Not strictly a Disneyland story, but I found this interesting. Last week there were multiple fights among teenagers at Knott’s, so they had to close down the park at like 7pm. It was one of those, “This is why we can’t have nice things” moments.
So today they announced this Chaperone policy to curb future brawls. I hope it works. It really is a shame that the local kids have potentially ruined one of their best hangouts.
“For decades, Knott’s Berry Farm has been a place where families and friends come together to enjoy our one-of-a-kind park. Millions of guests have counted on us for their daily dose of wholesome family fun, and we’re committed to keeping that promise going forward.”
Under the chaperone policy, all teens aged 17 or less must be accompanied by a chaperone with a valid ID confirming their age of 21 or older on Fridays and Saturdays.
read about this too and thought holy moly what’s wrong w/ ppl/kids, but then again I never thought it was cool to just drop your teenagers off at the park, unsupervised, for the day
When I worked for Six Flags this was a real issue, especially at Magic Mountain. The Six Flags AP is so cheap that it’s a better value than a babysitter or day care. Kids get dropped off with no money to spend and no supervision. Once they’ve been on all the rides for the first week or so, they start vandalizing the parks and causing trouble out of boredom for the rest of the summer
People let their teens go places without adults, including Disney. WDW policy is ages 14 and up can enter without an adult. We let our teens go back to, or stay in, a park when we took an afternoon break. Of course that was nearly 20 years ago.
Yes… it’s 100% true. It’s not as uncommon as you want to think…
Yes, but you are “in the area”. The issue is the kids that get dropped off by a parent at 9am and they don’t get picked up until 6pm multiple times each week
There was a brawl yesterday (I think it was) at Magic Kingdom. One man had to go to the hospital I guess. sigh. I guess we need chaperones for the adults now at MK!
Oh. Then this is a different one then, definitely. Swell.
Given the look of the sky, it must’ve been right after I left.
This is why I can’t get worked up over line cutters… I see this as the end result every time (though in my fantasy, I’m the one kicking all the butt!) and it’s just not worth the investment of time and effort
The young girl yelling “Stop!” and trying to hold back her family members. I hate when kids have to be the grown ups for their grown ups.
In February we saw an irate man in Disneyland being “herded” toward the exit from the IASW area. He had obviously been told he had to leave and we speculated he had been trespassed in the past and thought he could get back in with his family. Mis-spent youth and all that. It was horribly sad to watch. The security were just standing back and not engaging and he was shouting obscenities and his wife kept saying, “It’s not worth it. Let’s just go.” Police were called. But at least no one got in a physical fight.
I don’t really understand the impulse to jump back into a fight after you’ve been broken up. Like, my impulse would be to run away if someone punched me - probably cause I know I’d be slaughtered by anyone if I tried to hit them back, but also de-escalation is key. Once you hit someone at Disney, you are likely banned for life.
I was working DLR during the late 90’s where turn-key kids would bus over after school and wait there for their parents to get out of work. It was well known that Tomorrowland belonged to them between 3pm and 6-9ish.
Gwen Stefani was one of them for a while.
There were some fights, but mostly they were just loud and obnoxious and not what you want tiny kiddos to experience on their way to Autopia.
Now… the family brawls…that’s where the real fights begin.
I hate when kids have to be the grown ups for their grown ups.