According to a woman, breaking Disney World’s dress code backfired when she tried to get a free shirt.
Helèni, who goes by @heleniofficial on TikTok, posted a video on October 17 showing her in Disney World’s Epcot parking lot. At first, she is seen wearing a tank top tied beneath her chest, but she removes it to reveal a small string bikini.
“Trying the TikTok hack for a free shirt at Disney World Orlando,” she wrote in the clip before walking toward the entrance.
There, Helèni claims that employees tried to “force” her into buying a Disney T-shirt that covered her bikini. In order to enter the park, she put back on her tank top, denying their request.
As of Friday, her video had been viewed over 6.4 million times. Asked for comment, Helèni did not respond immediately.
Despite what Helèni refers to in her video, the TikTok hack was never meant to be a hack.
Amanda DiMeo posted a TikTok in May 2021 claiming that she had entered Disney World wearing a shirt that exposed her underboob. Employees approached her and gave her a voucher for a free shirt.
She told reporters she wasn’t aware she was breaking Disney World’s dress code, which requires shoes, shirts, tops without ties, and “casual, family-oriented” outfits. She also said she’d worn the same shirt at Disney World once before.
DiMeo, however, told reporters that she was “happy” to get a free shirt from the situation, and in her TikTok, she used her mistake as a way to allow others to capitalize on her mistake. Currently, her video has more than 31.2 million views.
In June 2021, a woman named Alyssa Schueller posted a TikTok video about almost the same experience in Epcot where she was wearing a bikini top. To date, her video has been viewed more than 6.2 million times.
Schueller said she “wasn’t aware” of Disney’s dress code before visiting, and had worn the shirt for hours before being approached by employees. As a result of the situation, she said she felt “embarrassed.”
“I was with both of my parents and my older sister, and we were late to our 2:15 p.m. dinner reservation,” she said. “We had to sit and wait until 4 p.m. to eat, wasting the majority of our day for a romper that showed nothing but a torso and shoulders.”
Then, after more women documented themselves getting free shirts, other parkgoers in similar situations claimed they were instructed to buy a new top or wear something else they had brought.
Several Disney employees have commented on TikTok videos claiming the company has stopped giving free shirts to people who break its dress code after too many viral videos went viral.
Attempts to reach Disney World representatives for comment were not returned immediately.