News New security measures

[s8film40]

I'm not talking about some random mall, I'm talking about Disney Springs and Downtown Disney. Why is that not someplace worth "protecting"? The headline will still be "Attack at Disney World/Disneyland."

And somewhere in the article with that headline would be this line: "Disney does not require bag checks to enter Disney Springs unlike Universal's City Walk shopping and dining area."

 

[boufa]

Free access and security are always a balancing act. You can't with any practical ability, scan people who are going into a free and open public space, but when you are limitng access to a place by charging admission and having access through a common gate... ie sport arena, concert venue, theme park... then there is a liability that Disney has to manage that doesn't exist in other places.

That is the point. When you pay admission, there is a liability that leads to a responsibility of Disney to protect you. Many here are screaming, why not at DS or the resorts, or to get on the monorail. It isn't Disney's liability if those things have an attack.. or at least not as much. In addition, imagine what it would do to WDW if there was an attack at a theme park. The financial effect would be devastating, to say the least. Even if no one got hurt.

 

[s8film40]

I can speak from experience working at various events with walk through metal detectors, or even metal wands. No matter how many signs you have and how many times you say "please take all metal objects out of your pockets", a large amount of people don't listen, set the thing off, and the security guard has to take more time to check the person carefully at the point it went off. Keys, phones, cigarette containers, coins. With the large amount of first-time guests and those with metal in their body via hip replacements, knee replacements, and the like that come to Disney, the line is going to be a lot slower in practice than in theory.

I'm on board with the metal detection, it'll make things safer. But they need to at least double if not triple their security check through staff at the entrances or we will see extremely long waits to get through security.

Yes, the practicality of this is really stretching my ability to believe this rumor. Yes it can be done, but judging from my observations at HHN I think they will need 50+ security cast members operating this at each entrance. Perhaps DAK and HS could use a little less. We would also see waits of 30 minutes to an hour to get through the checkpoint. MK specifically would have quite a few issues. I'm not sure the area in front of the park could hold everyone waiting, two ferryboats and a few monorails unload and that pretty much overwhelms that area as is today. Now throw in the mix that all those people are waiting in lines and by the time the next ferryboats and monorails get there they won't have anywhere for the people to go. I think they would need to move security to TTC where they have a little more space.

 

[s8film40]

Free access and security are always a balancing act. You can't with any practical ability, scan people who are going into a free and open public space, but when you are limitng access to a place by charging admission and having access through a common gate... ie sport arena, concert venue, theme park... then there is a liability that Disney has to manage that doesn't exist in other places.

That is the point. When you pay admission, there is a liability that leads to a responsibility of Disney to protect you. Many here are screaming, why not at DS or the resorts, or to get on the monorail. It isn't Disney's liability if those things have an attack.. or at least not as much. In addition, imagine what it would do to WDW if there was an attack at a theme park. The financial effect would be devastating, to say the least. Even if no one got hurt.

I'm not sure the liability and the consequences toward Disney would be that different if it were at a park or Disney Springs. All of the media will report it as Disney World either way, they already have proven this in past incidents. There's no requirement on them to even do the bag checks, there would be no liability towards Disney.

 

[NowInc]

I'll be in the area on Saturday, and I'll see what is willing to be disclosed. Still haven't heard much on this other than an increase on the thoroughness of the bag checks, and the possibility of different lines for different types of checks (ie: Bagless, small bag/purse, larger bags).

Seeing how the bag checks were previously laughably vague (I've lost count over the amount of times security would just squeeze my large camera bag instead of actually looking inside), this is a welcome change.

Both guest and CM access points are being addressed in this manner.

 

[boufa]

I'm not sure the liability and the consequences toward Disney would be that different if it were at a park or Disney Springs. All of the media will report it as Disney World either way, they already have proven this in past incidents. There's no requirement on them to even do the bag checks, there would be no liability towards Disney.

No Liability?!?!!? I would disagree 1000% on this. Your point is valid that the MEDIA coverage would be the same, but the actual financial liability that would occur if Disney had a controlled access point, and failed to manage the safety of the park via that controlled access point, would be HUGE. Hundreds of lawyers would be drooling and climbing over themselves to get a piece of that action. If it happened at DS or a resort, the liability might still be high, but not nearly as high as a place where Disney has a implied obligation to ensure the safety.

The bad PR would be a given, even and incident at another theme park or iDrive would hurt Disney PR at least some.

 

[s8film40]

No Liability?!?!!? I would disagree 1000% on this. Your point is valid that the MEDIA coverage would be the same, but the actual financial liability that would occur if Disney had a controlled access point, and failed to manage the safety of the park via that controlled access point, would be HUGE. Hundreds of lawyers would be drooling and climbing over themselves to get a piece of that action. If it happened at DS or a resort, the liability might still be high, but not nearly as high as a place where Disney has a implied obligation to ensure the safety.

The bad PR would be a given, even and incident at another theme park or iDrive would hurt Disney PR at least some.

Yeah, I'm sure some people would try to get some money, but I don't think they would succeed unless Disney just opted to settle to keep it from continuing in the news. With that scenario it doesn't matter what Disney had in place. If anything having more security and missing something might make Disney more liable. Disney would have a very solid argument that they went above and beyond what was required and followed all government advice. A private company isn't 100% responsible for the actions of others.

 

[bugsbunny]

You would be blown away by how many people are carrying handguns on a daily basis and in fact, inside WDW parks. You can google it or go to "conceal carry" websites or forums to verify. Mostly, there are topics about if they go to WDW, can they carry with their lawful permit? Everyone will readily agree that Disney has the right to remove you since when you buy the ticket you are in effect agreeing to their terms and conditions of using their private property, etc. And then a lot will go on to say how they always carry at WDW because there is zero body checking, metal detectors, etc.

Not saying I agree with any of it, but I wanted to point out that people with guns in WDW parks has been going on for a loooooong time and to date, there hasn't been one problem. So I think anyone freaking out over this latest incident should calm down a bit.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Yes, the practicality of this is really stretching my ability to believe this rumor. Yes it can be done, but judging from my observations at HHN I think they will need 50+ security cast members operating this at each entrance. Perhaps DAK and HS could use a little less. We would also see waits of 30 minutes to an hour to get through the checkpoint. MK specifically would have quite a few issues. I'm not sure the area in front of the park could hold everyone waiting, two ferryboats and a few monorails unload and that pretty much overwhelms that area as is today. Now throw in the mix that all those people are waiting in lines and by the time the next ferryboats and monorails get there they won't have anywhere for the people to go. I think they would need to move security to TTC where they have a little more space.

Well, yeah. You can have great security, it just costs money.

Look at El-Al, the Israeli airline. They thoroughly screen & interview all their passengers. Sure it's extensive, inconvenient, and expensive, But it works.

Now that model clearly Won't work here. What Disney is going to run into is angry guests who don't want to wait in security lines and be inconvenienced as well as the added infrastructure and labor costs.

I don't have faith in the guests if the security procedures are longer.

 

[lazyboy97o]

No Liability?!?!!? I would disagree 1000% on this. Your point is valid that the MEDIA coverage would be the same, but the actual financial liability that would occur if Disney had a controlled access point, and failed to manage the safety of the park via that controlled access point, would be HUGE. Hundreds of lawyers would be drooling and climbing over themselves to get a piece of that action. If it happened at DS or a resort, the liability might still be high, but not nearly as high as a place where Disney has a implied obligation to ensure the safety.

The bad PR would be a given, even and incident at another theme park or iDrive would hurt Disney PR at least some.

Disney Springs and the hotels not having limited, controlled access is merely an operational and design choice. It could be done and is done at other places. It's not done because those types of measures don't fit with the delusions being satiated. Hotels have been targeted and attacked far more than theme parks.

 

[surfsupdon]

Anybody ever read Along Came a Spider by James Patterson? The back half of the book dealt with an escaped convict headed to Disney World to kidnap a child, and Detective Alex Cross was on his way to intercept the issue with as little public knowledge as possible. It was a very tense passage, and the events unfolded at the TTC parking lot and monorail stations, before it was thwarted. (If memory serves correctly.)

It always got me thinking.....

 

[LAKid53]

Doesn't surprise me after the incident at MK. I noticed when we visited DHS this past Saturday that security at bag check was doing a more thorough search of all bags, including anything in a stroller. If people were smart, they'd try to carry light - bring just the essentials for you and your family. It will make things faster and easier for all of us.

And I noticed more OCSD officers at the entrance of every park.

 

[flynnibus]

Can we back up for a second and think about the fact that the security in this situation worked. We're talking about all of these changes that need to go in place because... the existing system did exactly what it was supposed to do successfully?

Did it? There have been plenty of hard evidence examples of it NOT keeping weapons out of the park. It boils down to what you are actually trying to achieve.. if it was keeping all weapons out.. I think we can agree it was a filter, but not absolute.

Yes, the practicality of this is really stretching my ability to believe this rumor. Yes it can be done, but judging from my observations at HHN...

That's a great point.. that we do have reference to smaller theme parks doing this.. even in florida. For ideas of scale, hassle, etc

 

[WWWD]

I don't think we're there yet, but you could have the resort bus stops and drop off locations become secured areas and do the search at the resorts. All I'm doing is standing around waiting for a bus, might as well get my search over with and then I can go directly into the park once my bus arrives there. Kind of like the monorail station in Downtown Disneyland, you have to searched and have a park ticket as it drops you off inside Disneyland.

This would make staying on-site a very popular option as you would avoid extremely long security lines at the gates.

 

[Ransom]

This would make staying on-site a very popular option as you would avoid extremely long security lines at the gates.

That would be fantastic for Disney. They could have just one guard at each park doing security screening for the unwashed masses, with a big sign saying, "If your parents weren't such losers, you'd be riding Dumbo now."

Maybe they could offer a security FastPass if an off-site guest is willing to submit to a thorough background check at 180 days prior to arrival and pay a non-refundable $500/person annual fee.

That would be awesome.

 

[wdisney9000]

Hmmmm....I seem to remember tons of you folks scathing me a few weeks back when I dared mention how Disney does not have strong enough safety measures. Most of you SWORE that Disney was fine and they had everything under control.
Many of you even complained that they would never do it because it would slow down the entry process.

And now......Disney is taking extra precautions. How about that?

I said they were there, and others on these boards aggressively attacked me. Now I am vindicated.

Way to make this all about YOU. Calm down. Its quite toxic.

FWIW, you could technically say that ANY place that doesnt have scanners and armed guards is not "safe enough." I should probly stop going to my local supermarket, movie theater, pub, oil change center, etc. etc. Lest I put myself in danger!!!

 

[wdisney9000]

Anybody ever read Along Came a Spider by James Patterson? The back half of the book dealt with an escaped convict headed to Disney World to kidnap a child, and Detective Alex Cross was on his way to intercept the issue with as little public knowledge as possible. It was a very tense passage, and the events unfolded at the TTC parking lot and monorail stations, before it was thwarted. (If memory serves correctly.)

It always got me thinking.....

you better hope @PhotoDave219 is not reading, or planning to read that book. Do you know what a shine box is? lol, jk

 

[PhotoDave219]

you better hope @PhotoDave219 is not reading, or planning to read that book. Do you know what a shine box is? lol, jk

People are basing security measures Off of works of fiction?

Seriously?

 

[wdisney9000]

People are basing security measures Off of works of fiction?

Seriously?

I think I will restructure my home security using the movie Home Alone as a guideline. Now, youll have to excuse me as I go hang paint cans from string and a heating iron on my doorknob. Does anybody have a life size Micheal Jordan cut out I can borrow?

 

[Tigger1988]

You would be blown away by how many people are carrying handguns on a daily basis and in fact, inside WDW parks. You can google it or go to "conceal carry" websites or forums to verify. Mostly, there are topics about if they go to WDW, can they carry with their lawful permit? Everyone will readily agree that Disney has the right to remove you since when you buy the ticket you are in effect agreeing to their terms and conditions of using their private property, etc. And then a lot will go on to say how they always carry at WDW because there is zero body checking, metal detectors, etc.

Not saying I agree with any of it, but I wanted to point out that people with guns in WDW parks has been going on for a loooooong time and to date, there hasn't been one problem. So I think anyone freaking out over this latest incident should calm down a bit.

I'd say a loaded gun falling out on Dinosaur qualifies as a problem.