Orlando Gunman Scouted WDW ...

[wdwfan22]

I am not talking about the small incident in Shanghai.

I am talking about did Disney know last night that the guy had targeted Disney Springs before deciding on Pulse. And I am wondering if (more like how much) energy and resources they're going to use to keep the information as controlled as possible.

I'm sure they did and I'm sure the FBI did as well.

 

[mgf]

First, if you watch CNBC regularly (on an almost weekly basis) drool over Bob Iger and Disney's performance, then you'd realize just how incestuous the business is.

Second, if WDW is harmed, UNI is harmed, the entire Florida economy is harmed. This is a we're all in this together situation.

Third, and people say I'm cynical?!?!

EDIT TO ADD: That really is an awful, horrible and ignorant statement. A terrorist attack at any Central FL theme park destroys everyone's business. Everyone's.

I really, really was not trying to be funny/glib/ignorant. I was just adding what I assumed would be an additional reason for caution and concern in their reporting. Sincere apologies for any offense taken. I should have been more careful in tone and phrasing.

Of course, if something happened at Disney and/or Universal the Florida economy and the travel industry as a whole would suffer significantly. Just look at European tourism patterns this summer to see how people respond to perceived danger. Additionally, it would fundamentally damage the fabric of American culture and society. It would be a deeply personal and symbolic attack unlike any faced by the US -- perhaps even more than 9/11. (We all might have felt solidarity with NYC and DC, but middle America did not have a particular affinity.)

 

[WDW1974]

The simultaneous installation of metal detectors at the Orlando parks still strikes me as something that was under-reported or under-investigated. What precipitated that? (I probably don't want to know.)

There was a direct and credible threat on the MK (and only the MK) that had all Central FLA tourism leadership in a meeting TOGETHER with top state and Federal officials.

That is why those detectors went up overnight.

I'm sure all of us who have worked at WDW or visited for years and years realize that "property" is a target, and it's a frightening thing to even think about. But I don't know what they can do, short of turning the entire expanse of Disney property into a military base with controlled access (and, though that might be safer, that would never gel with the Disney image). But for awhile now, I've thought WDW really needs to consider serious safety measures. It should be the cost of doing business in the world we live in today.

You can't. And the more it becomes a hassle to visit for security, people are just going to say screw it. I had a few exchanges that were unpleasant with Disney Security officers over their theater last month. If I have to have a strip search to enter a theme park, then I'm simply not going to go while the rubes will say ''I am so glad they are doing this for our safety."

Real security would be hiring the Israelis, doing thorough background checks on every 15-hour a week CM, having real security at CM entry points and doing away with bag checks and faux security and taking all of that money and putting it into the above. WDW wasn't built to be an armed fortress (I want to cry when I see the entrance to EPCOT now looking like a prison camp) and there's no way of making it one.

 

[Chef Mickey]

News such as this is always sad, terrible, awful, and will never make any sense.

These kinds of events only serve to remind us that bad things happen no matter what law you make, what beliefs you hold true, or how many regulations you implement. People can be evil and sometimes nothing can stop them. We can strive for good laws, good enforcement of those laws, and good morals, but bad can always surface.

However, gun violence in the US has decreased, not increased. We should look at these things as the outlier they are and not proclaim the world rotten and a lost cause. I'm amazed there isn't more violence with all the people. We just hear about everything now and whenever there is a new story, it seems it's happening all the time, everywhere. It's not.

It is my sincere hope something like this will never happen at WDW and management is doing all they can to prevent this. However, we know the best laws and intentions cannot prevent the worst intentions at all times.

Source: Washington Post

 

[skyphotographer]

I believe there needs to be more entrances / exits to all the parks. Could you imagine (god forbid) that something did happen inside a park. More people would get injured trying to get out than would in the actual attack. As far as I know, EPCOT is the only park that currently has more than one entrance / exit.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

There was a direct and credible threat on the MK (and only the MK) that had all Central FLA tourism leadership in a meeting TOGETHER with top state and Federal officials.

That is why those detectors went up overnight.



You can't. And the more it becomes a hassle to visit for security, people are just going to say screw it. I had a few exchanges that were unpleasant with Disney Security officers over their theater last month. If I have to have a strip search to enter a theme park, then I'm simply not going to go while the rubes will say ''I am so glad they are doing this for our safety."

Real security would be hiring the Israelis, doing thorough background checks on every 15-hour a week CM, having real security at CM entry points and doing away with bag checks and faux security and taking all of that money and putting it into the above. WDW wasn't built to be an armed fortress (I want to cry when I see the entrance to EPCOT now looking like a prison camp) and there's no way of making it one.

1. Don't buy the first part at this stage. The only way IMHO that this would attract the spooks would be credible chatter. Lone gunman doesn't need chatter, if there turns out to be evidence of a cell Ill reconsider. But if this happened it wasn't based on this.
2. said for years its theatre, but what do you expect in the nation that invented ambulance chasers. So that will drive everything else
3. Any idea how much security checks cost? Any idea how much info wont be available? A vetting in these circumstances is no less cosmetic than the steps weve already criticised. Or do all terrorists post plans on Facebook first?
4. Armed vets on the gates with proper weaponry? Wouldnt bother me but Mr & Mrs Beige wont want Princes cupcake being scared, so that's out too.

I've lived with this sort of poo most of my adult life, the only thing that's changed is that the dirt bag is happier to be martyred than to get away and strike another day as was the case with the earlier nut jobs. Well that and 24 hour news channels ramping up fear and talking bollox. Speculating doesn't do any good, and yes by responding Im as guilty as anyone.

Tragic as events are we just get on with things. Otherwise they've won.

 

[wdwmagic]

I believe there needs to be more entrances / exits to all the parks. Could you imagine (god forbid) that something did happen inside a park. More people would get injured trying to get out than would in the actual attack. As far as I know, EPCOT is the only park that currently has more than one entrance / exit.

All of the parks have backstage exits. In the event of an emergency, there are evacuation plans that make use of those.

 

[GhostHost1000]

I believe there needs to be more entrances / exits to all the parks. Could you imagine (god forbid) that something did happen inside a park. More people would get injured trying to get out than would in the actual attack. As far as I know, EPCOT is the only park that currently has more than one entrance / exit.

AK - Rainforest Café entrance/exit

 

[skyphotographer]

All of the parks have backstage exits. In the event of an emergency, there are evacuation plans that make use of those.

Good to know, but how many are aware of that? I've been there dozens of times and never noticed. I was thinking of multiple entrances also to cut down on the number of guests trying to enter that are currently building up at the main entrance.

 

[skyphotographer]

AK - Rainforest Café entrance/exit

True, forgot about that one. Its very close to the main entrance though.

 

[wdwmagic]

Good to know, but how many are aware of that? I've been there dozens of times and never noticed. I was thinking of multiple entrances also to cut down on the number of guests that are currently building up at the main entrance.

In the event of an emergency, cast members will direct to the emergency exits throughout the park. The exits are not published to guests however.

 

[ford91exploder]

I hate it more. I hate it more than I can even say ... we live in a very sick world right now and we -- or the vast majority of us -- are not working to make it better.

We cannot work on the problem until we are willing to realistically admit what the threat is, And it's not 80 year old grandmothers from Peoria or children in wheelchairs. We have to move beyond 'political correctness' and admit that there is a subset of fundamentalists who do indeed wish to do harm to others.

In many ways become like China who does not tolerate fundamentalist behavior none of this refusing to transport people who have pets or alcohol on 'religious' grounds. Or like France who banned the overt wear of religious garb outside of houses of worship.

We also need to re-assemble the mental health infrastructure which we threw out in the early 1980's because we were restricting the seriously mentally ill people's 'freedom', the VAST majority of the mentally ill are harmless but there are some who NEED to live in a supervised setting there are others who need PROMPT temporary care which is NOT available today,

If we don't do these things Pulse will be repeated many times over perhaps with guns but 10 gallons of gasoline would have been just as deadly if not more so.

 

[mgf]

I've often wondered if Disney has linkages to SOCOM -- particularly with 7th group stationed at McDill in Tampa. Does MK, for example, have something like a permanent National Special Security Event status that might allow the military to be involved with security planning and response?

 

[5thGenTexan]

In the event of an emergency, cast members will direct to the emergency exits throughout the park. The exits are not published to guests however.

That might work well on paper, but after my trip to DLR last week and seeing how the crowd moves if they feel they aren't next in line I have little confidence in the ability of CMs to direct a giant hoard of people who are panicking.

This is why large crowds bother me. The possibility of an attack is always in my mind, but the reactions of large groups scares me more. I was in a full theater in 1997 and someone in the back came in and said "tornado" and everyone in that theater ran for the exits with no regard to anyone else. I stayed in my seat watching the movie because I wasn't going to get trampled AND I felt safer in that large reinforced building that running around outside in the parking lot. Panicked people aren't smart.

 

[JohnD]

He was apparently at Downtown Disney as recently as April according to this article.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/1...ent-into-islamic-terror-comes-into-focus.html

Anybody against WDW pulling all the data from his MB usage? Didn't think so.

 

[marni1971]

In the event of an emergency, cast members will direct to the emergency exits throughout the park. The exits are not published to guests however.

This.

Should they be needed, additional exits would become very apparent and accessible very quickly.

 

[JohnD]

This so much! It is unbelievably easy to access backstage area (and therefore Guest areas) via CM entrances. All you need is an ID and you're in. Sorry but Jim from Nowhere, USA standing under the awning doesn't cut it.

When I finished taking UnDISOVERed Future World tour, they let us back "onstage" at the China exit. Never gave it much thought before. Now I know exactly how to leave WS and head backstage. Don't recall whether the exits have an alarm, or if you need a security badge. I'm thinking just a standard issue emergency door exit with the push bar in case of fire, etc.

 

[Rosso11]

Last time I there a few months ago I noticed a large amount of under cover security/police at the parks. First noticed a few outside AK by the entrance then more inside. I was so intrigued I spent the rest of my trip just trying to spot them. They're all dressed like normal tourists but with ear pieces like the secret service use. The ones by the entrance were obviously scanning the crowds entering the park. Inside they were walking around.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

The last time I went to Disneyland Paris staying at the Sequoia Lodge (very nice, but very expensive) was in October 2015 before the Paris attacks. I was kind of put out by having to put my backpack through an airport-style scanner even when arriving at the hotel on the resort bus, and they similarly had airport-style scanners to go into Disney Village, their version of Disney Springs.

In all honesty, once the Paris attacks happened it made sense. Disney theme parks are the definition of a soft target and imagine the economic damage a terrorist attack on WDW, DLR, or DLP would cause. A large part of this is theatre, but it also makes the parks less easy targets. Disney Springs is the glaring hole in all of this as has been highlighted by these reports, and I imagine we'll soon see the same theatre to enter over there.

 

[JohnD]

If I recall correctly, they don't. You just open them and go right through. I can think of many areas around World Showcase where this is possible.

Perhaps signage saying opening door will cause alarm to sound. CMs just tap a badge against a security panel, the light turns green, and they go through. No problem. Guests could go through the same doors without a security badge but the alarm would sound.