Sheriff at Animal Kingdom Lodge

LuLaSue

Well-Known Member
Yes. Balconies are always a risk with kids. Unless you're on the first floor, they can fall.

Disney does a good job with their balconies, but kids are kids and must be watched all the time, especially around heights!

But the AKL balconies are no more dangerous than any others.


I don't have kids so it's not something I pay much mind to. Your right kids are kids, turn around one second and ....ouch..
 

luv

Well-Known Member
I don't have kids so it's not something I pay much mind to. Your right kids are kids, turn around one second and ....ouch..
When you're a parent, you figure out how much kids want to do dangerous things very early on! You spend the next 18 years attempting to prevent them from doing those things.

Seriously, about the time they're six months old, they begin trying to push with their legs arch their backs...they wriggle and struggle just so they can leap out of your arms. You think, "Does this child want to get out of my grasp? Does the baby not realize that if I let it go, it would just fall on its little head on the cement below me?!" Yes, that is what the baby wants. No, it hasn't thought it through. It just wants to be freed from your grasp. First they want to stop being held, then they want to play on playgrounds...and drive...and drink in bars...

Eventually, the child wins the battle and is freed from your grasp...free to go make their own dumb mistakes.

But you figure out very early on that a big part of your job is simply keeping them alive...and you spend 18 years trying to stop them from crashing.
 
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Soarin' Over Pgh

Well-Known Member
That didn't apply to them though!

It's the same with everything..."No flash photography"..."That doesn't mean us"..."Do not sit on the tractors!"..."Here timmy, hop up there for Mom to take your picture!"...people these days...

Exactly... and the parents (of course) tried to sue the Zoo in regards to the death of the child.


Back on topic... but It should kinda be common sense to watch your child if you have a balcony room. Or keep the door shut (and locked) ? I understand you can't be everywhere at all times but c'mon.

Maybe they DO need nets for "your own protection" and full body bubble wrap suits just to be on property. Sigh.
 

MOXOMUMD

Well-Known Member
This reminds me as we were getting ready to leave AK last month we headed towards the far side bus stops. An ambulance was blocking where our bus was supposed to pull in but a CM was directing us to a stop on down the line. Passing by (and trying not to look) the EMTs had towels to a young (about 7 yr old) boy's face and there was just blood. My daughter kept asking me what happened when someone else in line told us they saw it. The parents were oblivious that the boy decided to play "swing" on the divider chain until he did a faceplant into the cement and put his lower teeth through his lip. I could hear in passing the accident they were an Oriental family that didn't speak very much English and I thought, you probably paid a lot of money for your vacation and this will be your main memory.
 

nytimez

Well-Known Member
I hope she was okay.

I hope so too so no one please take what I am about to say next the wrong way... and it has to do with this item in the story linked to by @Reddog :

"The Department of Children and Families said the girl was looking at an animal from the balcony when she fell."

...sorry... having stayed at this resort many, many, many times, I find it almost impossible to believe the act of looking at an animal would cause anyone to fall.

The "almost" part allows for the chance - real, but remote, IMO - that the balcony itself had a problem. But barring that, there is no way to fall that does not involve some combination of aggressively bad behavior and outright neglect of the child.
 

RandomPrincess

Keep Moving Forward
Disney says they have cameras on the building all the time. They put a thing in the room telling you to close your drapes if you don't want whatever you're doing to be seen. If they were rolling, there should be a record of what happened.
I thought those signs just meant other guests might be taking pictures of the animals in the Savannah and they might catch you too.
 

luv

Well-Known Member
I thought those signs just meant other guests might be taking pictures of the animals in the Savannah and they might catch you too.
They specifically state that there are cameras on the building and that you should close your drapes for privacy. I took them at their word.

This is unique to the AKL. I never got one of those notices elsewhere. Just in case people are now worrying that all their room activities are filmed at WDW! :)
 

BadTigger

Active Member
You would be amazed at how stupid some parents are when they are on vacation at Disney. When I was a CM way back in the day I had two kids just sitting waiting all of a sudden the brother went down hard and started having a seizure. Medics came the kid was ok except for a small cut on his head, we finally found the parents and found out the kid has epilepsy and the parents forgot to give him his medication for the day. So the medics tell them they should go back to the resort so the kid can rest and take his meds. The parents go "No he'll be ok". We were just dumbfounded.
 

DisneyJoe

Well-Known Member
I thought those signs just meant other guests might be taking pictures of the animals in the Savannah and they might catch you too.
You sign a document at check in stating that if you throw anything off your balcony that they can eject you from the resort. It wouldn't surprise me if they have cameras on at all times to monitor this - as well as monitor the animals.
 
I hope the little girl is OK, that is really scary. I know that when we stayed at the contemporary tower last year, I was a little panicked about the balcony and my active three year old. He never went out on the balcony unless he was in my arms (and I had a death grip on him) and we never got near the edge. I was a worried mess that he would somehow get outside while I was sleeping, even with the door locked and I ended up badgering my husband until he pulled some furniture in front of the slider as an extra deterrent. My husband thought I was crazy, but obviously kids can fall from the balconies.
 

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