Safari Stops and Disney Mount Rushmores

From bizarre guest behavior on Disney attractions to the ultimate debate over the best rides and resorts at Walt Disney World, Lauren and Eric are diving into it all on this episode of Disney Hers. The hosts react to a viral Kilimanjaro Safaris incident, swap stories about guests leaving attractions in unexpected ways, and reveal their personal Disney “Mount Rushmores” for attractions and resorts. Whether you’re a thrill ride fanatic, a PeopleMover loyalist, or someone who judges resorts entirely by the food court, this episode is packed with Disney opinions and laughs.

Safari Stops and Disney Mount Rushmores Transcript

Lauren Hersey: Welcome to Dis & Hers, the show about what’s happening in the Disney community from his, hers, and your perspective. I’m Lauren.

Eric Hersey: I’m Eric and on today’s show we talk about guests jumping off Disney attractions and why that’s not such a great idea. We also discuss our Mount Rushmores of attractions and resorts.

Lauren Hersey: All right. But before we get started, we want to remind you that Dis and Hers can be found on all your favorite podcast platforms and in video format on Spotify and YouTube. We’d love it if you could head over to Apple and leave us a quick rating or review and let us know what you want to hear us talk about on future episodes.

Eric Hersey: Alright Lauren, so this is a couple weeks old but something that we need to talk about. Did you see the TikTok video that was going around where the guest jumped out of Kilimanjaro Safari truck to relieve himself? I think it was around maybe, like I looked at the pictures in the videos and it seemed maybe it was around the rhinos area. Luckily it wasn’t near the alligators or the crocodiles. Lauren, are you familiar with this, what happened here?

Lauren Hersey: Oh my gosh. Yes, and we have like on social media like there’s a lot of cast members that follow us and they interact and like we have a very vibrant community here and I cannot tell you how many people were saying like we keep telling you please stop jumping off the rides and peeing. Like what world are we living in? Anyways, so if you’re not familiar, somebody did get off of Kilimanjaro Safari and went to the bathroom and it shows the guest running like several yards away from the vehicle, thank goodness, before relieving himself in the bushes. And a child believed to be accompanying the guest could be heard saying that, “Daddy, hurry up, they’re going to be waiting for you.” It’s unbelievable, unbelievable to me, but I’m sure cast members have seen it all.

Eric Hersey: Well, I remember we were doing an episode on like the worst behaviors and it was every other post with somebody urinating somewhere. But this one seems like this guy just could not hold it. He said he had to go and he had no other choice. And ultimately we don’t really know what happened.

Lauren Hersey: Unless you were on that ride for 45 minutes, like…

Eric Hersey: We don’t know though, he might have been. We’ve got stuck there before. If there’s animals in the road and his family might have hurried him along, he might have had a lightning lane, you never know. I don’t know this guy’s story. I wanna know if anybody’s talked to this gentleman yet and find out if he was actually banned from the park. Because I imagine this is cause to get kicked out of the park permanently, right?

Lauren Hersey: Like this is like lifetime ban stuff, you would think. Like there are little kids on that safari truck.

Eric Hersey: I mean he was caught. He went far away. He was just peeing in the bush. It’s like somebody peeing in the woods.

Lauren Hersey: Yards, there are photos, Eric. He’s not far enough.

Eric Hersey: Well, listen, so either way this was interesting enough that I thought we should talk about it and then the community was talking about it. So I was on Twitter. Deservation says, “A bathroom emergency hits Kilimanjaro Safaris. What do you do?” And it was a poll. 47 percent said they’re panicking quietly, 25 says I’m asking for help, and then 14 percent mentally leaving my body which is what I think I voted for because like there’s nothing worse than being in a situation where you have to go to the restroom and you can’t. And if you’ve been on Kilimanjaro, that’s a longer ride, right? What do you think? 30, 40 minutes total?

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, I mean, I would say that it’s a longer ride. I understand. I mean, I would be like quietly panicking, like thinking about every possible scenario and then the scenarios for my scenario.

Eric Hersey: But just the matter, you’re on that bumpy road. It’s problematic. So I feel for this guy. I just want to know if he got kicked out. So I did go to Walt Disney World’s rules. Public urination is strictly prohibited at Walt Disney World. It’s categorized under unsafe, illegal, disruptive, or offensive behavior officially. It would usually typically result in an immediate lifetime ban, says the internet, especially from an indecent exposure or public urination standpoint.

Eric Hersey: But I was thinking to myself, what’s the worst attraction to kind of have this happen to you on? In this case, he was able to get out and relieve himself so he might get banned for life, but there’s probably worse attractions to get stuck in. Like imagine the submarine voyage.

Lauren Hersey: That would be terrible and you can’t even move.

Eric Hersey: So I mean, this is a public service announcement. Just go to the bathroom before you go on attractions. That goes for the young and the old. But this kind of got me in a rabbit hole of seeing how often people jump off attractions. Because my thought comes down to this. I think Kilimanjaro now is going to end up having more safety restrictions. Like before, it’s just like you easily get on, get out. Like, do you think they’ll put the plexiglass back up to stop people from doing this? Or do you think like, one off, we’re OK?

Lauren Hersey: No, I think that there’s these one-off exceptions. It’s just who was able to get it on camera because think about how many things that happen that we don’t know about or that we don’t see. So do I think that they’re gonna do that? Probably not, but I’m looking at this one of the PeopleMover and the unauthorized exit at Magic Kingdom.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, this just happened a couple weeks ago.

Lauren Hersey: Do you think people can get lost in there? Like say that you’re in the dark.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, I think it’s dangerous. So what happened was it was in March. This was reported. So I was kind of pulling up all types of stories of people on unauthorized exits and just seeing what the ones were and I imagine this happened for years. But on the internet, the most recent one was two guests climb out of the stopped PeopleMover. And of course, I went to the comments directly just to see what people were saying.

Eric Hersey: One gentleman said, “What part of remain seated do not understand?” The other one was, “Did I miss the memo that said if the ride stops feel free to get out?” And this general Cameron says, “And I’m here hoping it stops inside Space Mountain so I can get a couple minute nap.”

Lauren Hersey: Air conditioning.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, listen, on the PeopleMover if it stopped for a long period of time, which is kind of ironic in its own right because it’s not supposed to stop, right?

Lauren Hersey: Hahaha.

Eric Hersey: Like, I mean, I don’t know. I don’t think I’d jump out. I don’t know necessarily where they were at. Maybe they were on the loading dock, like where it normally was, because it looks like they exited. But do you think that’s a lifetime ban doing something like that? Or is that like a get out of the park for the day?

Lauren Hersey: Well, it depends where it was. Like, I always get back to, I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about the story of the woman getting out on Living with the Land and just walking through the gardens, like trying to find a bathroom, like literally got out of the boat and was just wandering around and they’re watching her on the cameras.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, I remember seeing that and hearing that’s your favorite. Did you know that was not the most popular getting out of Living with the Land story? Have you heard of the lady that grabbed the cucumber?

Lauren Hersey: No!

Eric Hersey: Yeah, so this was a couple years ago, but it somewhat went viral in this nature that there was a lady in 2021 I think in June and she hopped off the boat and snagged a cucumber off of the tree and she was having trouble getting back in basically and that caused all the attention.

Lauren Hersey: I wondered if those veggies were real.

Eric Hersey: They’re absolutely real. But I think it is so we want to know, I want to know personally what’s the most ridiculous story you’ve seen somebody leave. I know there were stories of people jumping out or at least falling out of the Skyway. Jim Hill told a couple of those stories before.

Lauren Hersey: What? No way.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, there’s somebody like jumped in a tree and stuff like that. There was a couple at Disneyland. There was the guy sitting on the PeopleMover track a couple months ago. I don’t know what causes this.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, I did see that. Like what is going on in your head, friends?

Eric Hersey: I don’t know. There was the guy that was tripping out on mushrooms that was in It’s a Small World and hanging out in the pool.

Lauren Hersey: That naked guy. Yeah. And we’ve definitely seen people getting out of the boats on Small World and Pirates.

Eric Hersey: But I think my favorite, and I don’t know if you know about this Lauren, but have you ever heard of the tales of Hoot and Chief? Hoot Gibson and Chief?

Lauren Hersey: No.

Eric Hersey: All right, so this is pretty iconic in the internet sphere. We are not saying to do this on any attraction, but this was done back in the day. So there were two guys, his name was Dave, or we’ll just call him Hoot, and then Chief were the two individuals, and they’re basically big time Disney fans and they were big fans of Horizons. So we all know Horizons is no longer there, it’s where Mission Space is. But for the longest time they basically were jumping out of the attraction and navigating around the different show scenes and documenting by taking pictures and video of the entire attraction.

Eric Hersey: They did this for a very long time. I don’t know if it was a total of years, but they almost collected dozens of pictures up close almost to the point where they kind of documented the entire ride vehicle. Over time they kind of counted out exactly how long it would take before you could jump back into it, back into the attraction where the camera wasn’t able to see you and they figured it out to the point where they kept doing it, kept doing it.

Eric Hersey: There were moments and times where they were in the attraction for hours and not being seen. And you can actually find a lot of this footage and a lot of their videos and stuff online. They kind of documented it after the attraction was shut down. So Horizons went down in 1999, but they put it out on their blog. I think in 2009, it was like the Mesa Verde Times. I think there was a blog out there that documented all of it and it’s become legend, especially to urban explorers and individuals.

Eric Hersey: It wasn’t a matter of they didn’t get out of the ride to go to the restroom. They were literally doing it illegally, mind you, so we’re not gonna glorify them. But for us Horizons fans, it was kind of nice that we got all this stuff documented. But I think that’s the most famous getting out of the attraction story of Hoot and Chief. So if you’re interested in that stuff, look them up. It was interesting enough, but I don’t know if that could be done in this day and age with the amount of cameras and security. Certainly not condoning any of it, even if you’re trying to get a cucumber or a banana.

Lauren Hersey: I mean, but if I was going to put those guys on a Mount Rushmore with urban explorers, like it would be Adam the Woo’s face next to them. Didn’t he get a lifetime ban? And then what about the kid? Who is the kid that we were all watching?

Eric Hersey: Matt Sonswa. Yeah, he’s one of them that was over at Discovery Island. Swam over there.

Lauren Hersey: Yes, yes, we’ve seen a lot of Discovery Island. And don’t do that friends. That’s the disclaimer we’re going to say here. But speaking of Mount Rushmore, when we get back, that’s what we’re going to do. Eric wants us to give you the Mount Rushmore of attractions and resorts and we can’t wait to hear what you guys think. But before that, there’s this.

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Lauren Hersey: Okay. All right. And we’re back.

Eric Hersey: Alright Lauren, so we talked about this briefly, but I had a feeling you weren’t quite familiar with what the Mount Rushmore trend is. So we talked the other day because I’m like, alright prepping you. Hey, I’m writing this show for this week and I said, “Do you know what the Mount Rushmore deal is?” And I primarily know it from pro wrestling. There’s a lot of talk of like pick your Mount Rushmore, which is ultimately picking like your top four, right? It’s kind of saying hey if you’re gonna get a landmark and carve someone’s face in stone who would your top four be.

Eric Hersey: So it’s always done in the wrestling world. I imagine it’s done everywhere and I was scrolling through Twitter and actually saw somebody say Mount Rushmore and it was Disney related. So I thought it would be fun for us to do our Mount Rushmore and I more importantly wanted to see if it’s already been done and yes, there’s obviously people that’s done the Mount Rushmore of Disney attractions and today we’re gonna do Disney attractions. We’ll also do Disney resorts.

Eric Hersey: So let’s just start off with a little example here. If you go onto Reddit there was somebody says what is the Mount Rushmore for Disney park attractions and this person has Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, and it looks to be Big Thunder Mountain.

Lauren Hersey: That was a big Thunder Mountain.

Eric Hersey: I’ve never seen that as a logo. Good job. This person’s a traditionalist it looks like. They like the classics. That’s a pretty solid Mount Rushmore. What do you think about this next one? I think this one’s up your alley.

Lauren Hersey: Oh my gosh. These, I don’t know. Mavic Mini, do you want to be my bestie? But it says come at me all the time you want but in my heart I know I’m right. Living with the Land, PeopleMover, Flight of Passage…

Eric Hersey: Yeah, I don’t think you would put Flight on yours, but we’ll find out soon.

Lauren Hersey: No, I would not put Flight of Passage. Like who is putting Living with the Land number one and then Flight of Passage four? Like, I’m with you. We’re not together anymore.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, well Celtic DK says if you’re gonna pick non-Magic Kingdoms, they’re going with Guardians, Safari, Flight of Passage, and Toy Story Mania. So that’s a solid list so to speak. It seems like they’re picking one almost from each park.

Eric Hersey: Before we get to ours, I thought this was a funny one from JWing01. It’s basically here’s the four parks. It’s getting hit with the ankles by large plastic strollers, being behind people who stop at the ride exit doors, seeing Rapunzel and Ariel get into the elevator during Keys to the Kingdom, and “por favor manténgase alejado de las puertas.”

Lauren Hersey: Support us, support us. Yes, I do love that.

Eric Hersey: Okay, so let’s go at it Lauren. What is your Mount Rushmore for Disney attractions?

Lauren Hersey: Okay, so I really had to give this some thought because to me, Disney is a vibe, but it’s not defined by just the attractions. But we talked about it before. I do love some Guardians. I think Guardians is the best ride in any of the theme parks. So that would be the number one face.

Lauren Hersey: But you just said Toy Story Mania and that is such a… I love that ride so much. It makes my heart happy and it wasn’t even on my initial list. I love the PeopleMover. I’d ride it over and over and over and over again. And then I probably have to say Frozen.

Eric Hersey: Okay, so the PeopleMover I knew was… no, I think you had Mine Train on there originally, right? You took it off for Toy Story.

Lauren Hersey: Thank you. I did not think you would call mine respectable. I feel like people are going to be at me for the PeopleMover, but I could ride it a thousand times and never get sick of it.

Eric Hersey: See, I would put the PeopleMover on mine. I really do like the PeopleMover. It’s one of those where I could just keep doing it, right? And I think it’s so underrated, and I don’t think people realize how amazing that is on so many levels.

Lauren Hersey: It just hits different.

Eric Hersey: Guardians is on mine as well. From a pure coaster perspective, I think Guardians is probably the most fun attraction out there. If you like coasters, of course, I don’t think there’s much better than that.

Lauren Hersey: I know. Sorry.

Eric Hersey: And it’s no surprise that I am a Haunted Mansion guy. That is the attraction. I think that’s the attraction that I look forward to the most. I try never to miss it whatsoever. Literally, I think if I was gonna show somebody Disney and said we’re allowed to go on one attraction, that would be the one because you get the vibe.

Eric Hersey: It’s animatronics, it’s mysterious. I think it’s just classic Disney, but yet it still kind of transcends and works for the future. I just think Haunted Mansion perfectly sums up what I envision as a Disney theme park.

Eric Hersey: The other one that comes down to mind would be Space Mountain. I think there is something about that attraction that I absolutely love. It’s not even the fastest. It’s nothing special by any means, but I find it just to be the perfect roller coaster. I don’t get anxiety when I get on it where like there are coasters that give me anxiety like Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

Lauren Hersey: I think that it warrants a trip to the chiropractor. It’s not even going that fast, but for some reason, it’s just like I feel like I’m being yanked around.

Eric Hersey: You can’t brace yourself on the turns.

Eric Hersey: And then I think the fourth is really where it gets really tricky for me because there are elements of absolutely pick something like Living with the Land or the PeopleMover. These are classic attractions. And then there’s elements of like well what about things like Rise of the Resistance or Expedition Everest.

Eric Hersey: So this is just the hardest one that I cannot really necessarily get that last piece on there. Lauren, you know me pretty well. What do you think I should put as the last face?

Lauren Hersey: I mean, Space, Mansion, Guardians, Living with the Land. I mean, you’re always talking about the fish farm.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, I do take a lot of pictures of fish farms and troll my friends by sending it to them and telling them it’s mine. Yeah, let’s put Living with the Land on there. I think that gives you a little classic Epcot.

Lauren Hersey: He’s a purist. He likes things that feel old and have history.

Eric Hersey: But what about Spaceship Earth, man? Spaceship Earth is quite amazing as well. Like that is my vibe.

Lauren Hersey: Yes. I don’t know. I would say if you were going to pick one though, I feel like you’re always Living with the Land.

Eric Hersey: It’s gonna be a gut call. We’ll go Spaceship Earth for now. That is old Epcot. So I’m gonna go Guardians, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Spaceship Earth. That is current 2026 Mount Rushmore.

Eric Hersey: But we do want to hear everybody else’s Mount Rushmore just on attractions. We’ll stick with Walt Disney World for now. We’ll go to Disneyland another time. Let us know in the comments what yours is.

Eric Hersey: But we also want to know this next thing, which is the Mount Rushmore of resorts. I saw this from a gentleman named Nick on Twitter or X. It’s what four Walt Disney World resorts would be your Mount Rushmore. And the top four was Polynesian, Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the Beach Club.

Lauren Hersey: I feel like looking at this, this must be a relative of the person that was Living with the Land and then Flight of Passage. Like I’m with you. Polly, Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge. I feel like that says a lot about the person and then it’s like boom, Beach Club.

Eric Hersey: Well yeah, because they’re all kind of outdoorsy and adventurous and then Beach Club. I mean, that’s like a beach adventure, right?

Lauren Hersey: It’s like I’ve been high. Yeah, I don’t know. I guess Polly would be tropical and then the Beach Club would be tropical.

Eric Hersey: Alright, so Lauren, do you have four resorts?

Lauren Hersey: I mean, since you couldn’t really nail down four attractions.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, I do. I think it’s fairly easy. Right off the get-go, Polynesian is my favorite. 1971 Disney is my favorite timeframe and the Polynesian is about as original as you can get. I like the Polynesian culture in many aspects. I like the wonderful theming there and the history.

Eric Hersey: Number two would be the BoardWalk. If I had to choose it’d be BoardWalk with the clown slide. Unfortunately they took that away from us. The BoardWalk from a convenience level is super great because you can walk directly to two parks and I personally dislike transportation. I just would prefer to use my feet to walk anywhere.

Lauren Hersey: Yes.

Eric Hersey: The third is semi controversial and that is the Contemporary. And the reason it’s controversial is because we have yet to stay officially in the Contemporary.

Lauren Hersey: It’s like the only resort we’ve not stayed in, but we’ll be there in July.

Eric Hersey: Yeah, because it has tinier rooms, but I can pretend that I’ve stayed there because our friend once stayed there and showed us rooms and so forth and we’re always there. I know I would like it. It goes down to the 1971 Disney vibe. It goes down to walking places.

Eric Hersey: And the last one will get me cancelled but I think it is the epitome of what I picture Disney and that is Pop Century.

Lauren Hersey: Oh my gosh, Eric.

Eric Hersey: Listen, I would take any of the All-Stars because I think the giant figures, the giant statues everywhere and the food courts and the lobbies and the crazy looking carpet and all that just screams to me Walt Disney World Resort vacation. Especially for a lot of those people that I talk to are going on like their first vacation. It’s like a budget friendly version.

Lauren Hersey: I do love a food court. Like, I love an All-Star food court. And before you would get one bus to all the All-Stars and if you stayed at Pop you got your own bus like you felt like you were bougie.

Eric Hersey: Well, the argument would have been why wouldn’t you just pick Art of Animation? And I’m like that’s too new to me. I like a Michael Eisner 90s kind of Disney and seeing a giant Mighty Ducks helmet or a giant Dalmatian is the vibe. That is my Disney that I remember.

Lauren Hersey: Because that’s where we stayed at first, probably.

Eric Hersey: So Lauren, let’s hear yours.

Lauren Hersey: Okay, but also I think that this is a reflection of who you are and who your friends are, who you’re going to be hanging out with. That’s why I was making the comments about the one with the Polly and then the Beach Club.

Lauren Hersey: I think I’m going to have to say number one BoardWalk. If we’re talking aesthetics, I like BoardWalk, Beach Club, Polly, and then I was also struggling with my fourth. I don’t know if I had unlimited money maybe Grand Floridian, but I really love Art of Animation.

Lauren Hersey: I don’t feel like it’s too new. I mean, you got the Nemo pool, there’s music playing underwater, you got all the colors. I feel like if you are going on a Disney vacation and you want to feel like Disney, that is your spot.

Lauren Hersey: Now, where we normally stay is Saratoga Springs or Old Key West, but normally that’s because where we can use our points and they’re lovely. I mean, and they’re themed, but do you feel like that is truly what you think of when you think of Disney?

Eric Hersey: No, that’s the thing. I just think of the All-Stars. Everybody goes to Disney differently and obviously people are in different budgets and different timeframes and different eras of their life.

Eric Hersey: But what do you like about the Beach Club so much?

Lauren Hersey: The pool. I mean, I like the beach. You peoples do not in our family, but they have the sand bottom pool and I just remember it being very exclusive to get into. Honestly, I think I just like that aesthetic. Obviously convenience walking to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

Lauren Hersey: I am also of the BoardWalk era with the clown slide. I do like some of that history too. But I think I have different grade of what’s important to me. I’m more about the space. I want functional space. I don’t like things being everywhere.

Lauren Hersey: But I saw, I don’t know if it was you and I talking about it, but did you see where it was asking what resorts punch above their weight? Like people think that Coronado Springs should be a deluxe versus being a moderate. Are there any resorts that you think punch above their weight or below actually?

Eric Hersey: I do. A lot of people talk about the Riviera like crazy and I just was in there. We didn’t stay there so I can’t really comment too much, but I’m like I don’t know what the vibe is there. Everybody’s talking about this Riviera and I’m like nah, I think I would rather stay somewhere else.

Lauren Hersey: But it’s a value. Like, I think that Art of Animation being labeled a value is, I think, at least it should be a moderate.

Eric Hersey: I think it all comes down to eating, having restaurants on place, how many pools, stuff like that all comes into play.

Lauren Hersey: But I’d pick a food court over a sit down. I’ve missed every day.

Eric Hersey: Well, listen, the food courts, we’re an odd breed. That’s what we are. We’re just tourists at the end of the day. But we want to hear from you guys. We gave some Mount Rushmores from our perspective. Where are we wrong? Please yell at us so we can yell back. It’s always good fun and games.

Lauren Hersey: It’s always good fun.

Eric Hersey: But no, let us know what’s your Mount Rushmore. Let’s see, how does that tell your personality? We want to hear from you. Let us know in the comments or reach out directly.

Lauren Hersey: Yes, and that does it for this week’s episode of Dis & Hers. For more, make sure you’re hitting up DisneyHers.com. There you’ll find episodes, updates, articles, and if Disney is your vibe, make sure you subscribe.

Eric Hersey: Alright, and remember, watch what you post. It might end up in next week’s episode. Thanks for listening.