Claim:

Disney World is moving to Nashville due to an “ongoing dispute” with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Evaluation:

context

This rumor was started by a website that described its content as “satire and parody.” The Walt Disney World Resort is not going anywhere.

In September 2024, a rumor circulated online that the Walt Disney World Resort would move to Nashville, Tennessee. According to the claim, the move was directly related to an “ongoing dispute” with Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, where the park is located.

Several users posted on social media about the rumor, including one person who asked Walt Disney World’s X-Account (archived) if it was true. On September 8, a Facebook user also wrote (archived): “DISNEY WORLD IS MOVING TO NASHVILLE!!”

Another person asked friends if they had heard the news and posted (archived): “Disney World is moving from Florida to Nashville, Tennessee. Anyone else hear?”

On X, one person said (archived): “In a massive blow to the @GOP, @Disney has announced its plans to move to Nashville, citing hostilities from @RonDeSantis and the @GOP. It’s just getting started, and now @RonDeSantis has cheated thousands of Florida voters.”

In short, some readers seemed to interpret rumors as factual retellings of real events. But Disney World didn’t move to Nashville or anywhere else.

Rather, the rumor of Disney World moving originated from Mouse Trap News – a website that described its publications as “satire and parody.”

The info page said, in part: “Mouse Trap News is the world’s best satire and parody site. We write made-up stories about Disney Parks. From Disney Park announcements to Disney hotel and resort news to made-up Disney partnerships, you can be sure that anything you read here is neither true, real nor accurate, but it’s fun.”

The article published by Mouse Trap News on September 5 began:

Breaking News: Disney World is officially moving to Nashville. Starting in late September, Disney World will begin closing some of its theme parks to relocate them to Nashville, Tennessee.

Disney is doing this because of the ongoing dispute with Governor DeSantis. To do this, they will move the entire theme park piece by piece and rebuild it just outside of downtown Nashville, where Disney has secretly purchased thousands of acres of land.

The process is being done in a way that ensures guests can still enjoy their parks even as they relocate them. For example, rides that are currently closed or will soon close, such as Test Track and Dinosaur, will be relocated first.

The fictional story also spread through a popular video on the Mouse Trap News TikTok account, where it has been viewed over 300,000 times at the time of this writing.

There was no indication that Disney World was moving from Florida to Nashville, nor were there any credible news outlets reporting such a story, which, if true, would have been a highly newsworthy story.

In 2023, the New York Times reported that DeSantis’ previous efforts to limit Disney World’s autonomy were “widely seen as retaliation for Disney’s opposition to a law” DeSantis signed in 2022 that “banned teaching and discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary school classrooms.”

Snopes has dealt with similar satirical claims in the past, including an article published on the website Uncle Walt’s Insider that said Disneyland was moving to Texas.

As background information, we therefore alert our readers to rumors spread by sources that describe their publications as humorous or satirical.