UPDATE: According to reports by the Orlando Sentinel, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has deemed the ferry boat incident that took place around 7:00 PM on Seven Seas Lagoon an apparent suicide attempt.
The 56-year-old woman, whose name has not been disclosed by officials, boarded the ferry boat alongside people she knew. She then intentionally jumped into the lagoon before being rescued and transported to a hospital for treatment and further evaluation.
https://twitter.com/MiKiEPNyC/status/1211832289539309568?s=20
Guests aboard the ferry boat described the scene as “chaotic and traumatic” for all of those involved.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
Recent reports from the Magic Kingdom indicate that a guest has fallen from the window of a ferryboat and into Seven Seas Lagoon.
Initial reports are coming from Twitter user @ithemepark, who reported on the incident about an hour ago.
A park guest just fell from the window of the Ferry Boat into Seven Sea Lagoon. @WaltDisneyWorld
— ithemepark (@ithemepark) December 31, 2019
It seems that the guest has since been rescued. A guest named Rachel Thompson was on the ferry boat when the incident took place:
I was on the boat when this happened. She fell off the top deck and was rescued by a rescue boat. She was about 300 yards from the ferry when she was rescued.
— Rachel Thompson (@Rachthom77) December 31, 2019
The woman was apparently on the top deck of the ferry boat when she fell into the lagoon. She was rescued about 300 yards away.
According to @ithemepark, response time to rescue the guest was “terrible” due to delays:
I think so. Response time was terrible to help them.
— ithemepark (@ithemepark) December 31, 2019
As a result of the incident, ferry boat transportation service to the TTC and Magic Kingdom is temporarily unavailable and guests are being asked to take monorail and bus transportation back to the TTC. The guest’s condition is currently unknown.
https://twitter.com/Waltspark/status/1211818064964194305?s=20
We’ll continue to update this post as further reports surface.
I hope she gets the help she needs.
Was she hoping to be eaten by alligators?
We were there and trying to get to our car … it was terrible how people were herded to the buses with only 2 buses running to take people back to the tram areas ….. I was honestly shocked at how unorganized it was! There wasn’t any help but one officer trying to directly hundreds of people to the few buses. When we finally got back to the tram area where you enter there were 15 officers standing around Not doing anything But talking to each other. I honestly thought that Diisney did a terrible Job handling the entire thing and they need to train their employees better on handling crisis situations and emergency situations better. I am not a usual complainer and I worked at Chevrolet who trains their employess based on the Disney model of the Disney experiences and to be honest I was highly disappointed. We didn’t have a very good Disney experience. I couldn’t believe how the employees acted — most were rude and not accomidating at Magic Kingdom —- I haven’t Been to Disney in 15 years and I was highly disappointed —- the cluster at the end of the night was the tip of the iceburg.
I’m confused on what you expect to them to do. Do you think they should have 10 buses on stand by just waiting for an incident of this caliber to happen? A quick reaction force? just standing around all day, every day waiting for a situation like this? that doesn’t sound logical but does sound incredibly expensive. They have to divert other buses from other places. If they start taking buses from the hotels then you have all the hotel guests standing around. Either way, someone is standing around. Also when you say the officer, do you mean the police officers (Sheriff Deputy)? the Orange County Sheriff Deputies who don’t work for Disney but work for Orange County? Some times things happen that are out of Disney’s control and you just have to be patient with them. They have limited resources available for such a situation and it takes time to call people in to work to help alleviate the situation. I think you need to be a little more understanding of how the real world works and that sometimes crap happens and can’t be fixed in the matter of seconds, like you think it should. On top of all this, you lost focus of the fact that someone tried to end their life. But instead of hoping they get the help they need, you’re just concerned about it taking some extra time to get back to your car.