Our trip is next week - staying at Fort Wilderness - and this week I was talking to DW about our plans.
“One night we’ll be able to see the fireworks and the Electrical Water Pageant from the beach at Fort Wilderness,” I said excitedly.
“No.”
She persisted. No way we are taking our family out on to one of those beaches at night.
Why?
Alligators.
Of course, she cited the horrific story we’re all aware of of the 2 year old boy taken from the beach connecting the Poly and the Grand Flo. Of course I came back with “one time incident” and “fences along the beach” etc. etc.
Curious your thoughts.
Do you frequent the beaches… at night? If so, how have you reassured a worried spouse… especially after what happened a few years ago?
I have not seen a beach area in Disney over the last few years without a man-made barrier. I read the final report on that tragedy for very personal reasons and I would go down to the beach area these days
Perhaps a light-hearted approach may help: When I was seven nearly 25 years ago, my family camped at Fort wilderness in a pop up camper. During breakfast, we were disturbed by a rustling in the bushes. My dad quickly told my sister Mom and I to get in the camper because it must be an alligator. He proceeded to climb on top of the picnic table - spatula in hand - I guess to battle the alleged gator. A few tense moments later a sweet little armadillo waddled into camp.
You also don’t have to actually stand that close to the water to see the water pageant.
DH absolutely refuses to let DD go anywhere near any body of water which is not a swimming pool in WDW. To be fair he was like that even before the incident with the 2 year old. I personally think he’s being overcautious, but I respect his feelings and tell DD to listen to him anyway.
In the many years we have been going to WDW I have NEVER seen a gator. It is even hard too see one in Florida unless you are at a gator farm or the everglades. Not that they are not around but they are under heavy control. Things happen and you can’t prevent every occurrence but it is rare to see one and at Disney World they are heavily controlled and eliminated from the area. Believe me, after the event you can bet Disney is even more observant.
I’ve never seen one on Disney property, but we usually stay off site in a villa and we’ve never not seen them hanging around by lakes, crawling around. Pretty close at times - there were 2 right outside our bedroom window on one trip - but we’re not dumb enough to wander over to them or go into the water so we’ve never felt unsafe.
I’ve never seen one on property either, but DH saw one whilst playing golf on one of Disney’s courses a few years back. Let’s just say they got in the buggy and moved on to the next hole…
I’ve seen one by the road from AK back towards the main MK area, near a storm ditch.
I’ve also seen them in Bay Lake, from our balcony at BLT. It was one of the rooms on the north end, which have a lake view but also Space Mountain. Just in at the water’s edge one morning.
I saw a gator while standing on the bridge in Frontierland. It was in the water surrounding Tom Sawyer Island. This was probably between 10 and 15 years ago. We stood there and watched it, but it was just sunning itself.
I think it is reasonable to be mindful that you are in a region where alligators are pretty common. That said, I’ve never seen one in all my visits to WDW. And I for sure would not avoid beaches at or after dark.
I live in FL. Yes, there are gators on the WDW property. I saw one once in one of the ponds that you pass walking from SOG to the Poly. Gators will not come into a crowd of humans; in fact for the most they’ll try to avoid humans. Almost every story you read is about a lone human walking right by - or in - the water. Would I wade through a swamp by myself? No. Would I stand on a protected beach, 20 or 30 feet from the waters edge with dozens of other people? Yes, without thinking twice about it.
The only gator we’ve seen in WDW was on the ‘caring for giants’ elephant tour when we took the bus, “back stage”. It was on the way to the animal barns and we saw one hanging out in the little ditch next to the road. Kinda cool.
I grew up in southwest fl. My family would go fishing and crabbing in the lakes. A gator once chased me to my mom’s car. I think I was like 10. I climbed on top of the car to get away. It never fully came out of the water but was headed for me!
