by Brittany DiCologero
The Walt Disney Company announced a new security set up for some areas of the Walt Disney World Resort this morning.
Within the past two years, the security set up outside of the parks has changed in that guests may be randomly selected to walk through a metal detector. As we’ve seen through the media and fan discussions, this was a controversial change as guests exhibited a large spectrum of reactions from content that the company was looking out for their safety to annoyed that the new set up took away from the “magic” and theming of the park entrance areas, and everything in between.
While the majority of guests were understanding of the difficult balance Disney attempted between service and safety when introducing new security tactics, others were critical of the random selection process, especially when other parks began screening all guests. Disneyland Paris screens guests entering and exiting resorts, and Universal Orlando had previously begun screening all guests before they enter the park as well. Disneyland additionally had extended the security checkpoint area to include guests visiting Downtown Disney.
The recent change at the Walt Disney World Resort will impact guests visiting the Magic Kingdom who are coming via ferry or monorail from the Transportation and Ticket Center and from the walkway by the Contemporary Resort. Guests will now go through a security checkpoint, with a metal detector at the Transportation and Ticket Center and well ahead of the park entrance near the walkway to the Contemporary.
This new set up should increase both safety and efficiency as every guest will now be screened and there should be less of a backup in crowds with the dispersion of guests across different checkpoints. The updates will also bring changes for guests staying at monorail resorts, as they will now pass through a security checkpoint before boarding the monorail from their resort.
Though Epcot’s security changes have not been specifically discussed as of yet, our best guess is that guests who are coming off the monorail into Epcot will be ushered through a separate line to get into the park. While I guess it doesn’t hurt to double check, it seems unlikely to us that guests will go through security both before boarding the monorail and before entering the park.
Our thoughts, along with most fans, are that this is a step in the right direction. It is unfortunate that we live in a world where these kinds of check points are necessary, but in any public space that holds large crowds of people it isn’t surprising that security measures are being increased. The set up of some of the parks, especially the Magic Kingdom, is not built to handle the kinds of crowds that would be going through security there in 2017 so spreading the crowds out by having security check points in various locations should remedy this.
The random selections were also rather odd, and if we want to discuss how security takes away from the “magic” which at least initially some guests had a problem with, I think that having all guests be screened will help. Having one or two family members be pulled aside because they were “randomly” selected seems less magical to me than everyone just being in a sort of routine of going through metal detectors together.
It has not been confirmed at this point if security will extend to all of the resort areas (like it has in Disneyland Paris). What are your thoughts on Disney’s security changes? Do you think spreading out the checkpoints will help be more efficient when entering the parks? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page!
