The Truth Behind Disney’s “Cigarette Night” Celebration

It’s always an exciting time when you visit a Disney theme park. But there are ways to make your time at Disney even more memorable. Disney offers a number of incredible nighttime events, including Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, Oogie Boogie Bash, and Disneyland After Dark events.

But now, it’s another — very un-Disneylike — event that is making the rounds on social media.

At the end of September, images started going of a Cigarette Night that was hosted at Disneyland Resort in 1984. The images show a number of Disney characters smoking and surrounded by piles of cigarettes. Many of those characters are iconic ones like Donald Duck, Goofy, the Genie, and Princess Jasmine.

Related: After Thousands of Layoffs, Disney Hiring For Controversial Positions

So, did it really happen? The simple answer is No.

The images were generated by artificial intelligence. The same AI that is used to do things like turn popular male actors into Disney princesses and even show Disney castles inspired by different Disney movies. Some of it is very realistic looking and can fool a lot of people.

It might not be hard for some people to think that Disney once celebrated smoking, even in the 1980s. Walt Disney himself was a very big smoker. In later years, images of Walt have been altered to remove the cigarette from his hands. That is why he is often seen with his index and middle fingers pressed together for no apparent reason.

At first, Josh — the person who originally posted the photos — tried to convince people that the photos were real, but many weren’t buying it. In most of the photos, the word Disneyland is misspelled. Sometimes it even appears to be written in a foreign language.

There are also images that show characters from Aladdin being used to advertise Cigarette Night. The only problem is that Aladdin did not come out until 1992. Eight years after the supposed event.

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For many years, Disney theme parks had designated smoking areas where guests could sit back and light up. However, other guests still had an issue with it, since they would have to walk through plumes of smoke to pass the smoking area. There were also those who were not thrilled about the fact that children were allowed in the smoking area.

Finally, in 2019, Disney announced that it would be getting rid of the smoking areas throughout its theme parks. Smoking is no longer allowed inside Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure, and the Downtown District at Disneyland Resort. Disney also got rid of smoking areas at EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort.

Guests who wish to smoke at Walt Disney World must do so in designated areas outside the parks, including the water parks. Disney Springs allows smoking only in designated areas.

Even though Disney does not allow smoking in its US theme parks, there are still guests who try. Guests have been seen climbing into restricted areas in order to try to sneak a cigarette. Should a guest be caught smoking, they will immediately be asked to put it out. If they are caught smoking in an area that is off-limits, they may be asked to leave the park.