In the wake of a fatal alligator attack on a 2-year-old boy at one of its hotels, Walt Disney World has decided to remove all alligator references from its Orlando theme park.
As the Seven Seas Lagoon resort reopened its beaches less than two weeks after the attack, it put up new warning signs and fences to alert visitors to the possible presence of alligators in the area’s waterways. However, according to InsideTheMagic those weren’t the only changes.
Disney has removed all alligator characters from its theme park. Characters like Peter Pan’s Tick-Tock Croc will no longer be appearing inside the park and the Tick Tock Croc float, a regular feature in the Magic Kingdom’s Festival of Fantasy parade, has also been discontinued. According to the Daily Mail rides like Jungle Cruise and Kilimanjaro Safari will no longer be mentioning alligators to visitors.
Walt Disney World has also removed jokes from staff’s scripts on the Jungle Cruise like, ‘watch your children, or the crocodiles will,’ and claiming that the rickety bridge may dump them into the crocodile pit below.
One exception: Inside Epcot’s Living with the Land attraction, both fake and real alligators remain. Critics have argued that merely removing the people dressed up in in alligator suits and all mentions of alligators doesn’t eliminate the issue of the real alligators living in Epcot. Others say Disney is overreacting and is setting a bad precedent because it is ditching gators that are part of the company’s cartoons.