Amazing Security Experience at Disney
 

I took my family to Wilderness Lodge at Disney World this past week and one night we were waiting out in the lobby for seats at dinner.

We were sitting on this big comfy couch and there was a European woman on a couch across from us, starting to nod off.

All of a sudden, a security guard appears and he walks up to her, pulls out a ticket book and starts to write. She starts to perk up and panic a little. The guard takes his ticket and hands it too her and she starts to laugh.

I don't know what the ticket said, but I have to hand it to Disney. We all need a good laugh about security now and then. This woman, no doubt, had to go through an airport to get there, and suffer the indignities of the TSA and immigration, and here was Disney, creatively dismantling that tension with humor.. telling her she's in a different place now, where she'll be treated politely.

Thumbs up for the mouse. ^

Is it prohibitted to nod off in Disney?

Only if it's a Heroin nod:D

Not Allowed at WDW
 

A guest at the Most Exciting Place on Earth was bored enough to fall asleep?

Some Imagineer's going to get fired for sure over this one.:D

How is giving someone a ticket, "dismantling that tension"? Sure, she may have had a laugh in the end -- but first she was scared that she had done something wrong.

It might not have been a ticket. In "The Year of a Million Dreams -- anything can happen" at Disney, employees are empowered to give certain things to guests to make them feel special. Perhaps he gave her a coupon for a free cup of coffee, or some other freebie that made her laugh.

So if I complain about back pains, would they give me a bigger bed? :D

Actually, I could see that happening, just giving her a coupon for coffee. Makes her afterwords feel that they really care about the individual

OTOH WDW does have a reputation for having fairly draconian security... For example, they now take and store a fingerprint scan of everyone who enters the park. And before that there was other stuff.

Only, it's not your thumbprint. It's your index and middle finger. I don't know how relevant that is when most people only have their thumbprints on file (e.g., with the DMV)... or if you're ever charged with a crime, then I guess you have all your prints on file.

The machine is not reading your prints, it's reading something more akin to the structure of your fingers (or so I have heard). ;)

The ticket thing is actually something Disney security guards have been doing for some time. I have been given a "ticket" for "having too much fun" while having a good belly laugh with family while sitting on a bench in one of the parks.

The woman probably got some similar kind of "ticket"--it looks like a ticket, but it's actually a small joke of some kind to make you smile. :)

Disney is not taking your fingerprints when you enter the park -- instead, they are taking biometric information (like the measurements of your fingers) to help prevent people from sharing/selling Park Hoppers. I definitely felt being scanned put a damper on my Magical Experience this last May when I was there and wasn't thrilled with them taking the information anyway, but I guess its at least a bit reassuring that they are taking measurements instead of fingerprints.

A little know fact is that you can refuse to have your finerprints scanned at Disney and still be admitted to the Parks!

As of this past September, the Mouse now fully scans your fingerprint.

See Link: http://www.local6.com/news/9774630/detail.html

Screw that
 

Again, what if you tell them to go to hell? Will they still take your
money and allow you to enter the most fascist, er, I mean the "happiest
place on Earth?"

You can refuse the fingerprint scan and show an ID instead. The purpose of the ID check (or fingerprint check) is revenue protection. They don't want people reselling leftover days on multi-day tickets. Once you see how they price multi-day tickets and realize the marginal price of an additional day is practically nothing, it makes sense.