Interview: Matt Sonswa - Discovery Island Explorer

We had the amazing opportunity to interview Matt Sonswa. Matt is the man who recently snuck onto Disney’s abandoned Discovery Island. He also snuck into Body Wars, Cranium Command, and DisneyQuest. During his adventures he created very interesting videos which can be found here. We do not support his actions of sneaking around backstage and trespassing, but we were very curious in how he did it! Below you will find the full audio interview, and below that I will summarize some of the interview into writing.

Index-
Inspiration 1:05
Discovery Island 3:50
Why Show Your Face? 15:15
DisneyQuest 17:30
Arrested 23:50
Wonders of Life 31:25
Banned From Disney 34:20
Nickelodeon Studios 48:45

Discovery Island

Jake: “So how did you get out to the island?”

-Matt: “Essentially I just went out there really late at night and just paddled over.”

Jake: “Was it a canoe or an inflatable raft?”

-Matt: “Inflatable raft.”

Jake: “What gear did you bring with you?”

-Matt: “The first time I went I couldn’t afford the proper equipment, so I bought a handy cam at a pawn shop. We just went out there with the camera, flash lights, a couple of granola bars and water bottles. I was super nervous.”

Jake: “Did you spend the night?”

-Matt: “No we actually went out in the middle of the night, and paddled back in the morning a few hours after the sun came up. I don’t think I would ever paddle back again in the day, it was totally crazy.”

Jake: “Were you cautious about people seeing your flash lights?”

-Matt: “At first no, but basically we saw a security guard go on the ferry station at Fort Wilderness walk all the way out to the end of the dock. We couldn’t tell if he was specifically looking at us but we were worried that he could have saw a flash. After that we were sure to stay in the woods.”

Hear more in the interview above!

Arrested

(Note: This is a major summary. Hear the whole thing in the interview above)

Matt: “When I got caught, after jumping out of the construction fence (of DisneyQuest) I saw a Disney security guard standing on the corner. After jumping out he asked me what I was doing back there. I said I got lost, mind you it’s 2 or 3am in the morning. He said there’s no way to just wander back there, I told him that there was.

I then started walking away.

My friend who was picking me up didn’t notice that an undercover cop car was following him the whole time. The cop pulled us over and arrested me and they tried to charge me with felony theft. The charges were eventually dropped.”