Disney Parks Guests – Not Everyone is Created Equal

Gentle readers, you know that I do my homework. I work with a travel agent to book trips, plan out park days, FastPass+ and dining reservations MONTHS in advance. I obsesses over every detail – and most people don’t.

It occurred to me during out October 2015 trip that not all guests put the time and effort into planning that I do…let’s face it, the process is long and involved. The issue I have is with people who just show up and expect that a perfect vacation will unfold at their feet. Sunday afternoon, when purchasing beverages for the long drive home, an irate guest was cursing out the Cast Members working the check out at Roaring Fork counter service at Wilderness Lodge. Apparently the guy’s MagicBand wasn’t working and he had to go ALL THE WAY to the Front Desk of the hotel (about 50 yards away) to get it sorted out. I felt terrible for those CMs and left them with an encouraging word as I paid for my drinks sans drama. People, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again until I’m blue in the face: you cannot just arrive at Disney and assume you’ll have a wonderful time. If you don’t have the bandwidth to plan your trip, get a travel agent.

As the parent of a child who has had his fair share of runny noses, coughs and ear infections, I know what it’s like to apologize to strangers about your kid’s snot. But if you kid has a wet cough, a hacking, ongoing cough or similar situation – please consider the health of others around you! On one bus ride, a girl who sounded like she had pneumonia was sneezing and coughing all over the place without covering her face or mouth (and she was old enough to know better). During our dinner at Biergarten, a boy about 10 years old coughed so much that we almost asked to be re-seated. He was leaning over the railing above our table, coughing without covering his mouth and all while we had four little kids and plates of food in front of us. His parents ignored him completely – and guess what? I’m a parent. If Ronan had been that sick, I would have stayed in the hotel room.

Before I was a Mommy, I was judgy. Oh, so judgy. I thought parents who used those backpack/leash combos on their kids were mean…until I had a baby boy with a stubborn streak and bought one for myself. I still get bent out of shape when I see tiny babies in umbrella strollers or a child of any age inadequately out of the hot Florida sun. But if you’re NOT a parent, don’t stand in line and judge others. Case in point, honeymooning couple behind me in line to meet Gaston. They see little girls in their fancy princess dresses – which are made out of itchy material that no doubt has these tiny royals sweating their socks off. They felt the need to say, “that’s just bad parenting to have them dressed like that in this heat,” and I almost clocked the woman. Those little girls may never have another chance to be at Disney and be a princess…so let them be hot and sweaty! They’ll remember it for a lifetime.