News

Clickbait Headline Misleadingly Claims 'Disney World Theme Park' Is Closing for 4 Days

The prominent Disney fan blog Inside the Magic posted the misleading clickbait headline in December 2023.

Published Dec 15, 2023

A sign near an entranceway to Walt Disney World Resort on May 22, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A sign near an entranceway to Walt Disney World Resort on May 22, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

On Dec. 15, 2023, the Disney fan blog Inside the Magic published an article with the misleading and clickbait headline, "Disney World Theme Park Officially Closing for Four Straight Days."

The wording in the headline likely gave readers the sense that one of the four theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, was temporarily shutting down.

Revealed in the Inside the Magic article was the fact that the Blizzard Beach water park – which Disney does not consider to be a "theme park" – appeared to be temporarily closing due to incoming inclement weather conditions.

On the official website for Walt Disney World Resort, the company specifically labels four parks as being "theme parks," including Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdom. In a separate section, the website lists Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Disney's Blizzard Beach as being "water parks," not theme parks.

An italicized footer at the end of the Inside the Magic article showed that the website's staff was apparently aware of the distinction between the four theme parks and two water parks:

Walt Disney World Resort boasts four theme parks: Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT Park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park. It also features two Disney water parks, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park and Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park, and the retail and recreation area, Disney Springs.

On another Disney fan blog, WDW News Today, an accurate headline about the subject was published. It read, "Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park Closing This Weekend Due to Incoming Storms."

As always, it's possible that one or more of the four theme parks at Disney World may close on a future date due to weather conditions. However, as of Dec. 15, the official company website only showed the Blizzard Beach water park as planning to temporarily close.

We previously reported about other misleading headlines that were published by Inside the Magic. Further, we noted that, when typing "Inside the Magic" into a Google search, before executing the search, the first three search suggestions displayed as "Inside the Magic clickbait," "Inside the Magic fake news" and "Inside the Magic credibility."

Sources

Ace, Shannen. “Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park Closing This Weekend Due to Incoming Storms.” WDW News Today, 15 Dec. 2023, https://wdwnt.com/2023/12/disneys-blizzard-beach-water-park-closing-this-weekend-due-to-incoming-storms/.

Walt Disney World Resort. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/.

Jordan Liles is a Senior Reporter who has been with Snopes since 2016.