Seeing the magic of a Disney park through the eyes of children
is something to behold. Seeing their faces when Cinderella Castle unfolds
before them or their smiles after their first taste of a Mickey bar on Main
Street makes any trip to Disney worth it. But what about the kid-free folks who
are there for roller coasters and boozy Dole Whips? Should they be banned
because some think the House of Mouse is for the kids only?
In a swear-filled post that has gone viral on Twitter, one mom rants
and raves about how young, childless millennials are ruining the parks for the
kid crowd. Sweary mom laments how millennials waste their
money, make lines for the concessions too long and judge moms with young kids
in the park. She calls on those without children to be banned from the park, with some not-so-savory-words:
Though the post is clearly unnecessarily hostile and
unhinged (her hatred for childless women is bizarre and unjust and there's clearly other things going on here), it does raise an interesting question: Should children be given priority
at lines in Disney Parks?
The parks can be insanely crowded, especially during
holidays and school vacations. For popular and new rides, a three-hour wait is
not unheard of. There are FastPasses, which gives you a window of time during
which you can funnel into a shorter priority line, but you only get three at a
time; plus, slots for popular rides fill up fast. Because of year-round
events and promotions, there is very little “off-season” at Disney anymore. If
you visit a Disney park, waiting is just part of the game.
We all know that kids stink at waiting. Even if parents
bring All The Snacks, games to play in line and buy the $25 bubble wand to distract,
it’s going to be torture. For tot-focused rides like The Many Adventures of
Winnie the Pooh, should there be an express line for the 10-and-under crowd and
their caregivers?
It sounds like a great idea to keep the happiest place on
Earth happy (if you’ve been to one of the parks when the sun is high and blood
sugar is low, there are a lot of screaming kids). The so-called millenials would
probably have a better time, too, without screeching toddlers everywhere. Alas,
it seems like a solid plan on paper, but there aren’t that many childless
folks gumming up the works. Not to mention this proposed express lane would just become a jumble of
cranky kids. The millenials are actually paying more than kids,
arguably, as well, so why should they have to take a back-seat to a horde of
angry children and their menacing strollers?
The irate mom just needs to face facts that Disney is for
everyone -- young, old, parents and child-free. Those giant roller coasters won’t
ride themselves if all the big people are banned. And anyway, kids don’t really
want to drink their way around the world in Epcot.
There are bars in Disney parks. Yes, they’re for weary
parents, but they’re also for people NOT pushing strollers, with nowhere else
to be.
Next time you go to a Disney park -- whether you’re saddled
with rugrats or not -- try to be kind to one another. If you see a little kid,
maybe let them go ahead of you in line. Don’t push little ones out of the way
at character meet-and-greets. Conversely, if you see someone without kids having
a great time, try not to be too jealous --they’ll be super hungover the next
day anyway! At the end of the day, just don’t be jerks to each other.