The kingdom wasn’t so magical for one unlucky parkgoer after he got stuck on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland for 30 minutes.
The ordeal was so bad in fact that Jose Martinez was awarded $8,000 in damages from the amusement park after the ride broke down in 2009, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Martinez, who is in his early 50s and suffers from panic attacks and high blood pressure, is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair and when the ride broke down on the day after Thanksgiving, workers didn’t know what to do.
Instead of evacuating Martinez like they did for the other riders, the crew at Disneyland left the man to endure 30 continuous minutes of the ride’s incredibly annoying song as the attraction was fixed.
“He was half in the cave of the ride and half out,” said David Geffen, Martinez’s attorney. “The music was blaring. They couldn’t get it to go off.”
Besides the trauma to Martinez’s ears, his suit claimed that Disney should have warned that disabled riders could have been trapped if “It’s a Small World” broke down, a claim the judge in the case bought.
For their part, Disneyland said through a spokesperson that it “believes it provided all appropriate assistance to Mr. and Mrs. Martinez when the ride temporarily stopped and is disappointed that the court did not fully agree.”
Warning: the following video from the Post’s travel department includes 10 minutes of the “It’s a Small World” song which may get stuck in your head.