From the OS: Gator drags child into Seven Seas Lagoon

[Filby61]

They can't attack the problem without removing everything that people love about staying there.

Ridiculous. Feeding gators and wading in the lake is hardly "everything that people love about staying there." WDI's imagineers can redesign hotel beaches to be safer and just as beautiful. Gator-patrol employees can be well trained and their positions well-staffed. Areas of critical concern can be under video surveillance without detracting from the show. Guest safety education can be entertaining as well as educational -- Disney show writers, producers and animators can create characters that delight guests as well as instruct.

Assuming, of course, that Disney wanted to prioritize and fund this issue -- not only to protect their financial butts for the future, but as a highly-visible, positive-PR leadership model for the Florida visitor industry.

 

[Shane7694]

from a state park in FL...

This is the sign that should be up..

 

[21stamps]

Ridiculous. Feeding gators and wading in the lake is hardly "everything that people love about staying there." WDI's imagineers can redesign hotel beaches to be safer and just as beautiful. Gator-patrol employees can be well trained and their positions well-staffed. Areas of critical concern can be under video surveillance without detracting from the show. Guest safety education can be entertaining as well as educational -- Disney show writers, producers and animators can create characters that delight guests as well as instruct.

Assuming, of course, that Disney wanted to prioritize and fund this issue -- not only to protect their financial butts for the future, but as a highly-visible, positive-PR leadership model for the Florida visitor industry.

I don't want or need instruction. Neither do most people. Are there a few here that had no idea that dangerous wildlife actually lives in Florida? Apparently yes. But that's their problem, and their lack of personal responsibility..and they shouldn't need anything besides a warning sign- which Disney is doing.

You can't make a beach on a lake safe from gators and you can't reasonably expect to have people constantly patrolling every single area.

Let's just say Disney does this, and now the theme park tickets rise to $250 per day, the resorts ranging from values at $400 per night to a deluxe starting at $1000 per night.. Would you complain?
Is it really necessary? Is it really warranted?

I don't think so. I think it's crazy to expect that.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

CBSNews said the official autopsy is complete and he died from tramatic injury and drowning. They speculate the father scared the gator enough it let go of the boy after diving underwater and he drowned. That's why he was found so close to where he disappeared. They've also caught another gator and it's not a match to the teethmarks.

 

[G00fyDad]

At this rate, most likely none of us will have to ignore him. *hint*

And life will go on. It's not my fault if people are going to get bent out of shape because I mentioned my opinion. And it's not my fault if they get upset at my response to comments about my parenting style. I suppose I was supposed to just sit back and take it quietly. I simply mentioned what I do as a parent and I got called a liar for it. And someone else started putting words in my mouth acting like I was saying the person who lost his child at Disney was a bad parent. I'm not just going to sit quietly by and let people say stuff like that. And if people don't like it then put me on ignore. I welcome it. It's just that many more people but I don't have to worry about getting on me for my opinion. Now, moving on...

 

[Princess_AmyK]

So I am a little late on the subject..

I work in a salon and the day this news broke it was a common subject brought up by my clients.
I was AMAZED at how many people didn't know there were gators in Disney world.
To me it seemed like common sense. Disney world is in Florida. Florida has gators. Heck, they have a sports team named after them because gators are so common in Florida. Therefor, a lake in the middle of Disney world property will have gators.
Then I realized that this is common sense to me because I frequent Florida and care, it isn't to others because they just don't care. Not that it's bad that they don't care. They just don't visit often, have other things to focus on and other things that take priority over their knowledge of the Florida wildlife.
Because of this, it definitely would have made sense for Disney to have some kind of warning that gators exist in their lakes. That way those who didn't know could choose to take the risk if they wanted to rather than not knowing the risk existed at all.

Of course it is a risk that is very small because gator attacks definitely are not common. Really you should be more worried about getting in a car than about being attacked by a gator. I don't blame Disney or the Parents. I am on the side of "What an unlikely freak accident." However, whether the parents knew of the gators or not, I think this horrific situation is bringing to light how little a lot of people knew about alligators in the lake.

 

[kenny279]

This article does not paint a pretty picture, it does seem the media message is they knew it was a problem:

Yet Kadie Whalen, who lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, saw no evidence of that system when she visited Disney World with her family four years ago...

As shocked tourists looked on, she said, trappers caught the animal and carried it away, writhing, across a pool and courtyard area outside the hotel. Disney workers threatened to confiscate the phones and cameras of anyone who tried to photograph or videotape the spectacle, she said.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/af...alligator-warnings/ar-AAh6Zl2?ocid=spartandhp

 

[s8film40]

This article does not paint a pretty picture:

Yet Kadie Whalen, who lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, saw no evidence of that system when she visited Disney World with her family four years ago...

As shocked tourists looked on, she said, trappers caught the animal and carried it away, writhing, across a pool and courtyard area outside the hotel. Disney workers threatened to confiscate the phones and cameras of anyone who tried to photograph or videotape the spectacle, she said.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/af...alligator-warnings/ar-AAh6Zl2?ocid=spartandhp

Would be interesting to see them try to confiscate a phone. I don't think that would go well for Disney.

 

[21stamps]

This article does not paint a pretty picture, it does seem the media message is they knew it was a problem:

Yet Kadie Whalen, who lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, saw no evidence of that system when she visited Disney World with her family four years ago...

As shocked tourists looked on, she said, trappers caught the animal and carried it away, writhing, across a pool and courtyard area outside the hotel. Disney workers threatened to confiscate the phones and cameras of anyone who tried to photograph or videotape the spectacle, she said.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/af...alligator-warnings/ar-AAh6Zl2?ocid=spartandhp

She wanted her 15 minutes.

 

[G00fyDad]

Would be interesting to see them try to confiscate a phone. I don't think that would go well for Disney.

I'm not sure how accurate that womans account of events really is. I have a hard time believing Disney would have tried to confiscate phones. But then again, I could be wrong.

 

[s8film40]

I'm not sure how accurate that womans account of events really is. I have a hard time believing Disney would have tried to confiscate phones. But then again, I could be wrong.

It could be a rouge CM thinking he/she is doing the right thing.

If it actually happened to me I would be contacting police. I would press charges for assault (because I'm not freely handing over my phone) and report my phone stolen. Police take theft and assault pretty seriously.

 

[GoofGoof]

So if there have been any previous incidents, they were negligent in this instance? Because apparently there have been...

As far as I know there was one incident involving a child being bit by a gator at WDW in 1986... 30 years ago. The kid and his family were feeding the ducks at the lake front at Fort Wilderness when the gator jumped out of the lake and bit him. He was injured but not fatally. I would not say that 1 incident in 45 years would be a pattern that would make Disney legally negligent. They have an active program too to manage these animals to the best of their ability and relocate them to a more safe location. Unfortunately it didn't help in this case. I will repeat what I said before. I would be shocked if Disney didn't at a minimum add signs around the lake and possibly even close the beaches at night permanently.

 

[micdisney]

I'm not sure how accurate that womans account of events really is. I have a hard time believing Disney would have tried to confiscate phones. But then again, I could be wrong.

I don't think Disney would do that in any circumstance,

 

[SCB502]

They shouldn't close the beaches and they shouldn't stop people from wading at the edge of the water. Some of my best memories as a kid and some of my best memories of my kids are playing on the beaches and making sand castles. It took 45 years for this to happen. Life happens. We are going in August and my kids will play on the beach if the beaches are not closed. Has anyone here gone to an ocean beach? Here's a warning, there are sharks at those beaches. Should we fence in every ocean beach?

 

[21stamps]

They shouldn't close the beaches and they shouldn't stop people from wading at the edge of the water. Some of my best memories as a kid and some of my best memories of my kids are playing on the beaches and making sand castles. It took 45 years for this to happen. Life happens. We are going in August and my kids will play on the beach if the beaches are not closed. Has anyone here gone to an ocean beach? Here's a warning, there are sharks at those beaches. Should we fence in every ocean beach?

I'm so glad you posted this. It's refreshing to see someone not afraid!
Some of my best memories as a child...as well as the full circle amazing memories created when I took my own child there, and the memories we will make this year again, are on that beach at that lake.
A few over reactors and media pressure shouldn't make Seven Seas Lagoon, or any other body of water, into an area that is no longer enjoyable. I want to believe that Disney will have enough sense to know not to give in.

 

[JohnD]

CBSNews said the official autopsy is complete and he died from tramatic injury and drowning. They speculate the father scared the gator enough it let go of the boy after diving underwater and he drowned. That's why he was found so close to where he disappeared. They've also caught another gator and it's not a match to the teethmarks.

 

[FrankLapidus]

This article does not paint a pretty picture, it does seem the media message is they knew it was a problem:

Yet Kadie Whalen, who lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, saw no evidence of that system when she visited Disney World with her family four years ago...

As shocked tourists looked on, she said, trappers caught the animal and carried it away, writhing, across a pool and courtyard area outside the hotel. Disney workers threatened to confiscate the phones and cameras of anyone who tried to photograph or videotape the spectacle, she said.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/af...alligator-warnings/ar-AAh6Zl2?ocid=spartandhp

Doesn't tally with what I witnessed on the two occasions I've seen alligators removed from an area of a park or hotel by Disney staff in the past.

One of those was from Splash Moutain and the staff were completely methodical and professional. Some of the guests around us were asking questions about alligators on Disney property and the CM's present gave very clear and reassuring answers and offered advice on where the animals would most likely be and what to do if anyone saw one. On neither occasion did the animal (each one I would estimate was three to four foot in length) appear to be in any distress, everything was done very calmly and efficiently and there were absolutely no threats to confiscate the phones and cameras of those in the crowd who were filming and/or took photos.

Likewise in other articles I've seen where people are coming forward with stories about saving their children from lurking alligators and basically being given the brush off by the Disney staff to whom they reported the incidents.

We were at Winter Summerland a month ago, saw a snake and told a CM. They immediately came and calmly removed it. We asked if it was a dangerous snake and they said that from it's appearance they didn't think so but that it didn't matter, they wouldn't take any chances and operate under a "better safe than sorry" policy. It's not the first time we've had that experience and raised such a concern with a member of staff at WDW and when we have they have dealt with them as quickly and as efficiently as they have been able to.

So, with the benefit of personal experience, I find it very hard to believe that if a guest went to a manager at a hotel or park, let alone a regular CM, and said that their child had potentially been in imminent danger from an alligator, that staff would simply brush off these concerns and do nothing as some of these stories have alleged.

 

[JohnD]

Reading/watching the news media, you would think WDW is a killing field. Sheesh.

 

[Matt_Black]

Reading/watching the news media, you would think WDW is a killing field. Sheesh.

"I love the smell of Dole Whip in the morning!"

 

[AEfx]

Reading/watching the news media, you would think WDW is a killing field. Sheesh.

No, but it certainly has always been a danger and it's probably sheer luck it hasn't happened before when you have this combination of people feeding gators regularly and the lack of warning Disney has given.

I'm the first to say "hey people over-react because, Disney" but in this case...this was the sign on the beach:

That looks like a "Keep off the grass" sign - basically, a suggestion of good guest behavior.

And no one was swimming - just walking in a few inches of water.

Personally, I'd never touch that gross water to begin with because I know better - but expecting everyone to is silly, and you'd think a "luxury resort" as it's being called would have been a bit more diligent in informing guests.

Given that aside from the gator danger, that there is that lovely brain-eating bacteria under the soil there that has also proven fatal before, I think this is a wake-up call that WDW needed. Not to mention, all the coverage I have seen has been very fair.