2 Year Old Dragged into Water by Gator at Disney Resort

[Anonymous]

We were just at a Disney resort adjacent to this one and I did not even think about gators. Not once. I'm no idiot, I just didn't even think about them.

We don't frequent WDW, and everything is so done-up to perfection that you can easily assume it's a safety bubble. I even let my child run along the beach at the Beach Club (not in the water, but sounds like this doesn't really matter). Never again!

This is so tragic and upsetting. Pray for that family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lake is not a naturally occurring lake, it is a man made lake. Disney made the lake in an area infested with alligators. They didn't rope off this attractive nuisance, and encouraged families to congregate on the beach by hosting a boat parade, movies, and activities. I can't believe people are blaming the parents.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were just at a Disney resort adjacent to this one and I did not even think about gators. Not once. I'm no idiot, I just didn't even think about them.

We don't frequent WDW, and everything is so done-up to perfection that you can easily assume it's a safety bubble. I even let my child run along the beach at the Beach Club (not in the water, but sounds like this doesn't really matter). Never again!

This is so tragic and upsetting. Pray for that family.

Me too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a 2-yr-old up at 9:30?

that's your response to this tragedy? are you the spawn of trump?

Poor parenting us often discussed and this is an example if a two year old up too late and parents no watching. Or dud I miss the oart where the alligator broke into their place and removed the sleeping child from a bed

What is "too late?" Not everyone has the exact same schedule. I knew a family where the Dad worked a late shift (till 8 pm) every night so the whole family adjusted it's schedule where the kids stayed up late so they could actually spend time with their Dad daily. The kids were not sleep deprived--they just slept later in the morning.

The Electrical Water Pageant goes by the hotels on the lagoon about 9:00, they said there was a movie on the beach, and fireworks are about 9:00 and you can see them from outside the hotels. There are tons of reasons a family at Disney would be outside with a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old at 9:00, especially if its the third night of their trip -- that might be the night they planned to stay up and do the nighttime stuff. This isn't people taking their 2-year-old to a casino at 11:30 pm, this is a family doing Disney stuff at Disney.

This. Except fireworks are at 10:00 pm, not 9:00. I can't believe all the parent blaming here. I'm from Orlando, and we've stayed at the Grand Floridian many times. People are on vacation and many congregate at the beach at the lagoon to watch the fireworks. There are chairs, an outdoor movie, smores, etc going on until late. Kids run around and play and wade at the shoreline. This is what you do at the resort if you are not across at the Magic Kingdom. I doubt it would occur to anyone to be vigilent for gators in that atmosphere. I would never have let my kids swm in the dark, but they have always played on that beach. This is so tragic.

Exactly!

People and kids are allover the shorlines at Disney, even at night.

One poster seems particularly bitchy and cold in her responses. She has the tone of a regular dcum anti princess kate troll. I wouldn't be surprise if many of these outrageous, blame filled idotic posts are that same person.


.even the lawyers are showing comlassion on this thread...

[Anonymous]

There are too many gators and sharks, we need to reduce their numbers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a 2-yr-old up at 9:30?

that's your response to this tragedy? are you the spawn of trump?

I guess, and no. Gators will eat what they eat. Keep kids away and they won't get eaten.

Why would anyone expect gators to be at disney? How would you know to take precautions at an amusement park or resort?

They spray for mosquitoes but don't remove gators? WTF?

Gators do have legs and swim you know. They end up in people's swimming pools in Florida - it's a freak accident - but I don't put Disney at fault unless they saw the gator earlier and didn't remove it.

[Anonymous]

Relatives that live in Florida have had a gator in their backyard pool before. Those things scare the shit out of me. One reason I vacation in California and not Florida.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is it that so many awful things keep happening in Orlando. This is too sad for words. I can't begin to imagine what the poor parents are going through right now. No one expects this to happen on Disney property.

I'd like to hold out hope, but how could such a small child survive this?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-child-dragged-alligator-disney-20160614-story.html

"Some witnesses said they saw the toddler along the beach near the water, but no eye-witnesses to him being dragged into the water by an alligator were available for comment Tuesday night."

Makes me wonder if this is more hysteria then actually what happened. I guess time will tell.

Right. Maybe the kid is actually back in the hotel and the parents and pretending for shits and giggles.

Who knows? Maybe the kid did wander off and the parents just didn't know and assumed he went into the pond.

The story reported so far seems very odd. Only the parents are reporting the saw the gator, the father apparently battled it. Now if you saw your DH battling an alligator, wouldn't you be screaming? And wouldn't screaming have attracted many onlookers since there were plenty of people out as shown by other videos.

[Anonymous]

I'm from south florida and our lakes are filled with gators. Not a big deal for children 99% of the time. It's small dogs that you have to watch out for. Everyone I know has a story of a small dog being eaten. What's worse is when the small dog was tied up or left in a fenced enclosure and they couldn't escape.

Gators can go around fences and can walk pretty far distances. I bet those man made lakes have drainage tunnels for when the water rises up too far- those tunnels make great access tunnels for gators.

As far as getting rid of them, we can only call animal control when the gator gets to be 5ft or bigger. There is nothing they can do for a smaller gator and it's illegal to kill them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don't understand why they don't have says posted everywhere warning people about gators.

On disney's private island in the Bahamas, they have multiple signs along the beach warning of all the myriad sea life in the water followed by "swim at your own risk." It's a laundry list of sea life that includes sea lice. You'd think they would do the same at disney world. It never occurred to me to worry about gators at magic kingdom or the boardwalk. Never.

After reading disboards last night---which including a million posts from people who have seen gators all over the resort---I have no desire to go back to disney. Lots of posts about gators in Hilton head and other areas as well. I think I'll stick to my local beaches and those further north from now on.

Hmmm...that won't save you. Climate change makes new habitats for creatures since it's getting warmer. Over fishing draws predators closer to our shores, e.g.,:
http://static.djlmgdigital.com/cct/capecodonline/graphics/sharks.jpg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CNN reports that the father actually got in and tried to pull the boy out of the gator's grip. Then the mother jumped in to try and find him. Looks like both parents were fairly close to the boy and attempted to save him.

The signs prohibited swimming. Without proper warning of dangerous animals in a lagoon near an expensive resort hotel, Disney is as much at fault as parents who let their 2 year old go wading at dusk.

I just hope they recover the little guy's body. If the gators swim in and out of the lagoon from natural waterways, he could be long gone by now.

They may recover part of it but a large portion of his body is being digested in the gators stomach right now.

Gators don't like the salty taste of humans. My guess is the gator (reported to be fairly small at 4-7 feet) may have severely injured him and let him go. Unfortunately, an injured 2 y/o likely cannot swim. I'm guessing he bled out and/or drowned. A large adult could probably survive having a bite taken from their leg, but a child so small is doubtful.

I so want to hold out hope. This poor child and his family. What a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is it that so many awful things keep happening in Orlando. This is too sad for words. I can't begin to imagine what the poor parents are going through right now. No one expects this to happen on Disney property.

I'd like to hold out hope, but how could such a small child survive this?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-child-dragged-alligator-disney-20160614-story.html

"Some witnesses said they saw the toddler along the beach near the water, but no eye-witnesses to him being dragged into the water by an alligator were available for comment Tuesday night."

Makes me wonder if this is more hysteria then actually what happened. I guess time will tell.

Right. Maybe the kid is actually back in the hotel and the parents and pretending for shits and giggles.

Who knows? Maybe the kid did wander off and the parents just didn't know and assumed he went into the pond.

The story reported so far seems very odd. Only the parents are reporting the saw the gator, the father apparently battled it. Now if you saw your DH battling an alligator, wouldn't you be screaming? And wouldn't screaming have attracted many onlookers since there were plenty of people out as shown by other videos.

God it is so effing annoying when people don't actually read the news stories and then make idiotic speculations like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one had a gun? We encountered one several years ago in SC. It was hissing on the porch of our rental cottage. DH shot it and killed it before it could harm anyone.

What, you take guns on vacation with you? You aren't supposed to go around shooting wildlife.

[Anonymous]

Look at the map of this place:
https://goo.gl/maps/fXZvEqDSLuN2

I would never expect a gator to snatch a kid right off the shoreline here. It looks totally secure and tranquil. This is crazy and in no way should the parents be blamed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In FL, it is reasonable to assume every body of fresh water -- excluding swimming pools -- has gators.

Maybe, but I don't know how a family from Nebraska would know that. My heart breaks for them.

Who are these people who don't know that FL has gators? I've never lived in FL and yet somehow I have been let in on the apparent secret that alligators are common there. I am certainly not jumping on the blame-the-parents bandwagon, but this whole concept that people are unaware of gators in FL is just weird.

In all seriousness, my heart breaks for this family, too. This is a tragic accident and I cannot imagine what these parents witnessed.

Do you know how many foreign tourists visit Disney? Even people from the mid-west like this family likely do not know about the dangers of gators.

I grew up in Florida, so I know that alligators are most actively hunting at night. Also, wading in shallow water is actually more dangerous than swimming because you look like a little fish or small animal splashing near the water's edge where they wait in prey.

I would not reasonably expect someone visiting from Nebraska, or especially somewhere like China, Germany, etc. to know all this.