Meandering discussion including but not limited to Disney shows, child behavior, speech therapy, song lyrics, autoimmune disorders, peanut butter substitutes, hygiene, and wine

Walt Disney World
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So, my wife, our 7-year-old and I are in HS and go to the Little Mermaid show. Obviously, it’s full of kids, a baby is crying like a tied hog somewhere and we hear a lot of kids voices here and there.

Our son (again, 7 years old) doesn’t understand much of english so he is asking a lot of questions during the show. We answer him (mostly by translating what Ariel is saying), whispering. He tends to talk in pretty much a normal voice but we mange to make him whisper about 50% of the time. We are not talking non-stop but, you know, not just a little bit either.

After the crying baby wailed particularly loudly, a woman (late 40s or early 50s) does a really loud ‘‘SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHUSH’’ noise. I think it’s a) because of the baby and b) really lame, but I don’t think about it more than that. Maybe 5 minutes later, she turns towards us and tells us to shut up, very rudely. I tell her ‘‘relax, this is Disney’’ and she scoffs.

At the end of the show, she gets up and turns towards me and starts giving me crap about us ‘‘ruining the show’’ for her. Seeing that she is alone with her husband with no kids, I tell her we were translating for a 7-year-old who doesn’t understand english and I also tell her that she shouldn’t choose WDW as a vacation destination if she doesn’t like kids. Then her husband steps in and starts meddling. I tell him to back off, pretty firmly. He seems a bit rattled by me and leaves. The woman concludes with some nasty parting words and scampers off in the sunset, following her husband and leaving me very disappointed in human beings, again.

At least, I told myself, I didn’t punch anyone, I stayed calm and I didn’t give a bad example to my son.

The End.

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People these days. So rude.

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SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Stop posting so loudly!

I’m trying to think about what to post next.

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:rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Unfortunately these situations happen. It can ruin a persons entire day and even their entire vacation. But only if you let it.
Glad you had a forum in order to vent with people who will understand. It surely helps.
I find it best to vent and then move on and not let it ruin my faith in humanity. In Disney, these are one off’s for the most part. Unfortunately in my line of work i deal with them daily and have been trained to not let it get best of me. But i have days when its easier than others.

I also had a brush with rudeness on our last Disney trip so I’ll share it with you.
We showed up for HEA and claimed our spot. Not early and not the best spot but within 30 minutes of showtime. It was me, my wife and our DD13. We were standing side by side by side. At the last minute a couple and a baby in a stroller moved in behind us. As the show began someone a few rows in front of us put their child on their shoulders blocking my daughters view of the castle. You could see alot of jockeying for position at that point to secure a view. So i switched places with my daughter so she could see. The woman behind us became irrate and started berating me because her childs view was now blocked. I explained the situation that said my childs view was also blocked and we merely switched spots so she could see. She got very vulgar as her husband stood quietly. I ignored her until the husband himself joined in with the vulgarites. At which point i turned around and said to him “thats enough, i dont want to hear another word. You and i will discuss this after the show”.
After that i didnt hear from them. Unfortunately my DD13 witnessed the situation. My wife however didnt even know what was going on. Fortunately for them she didnt. I couldnt really enjoy the show as my adrenaline was high. After the show i immediately turned around and they were gone. They must have left in the middle.

Although it did ruin the moment for me, it was merely an afterthought and a story to tell at a later time. It in no way soured our trip. nor should you let it sour yours.

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Totally agree ! It happened last wednesday and we are now back. It didn’t ruin our day but my wife was a little bit shaken for a couple hours. My son pretty much laughed at the whole thing which was really cool.

Two years ago in Disneyland, us and other families were waiting for the night parade, had really awesome spots, first row and had been waiting for 45 minutes. As the parade started, this family (mom, dad and 2 kids between about 5 and 10) planted themselves right in front of us and another family. I was kind of baffled and was asking myself how exactly I was going to begin the conversation with them when the mom besides me took care of business. She told them, politely but firmly, that they needed to leave and that we had waited 45 minutes for this spot. The intruder mom went ballistic immediately, started throwing F bombs and all that. The husband in the dirty white wife beater was only slightly less horrible. Their kids looked mortified. A CM came to see what the commotion was about (she was a small woman, barely in her 20s). The nastiness continued and she called security. Four huge guys arrived in less than 30 seconds and took the ‘‘bad guys’’ away. I was very impressed with Disney security and quite sad for the poor kids…

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Oh. I like this expression. Sorry that happened (I hope they weren’t Brits!) You have kept this to yourself for a while so it is obviously still irritating you. Boo hiss to the nasty people. I hope that you swore at them in French!:wink:

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Yeah you’re right, it still irritates me a bit. They weren’t Brits, don’t worry, nor Americans. I think they were either Italian or Spanish, judging by their accent, but I can totally be wrong.

I didn’t swear at them in any language LOL. I did call them ridiculous and pathetic though… :wink:

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You see I have an advantage as so few people speak Welsh. I can smile charmingly and be rude at the same time😉.

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Oh man!

I go to Disney without kids more than with kids. (And often my kids aren’t even with me if we are at Disney these days. I give them money, a phone and a set time and meeting place. It’s wonderful).

I have a different kind of story…about being at Disney without kids overseeing a family WITH kids…

So in July it was just DH and I (we did a super quick turn and burn, had some business in town and took a co-worker of his and his family on a little magical Disney Adventure. Which was a blast), and we were at Yachtsman steakhouse to grab dinner.

There was this family with 3 kids sitting two table over. And we both just felt for them because the kids had obviously hit their limit and were DONE. The dad was almost yelling and the mom was in tears…it was not a good dining experience for them, or really us. (We were tired and just ready to get to our hotel by then!)

We were the only other people there at this point in the evening, and the waiter kept apologizing. We told him it was fine, we were parents and we understood how overwhelming it can be with small children in a setting like WDW.

Our server was floored. He totally expected us to flip out and be upset. I smiled and said that we couldn’t control other people and we could only be responsible for us. And we choose to be here without kids in a place with lots of kids.

The dad of the family actually stopped us on our way out to apologize for the mayhem…and explained they had already ordered when chaos ensued and they didn’t know what to do. We smiled and told them to enjoy their little ones as they grow into teenagers before you know it. The dad was also floored and you could tell seemed a bit mortified by his behavior :joy: (the kids just fed off his stress…as kids often do!).

The restaurant manager offered us dessert and fastpasses for the “trouble”, which we requested he actually send to the family with the chaos…as we wouldn’t eat the dessert or have use for the fastpasses.

Not sure if that happened (probably not! But I like to think it did!), but I just know I didn’t want to be THAT adult couple being a jerk because some kids were tired. Now if it has been me with my kids that upset? I would have walked out. But that’s my parenting style and I cannot put how I raise my children on anyone else.

Oh and our family trip last month? We might have been the screaming family a few times. :joy: It was the first family vacation we had been on with the kids (out of state…we’ve done plenty of trips here in Cali), and we had moments of, ahem, not so polite behaviors. :woman_facepalming:t3:

I try to remember everyone is going through stuff. I don’t ALWAYS remember to be kind, but I do try. (Isn’t always easy!!)

And if I’m at Disney without kids, I always remind myself it was built for families, specifically “daddy’s day”, according to Walt’s original vision.

But man. Sometimes. I do hate the parade and fireworks cutters though, and I have zero problem addressing it. And I’ve had other guests escorted from the park for bad behavior. Someone put their hands on a friends teenage daughter last month at Disneyland and security found him and escorted him and followed up with me. He was verbally abusive to my friend, me, and our teen daughters and then he put his hands on one of the girls? Yeah, I DONT THINK SO. Creep.

Oh the stories from all the adventures!!! I feel like I see more bad behavior here in Anaheim though. The local crowd is fierce!!

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Family members generally know exactly which ‘buttons to press’. My DD24 and DS20 can argue like toddlers on occasion ( I am an only child and thought that all siblings got on like The Waltons). We have a silly code word, which warns that things have gone too far. It seems to work…most of the time.

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Oh yeah! LOL.

My husband is very into a schedule and I made the mistake of changing the morning “schedule” (it was very loosely planned to begin with!) and that did not end well.

So now I know, stick to the “schedule” and he’s good.

The kids? Just let them go off on their own and they are happy.

But now we know! So here’s hoping February will be smooth sailing.

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I wish somebody had apologised for the behaviour of the kids when we were in the Yachtsman. There were two families together seated together with about 5 or 6 kids aged probably 6-12, running around the tables, hitting each other and the parents with balloons, screaming and shouting and generally making tons of noise. I get that they were excited and probably bored, but I was trying to have an expensive meal with my DS11 who wouldn’t dare act like that in a restaurant. I felt ashamed to be British - they were fellow Brits. It has put me off going back there tbh, but DS really wants to, he loved his steak.

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Sadly, a lot of people don’t bother to raise their kids. I saw a LOT of behavior I couldn’t believe. If I had done anything similar when I was a kid, my parents would have thumped me into the ground (although that is actually an even worse behavior). My son is very full of energy and sometimes a bit difficult to rein in but I like to believe that we impose reasonable limits. We never hit him in any way (contrary to how I was raised) but I have no problem telling him he won’t have whatever he is into at any particular moment and it mostly works OK. It is often difficult though and takes a lot of energy. I think that is the main reason why so many parents let their kids do whatever; they are just plain lazy !

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Personally, I think every parent should watch several episodes of “Supernanny”. They would learn a lot very quickly.

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Oh wow. That’s terrible, your server didn’t say anything?! That’s a bummer. I do find it sad that parents don’t force their kids to sit in nice places like that and learn how to eat in a more upscale setting. It’s HARD to teach that to kids, but I know I can take mine anywhere and they know how to behave. Sigh.

It’s like we are turning into a society of rabid animals. Makes me so sad.

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Consistency is key!

Oh man. I read her book and watched those shows endlessly when my kids were little. It was hard because their dad would come home from business trips and encourage them to be hooligans for the 30-40 hours he was home every couple of weeks…and JUST when I got them back into a routine? We would start the cycle over. Gah. So dang frustrating. Also one of many reasons he’s my EX husband! :joy:

(I have heard his kids with his second wife are HOLY TERRORS)

You can’t be your kids’ friend and you HAVE to be consistent. It’s a lot of work!!

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Not a word! Luckily they were already well into their meal when we were seated, and left while we were eating our entrees.

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Wow. I probably would have had a quiet word with the manager on my way out. I find using the words “safety concerns for your CMs and other guests” works wonders in getting the attention of Disney’s management. Also I usually start with a compliment and just mention a slight concern (and quickly say it did not affect the steller food) I wanted to share to hopefully help them out.

Actually works well with many food establishments. But Disney pays a lot of attention when you say “safety concern”.

How long ago? Maybe send an email? If we don’t “complain” how do they know? And I mean complain moreso in sending in constructive criticism.

Your experience sounds way worse than ours!

I will say, I had to step over a baby and said baby’s toys to access an exit once last month. It was a total safety hazard!! Who sets up a baby with toys on the floor is a restaurant?! :woman_facepalming:t3:

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It was over 2 years ago now, and we Brits don’t like to complain!

That sounds really dangerous!

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