Disney gator attack: 2-year-old found dead, source says

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30. It may come down to what Disney knew and when they knew it. We live an hour from Disney and know

it pretty well. I've been on that beach. I'm some areas, they have signs about the wildlife. I recall very well the no swimming sign at the Grand Floridan beach because the beach itself is clean and raked and has lawn chairs and it very inviting. So it kind of clicked that look at the great beach, but that we couldn't swim there. It isn't a big deal because at the edge of te beach was a sidewalk and just on the other side of the sidewalk is the Grand Floridan main pool with the waterfall & water slide - where they let you wear goggles unlike so many other places.

Along with the Polynesian and Contemporary, The Grand Floridan Resort is on the Seven Seas Lagoon, which is man made. It was formed by removing the dirt which became the foundation/1st floor of the Magic Kingdom-where main street is really the 2nd floor but Disney Artists & Engineers (Imagineers) make it seem like the ground level. It makes sense because if the MK was really at ground level, you couldn't have a basement and tunnels because of the water level.

The water for the Seven Seas Lagoon comes from Bay Lake via a man-made canal. The remains of River Country, WDW's 1st water park are still on Bay lake between the Wilderness Lodge and the Fort Wilderness campground. We went to River Country in the early 90s on out 1st anniversary.

Disney rents boats on Bay lake and Seven Seas Lagoon and some are small two-seaters. They have para-sailing on Bay Lake. So even though we are "locals" and understand about gators in Florida fresh water (they don't like brackish or salt water), we pretty much thought Disney had isolated those lakes from gators.

So I can see very easily that unless posted conspicuously, non-local guests would not infer danger on the Grand Floridan beach. It's clean, inviting and it's Disney, where anything scary is just special effects.

With today's news that they got 5 gators from the lagoon, it's exceptionally hard to believe WDW didn't know. They really know everything and you can't go anywhere on property without surveillance that turns NSA green with envy. Low light and IR cameras, short-range and long range RF trackers on the "Magic" wrist bands that act as your room key, credit card and park ticket - they even know how long guests stay at a particular store display. And it they knew about the alligators and didn't warn - or didn't warn sufficiently for the reasonable out of state guest, then they could have prevented this tragedy.

WDW is really great about setting up tape and rope lines at parade time where the danger is minimal. I really don't know why, but if they didn't set up an adequate warnings or a barrier on the beach because of something superficial - like optics - than they failed to put the safety of their most vulnerable guests then this is inexcusable. And I say this as someone who has been going there for decades. I've dreamed of retiring and driving the parking lot tram (which is air-conditioned for the driver) or giving the backstage tours where the st members recite all 45 years of Disney secrets and trivia. Yes there have been deaths before - a cast member killed during a monorail photo-shoot, a guest drowned swimming to Tom Sawyers island after the park was closed, a guest killed in traffic accident with a park bus. But this is horrific on a different order of magnitude. We've been to WDW with toddlers and this story has broken out hearts and spirits.