the year is 2007, also known as "the year of a million dreams" in walt disney world. (this year lasted over 27 months, btw, but i digress.) to a family from new hampshire, 2007 is also known as the year tigger punched their teenage son - making their trip a real nightmare. disney's year of a million dreams was a promotional period where disney was doing their best to make dreams come true. a family won a stay in the cinderella castle suite; another, a morning where they had magic kingdom all to themselves.

this is patrick spikes, more commonly known by his former twitter handle BackdoorDisney. today i want to tell you all about how and why he got arrested from stealing from actual rides in walt disney world, and how he's connected to a missing figure from an abandoned show in epcot the story begins on twitter, where a mysterious account called backdoordisney popped up. this account gained a lot of traction fast due to the behind-the-scenes content posted

did you guys know that a conspiracy theorist attempted to live out the initial covid-19 quarantine on disney's abandoned discovery island?! his name is richard mcguire, and i'm going to tell you all about his wacky adventure. there he is. there's the man, the absolute mad lad

for context, discovery island was a walt disney world attraction that closed in 1999. it was like a predecessor to animal kingdom, where guests could learn about Florida wildlife and see some of it. to get over there you'd need to take a boat from mainland disney across bay lake