PHOTOS - New bag check areas greatly enhance Magic Kingdom arrival experience

[JohnD]

Agreed on working out kinks, but Spring Break is literally right now for many thousands of people there right now.

All the more reason to get it into place. You can be sure a security plan was developed before the implementation.

 

[JohnD]

Apology accepted. No, you don't go through again before boarding the Epcot monorail. However, you do go through again at Epcot, until they reconfigure things, because the monorail exit at Epcot takes you outside the secured zone.

I honestly don't see why they would change that. They have screening at each park. I realize there is screening at TTC before boarding the Express Monorail and Resort Monorail to MK. Is there screening for the Epcot monorail? If not, then the screening at Epcot takes care of that. If so, then the screening is really for the monorail itself.

 

[rushtest4echo]

Your are correct homicide is lower the chance of death is lower....but rape...robbery...assault? All higher. But this has nothingredients. Do with MK.

Rape, assault and robbery are all reported and logged very differently in London vs dealing with the LAPD. From someone who grew up in a not-so-great neighborhood in the LAPD's jurisdiction, most of those crimes were either not reported because people knew the police didn't care, or because they were afraid of la migra. The people who did end up reporting a small assault, a robbery or even a sexual crime were often given worse treatment than the assailants. Having a brother in the UK now who grew up in LA, he'd probably die of laughter if you tried to assert that London (or even Manchester) had a violent/serious crime late in any category close to what happened in LA. And I don't consider LA some warzone/wasteland. Love the city, but you're kidding yourself if you think that guns on the streets of LA (even in the hands of well meaning people) keep it safer than the knives in the UK. That's just nuts.

But you're right, has nothing to do with MK or security. The fact is, we are just as likely to see a zealot show up with a gun at MK as we are to see one in an airport, or in another city around the US or the world. This security is supposed to limit Disney's exposure and liability if and when such an attack occurs. They have the added benefit of being compelled to do this by lawyers and DHS, and another added benefit of the public at large congratulating them for all of the security theatre all the while ignoring statistics and security experts.

 

[TiggerDad]

Bad actor could also pack frame of stroller with explosives. So i agree no outside strollers

Maybe we should start a dedicated thread of all of the ways the bad guys could successfully circumvent security. I'd hate for them to have to wade through all of these other threads to do their research.

 

[DisneyJeff]

I honestly don't see why they would change that. They have screening at each park. I realize there is screening at TTC before boarding the Express Monorail and Resort Monorail to MK. Is there screening for the Epcot monorail? If not, then the screening at Epcot takes care of that. If so, then the screening is really for the monorail itself.

From what I can tell, the secure area at the TTC looks like this. Everything within the yellow area is within the secure area. The only way into it, is through the red security checkpoints. (I don't know if there are one or two areas for the checkpoints.) This would put all the monorail platforms as well as the ferryboat platforms within the secure zone. So if you arrive on a monorail, you have already been screened. You can change to another monorail line without having to be screened again.

 

[rushtest4echo]

Maybe we should start a dedicated thread of all of the ways the bad guys could successfully circumvent security. I'd hate for them to have to wade through all of these other threads to do their research.

Trust me, they already know. And so do security/risk management experts. That's why they laugh at the TSA and enhanced screening. They scoff at backscatter and xray screening. Decisions aren't made to prevent attacks. Decisions are made to ensure that the company isn't liable. We have directives to stop making choke points and soft targets from the top security minds on earth, and then we have managers listening to lawyers, bean counters and gov't hacks who insist on specifically creating those soft target opportunities.

I don't know why anyone with bad motives would bother going through security when the best target is the security check itself. Explosives, biological or just a gun. Hundreds of easy targets all gathered into small areas with few egress options.

 

[JohnD]

From what I can tell, the secure area at the TTC looks like this. Everything within the yellow area is within the secure area. The only way into it, is through the red security checkpoints. (I don't know if there are one or two areas for the checkpoints.) This would put all the monorail platforms as well as the ferryboat platforms within the secure zone. So if you arrive on a monorail, you have already been screened. You can change to another monorail line without having to be screened again.

View attachment 198004

Okay, so that would mean somehow changing the traffic flow so that you could directly enter Epcot from the monorail. Right now, you go through security again.

Also, someone else mentioned that if you enter Epcot via the International Gateway, you're already screened before boarding the Epcot monorail. Don't see how that's possible. You exit Epcot at the front entrance before boarding the monorail. So my guess is that when arriving at the TTC and going down the ramp before boarding the Resort or Express monorail, you have to leave the security zone and re-enter it for screening. Can someone clarify this?

 

[RustySpork]

Trust me, they already know. And so do security/risk management experts. That's why they laugh at the TSA and enhanced screening. They scoff at backscatter and xray screening. Decisions aren't made to prevent attacks. Decisions are made to ensure that the company isn't liable. We have directives to stop making choke points and soft targets from the top security minds on earth, and then we have managers listening to lawyers, bean counters and gov't hacks who insist on specifically creating those soft target opportunities.

I don't know why anyone with bad motives would bother going through security when the best target is the security check itself. Explosives, biological or just a gun. Hundreds of easy targets all gathered into small areas with few egress options.

Relocating the choke points and adding multipliers doesn't really reduce the threat, it just multiplies the risk while possibly reducing the potential number of casualties.

In my mind a bad actor doing damage inside WDW vs doing damage outside WDW sends different messages.

 

[ford91exploder]

I'm not, but we should leave that vector exposed so you can save $10. Totally worth it.

Its virtually impossible to stop an attacker who is willing to die to accomplish their mission, Personally im for basic security removing obvious weapons because the mentally unstable fame seeker is a bigger threat as they want to bask in the aftermath of their bad act. Let the more covert security track down the real bad actors. Whats being done here is security theater so Legal feels good

 

[RustySpork]

Its virtually impossible to stop an attacker who is willing to die to accomplish their mission, Personally im for basic security removing obvious weapons because the mentally unstable fame seeker is a bigger threat as they want to bask in the aftermath of their bad act. Let the more covert security track down the real bad actors. Whats being done here is security theater so Legal feels good

Minimum standard for insurance and liability mitigation.

 

[ford91exploder]

Relocating the choke points and adding multipliers doesn't really reduce the threat, it just multiplies the risk while possibly reducing the potential number of casualties.

In my mind a bad actor doing damage inside WDW vs doing damage outside WDW sends different messages.

And a real bad actor would come in as a contractor or CM

 

[RustySpork]

And a real bad actor would come in as a contractor or CM

Definitely if that opportunity existed, that's the most common vector.

 

[TiggerDad]

Trust me, they already know. And so do security/risk management experts. That's why they laugh at the TSA and enhanced screening. They scoff at backscatter and xray screening. Decisions aren't made to prevent attacks. Decisions are made to ensure that the company isn't liable. We have directives to stop making choke points and soft targets from the top security minds on earth, and then we have managers listening to lawyers, bean counters and gov't hacks who insist on specifically creating those soft target opportunities.

I don't know why anyone with bad motives would bother going through security when the best target is the security check itself. Explosives, biological or just a gun. Hundreds of easy targets all gathered into small areas with few egress options.

Yes, but many bad guys are really stupid. They tend to get stopped before they do as much damage, but we don't need to make it easier for them. I agree with you that some bad actors are smart enough to not be bothered by security theater, but they are in the minority.

 

[DisneyJeff]

Okay, so that would mean somehow changing the traffic flow so that you could directly enter Epcot from the monorail. Right now, you go through security again.

Also, someone else mentioned that if you enter Epcot via the International Gateway, you're already screened before boarding the Epcot monorail. Don't see how that's possible. You exit Epcot at the front entrance before boarding the monorail. So my guess is that when arriving at the TTC and going down the ramp before boarding the Resort or Express monorail, you have to leave the security zone and re-enter it for screening. Can someone clarify this?

Actually, the entrance to the monorail station at EPCOT is (and always was) within the secure zone. I found this out the hard way. I wanted to take a bus from EPCOT to the Grand Floridian. I walked all the way down to the bus area before I found out that there wasn't a bus from EP to the GF. The monorail was my only option. In order to get back to the monorail station, I had to go back through security.

You are correct, they need to (and probably will) make the monorail exit at EPCOT within the secure zone. I think they will just need to move the screening area a little closer to the bus area.

 

[ford91exploder]

Minimum standard for insurance and liability mitigation.

True but nil plus nil still equals zero

 

[cmarten]

Love seeing pictures without a giant wall of people in front of MK....of course now I wish the old rope drop show was still there now that there aren't security concerns

 

[Mr Ferret 75]

It would be nice to have the train show back but also keep the older fashioned rope drop inside the park for those that are not so borhered with the opening show.

 

[Texas84]

Eventually we will all need a background check to get in here. I've held a US secret clearance so I should be fine.

 

[Grimley1968]

Actually, the entrance to the monorail station at EPCOT is (and always was) within the secure zone. I found this out the hard way. I wanted to take a bus from EPCOT to the Grand Floridian. I walked all the way down to the bus area before I found out that there wasn't a bus from EP to the GF. The monorail was my only option. In order to get back to the monorail station, I had to go back through security.

You are correct, they need to (and probably will) make the monorail exit at EPCOT within the secure zone. I think they will just need to move the screening area a little closer to the bus area.

Thanks for this post. Speaking only for myself, I wasn't picking up the distinction at the EPCOT monorail station between the entrance and the exit. I thought the whole station was outside the secure zone, therefore leaving a gaping hole at the TTC EPCOT monorail exit, if that was true. I'm glad to see, in reality, that that hole was already plugged. {bolding mine}

 

[DisneyJeff]

Thanks for this post. Speaking only for myself, I wasn't picking up the distinction at the EPCOT monorail station between the entrance and the exit. I thought the whole station was outside the secure zone, therefore leaving a gaping hole at the TTC EPCOT monorail exit, if that was true. I'm glad to see, in reality, that that hole was already plugged. {bolding mine}

I guess technically, it was a loophole in security. If someone wanted, they probably could have gotten off on the "enter" side of the monorail at EPCOT, then walked down the entrance ramp, and entered the park without going through security. I don't know how closely they monitored this.