Bag Checks At All Parks - A Joke

[STGRhost]

If you guys really wanted to be safe at Disney it would probably take an hour just to get in the park. They would have to stop your car have the dogs sniff it. Then when you get to TTC ( If your gong to MK) they would have you walk through metal detectors, have your bag go through x-ray machine, then explosives detection machine. They would have to have this outside every park and every resort, so they can check your luggage.

This is a great point. Just like other people said, the baggage checks are more for peace-of-mind than anything else. IF you're irritated by them now, imagine how you would feel if they were doing them correctly (wait...is that a good thing, or a bad thing?)

Honestly? You guys (especially those of you who believe that these CMs have been trained to watch reactions, or body language) don't want to know this, but no one has been formally trained on doing these checks. Well, by now, security may have been, but that's it. Often, CMs from other main entrance areas (Vacation Planners, Turnstiles, GR, Strollers, etc) are pulled to do baggage checks if security is understaffed. I've been asked to do it - I've refused, as I don't like that I'd be put in a position that is clrearly misleading to guests. Co-workers of mine have done it, and they said they weren't told anything, just that they need to look in the bags (but not touch them) and that they can ask guests to move stuff around for them. That's it. No training.
I'm not trying to scare any of you - you are in NO more danger at WDW than you were before September 11th. It's just that after 9/11/01, people wanted to ~FEEL~ more secure, and that's what Disney is trying to do with the bag checks. They check our bags coming into backstage areas, too, but it's just as silly... (Although the security gaurd and I are pretty tight at this point "What did you bring for lunch today?")

 

[RogueHabit]

I think you have hit the nail squarely on the head.

It's about peace of mind, but with the current system the only people feeling peace of mind are those who are blinded to the fact that these checks don't make a difference at all to the level of security in the parks.

You're as safe now as you have ever been at a Disney park at the end of the day.

For me, I was happy to go through the checks, they took less that a couple of minutes on the busiest of days and less that 10 seconds most of the time. But I still do feel that if they are going to happen then they should at least be effective.

 

[Tramp]

The security checks are a deterrence...it's less likely that someone would try to smuggle a gun or a knife into the park if there's a possibility of being detected...
...but more importantly, the security check forces anyone with enuf explosives capable of catastrophic damage to find another way to enter the park and, thus, more likely to be detected.

...I think they did a pretty good job balancing the need to search bags without delaying entry into the parks too much...
I suppose they could strip search everyone and force you to empty all your bags but that would make NO ONE happy.

 

[CmdrTostada]

Originally posted by Tramp
...
...but more importantly, the security check forces anyone with enuf explosives capable of catastrophic damage to find another way to enter the park and, thus, more likely to be detected.

Actually it doesnt. Since I have no life I have thought about this a lot. There are many ways someone can get explosives past the security easily, I will not say how I think it can be done but it can.

 

[RogueHabit]

Originally posted by Tramp
...but more importantly, the security check forces anyone with enuf explosives capable of catastrophic damage to find another way to enter the park and, thus, more likely to be detected.

I don't agree. If you look back at me eirlier post I referred to a baby wipes box with 9" x 4" x 6" dimensions. You could pack enough into that to do some major damage, especially if you built a nail bomb or something.

The IRA have done a lot of damage in the UK in one hit with bombs a lot smaller than that.

 

[SteveUK]

I have to agree with the 'deterrent' and 'peace of mind' thoeries. I work in an airport and I know that security even in an airport environment is not 100%. We have even been told during training that security is a deterrent and calms a lot of nervous people who would otherwise be difficult to deal with. I have heard the argument many times that if somebody is determined to carry a weapon with the intention of using it then security will not deter them. I agree, but if security checks can deter 1 in 100 people then we have helped the situation.
There are an awful lot of nervous people, who on the whole have not really thought the situation through that are made to feel more comfortable by these checks. If they had thought things through, they would realise that anybody who wants to carry a weapon through a security check will do so. So many everyday items can be used as weapons that it is impossible to create a safe, sterile environment. I have seen a person incapacitated with a newspaper, believe me, you will never remove all weapons from a person intent on causing damage.
What people don't realise is that WDW has always been a potential target and is probably in less danger now that it ever was, they just didn't know and chose not to think about it.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

No amount of cosmetics will deter an individual who is ideologically driven. So why bother cause if anything does kick off what will the excuses be then.

 

[Disneyanna0521]

i don't know

 

[gjpjtj]

Welcome back RatCat!!

Was wondering where you were!! hope you had a good trip.

 

[aim]

I just got back from WDW today. Every now & then they'd make me take out stuff from my backpack. But, I guess I'm not lookin like a threat (lol, I look pretty much like a lil kid). But my dad had SO much junk w/him everytime at a park. He had a backpack ful of stuff. And a vest type thing w/tons of pockets. And they'd look through every pocket in the backpack (not too well). But, the thing that made me wonder bout stuff...was every single time we went to a park, my mom would have her sunglasses in the glasses case & every single park, they made her take it out & open it. But they never made me. hmmm, well, sorry to ramble! I just thought I'd add that to this thread.
:hammer: :hammer:

 

[RobFL]

No one at WDW gets payed to stand out in the rain.

I talke dto a security guard, and if the rain gets bad enough, the security checks get abandoned all together, like they did the other night i was at MK 2-3 hours before close.

-Rob

 

[TURKEY]

Originally posted by Disneyanna0521
i don't know

What don't you know?

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Originally posted by Holly
If someone wants to sneak a weapon, a bomb or any other threatening device into WDW (or anywhere for that matter) no simple bag check is going to deter them. Actually, if they're that dead set on causing harm, nothing is going to stop them.

These terrorist idiots that want to cause mayhem are professionals - they wouldn't arrive with the tourists, they'd get a job at WDW and then they wouldn't be subjected to searches, does anyone check a CM taking a bag into work ?
Sounds like the checks that Ratcat mentions are just there as a reassurance.

 

[RobFL]

Yes, CM's are checked on the way in and out of work.

-Rob

 

[Kellylynn322]

Originally posted by disneyprep50321
It depends where you go, and when you go as well.

We found the MGM-Studios to be the most slack...the Animal Kingdom's to be medium, EPCOT's almost non-existent, and Magic Kingdom was the strictest...they made us dump our bag out, and open everything!

My finace and I were there in October and they made me empty my backpack completly out and checked everything. They made me open my camcorder and take the tape out.

 

[Holly]

Originally posted by CAPTAIN HOOK


These terrorist idiots that want to cause mayhem are professionals - they wouldn't arrive with the tourists, they'd get a job at WDW and then they wouldn't be subjected to searches, does anyone check a CM taking a bag into work ?
Sounds like the checks that Ratcat mentions are just there as a reassurance.

I'll agree ... partly. Remember the shoe bomber? Didn't seem like a professional to me.

I swore up and down on 9/12 that I would never, ever fly anywhere ever again. And here I am going to WDW in Nov., Boston in Jan., Hawaii in Feb., then to Universal next Aug.

I've come to the conclusion that I can't live my life in fear - though that seemed like a good method right after 9/11. If it's going to happen, it'll happen. I'm no more safe here than I am entering WDW, or taking a flight, or taking a train, or getting my mail.

Whatever will be, will be.

 

[Uk cast member]

backstage security

Bag checks at the front of the park are only there for show, to give a sense of security. quests and wdw security seem to forget about the vast backstage area of proberty. yes you do have some ID checks but it is so easy to get backstage, even get into a park from backstage is very easy.
the studios have the worst. you can drive in behind fantasmic/tot go bast the huge gas storage area!! of fantasmic and you have park access just by mama melrose.
when i first started at wdw i often use to get lost and end up in places that i really should not have been in.
o well never mind.

 

[Disneyanna0521]

I don't care how much they search us..b/c they are keeping us all safe and that's what counts

 

[TheDisneyBoy]

Quite frankly, it truly upsets me that WDW and even all of the airports are being such a-holes with security. Like others have said in this thread, if someone wants to do harm, nothing will stop them. Plastic explosives tucked in my pants, driving a car right up into a parking lot with a big bomb in it, etc. I hate the fact that since 9-11 everyone must be subjected to all of these searches. I doesn't make me feel safer. All it says to me is that they terrorist have won. They wanted to scare us, and look at us now. Everyone is running around all scared. Quite frankly, I truly feel my rights are being infringed. If I pay for a ticket into the park, don't hassle me on the way in. It is terrible.

 

[STGRhost]

I hate the fact that since 9-11 everyone must be subjected to all of these searches. I doesn't make me feel safer. All it says to me is that they terrorist have won. They wanted to scare us, and look at us now. Everyone is running around all scared. Quite frankly, I truly feel my rights are being infringed. If I pay for a ticket into the park, don't hassle me on the way in. It is terrible.

It may not make ~you~ feel safer, but there are a lot of guests that DO feel safer when they see more security, bag checks, etc. And you should be thankful they don't use metal detectors - the Six Flags near my parents has been doing for years (obviously NOT because of 9/11) And, since WDW is private property, they reserve the right to "hassle" you for the safety and/or comfort of their other guests....