VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Disney Buying Excalibur from MGM

At Disney theme parks, the Excalibur is a sword that visitors can attempt to pull out of a stone. On social media, the Excalibur’s purchase by Disney is a fantasy that has been pulled out of someone’s ass.

The rumor was started by a clicktbait video shared on April 6 by a TikTok account called las_vegas_vibes.

“Plans for new Disney themed Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas!!” the captions announced, complete with “leaked concept artwork” that bore the obvious stamp of AI. The post, which received 98K likes, claimed the $2 billion project was “set to be completed by 2030.”

The Lyin’ King

After being bounced around various accounts on X/Twitter, the ball was then picked up by a popular Disney fan blog on July 27.

“Years ago, The Walt Disney Company heading to Las Vegas would have been a non-starter,” Inside the Magic’s Rick Lye wrote. “Gambling goes against everything that Walt Disney stood for. But that was then, and this is now.”

The only evidence offered by Mr. Lye’s story, however, is that Disney competitor Universal is opening a year-round horror experience in a 20-acre expansion of AREA15 next year, so Disney should want to include Las Vegas in its plans to stay competitive.

Also, in a stretch undertaken to show how zip-a-dee-doo-dah Disney has become with gambling, Mr. Lye cited the $1.5 billion deal that PENN Entertainment signed last October with Disney’s ESPN to use the “ESPN Bet” trademark for its new sports betting company.

The Truth

While there have been rumblings in recent years that MGM is looking to divest itself of Excalibur and Luxor, the casino giant’s Strip properties catering to more budget-conscious travelers, there is not even a shred of a shred of evidence that the Mouse House has ever considered purchasing a casino — much less the Excalibur just because its exterior would require minimal adornment to fit the Disney brand.

Casinos do not fit the Disney brand.

That’s why Disney operates one of the world’s top-ranked cruise lines without them. (On Aug. 10, it announced that it will add five more casino-free ships to its fleet, bringing its total size to 13 by 2031.)

As complete and utter fabrications go, this one even lacks originality. Ever since Excalibur opened in June 1990, nearly everyone viewing the property for the first time has been reminded of a specific Disney landmark.

“The $294 million Excalibur is a combination hotel and theme park,” wrote Millie Ball of the Muskegon Chronicle on July 22, 1990. “It’s an eye-popper for sure, a fanciful place with a hodge-podge of Cinderella castle turrets set between two 28-story towers of 4,032 rooms, and a King Arthur theme in every inch.”

Finally, it would not be irresponsible journalism to point out that Inside the Magic averages 30 million pageviews per month despite, or more likely because of, its imagineering of the truth.

Snopes.com cites it for its false recent claims that Disney is ending the Disney+ streaming service, that it suspended Snow White from its theme parks, and, most blasphemously, that it retired Mickey Mouse.

And this subreddit was created just to keep tabs on all the clickbait stories that Inside the Magic has published since its founder, Ricky Brigante, sold it in 2018.

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