Changes at WDW due to alligator attack (dedicated thread)

[prberk]

Hello everyone. The thread about the attack itself is meaningful, but very long and covering everything from the search and rescue to speculation on Disney's legal responsibilities. Some other smaller threads have popped up, like the one on the Jungle Cruise, but I wanted to establish
a single thread to discuss the changes made at WDW as a result of the gator attack. This is only to make it easier to find them separate from the rest of the discussion on the incident itself and the other areas of that discussion (all of which are legitimate, but for a different thread).

So, I am asking that this thread be centered on the news and discussion only on the changes to WDW as a result of the gator attack.

This morning I saw a report on NBC's Today show showing the new signage and a new board-and-rope style fence (which the report called temporary) now up at the Grand Floridian's beach. It shows the fence. Not sure what I think of it, but at least I understand the decision to build it -- and it looks tasteful to the theme of the resort, even if the resort itself at least used to call itself the "Grand Floridian Beach Resort". (Have they dropped "Beach" from the name, maybe when they added "and Spa" to it?)

Here is a link to the Today show report: http://www.today.com/video/alligato...e-disney-installs-new-sign-fence-708859459934

And a pic:

We also know that they changed the Jungle Cruise script to drop the joke that told parents to mind their children, "or the crocs will." And that they dropped the dancing alligator from the new castle show that premiered this week. (Sorry, forgot his name.)

But I am not sure what other changes happened among all of the speculation (and pages and pages of the other thread). I know, for example, that there was speculation about the gator-chomping figure on the Electric Water Pageant, but I do not have confirmation that he was removed.

So, if you have other information or pictures regarding actual changes that took place to procedures or rides or resorts, I would like to have them added to this thread.

Thanks.

LIST OF KNOWN CHANGES, as of 6-21-16 (updated by date noted, including things back open):

• Jungle Cruise script updated to exclude crocs joke ("Parents mind your children, or the crocs will.") UPDATE 7-14: Joke is back in the script.
• Chomping gator figure barge excluded from Electric Water Pageant (but the pageant itself is running). UPDATE 7-14: barge is back.
• Rope fences put up on the beaches on Seven Seas Lagoon, with new signs warning of snakes and alligators present, with prohibition against feeding the wildlife. UPDATE 6-29: Netting added to the rope fences. UPDATE 7-18: New permanent barriers with rocks along shoreline are being constructed, first at GF, but planned for all resort shorelines.
• Resort beaches are unavailable to Guests. Movie Under the Stars will be shown on the grass or in the indoor location, if applicable. UPDATE 6-24: Beaches are back open to guests, but with rope fences remaining and a CM monitoring. They seem to have open and close times now, like the pool.
• Dancing alligator removed from new castle show. UPDATE 7-14: He is back.
• Tic-Toc croc removed from Peter Pan segment of Festival of Fantasy Parade
• Watercraft service (transportation, not sport use) is now operating as normal.
• Guests may rent pontoon boats and Boston Whaler boats at available marinas. However, Sea Raycer rentals are not available. Sammy Duval water sports are also unavailable. UPDATE 6-24: All water sports, including Sea Raycer rentals, are back open.
• Guests are not permitted to fish on any resort waterway with their personal equipment at this time.
• UPDATE 6-29: Wildlife warning signs added to Rivers of America in the Magic Kingdom, same as signs on resort beaches.

Will update as we hear from others and as I can get to it. Thanks again for your help.

 

[JohnD]

I think you covered everything. It was pointed out in another thread that there is a "chomping" gator in the Electrical Water Pageant. If so, it would make sense to remove that barge as the pageant is in SSL. Would be interested to hear from anyone who saw the pageant recently.

I can also think of potential alterations in the script to the crocs in AK. But the Safari drivers are pretty much freeform anyway and would just probably basically point them out with no embellishment, I would think.

 

[Matt_Black]

They also dropped the Tick-Tock Croc from the Peter Pan portion of the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

 

[Dave Miles]

My family is going to wdw next week and staying in fort wilderness so I called to find out what was open and what was closed. They told me the marinas are open for water taxi service only and all the beaches are closed.

 

[wdwfan22]

They dropped the beach from the name when the Spa opened in 1997.

 

[Mandy M.]

My family is going to wdw next week and staying in fort wilderness so I called to find out what was open and what was closed. They told me the marinas are open for water taxi service only and all the beaches are closed.

Oh good! So the water transport is back at FW? I hadn't seen an update on this and I was planning to use the boats to get from MK to FW for HDD in August. I was hoping lack of water transport wouldn't end up being one of the changes from the alligator attack.

 

[wdwfan22]

Guests can once again rent Pontoon boats however water activities through Sammy Duvall's Watersports center remain closed.

 

[71jason]

I think you covered everything. It was pointed out in another thread that there is a "chomping" gator in the Electrical Water Pageant. If so, it would make sense to remove that barge as the pageant is in SSL. Would be interested to hear from anyone who saw the pageant recently.

Saw on Twitter it has been removed.

 

[Ripken10]

Just a thought...but maybe you can create a list on the first post of this thread of the officially changes. I think the threads that do that are the best. Over time they may change (maybe the temporary fence changes to a more permanent one, maybe a certain beach opens, etc). But that would take time on your part...

 

[JohnD]

Just a thought...but maybe you can create a list on the first post of this thread of the officially changes. I think the threads that do that are the best. Over time they may change (maybe the temporary fence changes to a more permanent one, maybe a certain beach opens, etc). But that would take time on your part...

Good idea.

 

[asianway]

Saw on Twitter it has been removed.

Id heard the whole show might go dark - has it run without it yet?

 

[MississippiBelle]

I'm interested to see what the solution to fencing will be along the beaches. Since alligators do walk on land, it makes sense that trying to keep them out completely would be nearly impossible (I am no expert in regards to fencing or alligators, just my opinion). I like the board and rope fences. It seems to be the least intrusive design wise and gets the point across. You would have to climb over or under the fence to get to the water and ignore the signage and would officially be taking complete responsibility for whatever happened if you chose to do so. Also interested to see how far the removal of alligator related things goes. I completely agree that it is appropriate for the time being out of respect for the family, but I can definitely see people completely unrelated to the family or the tragedy getting up in arms when the family themselves might not be offended by it down the road.

 

[Tom]

Id heard the whole show might go dark - has it run without it yet?

It's the only thing that's been running solid since 1971. Would be a darn shame.

 

[JohnD]

Some of this makes my head hurt. I get that it was a tragic event. I've seen FB posts like, "Well, it was about time that they put up signs!" Really? You can't figure out that you're in a swamp in Florida and that there are gators about? Does the Amazon need to have signs all up and down it now for visitors who don't know that there are things that can kill them in there?

My thought is this: Unfortunately bad things happen. There's no getting around that. Adding another sign (or law) isn't going to change that. We don't need to rubberize everything to keep a child from bumping it's head and we don't need a sign in front over every water feature in Florida saying, "Lookout for gators." At some point you just need to accept that bad things happen.

I know you can say, "But it's WDW and it's magical and that gives people a false sense of security," but that's a fallacious argument. It's like saying that the snakes aren't venomous in on WDW because it's magical.

I get, to a certain extent, why they'd want to remove some of the images of gators/crocs from some of their shows because it'd immediately remind everyone of the tragedy.

Don't get me wrong on this. I'm not saying that the parents who lost their toddler were bad parents or anything of the sort. I'm just saying that bad things happen and adding yet another sign (whether it's this or anything else) isn't going to help. In fact, I think you could make a strong argument that it'll make things worse:

There was a study done years back that signs make people less safe because it removes the onus of them actually being careful/safe. There was an intersection in the UK where this was tested. They removed all signs and signals. Two things came out of this:
1) accidents were greatly reduced.
2) the intersection actually had greater throughput.

The idea behind this is that the individual's mindset is changed from "there are signs so everything is safe" to "I need to make sure I don't get hit nor hit anyone". I know for something like this where we've all been dealing with traffic signs/signals that it's an incredibly foreign, and somewhat scary concept.

If you think of other things, though, it starts making more sense. There have been times in human history where people lived in the sides of cliffs (Montezuma's Castle in AZ being one that comes to mind). These cliffs weren't roped off with signs everywhere saying, "DANGER: Cliff! Risk of falling!," but instead because the risk was there people were aware of it and behaved accordingly.

I think back to when I was a kid growing up in Florida and our parents warned us of the snakes and for us to look out for them and not mess with them... and we played in the woods and were OK.

We've also all experienced the idiot safety warnings on everything like a hair dryer telling us something like, "Don't use in shower!" and "Choking hazard!" They're so prominent that they're a joke. If there actually is a legitimate warning it gets lost in the noise of every other warning we have warning us about everything in life.

So, yeah, I kind of get why Disney is doing what it's doing but, in another way, really wish they weren't roping off the lake and putting up more warning signs.

In fairness to this thread, I think it should just stick to "Just the facts, ma'am/sir." I have plenty of thoughts about the whys and wherefores too. Those are best left for the other thread.

 

[Brad Bishop]

In fairness to this thread, I think it should just stick to "Just the facts, ma'am/sir." I have plenty of thoughts about the whys and wherefores too. Those are best left for the other thread.

No problem. I thought the other thread had run it's course with regards to thoughts / opinions on the actual incident.

 

[JohnD]

No problem. I thought the other thread had run it's course with regards to thoughts / opinions on the actual incident.

I freely admit I contributed to it. I think I've run out of arguments anyway. I guess if we talk about attractions/scripts/art/sculpture that has or should be changed that's okay for this thread. Getting into signs, fences, etc. is best left for the other.

 

[JohnD]

Hello everyone. The thread about the attack itself is meaningful, but very long and covering everything from the search and rescue to speculation on Disney's legal responsibilities. Some other smaller threads have popped up, like the one on the Jungle Cruise, but I wanted to establish
a single thread to discuss the changes made at WDW as a result of the gator attack. This is only to make it easier to find them separate from the rest of the discussion on the incident itself and the other areas of that discussion (all of which are legitimate, but for a different thread).

So, I am asking that this thread be centered on the news and discussion only on the changes to WDW as a result of the gator attack.

This morning I saw a report on NBC's Today show showing the new signage and a new board-and-rope style fence (which the report called temporary) now up at the Grand Floridian's beach. It shows the fence. Not sure what I think of it, but at least I understand the decision to build it -- and it looks tasteful to the theme of the resort, even if the resort itself at least used to call itself the "Grand Floridian Beach Resort". (Have they dropped "Beach" from the name, maybe when they added "and Spa" to it?)

Here is a link to the Today show report: http://www.today.com/video/alligato...e-disney-installs-new-sign-fence-708859459934

And a pic: View attachment 146968

We also know that they changed the Jungle Cruise script to drop the joke that told parents to mind their children, "or the crocs will." And that they dropped the dancing alligator from the new castle show that premiered this week. (Sorry, forgot his name.)

But I am not sure what other changes happened among all of the speculation (and pages and pages of the other thread). I know, for example, that there was speculation about the gator-chomping figure on the Electric Water Pageant, but I do not have confirmation that he was removed.

So, if you have other information or pictures regarding actual changes that took place to procedures or rides or resorts, I would like to have them added to this thread.

Thanks.

My two cents: Leave the discussion of preventive measures to the other thread and this one just for WDW attractions / scripts / theming etc.

 

[prberk]

Just a thought...but maybe you can create a list on the first post of this thread of the officially changes. I think the threads that do that are the best. Over time they may change (maybe the temporary fence changes to a more permanent one, maybe a certain beach opens, etc). But that would take time on your part...

Good idea. I will try to do that. But understand I may not get to visit more than once a day, and some days may not get to visit. At least with this thread we should be able to see the updates posted without scrolling down through too much else.

In fairness to this thread, I think it should just stick to "Just the facts, ma'am/sir." I have plenty of thoughts about the whys and wherefores too. Those are best left for the other thread.

Thanks. I do not mind some discussion here, especially about how the changes affect park operations or maybe comparing to how it or something similar worked in the past or elsewhere, and to some degree whether it would work at all; but I would like to keep it to immediately relevant discussion. Even over time it will be good to use this thread, I think, to see which changes were temporary and which changes become permanent.

I do value everyone's opinion. Just want to keep this thread centered. I suggest posters simply try to use their judgment to keep it relevant to any changes and what effect they might have on park or resort ops, or how they might have handled it in the past or elsewhere. The thread will be easier to follow that way.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

It's the only thing that's been running solid since 1971. Would be a darn shame.

But what an opportune moment to make a wee trim.

 

[Ripken10]

Good idea. I will try to do that. But understand I may not get to visit more than once a day, and some days may not get to visit. At least with this thread we should be able to see the updates posted without scrolling down through too much else.



Thanks. I do not mind discussion here, especially to maybe how the changes affect park operations or maybe comparing to how it or something similar worked in the past or elsewhere, and to some degree whether it would work at all; but I would like to keep it to somewhat immediately relevant discussion. Even over time it will be good to use this thread, I think, to see which changes were temporary and which changes become permanent.

I do value everyone's opinion. Just want to keep this thread centered. I suggest posters simply try to use their judgment to keep it relevant to any changes and what effect they might have on park or resort ops, or how they might have handled it in the past or elsewhere. The thread will be easier to follow that way.

Thanks, I think that is great. Once a day is plenty! I wouldn't think there would be even much to update on a daily basis. I understand where you are coming from, most days I only get on here once to catch up.