From the OS: Gator drags child into Seven Seas Lagoon

[PhotoDave219]

I'll be staying at different resorts now, stayed at the poly a few times but the huts kinda ruined that view so we were thinking about other monorail resorts but I'm good now if any type of fencing stays.

Yea, we are kinda are. Everyone is having to deal with the recourse of this incident.


Well it is MY vacation so yes, I will be selfish on MY vacation when it comes to spending MY money.

I do agree that the lawyers told them to do this though, future liabilty has something to do with it but they also wanna save face as much as possible right now too.

Like I said last night, 12hours after this attack happened you know how many families and kids were having the time of their lives meeting a princess, riding thunder mountain or just walking down Main St USA, were those people being selfish because they still wanted to have a great time on their vacation? I'm sorry for the family, it's gotta hurt but I don't know them at all.


Really?? Because attacks happen here all the time right? You act like this place hasn't been open almost 50yrs and this wasn't the first death. People getting ambushed, seriously? Id say hundreds of thousands of people have walked on that beach at night and this was the first of its kind.


I don't, it was a horrific death for those involved but life goes on, people move on, especially those of us who weren't effected by this at all like most people posting here. Sure it may hit you as a parent but let's be honest, kids are killed everyday in this country in accidents but no one gets bent out of shape on that. If this family was on vacation but out side of Disney World and the same exact thing happen then this wouldn't even make the news. But since it was Disney it has to be a big deal and they have to show everyone that they are doing their best not to let this happen again so they have to over react. Guess we'll wait and see what the permanent solution will be.

I've said it a couple of times… I think that there he's been in action on Disney's part and the dismissal or straight out ignoring of wildlife reports and now we have a giant alligator problem.

For as many years as I've been going there, I've never seen an alligator anywhere near the Polynesian or the grand Floridian… Nothing ever on that side of the lagoon.

It's complex multi faceted issue that cannot simply be soft with just the wall or fence. It's a conjunction of that as well as removing every damn alligator they can find and cracking down on the feeding of the alligators and other wildlife.

I don't think the tabloid news business is going to let this story go away anytime soon…

 

[EngineJoe]

Theirs no way a gator just walked into the bathroom by itself, someone had to put it in there lol. I can't see any reason for a gator to push open a bathroom door, if it was a kitchen door I could buy that but not a bathroom.

I don't think all the Disney bathrooms have entrance doors, especially the ones near adventure land. I think you just walk into the corridor to get to the main washroom in some areas and then the stalls the gator can just walk under the divider.

 

[Andrew C]

Is anyone saying prayers for that family?

Every night for the last few nights.

 

[thomas998]

I won't do that, I'm still choosing to vacation there even knowing there will be a fence. I'm most upset about Poly and we are actually staying at the Contemporary this time.lol. Warm months will always be Poly - kiddo loves the pool. I'm assuming that the beach, movies, water sports, and marshmallows, will be open at CR when we're there. We have a Pirate Adventure cruise scheduled for our 3rd morning, and so far it doesn't seem like they will be cancelling those.

In general I find that venting at the hotel staff is much more likely to result in something being done than venting on a forum. To me a fence on the beach isn't something I would give a hoot about, but if you really think it is something that irks you to the point of venting, why not do it where it will matter? Otherwise it is a bit like my daughter the will complain about how a teacher made a mistake in class but when I ask her if she told the teacher about the error she never has... Simply telling me doesn't do anything to fix the problem. Same goes for problems at a hotel... Don't complain to others before you get there, complain to others after you have left but never bothered to complain to the hotel staff... If I have a hotel I would much rather a guest with an issue tell me than just tell everyone else except me. I can't address an issue I'm unaware of but I will suffer from the bad word of mouth I never knew about.

 

[thomas998]

I just find it interesting that a guest Died in the most horrific fashion a guest can die in the Walt Disney World resort and your major complaint is a fence being put up at a resort.

Well to be honest about it, this was a shocking event for most but really only impacted directly the boy's family. If people lived in constant grieve of everyone that has died in some tragic way no one would be able to ever smile again because people die a tragic death everyday, not at Disney but you would still find a tragic death in Florida on any given day... Do people need to change how they act because someone that they don't know has died tragically?

 

[21stamps]

In general I find that venting at the hotel staff is much more likely to result in something being done than venting on a forum. To me a fence on the beach isn't something I would give a hoot about, but if you really think it is something that irks you to the point of venting, why not do it where it will matter? Otherwise it is a bit like my daughter the will complain about how a teacher made a mistake in class but when I ask her if she told the teacher about the error she never has... Simply telling me doesn't do anything to fix the problem. Same goes for problems at a hotel... Don't complain to others before you get there, complain to others after you have left but never bothered to complain to the hotel staff... If I have a hotel I would much rather a guest with an issue tell me than just tell everyone else except me. I can't address an issue I'm unaware of but I will suffer from the bad word of mouth I never knew about.

No, I will never be that type of person. If you owned a hotel, or any business, you don't want that! There are valid things to complain about i.e. Housekeeping didn't clean my room today.
And then there are ridiculous things to complain about-
i.e. "You took down my favorite ride!" "You changed your brand of soda and now I can't drink!" and even "You put up a fence and ruined the entire vibe of my favorite resort."

Hotel staff can't do anything about it. If people, myself included, have such a strong issue that it would completely ruin our vacation-then we shouldn't go in the first place, and have no right to complain when we knew prior to arrival.

The same way Pottery Barn can't replenish a discontinued item because it was our "favorite" etc etc.

If there was no point to discussing or expressing shock at new decisions, and wondering what the final outcome will be, then most threads on message board sites wouldn't exist.

 

[GoofGoof]

Being killed by an alligator is also a freak occurrence. Only 28 people have been killed by alligators in the entire United States in the last 40!years. 100 times less likely than being killed by being struck by lightning. And surely being killed by lightning is a freak occurrence.

Gators have been found by guests in adventure land bathrooms at the magic kingdom:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/pop-century-alligator-still-there.2411350/

I'm not buying the whole bathroom thing, but it's really not relevant anyway. They won't be putting signs on the bathrooms.

Whether it's a freak occurrence or not it happened so they have no choice but to react to it. It's nearly impossible for Disney to keep all gators out of those lakes. They can try but it isn't possible to get all of them. The only choice to provide adequate warning to guests whether it's signs, fences or something at checkin they will be doing more.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Well to be honest about it, this was a shocking event for most but really only impacted directly the boy's family. If people lived in constant grieve of everyone that has died in some tragic way no one would be able to ever smile again because people die a tragic death everyday, not at Disney but you would still find a tragic death in Florida on any given day... Do people need to change how they act because someone that they don't know has died tragically?

Read back about 20 pages, there's a lot of back and forth....

 

[s8film40]

In general I find that venting at the hotel staff is much more likely to result in something being done than venting on a forum.

Actually I think venting on a forum is far more likely get something done. If you are venting on a public forum other people can see it, they can in turn agree with you and the message can spread. This can ultimately possibly result in the business losing customers not happy with how something is being done. This can sometimes result in changes being made. If you vent to the hotel staff they are possibly just going to give you something free to make you forget about it. They may actually pass on the information to their managers.Those managers may or may not pass it up the chain to the managers capable of actually changing things, however most times that's not the case. Typically it's the upper level managers who made the decision that the guests are complaining about, so that front line manager has to decide whether they want to go tell their boss they made a mistake or just ignore it. I've personally seen this happen a few times and every time I've seen that persons career with Disney pretty much ruined.

 

[Filby61]

Do people need to change how they act because someone that they don't know has died tragically?

Throughout history, many people have done exactly that. It's called social empathy. Different people have it in different degrees.

Some don't have it at all.

​

 

[sedati]

In general I find that venting at the hotel staff is much more likely to result in something being done than venting on a forum. To me a fence on the beach isn't something I would give a hoot about, but if you really think it is something that irks you to the point of venting, why not do it where it will matter? Otherwise it is a bit like my daughter the will complain about how a teacher made a mistake in class but when I ask her if she told the teacher about the error she never has... Simply telling me doesn't do anything to fix the problem. Same goes for problems at a hotel... Don't complain to others before you get there, complain to others after you have left but never bothered to complain to the hotel staff... If I have a hotel I would much rather a guest with an issue tell me than just tell everyone else except me. I can't address an issue I'm unaware of but I will suffer from the bad word of mouth I never knew about.

Maybe it's the choice of the word venting that makes this post sound so monstrous. If something irks you, by all means bring it up to the staff. Do it politely and respectfully. If you've been truly wronged and treated disrespectfully, then I suppose you are entitled to vent upon the person (if they are the wrongdoer) but you could also be the better person and address the issue like a calm adult.

 

[21stamps]

Read back about 20 pages, there's a lot of back and forth....

Throughout history, many people have done exactly that. It's called social empathy. Different people have it in different degrees.

Some don't have it at all.

​

I have to respond to this.

When someone dies, even more so when it's a tragic death we all pray, we all grieve to an extent even if we didn't know that person, we don't stop living life. We should NOT stop loving life. This story hit me hard. But you know what I did on Wednesday? Instead of working late as usual, I left the office early and took my son to a waterpark.
Why? Because this story was one more reminder that our loved ones can be taken away at any time.
We have season passes to a theme park that has a water park, we hadn't been to the water park part this year yet..and my kid has been asking to go for weeks. So if I'm a horrible person for praying for a family while realizing how precious mine is- then I will wear that title proudly. Because I know from very personal experience that tomorrow is never guaranteed.

 

[jlsHouston]

As I understand it, it has to be a "knowable" danger and Disney must have failed to take sufficient action to address that knowable danger in order for Disney to be found negligent.

Disney employs wildlife experts. These experts know (or should be expected to know) that alligators are more active at night. They know the risk of humans feeding animals. They also know alligators tend to congregate at water's edge.

Disney held a "movie nights" event on the beach next to a location where alligators are likely to be found.

Disney did little-to-nothing to warn Guests about alligators. Disney failed to warn or prevent Guests from feeding them. Disney facilitated an activity that brought these Guests in close proximity to alligators when they are most active without providing additional protection.

For these reasons and others, it appears that Disney was negligent.

Thank you. This was an epic failure by TWDC resulting in a horrific tragedy. I can always count on you to lay out the irrefutable facts.

 

[csmat99]

Well after this Disney will know that while they might escape a huge payout on this one, that if there is a next one it would not be so easily blown off and they would be nailed big time if they don't err way on the side of caution.

Disney is not going to escape a huge payout. Based on what happened and fact no way does Disney want this to go to litigation they will be paying out at least 10 million to family. And none of that will bring this poor boy back but hopefully it allows the family to have closure and not have to live it again and again with years of litigation and media coverage.

 

[surfsupdon]

I remember the CMs at Coronado had a pet gator in their lake. I remember crowds gathering on the bridge to see the gator swim by, or standing by the food court area to see it swimming. And some of the workers who drive those little buggies around stopped and admired "their pet" as the gator was called. Yes, kids were dropping fries from the bridge too. I remember thinking how crazy that was, that Disney didn't find the gator a problem. This was in July 2015.

 

[Daveeeeed]

I remember the CMs at Coronado had a pet gator in their lake. I remember crowds gathering on the bridge to see the gator swim by, or standing by the food court area to see it swimming. And some of the workers who drive those little buggies around stopped and admired "their pet" as the gator was called. Yes, kids were dropping fries from the bridge too. I remember thinking how crazy that was, that Disney didn't find the gator a problem. This was in July 2015.

That's the problem.

 

[Matt_Black]

That's the problem.

Eh. At least in that case, I'd imagine the only people who'd go near the water are INCREDIBLY foolish. You can't say the guests are unaware of alligators in that specific case.

 

[Daveeeeed]

Eh. At least in that case, I'd imagine the only people who'd go near the water are INCREDIBLY foolish. You can't say the guests are unaware of alligators in that specific case.

I definitely agree, but I was commenting on the fact how the cast members didn't care (probably due to lack of training) and how there were no warnings. What if you didn't see that happen, and then in the evening you decide to take your kids to sit-down along the water, and the alligator attacks one of them. Unlikely, but fed alligators usually do not fear humans.

 

[flynnibus]

I don't see the point of the rope fence. Instead of standing in or on the edge of the water, now you are just standing 2 feet back from it. People will still probably go up to it or sit on the rope. And guess what, the alligator can still snatch you. The new warning signs look sufficient enough.

And that's really all you need. The gator isn't going to come up to land before striking... It's looking to strike from being hidden in the water.

The fence is back away from the actual waterline... Just staying out of the water and off the edge is usually enough of a deterant

 

[21stamps]

I just wanted to copy and paste this. Also, Alligators do still attack on land.
Please if you see someone feeding an alligator you are witnessing a crime, and you should be reporting it.

The idea of living on a body of fresh water in Florida that does not have alligators is just not that realistic, not for very long, anyway. Alligators are a part of the natural order down here and are really quite common in most of Florida’s lakes, rivers and streams. Even the best efforts at keeping a body of water “gator-free” are guaranteed to be short lived.

Why? Alligators get up and relocate, especially during the summer mating season. Alligator populations in and around Florida’s lakes, rivers and streams also continue to grow at a healthy rate. This is one reason why the State recently expanded the annual alligator harvest. Combine an increasing alligator population with an increasing human population, and it’s easy to see that alligator-to-human encounters will continue to increase.

The vast majority of alligators one may come across down here are less than 6 feet in length, but gators in the 8 ft. to 10 ft. class are not uncommon. The largest Florida alligator on record was just over 14 ft. in length. Male alligators tend to grow larger than females.

The State of Florida has a nuisance alligator program and will respond quickly to any concerns. The response typically involves sending a licensed trapper to locate and remove the animal. Nuisance alligators are typically euthanized.

With a few well-publicized exceptions, almost all alligators stay well-clear of humans. But growing populations of people and alligators create a situation where more and more alligators are exposed to humans on a regular basis. Over time, this continued exposure can lead to alligators losing their natural fear of humans. In many cases, the loss of this natural fear can be attributed to humans feeding alligators – something that is against the law.