from the subreddit for one or more of the following reasons: unreliability, vague, intentional misleading, and pay patently like false clickbait titles. Unsourced rumors, flat out making up stories for clicks, misinformations, other drama. Thanks for understanding. exclamation point. So that is that is interesting. That that is, and that wasn’t just on one, Lauren. Like when I was typing in the worst, that was one of the prominent res Google results that comes up. This exact like subreddit talking about how you’re not allowed to use their information. And if you did, they’d delete it.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, yeah. So that is that’s been around for a while. And I will tell you I’ve been following them forever, and I do have like odd feelings and a lot of people have the same thing. So in my opinion, bar noun they cover the most about the theme parks. Like if it wasn’t for them, I would not get half of the stuff I learn about Epic and what’s going on. They are very much, they got people on the streets, they got coverage. I think their owner is polarizing. I’ve not met Tom Corless. I’ve watched and listened to his podcast, stuff like that, but I can understand where some people have strong feelings about Tom. And since I haven’t met him, I’m not speaking of it because I don’t know the the general. but I will tell you they are they were, at least in the past, clickbaity and or trying to stir stuff up, right? There were a lot of like breaking all capitals and then saying something that was like not really big news or hypothetical kind of circumstances. So I don’t I feel like they’re better, but then again, I I don’t know. I’m looking at like the new merch drops and they cover that pretty good. but they’re yeah.

Lauren: Yeah, and I mean like I’ve not followed as long a along as long as you have. and I’ve not like watching the YouTube channel and reading the articles and I mean like really they do cover the merch so well. I I don’t see that and maybe because this is a common thing that’s coming up, maybe they change their ways. But yeah, you’re not the only one that thought that. So we have Mitch Ford that says W D W N T is controversial here.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, that’s true. And I think Anon Red basically said same. I simultaneously don’t exactly like WDWNT, yet at the same time they’re my go-to for Park News because they’re so much better than others. And that’s the thing, is it’s like I guess if they were as a I don’t know. And I don’t know if Tom just comes off as negative sometimes. I there is there were a couple threads out there that were like, why does everybody dislike Tom? And then you get all of the information why. and I don’t know. it you know, let everybody else be the judge. maybe. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll meet him one day and w I’ll be able to make my own opinions if he’s nice or not. But seem seemed fine enough. But then again, there are people that absolutely loathe him. but here’s Holiday Island 1989 says, I like Disney Food blog on YouTube but hate their website. A lot of people were saying that. So what is the big deal here? Like why is Disney Food blog in all ears? Like why are they like hated online but their content on YouTube is much liked?

Lauren: AJ’s voice on YouTube is like I mean it could put you to sleep. Like she just has an amazing YouTube voice for a female. Like people make comments about my voice all the time and not being exactly ideal. But like if I was gonna have the ideal female like YouTuber voice, it’d be hers, so good on you, AJ.

Eric Hersey: Mm-hmm.

Eric Hersey: Let’s watch Mojo voice. Yeah.

Lauren: Yeah, it is. but the Disney Fo food blog on YouTube is really, really well done. and i it’s it also is like easy to find c what you’re looking for. Have you been to their website though?

Eric Hersey: I have not. Is it really bad? I mean I don’t I mean yes, I’ve been to it. I just don’t grab a lot of food stuff, so I don’t really pay much attention to it.

Lauren: But they’re not even a food I mean like I know that they are Disney food blog and but they’re really just parks in general now and there’s leans, you know, there’s a lot of food content but you can get basically anything. I think that their website is just it’s like very, very busy and it’s like harder to navigate and yeah, and I had to unsubscribe from their email because it was just too much too often and like, you know, you spoon feed people information and this was like

Eric Hersey: I know. Ads everywhere.

Lauren: Like a pie to the face, I guess. But love the Disney food blog.

Eric Hersey: Yeah. Yeah. that’s Yeah, so I I mean the funny thing is there’s there’s a couple of when I go and look for universal news each week, ’cause that’s kind of my job and the epic show is you know, I do the news and and and get Jim’s opinions and he does the feature. So I grab all the news and there are just some that you know, I don’t necessarily want people’s opinions for what I’m gathering. So like there are a lot of people like, Hey, I’ll give you my five best whatever. This is a show where we do that, but I wouldn’t expect a lot of people to say, Hey, I go to Dis and Hearst to get the news. we’re also not trying, you know, I understand from these guys’ perspective, it’s like, all right, every time we get a click, we get money. So we want to get more clicks. But I think there is a fine line. And that goes for YouTube as well. I think you can kind of do some long term damage. I mean, as many people saying, I’ll never click on inside the magic, and I’m thinking to myself, yeah, I will never click on their stuff either. So they could be first to first to report something and I’ll just go try to find somebody else. so I I think that’s the case. So there may be maybe WDW N T is kinda perfect hybrid where like they get you to click on some opinion pieces and rumors. but also when it comes down to it, if I wanna know if something’s breaking or or if I feel like hey this is what’s going on in the community as easy as like hey a sign changed that’s where you would go for it. but that we want to hear from you guys essentially who do you love and don’t hate? I will tell you if I’m going to like and I s scoured, I went over the people’s internet all over and over. Like this was probably the most research thing I’ve done in a while. I spent hours looking to see where people and it truly is the DisneyTouristblog.com. Tom Bricker and his gang. I am giving them the people’s internet championship because they won hands down for when it comes down. And I I’m gonna start looking at their blog more. Yeah, I but I I mean literally everybody was like, This is the best, this is the best. And I found stuff that was three years old, four years old, a couple months old, and they were all kind of saying it. So good job, Tom. And

Lauren: Look for a belt in the mail.

Eric Hersey: Crew, I will I will probably subscribe and maybe check out your blogs more often. I don’t know if it’s always winning in the SEO game, but it sounds like you are a reputable, wonderful source. So that but we want to hear from you guys. What do you guys think? Who is the most clickbaity? Who do you never go to? Who’s your top source? who we’re missing. I’m sure there’s some out there that were totally missing.

Lauren: All right. Well that does it for this week’s episode of Disney Hers. For more make sure you’re hitting up DisneyHers dot com. There you’ll find articles, episodes, and updates. And if Disney’s your vibe, be sure to subscribe. Let me do that again. And if Disney’s your vibe, be sure to subscribe.

Eric Hersey: All right, and remember, watch what you post online. You might end up in next week’s episode. Thanks for listening.