The magical kingdom is a heartless corporation bent on ruining the fun of it’s largest fans, according to a young woman named April Spielman (photos below) who was barred from entry in Florida because of over exuberance. Her sin? Dressing like Tinkerbell and doing it so well that little girls at the park may have mistaken her for the real deal. What babies!
Photo: April Spielman
Her boyfriend dressed as Peter Pan and accompanied her to the Animal Kingdom park in Florida where they expected to spend the day of their dreams, riding the rides, eating the Disney hot dogs, and using the toilets at appropriate intervals. His name, by the way, is unknown but nobody cares about him. We want to know more about the daring damsel who has the audacity to dress like the femme fatale Tinkerbell, perhaps the sexiest Disney character known to the world.
The 15-year old Florida girl spent the entire morning getting ready for her big date but her world came crashing down shortly after entering the front gate. “We walked to the first ride and looked behind us and there were a lot of people following us. One came up and said, ‘You can’t be wearing that.’”
“My makeup took two hours, my hair took another hour, and then I had to spray my body in glitter and paint my nails. They said I looked too good.” Just imagine! Instead of rewarding the girl as their greatest customer in history, the grumps kicked her out of the park.
Well, not exactly because all is almost well that ends almost well. The serious folks at Disney made her change her outfit and gave her a t-shirt to wear over her Tinkerbell body. Then they gave the dating couple a FastPass, which means you can skip the lines at all of the attractions by going straight to the front. Not a terrible outcome, but still she was left in tears. You can read more information about this tale of woe here and you can see a tear-jerker video interview here.
My guess is her view of the world has changed forever. She went to the park as a wide-eyed optimist thinking that the world was a fair, lovely place where dreams can come true. She left knowing the cold, hard reality. Onerous business rules comes first, well before an impressionable girl and her fantasies. We would like to tell you more about this dreaming girl but we cannot find April Spielman’s Facebook page or any other information about her.
And that’s okay. Some things are still best left to the fantasy world of storybook characters.
Video: Tinkerbell
June 6th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
They don’t want people over certain ages to dress like that because, yes, children WILL think they are THE designated character who is SUPPOSED to be in the park. What if this 15 year old had a gutter mouth? And then kids come up to her asking for her autograph, and she cusses them out.
Or if she decides to have fun and tell them a horrorific story about Tinkerbell. Where are the reprecussions? Is it sad? Yes, because she is clearly a Disney fan. But this is for the greater good, and the protection of not just the characters we all love, but the children who come to the park. By having people who have not gone through the Disney training just wear these costumes around opens up too many problems to correct.
June 6th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Sorry young lady, but Disney is correct in making sure that people do not go into their parks dressed as Disney characters. ONLY their employees are allowed to do that.
As the other poster has correctly pointed-out, Disney does not want any confusion inside the park as to who they are employing to represent the Disney characters.
June 6th, 2012 at 10:13 pm
That’s a place where children run straight up to strangers thinking they’re the real thing. If she can do it why not everybody? Great place for pedophiles. Sure, who doesn’t want their child abducted by a fake Micky.
Also, she is way too old to be crying like a child, there are plenty of ways to dress up and be an idiot. And purposely taking a picture of herself crying in attempt to make it dramatic just shows how ridiculous and narcissistic this girl is. Like it or not she is a young adult and it’s time to act like one. You should be ashamed of yourself for foolishly taking her side when a corporation actually did the right thing for once. What they did to compensate her for her foolishness was enough.
And nice how you, just like her, don’t care how she could’ve ruined a real child’s dreams and innocence. What if she cussed in front of them or got rude if they wanted to take a picture with her? Ever think how that would have been for them to see someone they admire so much behaving like that? No, obviously you don’t care for the people that actually deserve it, like those children. They have every right just like her, if not more, to enjoy their experience there as well
June 7th, 2012 at 4:34 am
Sorry, Miss Spielman, but Disney must control and protect it’s image and reputation. They are totally correct in refusing to allow you to dress as one of their characters. I do not understand why you cannot thoroughly enjoy the Disney experience in normal street clothes. If you want to be dressed as Tinkerbell then throw your self a costume party. When you attempt to replace or imitate a Disney character in a Disney park, every word you speak, every step you take, every person you interact with could believe you are a Disney employee. That can be a seriously legal misrepresentation of Disney and Disney characters. You need to start living in the real world.
Craig
Craig Davis
June 8th, 2012 at 7:33 am
I’m with Disney on this! Ms Spielman is acting more like a 5 yr old then a 15 yr old. Disney went out of their way to assist her after refusing her admittance then she turns around and runs to the media to complain? How ungrateful can you be! If Ms Spielman wants to dress up as Tinkerbell again, do so in the privacy of your home or at a costume party, but not in public and around little kids.
June 12th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
wanna hear the whole story? Add April Spielman on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/april.tinkerbell