tkldisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2000
- Messages
- 2,076
Buying Dangerous Brands
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMF Edible)
July 26, 2005
Is Disney World safe?
Over the weekend, Disney's (NYSE: DIS) flagship theme park resort in Florida was dealt another blow when a medical report detailed the case of an April fatality on the Dinosaur thrill ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The ride was cleared in the mishap; the 30-year-old passenger had an unfortunate medical history and was wearing a pacemaker. But the press picked up on the story, adding to the bad publicity Disney has garnered lately.
This is the kind of story that would normally scoot below the radar. In fact, it almost did. If it were not for the reports coming out of the Bureau of Fair Rides and Exhibitions and the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office, the media would have probably not even have known that it happened.
But it did happen. And journalists love to rubberneck when covering the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth.
Grim, grinning media comes out to scandalize
For some recent guests at Disney's Florida parks, it has been anything but that. Earlier this month, a teenaged girl suffered a stroke after riding Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and remains in critical condition. In an even more horrific accident, a four-year-old boy died in June after riding EPCOT's Mission: Space attraction. Tack on the case of a 77-year-old woman with medical complications who passed away while riding the rather tame Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Florida's Magic Kingdom back in February, and Disney seems downright dangerous.
Is Disney too daring for your next family vacation? Of course not. I've been to the Florida parks more than a hundred times since the 1970s. Beyond once gashing a thumbnail when I was 10 while going down a slide at the now-defunct River Country water park, I can't say that I'm any worse for the wear.
That certainly isn't meant to belittle the fatalities or the families who have suffered. It's terrible. It's incomprehensible. There's no doubt about that. However, two of the three deaths were apparently the result of bad timing as the guests came packing plenty of medical history baggage.
According to Amusement Business, Disney's four Florida parks combined for 40.7 million guests in attendance last year. The law of averages states that a few folks will pass away while on vacation. I've been on cruise ships where guests bid bon voyage and it never makes the printed page. Disney, on any given day, is probably a much safer place to be than, say, driving or walking around. The problem is that the press couldn't care less about the guests who expire while dozing in their guest rooms or on their way to catch a plane to Orlando. It just doesn't make the headlines sing the way an on-ride casualty does.
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMF Edible)
July 26, 2005
Is Disney World safe?
Over the weekend, Disney's (NYSE: DIS) flagship theme park resort in Florida was dealt another blow when a medical report detailed the case of an April fatality on the Dinosaur thrill ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The ride was cleared in the mishap; the 30-year-old passenger had an unfortunate medical history and was wearing a pacemaker. But the press picked up on the story, adding to the bad publicity Disney has garnered lately.
This is the kind of story that would normally scoot below the radar. In fact, it almost did. If it were not for the reports coming out of the Bureau of Fair Rides and Exhibitions and the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office, the media would have probably not even have known that it happened.
But it did happen. And journalists love to rubberneck when covering the self-proclaimed Happiest Place on Earth.
Grim, grinning media comes out to scandalize
For some recent guests at Disney's Florida parks, it has been anything but that. Earlier this month, a teenaged girl suffered a stroke after riding Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and remains in critical condition. In an even more horrific accident, a four-year-old boy died in June after riding EPCOT's Mission: Space attraction. Tack on the case of a 77-year-old woman with medical complications who passed away while riding the rather tame Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Florida's Magic Kingdom back in February, and Disney seems downright dangerous.
Is Disney too daring for your next family vacation? Of course not. I've been to the Florida parks more than a hundred times since the 1970s. Beyond once gashing a thumbnail when I was 10 while going down a slide at the now-defunct River Country water park, I can't say that I'm any worse for the wear.
That certainly isn't meant to belittle the fatalities or the families who have suffered. It's terrible. It's incomprehensible. There's no doubt about that. However, two of the three deaths were apparently the result of bad timing as the guests came packing plenty of medical history baggage.
According to Amusement Business, Disney's four Florida parks combined for 40.7 million guests in attendance last year. The law of averages states that a few folks will pass away while on vacation. I've been on cruise ships where guests bid bon voyage and it never makes the printed page. Disney, on any given day, is probably a much safer place to be than, say, driving or walking around. The problem is that the press couldn't care less about the guests who expire while dozing in their guest rooms or on their way to catch a plane to Orlando. It just doesn't make the headlines sing the way an on-ride casualty does.
