From the OS: Gator drags child into Seven Seas Lagoon

[betty rose]

This is a good question. We may never know for sure their exact plans. At a minimum there will be a lot more guest complaints as soon as a gator appears due to the high publicity this story got and I would expect Disney will move fast to remove any gators within public view. Everyone with a camera phone will want their 15 minutes of YouTube fame posting videos of the gator they saw at WDW.

Whether they relocate or kill the gators may be a little more sensitive. Animal rights groups helped to nearly force Sea World into bankruptcy so they can't just go around killing off the wildlife without rubbing someone the wrong way. Since gators are not endangered anymore it may be less controversial to euthanize them especially if they have become too comfortable with humans.

I hope they do the same for aggressive snakes.

 

[Courtney6682]

Question-

Do you guys think that this will hurt Florida tourism?

I personally don't. But just curious of others views. There can't be any argument here bc it's strictly our opinion.lol

I don't think so either...there are the die hard fans like most of us here who won't have their frequent vacations changed(I know my family will not be changing it's Disney habits, we went 4 times alone in the last 14 months, with another trip in the works for Feb 2017)

There are people who won't remember this in 6 months.. and there are people who will have never heard about it to begin with. We'll remember Lane Graves' name forever because we're Disney people and his name will forever be associated with Disney World. Just like baby Jasmine found in the bathrooms in Tomorrowland in 1997. Huge news I'm sure back then(I was only 15 so I can't speak of news coverage) but long forgotten now....

 

[21stamps]

Here- just so there's no "speculation" and people don't over react to your shock at finding about crocodiles.
I don't know why you are saying "NOW". They've been in SoFla my entire life.

I mean Crocodiles. Those really nasty ones that live along the Nile River in Egypt, Australia, and now apparently Miami.

 

[EngineJoe]

Regardless of what exposure Disney may have in a court of law, their business of selling branded theme park resort vacations to families with young children is enormously more vulnerable in the court of public opinion.

The longer this story resurfaces in mainstream media, is chatted about in social media, is discussed among past and potential-future Disney customers, or talked about within Florida's non-Disney visitor industry, the more erosive it is to WDW's business.

Disney sells branded vacations that carry with them the anticipation of a distinct flavor of experience. As much as the physical aspects of a WDW vacation, Disney sells the anticipation of what it feels like -- an emotional narrative of relaxing in a bubble of Disney-branded fun and fantasy. A narrative that is crucial to generating return visits and positive word-of-mouth.

It's that distinctly "Disney" emotional narrative is the most vulnerable to the long-term echoes of this tragedy.

That's why the money should be spent beefing up security against gunmen and terrorist at Disney springs and all the Disney resorts. That's going to
Cost a lot of money but should be the primary priority. Right now while the main parks are pretty secure, springs and the Disney resorts, Disney boardwalk have little security. People can pretty much go in and out as they please.

If people
Can go into hysterics over a freak alligator attack I can not even imagine what they would do if a Disney resort or Disney springs were to be attacked.

 

[betty rose]

Other than warning signs does anyone know if WDW is moving or euthanizing any more alligators? Or is that something the general public will never know?

Probably not, if they find many large alligator's, they seem to look like they at fault. Best, they get experts in there to take out the nuisance gators, and snakes. It will take time.

 

[21stamps]

No. This is Florida. 500+ years of human encroachment have not made a difference in the abundance of wildlife. As Ian Malcom once said, “They will find a way”. I rarely see foreign nationals visit any of Florida’s springs. The majority of people who do so are locals or from only as far out as southern Georgia. You get the occasional adventurer but that’s about it. Funny, this years ocean waters near the gulf and atlantic have had record highs attracting our friendly neighborhood Sharks, pun intended. Your more likely to be bitten by a shark than be attacked by a gator in the state of florida. Unlike Sharks, Gators are more timid and don’t get near humans unless they are protecting offspring/territory, or some dumb moron decided to start feeding the alligator thus creating a Nuisance gator. There are laws against doing this in the state. In no way do I believe this will do a dent to the more than 150 million people who visit my home state every year.

Agree totally. Key West has some of the most shark infested waters in the world. Yet when you go to any hotel/resort there they don't warn you of that. And there are a ton of American and foreign people visiting and living in Key West and going in the ocean.

People will still visit. If anything maybe a few people concerned so much with tabloid report on attacks will actually spend some time looking up the Eco systems in Florida, it's different regions, and even fall more in love with the State instead of being afraid.

 

[betty rose]

It's mostly the southern countries that wildlife is dangerous. Brazil, South America. Australia has the most deadly animals. I would think India would have alotnof dangerous animals not to mention tigers and Indian lions.

There's the old saying when in Rome. So one should do all the research they can before going to a different region or country.

We have mountain lions, rattlesnakes, wolfs, bear. We are warned each time we go into a state park, or national park. We had a moose in our neighborhood, animal control picked it up and took it out of our area. We saw it. They were prompt and made people safe within a matter of minutes. We called it in. I'm sure other people did too. People getting to close to deer and antelope have been attacked. Wild animals mean "wild" animals. They can become unpredictable. Best to try and avoid them altogether. I can hope that people will be educated about this and act accordingly. Through signs, or information at check in. Requiring someone to actually see that people read them and understand. Will there be a line for check in? Maybe, but a message at the resort would do the trick. Along with information when you drive into the park. Will this get to everyone, probably not, but it enhances the chance that people will understand, this is not just a park. But, a park with wildlife, and be aware.

 

[flynnibus]

It's that distinctly "Disney" emotional narrative that is the most vulnerable to the long-term echoes of this tragedy.

People have flat out been killed by crashes of Disney's rollercoasters... how much of the general population even knows that or thinks about it? Or knows about all the CM deaths? Those are far more damning than getting attacked by a wild animal while at Disney.

All this will quickly fade away as soon as there is some other story they can sensationalize and draw eyeballs with.

The family has already said they don't want to be seen/bothered... without that fueling the fire, the tabloids and 'analysts' are going to run out of stuff to say very quickly.

I'd be shocked if we see anything more after midweek in the main press on this topic. It's just waiting for the next story to take its place.

 

[Nemo14]

Here- just so there's no "speculation" and people don't over react to your shock at finding about crocodiles.
I don't know why you are saying "NOW". They've been in SoFla my entire life.
View attachment 146980

He's talking about Nile crocodiles though.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ocodiles-found-near-miami-researchers-confirm

 

[PhotoDave219]

He's talking about Nile crocodiles though.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ocodiles-found-near-miami-researchers-confirm

These folks aren't that quick on the pickup, are they?

Also that people don't understand the difference between crocodiles and alligators are pretty astounding....

 

[Nemo14]

We have mountain lions, rattlesnakes, wolfs, bear. We are warned each time we go into a state park, or national park. We had a moose in our neighborhood, animal control picked it up and took it out of our area. We saw it. They were prompt and made people safe within a matter of minutes. We called it in. I'm sure other people did too. People getting to close to deer and antelope have been attacked. Wild animals mean "wild" animals. They can become unpredictable. Best to try and avoid them altogether. I can hope that people will be educated about this and act accordingly. Through signs, or information at check in. Requiring someone to actually see that people read them and understand. Will there be a line for check in? Maybe, but a message at the resort would do the trick. Along with information when you drive into the park. Will this get to everyone, probably not, but it enhances the chance that people will understand, this is not just a park. But, a park with wildlife, and be aware.

The thing that worries me about the signs though is that there's bound to be a few fools who haven't been blessed with a lick of common sense who would read those signs and decide it would be "cool" to go try to catch one or whatever. I have 4 brothers and I wouldn't put that past at least 2 of them

 

[Nemo14]

These folks aren't that quick on the pickup, are they?

Also that people don't understand the difference between crocodiles and alligators are pretty astounding....

I know - you'd think they never saw Peter Pan!

 

[21stamps]

He's talking about Nile crocodiles though.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ocodiles-found-near-miami-researchers-confirm

When did he say Nile crocodiles? 2 posts said "crocodiles" one mentioned the Nile along with Australia.

I posted a photo of crocs in Costa Rica, there are much more of them there than in Florida. More surfers/ocean goers get attacked by crocs more than sharks there.
Guess what? Most people don't avoid Costa Rica because they are scared of crocs. Maybe a few do...

So a Nile Crocodile in SoFla means what?
That you won't visit?

 

[Daveeeeed]

Question-

Do you guys think that this will hurt Florida tourism?

I personally don't. But just curious of others views. There can't be any argument here bc it's strictly our opinion.lol

I don't think it will. Some morons of course are.

The thing that worries me about the signs though is that there's bound to be a few fools who haven't been blessed with a lick of common sense who would read those signs and decide it would be "cool" to go try to catch one or whatever. I have 4 brothers and I wouldn't put that past at least 2 of them

Well then Disney would be in a better position wouldn't they?

 

[21stamps]

These folks aren't that quick on the pickup, are they?

Also that people don't understand the difference between crocodiles and alligators are pretty astounding....

Maybe because you never once specified what kind of crocodile. There's more than one.

 

[Nemo14]

When did he say Nile crocodiles? 2 posts said "crocodiles" one mentioned the Nile along with Australia.

I posted a photo of crocs in Costa Rica, there are much more of them there than in Florida. More surfers/ocean goers get attacked by crocs more than sharks there.
Guess what? Most people don't avoid Costa Rica because they are scared of crocs. Maybe a few do...

So a Nile Crocodile in SoFla means what?
That you won't visit?

When did I say that?

 

[Nemo14]

Maybe because you never once specified what kind of crocodile. There's more than one.

Well if you kept up with your FL wildlife information, you would have known that.

 

[EngineJoe]

The thing that worries me about the signs though is that there's bound to be a few fools who haven't been blessed with a lick of common sense who would read those signs and decide it would be "cool" to go try to catch one or whatever. I have 4 brothers and I wouldn't put that past at least 2 of them

You would have to have the signs in many languages as well since there are a lot of Disney guests from all over the world.

 

[Daveeeeed]

You would have to have the signs in many languages as well since there are a lot of Disney guests from all over the world.

If I am in Europe and I can't read a sign I ask someone that knows English or Spanish. An Alligator photo will be universal, which that is the standard to have both.

 

[betty rose]

I mean Crocodiles. Those really nasty ones that live along the Nile River in Egypt, Australia, and now apparently Miami.

Just like water moccasins. Aggressive toward humans.