There’s a surprising amount of crying in the most magical place on Earth.
Don’t worry: They’re happy tears.
On a warm Wednesday morning last month, the Plus Size Park Hoppers had just finished riding the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The group, five 30-something friends from Massachusetts, have become niche celebrities in the three years since they began posting videos documenting their experiences of what it’s like to have a larger body at amusement parks. They regularly demonstrate how to navigate roller coaster seats and point out which restaurants have chairs without tight armrests.
The group was looking at plastic swords in the gift shop outside the ride when a plus-size woman in a mobility scooter started talking to them. Then she burst into tears.
Jennifer Stauch, 55, of Gilead, Ohio, said she had been following the women on social media for years.
“It almost feels like they’re my friends. They’re out and doing the stuff that I want to do. Sometimes family doesn’t get it, but. …” Ms. Stauch trailed off. She wore a red T-shirt with the word “Home” emblazoned over Cinderella’s Castle.
“We get it, we get it,” Deanna Wood, one of the Park Hoppers, said. Stephanie Lanciani, another member, offered Ms. Stauch a hug before they parted ways.
An Antidote to #SkinnyTok
With weight-loss drugs like Ozempic contributing to a culture of extreme thinness on red carpets and social media communities like #SkinnyTok glamorizing eating disorders, the Plus Size Park Hoppers offer something of an antidote.
“In a world where GLP-1s are the rage, we are being adversarial by being plus-size,” Ms. Lanciani said.
If you’ve ever seen a Plus Size Park Hoppers video, you’ll immediately recognize Ms. Lanciani’s voice, as upbeat and singsong as a Disney princess’s.
“We’re the Plus Size Park Hoppers and we range from size 2x to 5x,” she opens every video, a line describing their clothing sizes that has become the group’s calling card.
In addition to Ms. Lanciani and Ms. Wood, the quintet consists of Katie Mazzeo and the sisters Ashley and Sarah Dignard. They’ve been friends for years, some of them since childhood.
Longtime Disney lovers and annual pass holders, members of the group have been visiting the parks together since 2016, but it wasn’t until 2023 that Ms. Lanciani pitched her friends on turning their experiences into content. Now, they take as many trips as their budgets and work schedules will allow, usually about six visits a year.
Their first viral hit was a demonstration of how to straddle the motorcycle-esque seats on a Tron-themed roller coaster that offered tips on how to request an accessible seat if the standard one was too small.
Even if you’re not looking for their size-related advice, it’s fun to watch people talk about something they truly love. In this case, that something is Disney World, a place where “things still feel like magic,” Ms. Lanciani said.
‘Is That Them?’
Navigating the Magic Kingdom with the Park Hoppers feels like playing a video game using a cheat code. They plan out their days precisely, using Lightning Lane, a service that lets guests pay extra to jump lines. They know exactly where to smile for the ride cameras. And, most important, they know just what accommodations to request.
Though not every member is able to physically fit on every ride, the group said Disney employees are often quite helpful. For example, while in the line for the Tron roller coaster, several members asked for a special chariot-style seat that accommodates larger customers. An employee directed them to a specific line for that seat. On other rides, like Pirates of the Caribbean, the group will ask if they can seat just one person or two people on bench-style seats that can fit up to three.
Asking for these modifications requires “confidence,” Ms. Lanciani said, but she hopes by posting about them that they can inspire others to ask for what they need, too.
Between rides, the group took time to shoot videos for social media. In one, each woman modeled her “outfit of the day,” detailing where she bought her ensemble, from mouse ears to sneakers.
“It can be hard for plus-size people to find clothes, so we like to tell people where we get ours,” Ms. Lanciani said.
The group plans each day’s outfits around a theme — on this day it was “Beauty and the Beast.” Adult patrons of Disney parks are not allowed to wear costumes. Instead, they subtly cosplay — a practice known as “Disney bounding” — with references to the characters they are copying, like a yellow T-shirt and skirt as a nod to Belle.
Bracelets and Bullies
These days, the group has half a million followers across TikTok and Instagram, and plenty in real life too. Walking down Main Street, U.S.A., the Magic Kingdom’s central thoroughfare, one could hear whispers of “Is that them?”
One park employee said she was more excited to see the Park Hoppers than she had been to spot Disney’s new chief executive.
Before this trip, Ms. Wood made about 400 friendship bracelets — beaded with tiny, plastic Mickey Mouse heads and the letters “PSPH BFF” (Plus Size Park Hoppers Best Friend Forever). It makes for a nice icebreaker with fans, she said.
Not that their fans needed any help breaking the ice. Over the course of the day, dozens of people of all ages and sizes stopped to chat and take pictures. Most took a bracelet. A group of teenage boys from Wisconsin shouted, “Mom, take my picture!” when they met the group, then skipped away, pumping their fists.
“I hope we are teaching people to be more kind. My whole life, as a child and a teen, I was bullied for my weight, and now people love us for what we do,” Ms. Wood said.
The women also have to endure their fair share of online cruelty. Members have been the target of hatred and harassment, even death threats.
“The happier we are in our videos, the angrier they are,” Ms. Lanciani said. They try to ignore nasty comments, choosing instead to find humor in them. And there’s another balm for the negativity: In the attention economy, a view from a hater has the same value as one from a fan.
Over the years, the group has made enough money through merch sales and brand deals to fund some of their trips. Just before this visit to Disney World, the group paid for tickets on a Disney Caribbean cruise with money made from social media, they said.
One More Ride
As the sun began to set, the group settled in for the evening fireworks show. Several members gestured to the sky exactly on beat as if they were cuing the pyrotechnics.
Afterward, some of the Park Hoppers went for one last ride on the Space Mountain roller coaster, where Ms. Lanciani offered friendship bracelets to several employees who had recognized her.
When the coaster came to a stop, one of the employees asked if the group wanted a “re-ride,” Disney-speak for being ushered to the front of the line for one more go.
Absolutely.
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Madison Malone Kircher is a Times reporter covering internet culture.
The post They’re Plus-Size and Kind of Famous at Disney World appeared first on New York Times.
