The “Tom (hearts) Becky” painted fence on Tom Sawyer Island in Magic Kingdom is the latest park location to be defaced in what appears to be a new guest trend.
Tom Sawyer Island Fence Defaced
In what appears to be a growing guest trend, another location at Walt Disney World has been defaced with guests writing their names and damaging a prop or facade. This latest damage is located on Tom Sawyer Island, on the fence where Tom and Becky’s names have been written with a heart using white paint. This area is located to the left of the white fence section, as though they stopped painting the fence halfway through the project.
If you zoom into the heart a little closer, you can see where guests have written their names using a red pen in the top right corner. The names appear to be “Eddie + Justice,” ironically written in a similar style to the painted names they are defacing. While there is only one defaced section at the moment, it is common for an area with one name to soon receive more. Guests feel more comfortable damaging props or locations when they are the second or third person, as opposed to the first.
Unfortunately, this is not the first spot to be defaced in Walt Disney World in recent days. Just this past week, a tree in Disney’s Hollywood Studios was wrapped in new protective netting after several guests began carving their names into the bark. Several of the names in the bark had already turned red as algae grew in the damaged spots, implying it was an ongoing problem for some time before the netting was added.
Meanwhile, Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom Park is set to close permanently on July 6, 2025, to make way for the new “Cars” expansion of Frontierland. The nearby Rivers of America and the Liberty Square Riverboat will be closing on the same date. We hope that the defaced fence will be touched up prior to the island’s final day, so guests experiencing it for the last time can enjoy the island in its optimal condition.
What are your thoughts on guests defacing Disney property? Let us know in the comments.
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