Walt Disney World Cast Members do it all. They are always there to help you out and try their best to give every guest a magical experience. We’ve seen recent Cast Members protecting guests from snakes and they do a lot to reduce the mosquito problem at Disney World, but it turns out that Cast Members have been fighting more dangerous wildlife for a long time.
An old video has been put on TikTok that shows a Magic Kingdom Cast Member dealing with an alligator in part of Splash Mountain, while guests ride by in logs nearby. It’s sort of a wild thing to see and realize this was all happening where guests could see. Exactly when this all happened is unclear, though some in the comments peg the video as taking place in the early 2000s based on what the Cast Member is wearing. Check it out.
@mainstreetmagic1971 ♬ Oh No - Kreepa
It can be easy to forget when you’re walking or driving around Walt Disney World that the place that is a model of urban planning is built on thousands of acres of Florida swamp. While the development of the land certainly mitigates some of the wildlife, there’s not a lot that can be done about all the animals. As with the snakes that end up all over Disney World, at a certain point all you can do is deal with the animals when you find them.
And of the various forms of wildlife alligators are certainly some of the most important because they are the most dangerous. Several years ago a small boy was killed by an alligator in the Seven Seas Lagoon. Since then Walt Disney World has amplified efforts to trap and remove alligators that find their way onto the property. You’ll also find signs warning of the possibility of alligators near basically every body of water on the property, though I’m not sure you’ll see one at Splash Mountain.
I’m sure there are a variety of measures in place designed to keep alligators out of Splash Mountain. Even if those measures did not exist prior to this video, they likely did after. Of course, Splash Mountain is about to undergo a major redesign, so if they want to add additional safety measures, that would be the time. While we expect there will be at least one gator in Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the new version of Splash Mountain, he plays the trumpet. Louie the jazz loving gator will be an animatronic or visible on a screen. The live ones will not be part of the story.
So thanks go to all Cast Members who keep the native Florida wildlife from making our Walt Disney World trips more dangerous than a roller coaster.
