Obama Reveals the Time He Was Kicked Out of Disneyland

Obama Reveals the Time He Was Kicked Out of Disneyland

Even though in 2018 parents are getting excited about the chance to finally drink alcohol within the boundaries of Disneyland, some perspective is always good. It might be important to remember that there was a time when it was easy to get kicked out for another thing that lots of adults do: Smoking. During a campaign rally in support of California congressional candidates, former president Barack Obama recalled how he was once kicked out of the happiest place on Earth for lighting up on a ride.

“It’s a true story people. I was booted from the Magic Kingdom,” he told an audience of college students.

Obama recalled the first time he went to Disneyland as a youth and how excited he was to go on all the iconic rides, like the Matterhorn and Pirates of the Caribbean. However, by the time he started talking about his second trip, the former president was around 19 years old and going to a nearby college, so he wasn’t as into the Disney magic as he was when he was a kid. In fact, he admitted he had only really come to the park to see Kool and The Gang perform.

“We came down. Me and a bunch of friends. After the concert, because we were teenagers, you could still hang out in the park, so we went into the gondolas. And, I’m ashamed to say this, so close your ears young people, but uhh, a few of us were smoking on the gondolas,” Obama told the crowd before ensuring them that he was only smoking cigarettes at this time.

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As he explained, it didn’t take long for the ride to end once he saw “two very large, Disneyland police officers,” who proceeded to escort him and his pals out of the park. Hilariously, the park’s stance on smoking outside the designated smoking areas hasn’t changed at all. So much so that Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger tweeted about the speech saying that President Obama “can always come back, as long as he doesn’t smoke!”