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There’s no doubt about it, a Walt Disney World vacation can be the experience of a lifetime. After all, the entirety of Walt Disney World Resort has something for everyone.
There’s an array of Resort hotels, two water parks (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach), four theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT), and a massive shopping center (Disney Springs).
Whether you’re visiting just one theme park or all four of them, the experiences and memories are totally worth every penny, and, good gracious, does it cost a pretty penny.
We Can’t Deny It, Walt Disney World Resort Is EXPENSIVE!
Credit: “Perry Merrity II, Unsplash”
READ MORE: Disney Guests: You’re Not Above the Rules, Stop Acting Like You Are
Yes, Walt Disney World’s official tagline is ‘The Most Magical Place on Earth,’ but we wouldn’t be surprised if the unofficial tagline was ‘The Most Expensive Place on Earth.’
And with rising prices on everything from rent to groceries to household goods, combined with wages that stay static, there’s more financial pressure on most people than ever before.
So, when guests put a noticeable dent in their savings to visit Walt Disney World, many will stop at nothing to get their money’s worth, even if it’s at the expense of fellow guests.
“The Worst Part of the Parks Is the Other Guests By Far” – Anonymous Visitor
Credit: Brian McGowan
READ MORE: Change Is Coming: Disney FINALLY Addresses Bad Guest Behavior
Guest entitlement is a newer phenomenon at Walt Disney World. While rude and entitled behavior is as old as the human race itself, Disney World locals and guests who have visited throughout their entire lives can tell you that things weren’t always this competitive in a place like Magic Kingdom.
Guests used to be friendly and kind toward each other, without a second thought when it came to doing the considerate thing. After all, it’s the Most Magical Place on Earth, and that sort of happiness used to be contagious.
After the recent pandemic, however, we’ve begun to see an uptick in Guest entitlement. The pandemic showed us that resources such as time and money are incredibly limited; it also gave many of us an ‘us versus them’ attitude, as we needed to put the health of ourselves and our families above all else. Now that the pandemic is over, that self-preserving behavior may have translated into something else: plain old selfishness.
All of These Factors Create the Perfect Storm of Selfishness…
Credit: Brian McGowan on Unsplash
Combine that selfishness with the extreme cost of a Disney Vacation, and you have the perfect conditions to create a trend of guest entitlement. The most unfortunate part is that selfishness begets selfishness, especially in a place like Walt Disney World.
While we desperately want this sort of behavior to become unpopular again, recent reports imply that it’s not going anywhere.
One guest was recently visiting a Disney Park when they had a run-in with an incredibly rude guest. They posted about their experience anonymously on Reddit. It reads:
I was asking a cast member standing at the entrance to the skyliner how long it would take to travel from Hollywood Studios to Epcot on the skyliner. The cast member smiled and started explaining how to travel between the two parks using the skyliner when a guest walked up, inserted her head between myself and the cast member and demanded to know where she was. She was relaying the message to someone on her phone and had follow up questions. I just stood there with my hands on my hips, staring daggers and wondering where she got the […] nerve. My only hope for her is she was extremely day drunk and wasn’t a fully functional human being.
I’m sure this is minor compared to what others have seen. But cast members – you have my deepest sympathy dealing with these entitled [guests] all day long
It Isn’t All Bad…At Least, It Doesn’t HAVE to Be All Bad…
Credit: Brian McGowan on Unsplash
READ MORE: Disney Guests Are Beginning to Target Fellow Guests On Social Media
Unfortunately, we all have at least one story regarding selfish guests. But we also at least have a story or two about a time when fellow guests were kind and considerate.
While it may seem like entitled behavior isn’t going anywhere, the truth is that we have the power to reverse this trend by behaving kindly, considerately, and selflessly while visiting Walt Disney World. In this day and age, we may have to pull ourselves up by our Mickey ears and be the magic we want to see.
