Does anyone worry about a terror threat in the parks?

[pigletto]

Definitely not something I give too much thought too. It's not that I think that's outside the realm of possibility. It's that I know it is out of my control. And really all that is in my control is to continue to live/enjoy my life.
Now if you are asking me if I think it's a plausible target? I sure do. I think any attack on an iconic representation of American culture is well within the realm of possibility. That is exactly the type of message they would be going for. Carrying it out however, would be a far greater task. I'll never say never again after 9/11, but like I said, there is literally nothing I can do about it and I can't live my life expecting disaster.

 

[michsig]

I will be flying to Disney from NYC on 9/11. I haven't given too much thought to any issues flying on that day .. I'm assuming security may be a little tighter than a typical day. But as for the parks - I am not worried at all about anything happening there. Try not to worry about it!

 

[lilkimmyk]

There is no doubt in my mind that Disney has an emergency contingency plan in place for such a situation. Is it possible for an attack there, yes, but so are many other places in this country. The terrorists want to make us live in fear of when/where the next attack will be and it just stinks that such a question has to be asked these days but such is the way of the world.

I would not even give it a second thought OP. As another poster said what will be will be. When it is your time it is your time and I will enjoy every minute of mine until it is up...most especially while I am at Disney.

 

[js]

My mom told us as kids that if something were to happen, to follow the characters into the underground tunnels. I've told my kids the same thing. And then I enjoy my trip. I refuse to allow fear to ruin my trip.

Wow!
That is great advise. I am going to tell my kids, who are 20 and 16 the same thing. Thank your mom for me! I guess an of the CMs, we should follow.

Thank you again.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

No.... not at all.... it seems a bit absurd to me to be so concerned about things so out of your control. You are more likely to die in a car accident on your way home from the local grocery store... yet no one panics when they get in a car. (or, at least the majority of people dont)

Live your life and stop looking for reasons to fear the end of it.

For what it is worth, we will be in wdw on 9/11, we fly in on 9/10.

 

[sarahtar]

I tend to be a bit on the prepper side. I do think that Disney has great plans in place (though I don't know what they are, lol, I am willing to have trust that they do have plans) and I also know that there's very little they or anyone can do if someone's determined to complete a terror attack. I personally don't really travel on 9/11 just because I feel better closer to home, but that doesn't necessarily make me safer... but it does keep me closer to my emergency supplies.

I personally feel it's prudent in ANY situation to have in the back of your mind plans for what you'd do if X happened. Just having thought it through in advance puts you far ahead of everyone who hasn't thought about it. "If there was a terror attack while we were there and we wanted to get home immediately, how would we do it?" "If something happened to make travel difficult, where would we go that's far enough away to be out of the immediate vicinity, but relatively easy to get to?" "If we needed to exit the park on foot because of an emergency, but our family was not all together, where would we meet up?" "If we don't have a car available to us, and Disney transportation is bogged down with an evacuation, and airports are closed, what would we do?" I'm not saying draw up a map and rehearse your plan. But if you've thought through situations that make you anxious - a) it calms down your anxiety and b) if something WERE to happen (anything - not just a terror attack - say, a giant chemical spill, or a gas line explosion - those every day emergencies that happen more regularly than giant events), you can take action on your plan without first having to think it through.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . Logically, there's a much better chance of getting injured in the parking lot by an errant motorist.

OR
. . . an old lady in a speeding ECV
. . . a five-foot brown Chipmunk with a black nose
. . . a monorail making a right turn without signaling
. . . a Cast Member trying to get you to take a DVC tour

 

[aribelle]

September 11 never meant anything for most people (for my family it was Grandpa/Grandma's wedding anniversary.....60 years on "the" 9/11). Just another workday....a few days before payday maybe.....but not much else.

Of course, that all changed in 2001. Now, whenever you hear that date it brings up fear, images we'd all like to forget, and for those of us with family in the military a lot more significance. BUT...it does not mean that America is any more vulnerable on that day of the year than it is any other day. But it doesn't feel that way.

Your birthdate, the birthdate of your spouse and children.....whenever someone speaks that date ("We'll have our next staff meeting on July 1")......for the rest of the employees it's just the next staff meeting, but for me.....it's a birthdate.

Do NOT let a date ruin your trip. If the bad guys wanna do harm at Disney they'll do it on a date of their choosing, not one where everyone, like you, is a bit nervous and therefore "on the lookout" for anything unusual.

And yes, Disney, on their own and in conjunction with the government not only have many plans (depending on the situation), but they also have a lot of security going on (seen and unseen) to try to ensure that none of those plans are ever needed. And this security is not just in and around the parks/resorts, but also about their air space over the Disney property.

 

[W.E.D.]

To put your mind at ease, after 9/11 happened, the United States went to two places for advice on what to do to improve security. The first was Israel's Mossad and the second was Disney. You are safer in Disney than almost any other place. They have layers of protection in place that the public never sees.

This.

Disney knows the parks would make a pretty target, and plans accordingly.

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

We are always there on 9/11 and have flown out on that day too. I too am aware, but not concerned. No way to predict crazy.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Not since 2002.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

The terrorist don't really care about what the date is.

Plenty of evidence that this is absolutely false.

That said, my thinking is along the lines of these two posters:

Now if you are asking me if I think it's a plausible target? I sure do. I think any attack on an iconic representation of American culture is well within the realm of possibility. That is exactly the type of message they would be going for. Carrying it out however, would be a far greater task. I'll never say never again after 9/11, but like I said, there is literally nothing I can do about it and I can't live my life expecting disaster.

To put your mind at ease, after 9/11 happened, the United States went to two places for advice on what to do to improve security. The first was Israel's Mossad and the second was Disney. You are safer in Disney than almost any other place. They have layers of protection in place that the public never sees.

And as Robo and others have said, I'm always AWARE of my surroundings, especially living in a city that's an obvious target. But I don't walk around AFRAID or expecting the worst. I wouldn't personally hesitate to be in WDW on/around 9/11. Hope you go and have an AWESOME time!

 

[poeticdiabetic]

I did, but only at certain points. I will not discuss them in this forum, but I can imagine that there are vulnerable places. However, they are few and that's where I am the most vigilant.

 

[starsweeper]

You can't let fear keep you from living your life. Most large public places are likely more safe on 9/11 because they institute more rigorous security that day. We were married about 6 weeks after 9/11 and had planned to visit Italy for 3 weeks. Everyone tried to convince us to honeymoon somewhere in the US because they feared we could be attacked for being Americans, or there could be another plane bombed heading to America, etc. We went to Italy, kept aware of our surroundings and had a great time. There was an anti-America demonstration in Rome while we were there that we avoided, and the next day a pro-American demonstration with 3-4 times the people (not shown on US TV according to my parents who watched news closely while we were gone).

Would WDW be a target? Absolutely! So are most professional athletic stadiums, airports, national monuments, shopping malls, etc.

 

[saradela]

There is a said in spanish


Cuando te Toca, te Toca

Y Cuando no te Toca aunque te pongas

////////

In English

When is your turn , its your turn
When is not your turn, even if you put yourself in the middle


So, you cant live with fear always.........

 

[MouseClubMama]

My mom told us as kids that if something were to happen, to follow the characters into the underground tunnels. I've told my kids the same thing. And then I enjoy my trip. I refuse to allow fear to ruin my trip.

Awesome tip, I never would have thought about those tunnels.

I tend to be a bit on the prepper side. I do think that Disney has great plans in place (though I don't know what they are, lol, I am willing to have trust that they do have plans) and I also know that there's very little they or anyone can do if someone's determined to complete a terror attack. I personally don't really travel on 9/11 just because I feel better closer to home, but that doesn't necessarily make me safer... but it does keep me closer to my emergency supplies.

I personally feel it's prudent in ANY situation to have in the back of your mind plans for what you'd do if X happened. Just having thought it through in advance puts you far ahead of everyone who hasn't thought about it. "If there was a terror attack while we were there and we wanted to get home immediately, how would we do it?" "If something happened to make travel difficult, where would we go that's far enough away to be out of the immediate vicinity, but relatively easy to get to?" "If we needed to exit the park on foot because of an emergency, but our family was not all together, where would we meet up?" "If we don't have a car available to us, and Disney transportation is bogged down with an evacuation, and airports are closed, what would we do?" I'm not saying draw up a map and rehearse your plan. But if you've thought through situations that make you anxious - a) it calms down your anxiety and b) if something WERE to happen (anything - not just a terror attack - say, a giant chemical spill, or a gas line explosion - those every day emergencies that happen more regularly than giant events), you can take action on your plan without first having to think it through.

Prudent advice. A plan of action could get you and your family out of harms way. I never want to think about emergency situations when we are at Disney, and I never thought about the possibility of a major Disney transportation shut down; while such a crisis would be unlikely, it is certainly better to be prepared with an exit strategy.

Aware, yes.
Concerned, no.

Logically, there's a much better chance of getting injured in the parking lot by an errant motorist.

The best advice of all BE AWARE! You can't go through life in fear, so awareness is your best protection.

 

[JimmyV]

To put your mind at ease, after 9/11 happened, the United States went to two places for advice on what to do to improve security. The first was Israel's Mossad and the second was Disney.

Citation? This has now been reposted several times on this thread with people accepting it as fact, yet I can find no evidence of it being true. If you think that Disney has tighter and more sophisticated security than the large Las Vegas casinos, you're crazy.

As to the matter at hand, I travel a lot, both for business and pleasure, and for the most part, can control my schedule. I still will not fly on 9/11. Not because I live in fear of something happening on my flight. But because if anything were to happen to any flight anywhere in the world that day, it might cause a reaction (justified or not) that could result in my being grounded in a place where I don't want to be grounded and an airport is not where I want to wait out an increase in terror threat alert. While it is true that an event could happen on any one of the other 364 days of the year, I get the sense that if something happened on 9/11, there would be a "cancel all flights until further notice" reaction far faster and more severe than on any other day. So it is not an actual attack that I worry about so much as it is the nation's likely reaction to any little thing that might happen on that day. That said, my unwillingness (I won't call it "fear") to fly on 9/11 would not stop me from being somewhere else on that day, such as WDW. If I was there and a "hold" got put on air travel for several days, I could always take a train home, or stay a few extra days in Florida.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Citation? This has now been reposted several times on this thread with people accepting it as fact, yet I can find no evidence of it being true. If you think that Disney has tighter and more sophisticated security than the large Las Vegas casinos, you're crazy.

Just found this by Googling "us government disney advice on security" -- had never looked it up before:

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the federal government sought out Disney's advice in intelligence, security and biometrics, a tool that teaches computers to recognize and identify individuals based on their unique characteristics.

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/technology/story/1.618352

 

[Spoiledraf]

Terrorism never even crossed my mind! But for our September trip in two weeks....(please don't say the "H" word) that may make me a little paranoid!!!

 

[JimmyV]

Just found this by Googling "us government disney advice on security" -- had never looked it up before:



http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/technology/story/1.618352

First, there is nothing there that suggests that Disney was one of only two sources that the Federal Government consulted. Just saying that out loud shows how nonsensical it is. Really? The U.S. Government looked to only two sources for assistance on security issues after 9/11? No way.

Second, consulting on biometrics (finger print scanners and facial recognition) is not really the same thing as consulting on how to avoid and react to a terror attack. It certainly feeds into the overall plan. But the original post that cited to this point made it sound as if we are all safer at WDW because WDW has some great anti-terror plan in place that was better than the government's. Reading the fingerprint on your index finger is not exactly the equivalent of warding off a terror threat. It's great to know that Disney has highly sophisticated technology in place. But let's not make it sound as if their technology is unique to the point of being ahead of the NSA, CIA and FBI when it comes to overall terror profiling.