Ah yes, Disey World. It has pretty much ruined Orlando IMO. I've been dragged there a few times.
One time we'd just ridden some "ride" and we're going up an escalator when suddenly some 8 year old boy started screaming. Somehow a pin of some sort had come out of the escalator and had stuck deep into his knee. He was with his grandmother, who couldn't pick him up so my wife did as she was very close to him. She began carrying him upstairs as I went ahead to find a Disney employee. The employee I found was some warbley-voiced kid who was clueless as to what to do and I told him to get an ambulance or "some kind of help." We left the boy and granny there and moved on.
I know another lady whose child was kidnapped at Disney. He was around 5 yo as I recall and was actually tethered to the mom with one of those springy child leashes. She looks down and the leash was cut and the kid was gone. She immediately went to security (wherever that is?) and the head cop, who was previously employed in NYC brought her to the exit of the park.
The security guy said for her to look at all children's shoes as they are leaving the park. Sure enough she spots her kid's shoes and the kidnapper had already changed the kid's clothes and DIED his hair! She was one of the lucky ones.
Of course this stuff rarely if ever gets any press because its just bad for business. And since Disney practically owns this town, well, you can connect the dots...
People who can't tell the difference between a child and an animal irk me.
SD
As someone who was born in Central Florida, went to high school in Central Florida, lived 37 years in the Orlando area, several pre-dating Disney World -- and as someone whos livelihood has never depended on Disney or any post-Disney firm or company, I say Pbtbtbtbtbtbtbtbt!
It seems chic in some circles to blame WDW for all of Orlando's ills and to allude to some sort of Disney Mafia that holds the town captive. Hogwash! I remember, as a child, the lovely drives from Winter Haven to Sanford -- when all you saw for most of the way was citrus trees and cow pastures. It was beautiful. I'm nostalgic for those days. But if WDW had not come to Central Florida, it would have stayed pristine only a few years longer. Don't kid yourself -- those groves and pastures would be lost eventually, anyway, and perhaps for even less attractive things, like strip malls or mobile home parks.
Walt Disney World didn't make Orlando or ruin Orlando. It certainly has been a significant player in the direction Orlando has taken in the state and even the world. Some of the effects have been negative, most have been positive. And I think, for all it's weaknesses, it is a fun and magical place. (Just not in July or August!)
"I know another lady whose child was kidnapped at Disney. He was around 5 yo as I recall and was actually tethered to the mom with one of those springy child leashes. She looks down and the leash was cut and the kid was gone.
(snip)
The security guy said for her to look at all children's shoes as they are leaving the park. Sure enough she spots her kid's shoes and the kidnapper had already changed the kid's clothes and DIED his hair! She was one of the lucky ones. "
This happened to that person's child? Really? Because what you've just described is a fairly well-known urban legend. (Although the last time that I heard it, it was at Wal-Mart, not Disney, but the mom still identified him by the shoes.) It showed up in "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" and there was a Law and Order episode with that plot as well. I think that if you talk to that person again, you'll find that it didn't really happen to them, but to "someone they know."
Last time I was there I studiously AVOIDED anything Mouse-esque. I am from Los Angeles and we have the original here anyway (and I saw the whole shebang 13 years ago anyway).
What the mouse could NOT produce was the night launch of Shuttle Endeavor. One of the coolest things I ever saw (on the main highway about 3 miles from Coco beach).
Also I swam with the Manatees.
Orlando can be cool if you eschew all things Disney.