The Dark Side of Disney (24 page)

Path from Mission: Space queue to CM Costuming building

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My off-limits escapades are small-time compared to the exploits of other daring souls I’ve met via the wonders of The Interwebs. McGeorge’s BBSs had transformed into “Al Gore’s Internet”, and suddenly like-minded souls started coming out with some crazy stories of WDW infiltrations that rivaled military operations. I’ve had the pleasure and honor of getting to know two of these brave characters, and both agreed not only to let me interview them, but to also allow a few of their adventure photos to be published.

INTERVIEW WITH SHANE PEREZ

First up is Shane Perez, a good-looking, well-spoken Miami native now residing in NYC. Shane received a certain amount of notoriety after exploring an abandoned rocket silo which still contained one of the most powerful rockets ever made! Thrilling video of him rappelling down the side of the underground silo (and nearly getting stuck) was featured prominently in the 2007 documentary
Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness
. This movie, by Melody Gilbert, focuses on men and women who, often at great risk to their safety, explore abandoned industrial sites, an activity known as “Urban Exploring”. The film examines their motivations for engaging in this high risk activity, and highlights the sense of wonder and beauty that these individuals feel from witnessing firsthand the crumbling and decaying architecture and technology of years past.

But Shane received even more attention beginning on Christmas Day, 2009 when he published a blog entry on his website,
http://shaneperez.blogspot.com
, featuring a detailed report of his trip to Discovery Island, Walt Disney World’s long-abandoned nature park. Discovery Island, located in the heart of Bay Lake, was left to rot years ago when the opening of Animal Kingdom effectively rendered the previously well-maintained zoo obsolete. Instead of bulldozing the property, Disney simply decided to leave it as-is and let nature take its course, turning it into an overgrown urban ruin that was an irresistible destination for Shane and his fellow Urban Explorers.

The gorgeous pictures from Shane’s evening on the island, along with his well-written travelogue immediately made it clear that he wasn’t a bragging punk kid trespasser, but was in fact an intelligent, talented individual whose admittedly outrageous story couldn’t be easily dismissed as hooliganism. The Orlando Sentinel eventually broke the story and soon it was being reported on by media outlets nationwide, making Shane’s previously underground celebrity status a thing of the past. Message boards at Disney fan sites buzzed with debate about whether Shane’s actions, although obviously illegal, were also immoral, or at the very least just really stupid. But Shane kept his cool, firing back non-inflammatory and well-reasoned responses to his detractors basically saying, “Hey, I’m not hurting anyone except maybe myself, and that’s none of your business.”

I caught up with Shane almost a year after his blog post was published, and he graciously agreed to answer my sometimes long-winded questions.

What’s your “day job”? Obviously Urban Exploring doesn’t pay cash dividends…. Or does it?

I do home theater installation and I also work as a freelance photographer for the NY Post.

Describe for me what you get out of Urban Exploring on an emotional, or for lack of a better word, “spiritual” level. In other words, what is it about UE that fills a need that isn’t fulfilled by normal everyday life?

I don’t really see it as an activity, it’s more of a way of looking at the world. It’s about satisfying curiosity about how things work and their history. It also encourages me to exercise my critical thinking skills and learn to take responsibility for my own actions. Normal everyday places are set up to be as safe and foolproof as possible. You can basically wander through life on autopilot and never have to worry about being hurt or killed, there’s always going to be a handrail or safety measure in place to protect you from yourself. That is not so in the places that I visit and I feel like that encourages me to be a more capable and aware human being by gaining more understanding of my surroundings.

Is the danger a part of the appeal? Personally, I’d love to explore a lot of these places, but the thought of getting arrested, even more so than getting physically injured, serves as a fairly strong deterrent. If danger isn’t part of the appeal, how do you reconcile the obvious risks with the less obvious rewards?

Danger is not a motivating factor. I’d be just as happy seeing these places if it were completely legal and I had permission. Danger is everywhere really, you can get hit by a bus crossing a street, or slip in the shower and drown in 2 inches of water just as easily as you could get hurt by walking around an abandoned building. People may see what I do as “dangerous” but if you look at the numbers of people dying from heart disease, I’d say that it’s a lot more dangerous to sit at home and watch TV while eating junk food. I’m not a thief or vandal, so as far as arrest goes I don’t worry about it too much besides trespassing tickets which are usually just a fine.

Do you find yourself needing to justify these activities to your friends/family/coworkers? Do you come across a lot of people who just don’t understand your rationale? If so, how does that impact your relationships? I imagine if this is something you’re passionate about it would be hard to maintain a relationship with someone who didn’t understand risking your life for that passion.

Not particularly. I’m an adult and I don’t really feel the need to justify any of my actions to anyone other than myself. I’ve come across a couple people that don’t understand why I choose to do these things, but for the most part people get why I do it and many times tell me stories of similar things they have done in the past, often in their childhood. I get way more people asking to come along or saying that they wish they could but are unable to because of the risks involved. I don’t really think I would have much interest in having any sort of relationship with anyone that is so caught up with rules and regulations that they can’t fathom why I might do this, so it’s mostly irrelevant. My friends/family/lovers vary in their level of understanding/support/interest, but none are completely opposed to it or lack understanding of why it is appealing.

Is there any place that is “sacred ground” to you? Or is it all fair game for exploring?

There are plenty of places I won’t go, it’s all dependent on the risk/reward ratio. There are tons of things I would love to see, but are quite unlikely I ever will. I would love to see the inside of an active nuclear power plant, NASA facilities, and many other similarly high security locations but those sorts of places are virtually impossible to see without permission. I basically stay away from any place that is a guaranteed arrest or that I feel are beyond my physical capabilities.

So you were born and raised in Miami, FL. How often did you visit Walt Disney World when you lived in Florida? Was it a rare treat, or did you visit often enough for the novelty to wear off? Do you have fond memories of family experiences there, or was it more of an annoyance to have to keep going back?

I went a few times with my folks growing up, but we didn’t go too much. It was fun at the time, although I didn’t particularly enjoy standing around in lines all day and I was always curious about behind the scenes stuff.

What was your first Urban Exploring experience at Walt Disney World? How long had you been doing this before you tried it at WDW?

It was probably exploring the Utilidor system a few yeas ago, a few months before I did the swim to Discovery Island. I had been dating a girl that worked there in the past and she taught me some of the Disney jargon and explained some of the rules about employee conduct/appearance. I also looked at a few maps online of the system and had a rough idea of where entrances should be. I dressed and cut my hair to meet Disney regulations, bought a ticket to the park and headed for an entrance determined to get in. I failed at the first entrance because I ran into a group of executives (including Michael Eisner!) coming out from the Utilidors and I got spooked. I bailed on that entrance and eventually found my way down after talking to a cast member outside of a ride and convincing them I was a new employee that was a little lost. Once I was down I spent quite a bit of time looking around, seeing the costuming areas, locker rooms (including the unisex one connecting them), computers that run the rides, the waste disposal system, and even had lunch in the employee cafeteria. It was a pretty good time and I even managed to sneak a few photos from my pocket.

I’d probably been exploring for a good 5 years at that point, so I was pretty confident in my abilities to blend in and talk my way out of trouble.

So let’s get into the Discovery Island exploration. Had you been there as a child? If not, how did you find out about it?

Nope, I never actually went there while it was open. I heard about it from some local Orlando explorers that had read about it.

It seems like there was a primary, aborted attempt to reach the island. Explain why that first attempt failed, and what drove you to take the time to plan a comeback instead of just giving up?

Well, it basically came down to bad intel. The locals that had scouted it out before we came up had told us that there was “infrequent” traffic on the lake and that it was only about 150ft to the island from the nearest land. We snuck an inflatable boat, pump, and 200ft of clothesline into the campground and planned on paddling across and then pulling the boat back to the other side using the clothesline so we could ferry multiple people across. When we got there it turned out it was more like 300ft to the island at least and there were 2 ferries that crossed directly in the water between us and the island every 5-10 minutes. It was pretty much impossible to do the way we had planned and it was far too cold to swim when we were there. I vowed to come back and figure out a way to do it in the future.

How much planning went into this second attempt? Was there a “mission statement” of sorts? In other words, did you know in advance what you wanted to accomplish, and how exactly you would go about accomplishing it? Was there a specific “money shot” you felt you needed to get, or was it more of a “this is how we’ll get over there, and once we’re there we’ll see what happens” sort of thing?

There was a fair bit of planning in terms of getting to the island, but none really for once we got there. We had no idea what we would find when we got there, so we left that in the air. We bought waterproof bags and tested swimming an equivalent distance with them in a lake behind my friend’s house in FL. We took towels, changes of clothes, snacks, water, and camera gear to explore. We planned on giving ourselves a few hours on the island and set a hard “turn around” time where we would start heading back regardless of if we’d seen the entire island or not.

Did you know about the gators and the “killer amoeba”
[Naegleria fowleri, which gets into your brain via your nose and is almost always fatal]
when you decided to swim across the lake?

Not really. We had talked about the possibility of gators, but we just figured that since it was a “Disney” lake they wouldn’t allow there to be gators that could come up on shore and potentially hurt guests.

Describe to me what was going through your mind as you’re swimming across Bay Lake in the middle of the night? This is the scariest part of the tale for most people, because it taps into some primordial fear about swimming in the dark, especially in the ocean or in a lake….

It was pretty intense but what was in the lake itself was the least of our worries. We were mostly concerned with getting caught by the occasional lake patrols and landing in a good spot on the island. Most of the swim was spent looking back towards fort wilderness and the area where we knew lake patrol docked their boats. We tried to swim as quietly and quickly as we could.