what was the best WDW guest meltdown you've observed

[POLY LOVER]

We (wife, daughter 8, daughter 7, and I) were in Epcot at Rose and Crown about 45min before Illuminations this past 8/6. We were looking for a place to eat our Fish and Chips in the outside eating area behind the beer cart (left side facing R&C). The al fresco dining to the right of R&C was closed off for a refurb. I found a table but only three chairs. A very lovely UK family (8+ of various age) who had taken over the nearest corner of the seating area lent us the needed 4th chair. (It must have been a UK holiday because almost all guests that week seemed to have an English accent. We made many "line friends" from the UK that week.) The outside seating area of R&C was packed with people waiting to watch the fireworks. After I was seated in our borrowed chair (I had been standing for more than 5min), I noticed the family to my right (mom, dad, mid-teenage son, early teenage daughter) were non-UK because they were speaking loud enough to hear their north-east American accent. The father starts on his rant.
Dad: "I don't give a f*** what you want! We paid thousands to come here, so by God, we are going to watch these f***ing fireworks."
Teenage daughter stands up and flees the scene to unknown parts...
Teenage son clicking away on iPod touch or iPhone, like nothing is happening...
Mom (clearly upset and frustrated): "Calm down...it's no big deal."
15 second pause (which feels like an eternity)
Dad (growing redder with anger or heat by the minute): "How do you expect this to work? We can't keep going like this. You're unhappy. He's unhappy (pointing to boy who has yet to look up and stop clicking on his device). She runs off! This isn't working!"
Silence. Clearly the UK family, my family, and most others in the area are discretely tuned into the dramatics...
Mom (very calmly): "You're damn right I'm unhappy. Too long to put up with any more of this bulls**t."
Dad (leaning back in his chair): "Well then I guess we know what we need to do when we get back home!"
Teenage son still hasn't looked up...
Me (wrapping our remaining fish and chips in two empty baskets and wrapping with napkins): "C'mon girls! Let's go see if we can see the fireworks from the pool!" (We were staying at the Yacht Club)
My girls: "Yay!"
My wife gives an approving nod...
A very large Brit with a heavy London accent who was new to the scene comes up to me and asks if we are leaving and can he have the table.
Me: "Yes, we're leaving"
Large Brit: "Thank God for that."
Me: "You don't know the half of it, brother."
Large Brit: ???

It seems like Dad's are under more stress and likely to explode than the other family members as the money drains from their wallets. I always see the Dad's walking the Park with a zoombie like look on their faces. I think if you truly don't have the bucks to spend you should stay at home or do the value route.

 

[worldfanatic]

Unfortunately, I was a guilty party in the worst WDW meltdown I've ever witnessed.
It was way back in August of 2002.
My then girlfriend (now wife) were staying at All Star Sports and had enjoyed a relaxing morning and early afternoon enjoying the pools and lounging around the Resort.
As we prepared to head over to the Magic Kingdom, a huge storm began moving in.

This picture was taken just minutes before getting on the bus.
It's 2pm, look at that sky!

Sure enough, a MASSIVE THUNDERSTORM began as we rolled towards MK. Probably the most violent storm I've ever witnessed. But I was creating my own storm in the bus.
I don't remember exactly what I saId, but I made some stupid comment that infuriated Tracy, and then instead of apologizing, I doubled down until steam was blowing out of her ears.
As the bus arrived at the Magic Kingdom, there was an absolute lightning & thunder show going on outside. Huge flashes of light every few seconds, huge explosions of sound immediately after.
It was scary, but amazing.
The bus driver announced that everybody would need to stay safely on the bus until the worst part of the storm had passed.
Tracy didn't care.
By now she just wanted to get as far away as possible from me.
She screamed at me
"You're an Idiot!!!!"
at the top of her lungs and marched to the front of the bus.
A well-placed "death-stare" convinced the bus driver to open the door, and out she marched into the unbelievably powerful storm.
Every single person's mouth on the bus dropped as they watched this small Asian woman solitarily walking towards MK as deadly lightning exploded all around her.
As I slowly & pathetically got up to follow, all eyes focused on me.
They looked at me like I was a ghost. I felt like I was walking to the gas chamber.
The bus driver made some comment like "go get her" and kind of laughed as he opened the door.
I was completely drenched a half second after stepping outside.

Well we both survived, bought some dry clothes, and ended up having a fun night at the MK.
It's thirteen years later, we're still married, and have made 8 more fun trips to WDW since.
So no complaints.
But I'm very careful to never cause another WDW meltdown again.
I'm lucky to have survived that one.

 

[mf1972]

Unfortunately, I was a guilty party in the worst WDW meltdown I've ever witnessed.
It was way back in August of 2002.
My then girlfriend (now wife) were staying at All Star Sports and had enjoyed a relaxing morning and early afternoon enjoying the pools and lounging around the Resort.
As we prepared to head over to the Magic Kingdom, a huge storm began moving in.

This picture was taken just minutes before getting on the bus.
It's 2pm, look at that sky!
View attachment 110149

Sure enough, a MASSIVE THUNDERSTORM began as we rolled towards MK. Probably the most violent storm I've ever witnessed. But I was creating my own storm in the bus.
I don't remember exactly what I saId, but I made some stupid comment that infuriated Tracy, and then instead of apologizing, I doubled down until steam was blowing out of her ears.
As the bus arrived at the Magic Kingdom, there was an absolute lightning & thunder show going on outside. Huge flashes of light every few seconds, huge explosions of sound immediately after.
It was scary, but amazing.
The bus driver announced that everybody would need to stay safely on the bus until the worst part of the storm had passed.
Tracy didn't care.
By now she just wanted to get as far away as possible from me.
She screamed at me
"You're an Idiot!!!!"
at the top of her lungs and marched to the front of the bus.
A well-placed "death-stare" convinced the bus driver to open the door, and out she marched into the unbelievably powerful storm.
Every single person's mouth on the bus dropped as they watched this small Asian woman solitarily walking towards MK as deadly lightning exploded all around her.
As I slowly & pathetically got up to follow, all eyes focused on me.
They looked at me like I was a ghost. I felt like I was walking to the gas chamber.
The bus driver made some comment like "go get her" and kind of laughed as he opened the door.
I was completely drenched a half second after stepping outside.

Well we both survived, bought some dry clothes, and ended up having a fun night at the MK.
It's thirteen years later, we're still married, and have made 8 more fun trips to WDW since.
So no complaints.
But I'm very careful to never cause another WDW meltdown again.
I'm lucky to have survived that one.

so which storm was worse? I've been there too.

 

[Epcot-Rules]

It seems like Dad's are under more stress and likely to explode than the other family members as the money drains from their wallets. I always see the Dad's walking the Park with a zoombie like look on their faces. I think if you truly don't have the bucks to spend you should stay at home or do the value route.

I tend to agree with you here. I made an agreement with my wife years ago. If we have to put it on a credit card, then we don't need it. It's amazing the people who will put a $3,000 vacation on their credit card and pay $8,000 by the time it's finally paid off.

 

[POLY LOVER]

I tend to agree with you here. I made an agreement with my wife years ago. If we have to put it on a credit card, then we don't need it. It's amazing the people who will put a $3,000 vacation on their credit card and pay $8,000 by the time it's finally paid off.

Credit card vacations just add unneeded stress to life. The vacation never lasts as long as the bill.

 

[Innkeeper's Club]

In December 2010 I was in the Club Level lounge at the Boardwalk Inn talking the one of their Cast Members and during the conservation a woman if it was ok if she can take a bottle of wine to her room? Her reason is that she saw a different Cast Member give one to another guest. Anyway she is told they are not allowed to give out bottles of wine, however she was welcome to all the glasses she wanted while in the lounge. After hearing that this woman starts saying from the start of her trip nothing has gone right and etc, however this Cast Member was not budding. Personally I always thought this woman saw someone given one of those glass bottles of Evian water and must have thought it was a bottle of wine.

 

[Nubs70]

It seems like Dad's are under more stress and likely to explode than the other family members as the money drains from their wallets. I always see the Dad's walking the Park with a zoombie like look on their faces. I think if you truly don't have the bucks to spend you should stay at home or do the value route.

I understand where the Dad is coming from. I have been there myself. I spend all year busting my backside to make the money to spend a nice week on vacation. The kids then whine and about every little thing. The wife, instead of calling the whiny kids on the carpet, she continually makes excuses for the kids behavior thus justifying the behavior. This results in Dad being the bad guy.

Given the fact Dad has worked like crazy to provide, spent thousands that is not appreciated, then is the one at fault, no wonder the guy snapped.

 

[LdyApxr]

I don't think I was at Hollywood Studios for more than 30 minutes on Sunday (9/6/15) before my family and I were treated to a scream fest that was unlike any scream fest I ever heard (mind you - I have a 5 year old daughter and 3 year old son). My son wanted a toy monorail car (he was set on having one - $5 - not a biggie - thank god he didn't see the full monorail set for a couple of hundred!). As my son was picking his monorail car, this girl who was probably about 6 years old wanted something "Frozen" related and her parents pretty much denied her the item. It was a piercing scream just high enough that I'm sure the frequency was just shy of shattering glass! All I have to say is that I feel sorry for those who were standing directly behind this girl. As for us, we were off to the side and about 20 feet away - so it wasn't a direct blow to the eardrums. Needless to say, they left the store and you could hear the girl's screams fade in the distance.

There were other meltdowns, but this one took the cake.

Is it live or is is Memorex? LOL

 

[LdyApxr]

Stories like yours makes me wonder if it is possible to divorce siblings.....and other blood relatives.

You are more patient that I would be. After the first attempted theft, Satan's Spawn would have been on the first plane back to his dad, solo. After I had a looong conversation with my brother regarding his son. 13 is old enough to know how to behave. And you son certainly was the example of behavior he should emulate. I would have had a hard time holding my tongue when your brother asked about additional presents. Sad for the two boys that your brother is clueless about their problems.

LOL! You can pick your friends but not your family. Isn't that just the pits? Even now, I have as little contact with my brother as possible(and we live about 20min from him) and my sister knows better than to try to make excuses anymore. First it was "Well they were probably just overwhelmed" So you steal and bully? Nope. LOL Then it was "You can't blame them for not knowing how to behave in public" Why? Did my brother keep them locked in a hole? LOL We did not find out until after we got home that we had given Gage the perfect tool to torment our son. At one point after the umpteenth reminder not to climb on things, swing on rope/chains, crowd people in lines etc, I said "Hey guys, if you wonder if something is ok to do, take a look at Riley, if he is not doing it, it's a pretty good example that you should not be doing it either" only to find out that when Riley was alone with them, Gage was taunting him with "Your mom just wants us to be you and you are boring" along with other things that cannot be printed here. And Riley just did not tell us because he did not want to get them in more trouble. That kid. Even though we had given each of the kids their $50 gift cards and that was their souvenir money, after Riley put up with them while my husband and I ducked into Carthay circle with a friend of ours for some adult libations, we bought Riley a Yoda sweatshirt. LOL

 

[LdyApxr]

I understand where the Dad is coming from. I have been there myself. I spend all year busting my backside to make the money to spend a nice week on vacation. The kids then whine and ***** about every little thing. The wife, instead of calling the whiny kids on the carpet, she continually makes excuses for the kids behavior thus justifying the behavior. This results in Dad being the bad guy.

Given the fact Dad has worked like crazy to provide, spent thousands that is not appreciated, then is the one at fault, no wonder the guy snapped.

Except when you have both parents working contributing to the vacation fund, it's not just on dad's shoulders. At least not in my family and especially not when my oldest son was little because I was a single mom until he was 9. And this wife DOES call whiny, bratty kids on the carpet. No way would I let my husband shoulder all the issues. We work as a team and there is no one person who either shoulders the blame or the glory.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Except when you have both parents working contributing to the vacation fund, it's not just on dad's shoulders. At least not in my family and especially not when my oldest son was little because I was a single mom until he was 9. And this wife DOES call whiny, bratty kids on the carpet. No way would I let my husband shoulder all the issues. We work as a team and there is no one person who either shoulders the blame or the glory.

It happens that way. One persons experience are not usually common. I have done both, put on a credit card and had the money ahead of time. I never had an issue either way, but, I am frugal (sometimes known as cheap) and I was always the only one that had a handle on our finances and knew how much we could afford to run up in expenses. That did sometimes make me pretty cranky when I was accused of just being a tightwad and preventing them from having what everyone else had.

My opinion, tough! I knew what we needed to do and they could either deal with it or stay home. Having two incomes does not necessarily mean there is a whole bunch of excess money floating around. As for whether or not someone standing close by might have overheard my occasional rants was not my problem. Life is not perfect, even in a "magical" place like Disney. I can fall into the fantasy, back to childhood mode with the best of them, but, reality is never very far away from my consciousness. To my credit, I think, I never once said "I paid a lot of money for this trip so you better damn will enjoy it". If they wanted to feel miserable I let them. It usually passed after a brief period of time, but, I never allowed it to alter my plans or gave the slightest clue that it was affecting my actions.

With the kids I had specific tolerance levels. Occasional whining was never a problem, but, if they decided that this was a good place for a tantrum there were dire consequences and they knew it. I never made threats that both they and I knew I wasn't going to follow through on, like "if you act up we are going home". However, leaving the park, going back to the hotel with no TV and no pool was indeed used and they knew that it would happen. I'd done it once before. Once was usually enough to get the message through. But that's just me, I guess, as I don't see much of that happening around me.

 

[LdyApxr]

We cut our trip short when Satan spawn just pushed me to the limit but for our family, we are both involved in the finances, me on the planning side so I plan, we discuss and we splurge where we can and scrimp where we can. We are both pretty frugal, living in CA with two incomes sounds really great but the reality is the Bay Area is stupid expensive to live in(it's where the job is though) and cost of living makes a two income family stretch every penny and we have good jobs. LOL When a 3bd house runs $400k and in a bad neighborhood, you know you are in trouble. Which is why we now have our house in the Sacto Valley and rent the apartment in the Bay Area. Same cost but better area for our sons and our retirement.

Luckily with the one exception, we have never had the meltdown kids(of course our kids did not go until 6yrs and older) or the stress. Hopefully that holds true for our first trip to WDW. Maybe it is because we are both pretty frugal and we are both older(46 & 61) and our kids are extremely well behaved. I won't be taking any other family members ever again though. Those two ruined it for any other nieces and nephews and I will never put our one vacation a year through that kind of nightmare.

 

[G00fyDad]

My wife and I both work our rear ends off to save up the money for the trip. They way it works is after the trip (Disney package, flight, rental car, gas, food, and emergency money) is paid/taken care of with money saved we then save for the spending money. We don't use credit cards and we don't touch any money in the bank. We take all of the "cash" on the trip. I keep half of the spending money in cash, and the other half is put onto a gift card for convenience. The tip money is in cash, but the food money is put onto other gift card (from giftcards.com) with pictures and lettering to identify them for how they are to be used. I split the spending money by the number of days we will be there. So for example, if we each take down $1,100 for spending on a 9 day trip we can each spend $122 a day safely and not run out of money before the end of the trip. No one has a melt down. Easy.

 

[POLY LOVER]

I understand where the Dad is coming from. I have been there myself. I spend all year busting my backside to make the money to spend a nice week on vacation. The kids then whine and ***** about every little thing. The wife, instead of calling the whiny kids on the carpet, she continually makes excuses for the kids behavior thus justifying the behavior. This results in Dad being the bad guy.

Given the fact Dad has worked like crazy to provide, spent thousands that is not appreciated, then is the one at fault, no wonder the guy snapped.

nothing worse than thinking you are doing something great for the family and have it snap back in your face. Someday the kids will understand what it toook for you to do it and they will say wow how did dad manage to do this for us. my kids are older now and understand finances more and they get it now and are very happy to get a free vacation on Dad.

 

[KikoKea]

When our boys were little and we had to do road trips to see grandparents (we are a military family) we would give them a "travel dollar" in the morning when we set out. This was theirs to buy candy or whatever at the Flying Js, Cracker Barrels, or Stuckeys we stopped at on the way. If the trip was a couple of days, they would get another that afternoon. No whining, no fussing. They sometimes saved their dollars and ate the snacks I took with us- and now adults, they know how to handle money. Our first trip to WDW- they were about 8 & 10- I think we gave them each $20/day. IIRC, they each bought 1 thing and saved the rest. LOL

 

[Roakor]

I feel so lucky reading some of these post about whining kids. My kids were just so happy to be at Disney they didn't care about where we stayed, or getting souvenirs. The only whining and meltdowns came when it was time to go home, but my kids would just reassure me that we would be back again and it was ok, I didn't need to cry about it.

 

[LAKid53]

We cut our trip short when Satan spawn just pushed me to the limit but for our family, we are both involved in the finances, me on the planning side so I plan, we discuss and we splurge where we can and scrimp where we can. We are both pretty frugal, living in CA with two incomes sounds really great but the reality is the Bay Area is stupid expensive to live in(it's where the job is though) and cost of living makes a two income family stretch every penny and we have good jobs. LOL When a 3bd house runs $400k and in a bad neighborhood, you know you are in trouble. Which is why we now have our house in the Sacto Valley and rent the apartment in the Bay Area. Same cost but better area for our sons and our retirement.

Luckily with the one exception, we have never had the meltdown kids(of course our kids did not go until 6yrs and older) or the stress. Hopefully that holds true for our first trip to WDW. Maybe it is because we are both pretty frugal and we are both older(46 & 61) and our kids are extremely well behaved. I won't be taking any other family members ever again though. Those two ruined it for any other nieces and nephews and I will never put our one vacation a year through that kind of nightmare.

I know what you mean. I remember seeing an ad for a 600 square foot apartment for sale that when I calculated the price/sq foot, it was nearly $1000. When the City of San Francisco seriously considered building housing for its teachers so they could live in the City because it was cheaper to provide housing rather than give teachers raises sufficient to afford to live in SF, you know you are living in an expensive part of the country. My parents were fortunate to move to the Bay Area before housing prices starting climbing through the roof (no pun intended). However, when it came time to sell, we loved it. And thanks to Prop 13, property taxes were low.

I've read stories in the Chronicle of couples living outside the Bay Area in airpark communities because the price of the house, plane and flying lessons to get a pilot's license are cheaper than 3-4 bed/2-3 bath house in the City. And don't even talk about what it costs to park in SF, that is, if you can find a place to park. Which is why we drove to Larkspur and took the ferry in.

 

[LAKid53]

been to WDW 107 times over 38 years and one of the best involved this idiot father wearing a bosox baseball cap pushing his 2 kids in his own stroller and me. we were over between Casey's and Crystal Palace watching a show with a lot of people. after the show everyone starts to leave the area in all directions. me and this idiot father and others turned to thw right heading towards Casey's to get to main street. everyone is walking as fast as they can with frequent stops & slow downs to get to their next desired location, for most of us it was Main Street. well this idiot father wanted no part of slowing down. he hit me & others in the back of our ankles several times trying to push through us. finally we are past the piano at Casey's and now after about the 5th or 6th time he has hit me I turned to him and tell him to slow down and stop hitting people with his stroller to which he replies "walk faster" I stand in front of the stroller stopping him from moving forward and say to him "you are an ******* for using your kids as a ram hurting people and look at the effect it is having on your kids". his reply consisted of curses and he calls me out to fight pushing out his chest to which i move from the stroller towards him and he tries to push pass and I physically push him back causing him to lose his balance and step back several feet. several CMs now approach us and tell us to separate and move away. He grabs his stroller's handle and curses all of us and runs his kids in the stroller to the street where he hits the curb with great force causing the ffront of the stroller to tip forward propelling his 2 small children out of the stroller and flying out several feet into the street hitting into people walking up main street towards the castle. The CMs call over security who detain the man who is screaming at his kids who are no more than 3 or 4 in appearance to get back in the stroller. then he tries to get physical with the security guys who several restrain him and lead him away behind the first aid area while several others pickup his children and take them towards the same general direction. After chatting with the 2 CMs & a coupld of security people for a few minutes I leave the park. The next day I see those same CMs and asked them what eventually happened and they said they heard that security called the police, child services & contacted the guy's wife and had the man arrested with charges pressed against him for assault on the security guys and the kids put into the protection of child services pending the mother's petition to get the kids back.

And I bet he was banned for life. Sure hope the mom got the kids back. And filed for divorce.

 

[LAKid53]

Our family has been to WDW many times, but never experienced a meltdown until our trip back in 2013. We had spent the day at DHS and the 4 of us (Parents, BF, and myself) had dinner reservations at 50's Prime Time. When we were seated, our section had two other families: one from Texas, and one from Alabama. Things started off really well: Our server, "Cousin Jennifer," was ADORABLE, and my dad ended up chatting a while with the Texas family because they were from the same area as he grew up. Things took a turn after that.

The Alabama family consisted of 4: The parents, and two daughters: one about 8, the other 13/14. Their food arrives, and the mom is not happy. She's picking at the food, complaining about how there's 'too much butter', and after a couple minutes of angry mumbling, she says "I've had it" and just up and leaves. The dad loses it. He starts going off on the 13 yr old daughter, cry and ranting about how the mom is always on drugs and that's why he's leaving her, that "d**** this is supposed to be a NICE VACATION" and how she needs to drink her iced tea because "the Bible says its a vegetable and you don't want to upset Jesus". This poor girl during the whole schpeil keeps trying to run away, but he's grabbing he arms and yelling "SIT BACK DOWN" (her sister, however, is eating her potatoes in the corner like nothing is happening). And then suddenly, after 10-15 minuted of madness, Cousin Jennifer comes back and it's like nothing had happened and the three remaining members of Alabama are laughing and smiling and having a nice meal.

It's a very awkward moment my family & I won't forget... except my dad. Who was in the restroom the whole time and missed the drama!

It's that sweet tea they drink in the South - turns your brain to mush, lol.

 

[DfromATX]

To be fair, there could be just as long a thread about all the AWESOME interactions we've had with random people at WDW. We've had a lot of really fun moments with other guests, far more than we've had negative ones.

True! I have found that if you are nice to others, they will be nice to you. It might be a Texan thing, but we like to talk to everyone. We also enjoy talking to people from other countries.