You, too, can try your hand at pulling King Arthur’s Excalibur sword from the stone where it’s stuck in three different Disney parks — Disneyland, in front of King Arthur Carrousel; Walt Disney World, near Prince Charming Regal Carrousel; and at Disneyland Paris, by Le Carrousel de Lancelot. The Sword in the Stone attraction is a small but popular experience at the parks largely because it’s so mysterious. Many try to pull the sword from the stone, but not many can get it out.
Photo: Adam Berry/Bloomberg via Getty Images
And it makes sense: Excalibur is the sword in The Sword in the Stone, and as the movie’s story (and Arthurian legend) tells it, only the rightful king of England can pull it out. The parks used to do a little show everyday where Merlin would choose several people from a crowd to test their might, and, maybe, one of them would pull out the sword. The show doesn’t run anymore, but the swords stuck in their respective anvils remain.
Pulling the sword out is so elusive, so rare, that people have started analyzing videos of park-goers’ attempts, drumming up theories on how to up your chances as one of the worthy ones. I know this because, despite never seeing The Sword in the Stone, this park attraction is somehow all over my TikTok feed.
Some people believe that you should scope out the area before attempting to pull. If there are two or more Disney cast members standing around, it means a higher chance of pulling the sword up. Why? Because, according to one of the leading theories, a Disney employee has to be around to push a remote-controlled button to make the sword rise. (It’s seemingly on a motor, because you aren’t actually pulling it up at all. If it unlocks, you can take your hands off and it’ll still rise, then go back down on its own.) The other reason is that people believe someone has to be around to give you a certificate, but this one’s been debunked: Disney hasn’t done certificates since the Merlin show stopped. Some people have reported being given a sticker, but the majority of people get nothing but the pride of pulling the sword out.
The next most popular theory is that there’s a little light in one of the windows at the nearby castle; if it’s red, you won’t be able to pull it. But when it’s green, you may be able to. Or maybe it’s the placement of the hands — some people believe you have to use the side handles, not the hilt’s grip. But the best tip of all is to just be strong enough to break the mechanism and forcefully release it. According to Disney news site WDW News Today, someone at Disneyland ripped the sword from the stone and broke it so badly that Disney removed the sword entirely for a few days. No sticker for that guy!
These theories all have a logic to them, but because of Disney parks’ secrecy, we’ll never really know. Excalibur may be a cool sword, but it’s also an elusive sword — and that actually makes it even cooler.