Tom Sawyer's Island closed!!

[dwfanatic]

Just read on official site while browsing for August's hours (which aren't out) that Tom Sawyer's Island will be closed from July 25 to September 25- I like going over there and letting my kids explore...I'm bummed!!! Oh well, we will still have fun on vacation- we'll be in DISNEYWORLD!!

 

[SeattleMark]

Oh man! That was going to be one of our rest spots on our August trip too!

 

[jwill]

TSI is always a nice retreat from the masses of people. I'm sorry that it will be closed for your visit. I guess it's just a luck of the draw sometimes

 

[Schmeck]

Oh, how am I going to tell my DD13 that her favorite place in all of WDW is going to be closed while we're there? For some reason she just loves this place, maybe because she's allowed to go explore it a bit by herself. And she loves anything to do with caves as well. Bummer, she's going to be disappointed, believe it or not!

 

[Chase121698]

HI,

Could someone please explain what the Island is? We are leaving for disney on June 5th!

 

[tcfdick]

It's an island that is based on the book Tom Sawyer. There are caves to explore, barrel bridges to walk over, a 2 story fort to explore with pretend guns and cannons, plus trails and buildings to explore. There's also a counter restaurant that serves snacks like ice cream and drinks. My DS loves to come here and run off steam. He goes through the caves and into the fort. It's one of his favorite places at the MK.

 

[Hippychickali]

If Tom Sawyer's Island is going to be temporarily closed, that must mean that they are doing renovations. Does anyone have any idea what they are doing specifically?

Ali

 

[Cinderella37]

It may just be its yearly rehab.

 

[sbatty]

Hopefully it doesn't take two months to do it's yearly maintenance.

 

[Hippychickali]

Has anyone heard any recent news about the rennovations at Tom Sawyer's Island?

Ali

 

[Mandalou]

I know I'm just a Mid-westerner. . . not used to dealing with gators face-to-face. . . but our last visit to MK has changed my mind about EVER stepping foot on Tom Sawyer Island again. I was there was with my family, having a great day, taking a nice stroll on the wooden walk that borders the "lake" adjacent to Tom Sawyer's Island, when we saw a bunch of people pointing into the water. Of course, we had to see what was going on and we took a peak. Our oldest DS (age 6 at the time) said, "Look! They even have a robot gator in the water!" Wow, we thought. . . until we took a closer look and realized that was a REAL 6 FOOT LONG GATOR! I quickly found a CM and told him about it. He said "Oh, we get them all the time. They usually don't bother people." WHAT?! I couldn't believe that! Then, my DH and I realized that this gator would have EASY access to Tom Sawyer Island -- the whole island just has a smooth shoreline, very easy for a gator to get on. I wouldn't want my two DS's to have to meet a gator on the island! At the time, we also had a friend who was a CM and he said that gators get on the property all of the time. Again, as a simple Mid-westerner, that kinda freaked me out, but he said, too, that they "tend not to bother people and Disney is aware of their presence and tries not to disturb them too much." Anyway, in my opinion, Tom Sawyer Island seemed like a very vulnerable spot and I don't have any desire to have a gator-meet-n-greet on the island anytime soon.

 

[Hippychickali]

Maybe they have closed it to put up gator fences. lol

Ali

 

[skoolpsyk]

Originally posted by Hippychickali
Tom Sawyer Island seemed like a very vulnerable spot and I don't have any desire to have a gator-meet-n-greet on the island anytime soon.

Ali

That's nothing; here in so cal at Disnayland, we have a mountain that is vulnerable to meet-n-greets with an abominable snowman!

 

[Cinderella37]

Originally posted by skoolpsyk
That's nothing; here in so cal at Disnayland, we have a mountain that is vulnerable to meet-n-greets with an abominable snowman!

I'm laughing hysterically!

My fiance has seen tons of gators on golf courses in Florida, both in WDW and West Palm. With gators that are accustomed to living near and around people, the key is not to bother them and they won't bother you. If it was cause for alarm, WDW would definitely do something about it due to the threat of a lawsuit. The shore at Tom Sawyer's Island may even have some sort of suface that would make it impossible for a gator to climb ashore.

 

[Mandalou]

I guess I think it's dangerous to assume that "Disney will take care of it." Yes, it's in their best interest to do something, but gators are WILD animals with really big teeth. I just think that if a little kid met a gator on TSI and would think, like my DS, that it was a robot and wanted to play with it. . . well, the gator may not feel like playing much. Guess who wins that battle???

 

[Schmeck]

I've always thought that the edges of the island are pretty steep. My DD13 is a daredevil, with no common sense, it seems, and every time we go out to the island, I have visions of her falling off the island, into that mucky water. She'd be dumb enough to go to the edge and 'accidently' slide in... I'll be sure to remind her that there are gators in there. I've always just threatened her with us getting kicked off of WDW property, and banned from ever returning if she did something stupid there.

 

[Cinderella37]

I'm sure that Disney already has measures in place to PREVENT this from happening. In this recovering tourism market, the last thing they would want would be a headline detailing an alligator attack in one of their parks. With the millions of visitors that have been on Tom Sawyer's Island over the past 33 years (or however long TSI has been open), if WDW didn't take precautions, we surely would have heard about it by now. Alligators in Florida didn't just start happening.

 

[bubba's mom]

i wish they wouldn't rehab so many popular things at peak times to visit WDW...IASM is also going to be closed and Donald' Boat at TTF for a while too.....

 

[Jen D]

Bummer. We were prepared for "Small World" but just found out about this. We've never been to Tom Sawyer Island, really wanted to try it.

Isn't this announcement kind of sudden?

 

[bubba's mom]

i knew for a couple of months IASM would be down, found out a couple of weeks ago about TSI.....just checked disney's site last night to get update on rehabs.....that's when i found out about donald's boat! uuuggghhhhh.......