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Building a theme park in Florida posed an unprecedented set of challenges. Digging even just a foot into the ground would flood the hole, making foundations a difficult proposition.
However, wildlife was the most significant danger of building Walt Disney World in Central Florida. The Walt Disney Company was able to solve the problem with the water, but the wildlife problem has proved more difficult for them to solve.
Disney has placed clear warning signs on the shores of the Seven Seas Lagoon after a fatal alligator attack in 2016. Credits: Disney Fanatic and InsuranceJournal.com
In 2016, two-year-old Lane Graves was building a sandcastle on the beach of the Seven Seas Lagoon outside of the Grand Floridian Resort. The Seven Seas Lagoon separates the Magic Kingdom from the Transportation and Ticket Center. It’s also the home to three Disney Deluxe Resorts: The Grand Floridian, The Contemporary, and the Polynesian Village Resort.
According to reports from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Graves bent down near the water’s edge to collect sand. A seven-foot alligator jumped out of the water and bit his head.
Graves was dragged under the water and killed by the gator. Divers recovered his body after a 16-hour search.
Credit: Disney
Since then, Walt Disney World has taken several precautions to keep gators away from the properties near water, but that has proved nearly impossible. In almost eight years since Lane Graves died, Disney World has captured and relocated hundreds of alligators, but that mostly happens from the public’s point of view.
But this week, a Disney World guest caught a glimpse of a massive alligator swimming around the Seven Seas Lagoon. Reddit user u/sexygaypalpatine shared a photo of the gator near Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.
Guests notified a Disney World cast member who called in Disney’s lake patrol team. However, the gator was gone when the lake patrol arrived. They searched the area for a little but never found the animal.
Disney Alligator saying hi
byu/sexygaypalpatine inDisneyWorld
Generally speaking, alligators are not aggressive toward people unless they are provoked. If you happen to see one, immediately notify a cast member so the animal can be captured and relocated to another area of the state.
Under no circumstances should you approach the wild animals, no matter how good you think the photo will look on social media.
Have you ever seen a gator around the Walt Disney World Resort? Let us know in the comments.
Saw young alligator off the docks at Caribbean beach resort when we stayed in 2015 was there with the turtles all week
Never seen an alligator at Disney World, but once saw a big snake getting captured at the Grand Floridian resort. Couldn’t tell what kind it was, but it was between 4 to 6 feel long. As a rule, I never recommended to people to go near the shore at Bay Lake or the lagoon or in the water in the past because, as a Florida native, you know that the bodies of water here are risky to swim in. Not just from gators and snakes, but also from bacteria. Even when I went there as a kid in the 80s, I never wanted to swim in the lake or lagoon because I didn’t like that you couldn’t really see anything in the water. I think Disney banned swimming in the 90s or 2000’s, but still allowed wadding in the shallows. But even that stopped once that boy was killed and since then, Disney has put up lots of ropes and warning signs to tell guests to stay away from the water.
The above comment, in regard to Lane Graves, is not completely accurate. Lane was actually playing in the water, about a foot out from the shore. It was almost dark, when the outdoor movie was showing. That is when alligators feed. It was and is an unimaginable thing to happen. However, the alligator attacked when the child was actually in the water, it did not come on the land and drag him into the water.