Recent revelations from a former cast member have raised concerns about the hygiene of costumes worn by Disney Princesses at Walt Disney World Resort. A TikTok video by a former Disney Park character performer, @jenstopit, has shed light on the unfortunate reality faced by those who donned the beloved princess attire.
@jenstopit Replying to @Baby Scoop Survivor Ever heard of Scabies?!? #disney #disneyprincess #castmember #disneytok #disneytiktok #disneyworld #performer
In her video, the former Disney cast member detailed her experiences inspecting her costumes before spending hours interacting with guests.
“Sometimes they did smell. I always did a sniff test. If it smelled funny, I would go turn that costume in and grab a different one.”
Still, a “stinky” costume is the least of a Disney character performer‘s worries.
Scabies, a contagious skin condition caused by tiny mites, can quickly spread through infested clothing. The former character performer described instances where Disney cast members exchanged garments without proper sanitation measures in place, causing multiple outbreaks.
“This didn’t just happen once,” she said. “This wasn’t one time. I heard about this when I was in training. A girl started breaking out in a rash. They had to remove her from training; they were like, ‘I think she has shingles.’ I see her in the tunnel a few weeks later; she was like, ‘No. I got scabies.'”
There was also an outbreak of it in like ’07, ’08 at a certain show at Magic Kingdom and another show…at [Disney’s Hollywood Studios],” the former Disney cast member continued. “I feel like I heard about it at least one other time while I worked there.”
The TikToker never caught a skin infection but occasionally had to swap costumes because of “heavy chemical” smells.
“I remember one having a really heavy chemical smell, a dress,” she recalled. “I wore it for one meet-and-greet, and I had to call and be like, ‘I need another dress…My skin is getting irritated. It’s turning red.'”
However, Disney Princesses had to be careful not to complain too much.
“If you… constantly had that reaction and constantly complained about it, they would just pull you out of the character,” the former character performer said. “They weren’t going to specialty wash anything for you because, again, we all shared costumes.”
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Can anyone speak to the protocol for costumes and cast member clothes and how they are handled? I was under the impression that cast member “outfits” were assigned to them and tagged with a upc code so that they received back the same costumes they turned in. Is this not true with character outfits? it is kind of hard to believe that several people are expected to wear the same costume without it being cleaned in between wearers…
I can see wearing the costume for more than one day or one session as long as it is one person wearing one costume… but hard to imagine multiple wearers without cleaning in between.