Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<but Spirit made it sound like Orlando had a monopoly on crime. >> Not at all. But O-Town has lots of crime, including violent crime and often against tourists ... sometimes even on WDW property. Lots of folks kind of think O-Town is this magical realm and it hasn't been for a very long time.
Originally Posted By CaptainMichael ^outside of the gates of WDW and UOR, Orlando is a sad, ugly, scary place for the most part.
Originally Posted By Manfried And think of it. Many of those who are making Orlando a sad, ugly, scary place are probably those very same happy, smiling Walt Disney World cast members.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance Orlando crime info "About Orlando crime rates With a crime rate of 113 per one thousand residents, Orlando has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 9. Within Florida, more than 90% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Orlando. Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a city's crime rate with those of similarly sized communities - a fair comparison as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 185,984, Orlando has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Orlando does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Orlando. The crime data that NeighborhoodScout used for this analysis are the seven offenses from the uniform crime reports, collected by the FBI from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies, and include both violent and property crimes, combined. Now let us turn to take a look at how Orlando does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Orlando. For Orlando, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included forcible rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Orlando is one in 52. Significantly, based on the number of murders reported by the FBI and the number of residents living in the city, NeighborhoodScout's analysis shows that Orlando experiences one of the higher murder rates in the nation when compared with cities and towns for all sizes of population, from the largest to the smallest. In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Orlando is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Orlando, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 11, which is a rate of 94 per one thousand population. "
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo >>>Absolutely true, but Spirit made it sound like Orlando had a monopoly on crime.<<< Difference is, you are unlikely to get an gun related problems in Paris, the odds in Orlando are much higher. No poisoness snakes, gators, flying cockroaches, or hurricanes either (though some Americans talk about smoke like it is far worse - i'd rather take my chances with second hand smoke thanks, which is much less of a problem thanks to the legal changes).
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo To be fair though, Paris does have an issue with pick pockets, graffiti and littering (then again most Disney resorts have suffered a little from that too).
Originally Posted By avimagine ^^ But at least Disneyland in Paris has the friendliest CM's and doesn't have bi-lingual safety spiels
Originally Posted By tashajilek Oh man, i think it's a little silly comparing what Disney resort is safer so therefore better.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***But, hey, do you know that you can now buy a WDW tee with a turkey leg on it? (Seriously!)*** <---wants one! ***Am I to believe there is no crime or poverty in Paris?*** About as bad as Orlando, I'd guess, but with lots more cool and authentic stuff to see than Gatorland, if you care about non-Disney Stuff. BUT, if you ARE looking for a crime free environment for your Disney experience, look no further than the Tokyo Disney Resort! Authentically crime-free since 1982. As for poverty, well, yes Japan has some poverty stricken people. Every country does.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>DL doesn't get anywhere near the foreign park guests WDW gets. WDW's guests basically fall into 4 categories. 1) Florida residents 2) Consumers within driving range ( ie Atlanta). 3) Consumers in the USA dependent on flying to WDW. 4) Consumers from foreign countries. << I hate it when individuals are relabelled "Consumers". It' corporatist speak and I abhor it.
Originally Posted By fkurucz "Paris is the city of love, HELLO!?" My understanding is that it was the "City of Light" From wikipedia: "Paris has many nicknames, but its most famous is "La Ville-Lumière" ("The City of Light" or "The Illuminated City"), a name it owes first to its fame as a centre of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment, and later to its early adoption of street lighting."
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I dunno. I saw more couples making out in public in Paris than in any city I've ever been to.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I really don't think comparing the offerings in Orlando, Florida to the offerings in the "entire" state of California is an accurate comparision. Furthermore, DLP is not in Paris, France it's in Marne-la-Valee 20 miles outside of Paris. OK, ok.... so Walt Disney World isn't in Orlando. WDW is massive, the size of San Francisco or twice the size of Manhattan. When your talking about the entire property of WDW and what's on the property, no other Disney park comes close by a long shot. WDW simply has larger and more resorts, more restaurants, more boats, more buses, more parks ( and larger parks. The people on this board have already said they could never build DAK in California), more track of monorails than all the other Disney parks combined. The only arguement the "fans" of the other parks could possibly win is about quality. But, like it or not EPCOT and DAK will never be built in California. And there simply is more to do at WDW than any other park on earth.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***When your talking about the entire property of WDW and what's on the property, no other Disney park comes close by a long shot*** In terms of sheer scope and yes, "things to do", I've made this argument myself. However, the argument of quality over quantity is a strong one. ***WDW simply has larger and more resorts*** And a whole lot of cheap rooms. Yes, there are lots of hotels. But when it comes to GREAT, high quality hotels (and a distinct LACK of motels, as well!) you are better off at virtually ANY resort besides Orlando (can't speak for Paris, never been there, so for this post consider that any comment of mine regarding "any other" Disney resorts pertains to Anaheim, Tokyo and Hong Kong). ***more restaurants*** Again, quality trumps quantity bigtime here. DisneyWorld has a handful of very nice restaurants, coupled with a plethora of not-so-great feed stations. Compared to all other Disney resorts, Orlando (despite the quality and large size) comes up short. And I'm not even sure you're argument of "more restaurants" is entirely accurate. TDR has the Ikspiari complex, which I believe contains upwards of 30 restaurants or so, MANY of them extremely high quality establishments including an incredible variety of differing world cuisines. And that's not even counting the parks and hotels. DisneyWorld might have somewhat more (never done an official count), but as far as variety and quality Tokyo knocks Orlando to the mat in a big way (for the sake of not bothering with an argument with the Spirit, I'll say as a caveat that TDL is not necessarily representative of the best cuisine TDR has to offer). ***more boats*** That's true, and I like the boats. You get a point. ***more buses*** This is a selling point for you? ***more parks ( and larger parks. The people on this board have already said they could never build DAK in California)*** Given the fact that most internet polls and fan sites agree that the greatest theme park in the world is the tiny Disneyland in little ol' Anaheim, I'm not sure why you think that "larger" is of any importance as far as the actual theme parks are concerned. Tokyo DisneySea is fantastic, but also relatively small. Sure Epcot is big, and great, but if it were considerably smaller I'd say it would still be awesome. Animal Kingdom is large, sure, but that goes with the territory (Bush Gardens in Tampa contains a lot of acres too, does it not?). ***more track of monorails than all the other Disney parks combined*** And yet not nearly enough. The fact that the monorail doesn't even manage to service all four of the parks with a hub somewhere (or two, given the distances involved, maybe TTC with a second one at or near MGM) is pretty sad. Enter the bus brigade, oh magical joy! Sure, there's more track (pretty sure that argument wouldn't hold up as well if not for the redundant double loop though), but the fact is the monorail services the resorts in Anaheim and Tokyo quite nicely. A bus is strictly optional. Add to that the fact that Tokyo has far and away the most modern, comfortable and efficient of all the Disney monorails, and you've got yourself another failed argument. Sorry.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 2) Consumers within driving range ( ie Atlanta). 3) Consumers in the USA dependent on flying to WDW. ---------------- will have to find the info- but seem to remember that the highest volumes of drivers come from Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York. anyone else know ? WE make the 1200 mile trek every year and we see many othjer flying their Mickey colors' on the way down, run into them in hotels on the way..'caravan' with others we don't know but between signs reading they are heading there - to the obvious mini van with kids in the back wearing Mickey ears- these vehicles are plenty and easy to spot. Altanta is a nice 6+ hour jaunt I agree- bu many drive from much further
