General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Last year, this man specifically warned Disney about alligators after his son [View all]tblue37
(65,290 posts)there are gators in Florida, but that they assumed that an expensive Disney World resort marketed to families, complete with a serene manmade lake and a white sand beach running right up to the water's edge would be a safe place for their kids to play on the beach, especially since the resort invited families to spend the evening ON THE BEACH watching kids' moves, during gator feeding hours.
Most non-Floridians don't realize that gators can and do get into every bit of water, including backyard pools and drainage ditches, or that there is no way for Disney to actually keep them out of the manmade lakes at their resorts. For example, I knew about gators in backyard pools, and my son, who took his master's at Florida University, told me about the gators in the lake on campus, but I still had no idea that there would be gators in the manmade lake at an expensive Disney resort. (I even lived in Florida from 1958 to 1962).
By making such an inviting white sand beach running all the way to the water's edge, placing bench swings and beach chairs right near the water, and encouraging families and little kids to come to the beach at night to watch movies and play, the resort was clearly implying that it would be safe to do so. Furthermore, all the pictures I have seen of many kids playing near the water or wading near the edge suggests that the staff was not making any real effort to stop parents from letting their kids do that.
ON EDIT: This picture is from the Polynesian Resort, where an alligator came up out of the water after the kids in a British family a few weeks ago. Notice how close the beach chairs are to the water's edge. The few pics of such chairs I have seen for the Grand Floridian also have beach chairs and bench swings close to the water:
Oh, and as this map shows, the two resorts are quite close to each other, on the same lake: