It’s a tradition in many South American countries for girls at their quinceanera to get a trip and a party at Disney World. The large, loud tour groups that organize these (Argentina and Brazil stand out as two very large providers of crowds) are typically called fifteen something.
South American schools are in session March-December, so Jan and Feb are their summer break and there were almost triple the normal groups from South America this year, according to a CM I spoke with during my Feb trip.
@AkronAaron explained it well. July seems to be a hotspot too for them as it’s like a midterm Winter break or something. And “The 15s” as for most of them it is to celebrate their Quincenera - as I understand it, they get a trip or a party and the parents hope they opt for a trip because it is cheaper than a party (!!!)
They have toned down a bit - they used to walk around chanting, leaving piles of backpacks as they ran through line queues, etc. But they can still be overpowering and obnoxious.
When (rich) girls turn 15 in Brazil, there are 2 traditions:
A very big party (very similar to a Sweet 16) - formal gowns, catering, a DJ…
A trip to Disney as part of a travel group
Less-rich families let the girl chose which, richer families do both. It is now becoming common to give a Disney trip as a gift for boys as well.
July, December and January are the months school is off in Brazil. There are travel groups on all 3, but July is the most popular.
The Brazilian real has never been so undervalued when compared with the US dollar, the economy is doing quite poorly and people are getting afraid of corona, so it looks like this is going to be a terrible year for Brazilian travel companies.
Thank you, everyone! I wasfamiliar with the extravagant parties associated with quinceaneras, but I didn’t realize trips to disney were a “thing” for them in some countries. I learned something new today!
That’s a bit surprising to me, because things in Argentina are also not going so well (a new government default on international loans is happening now). Maybe the crisis is not affecting rich Argentinians as much?
We were at Universal in January and saw that. It didn’t trigger in my brain that I’d seen one of those groups until someone mentioned “Piles of backpacks” Since Universal is strict about what you can take on rides, they skipped the locker wait by doing the pile method. .
We stayed in an AirBnB condo, so they didn’t bother us.
I’m surprised they are still allowed to do that. They tried it over 10 years ago at Studios outside Tower and a CM was instantly on the pile asking whose it was and when a chaperone finally appeared (yeah - they were completely unattended…we could have probably funded several trips with what was left in the pile if we were had people) was told in no uncertain terms that they could not leave them piled like that.
(Yes board bot, OK! is a complete sentence!)