News Smoking locations updated at the Magic Kingdom

[BigThunderMatt]

It’s wholesome entertainment above all else.

So is taking your family to the zoo. Or a baseball game. Or a movie. Or bowling. Or to the roller-rink (are these even still a thing?). Or Cedar Point. Or Dave & Busters. Basically as long as you're taking them anywhere that isn't a strip club, an R-rated movie or something else considered "unwholesome", you've met that wholesomeness quota. And all of those places I listed serve alcohol. Wholesomeness has nothing to do with it. They're businesses, they exist to make money, and alcohol makes money. It's that simple.

 

[Lensman]

What's unwholesome/immoral about a beer or wine with your meal?

 

[Chef Mickey]

So is taking your family to the zoo. Or a baseball game. Or a movie. Or bowling. Or to the roller-rink (are these even still a thing?). Or Cedar Point. Or Dave & Busters. Basically as long as you're taking them anywhere that isn't a strip club, an R-rated movie or something else considered "unwholesome", you've met that wholesomeness quota. And all of those places I listed serve alcohol. Wholesomeness has nothing to do with it. They're businesses, they exist to make money, and alcohol makes money. It's that simple.

Those places aren’t Disney and have plenty of the problems I discussed.

 

[Chef Mickey]

What's unwholesome/immoral about a beer or wine with your meal?

Nothing. That’s not our issue.

 

[peter11435]

Those places aren’t Disney and have plenty of the problems I discussed.

There are 6 Disney theme parks in North America. 4 of them have always sold alcohol.

 

[Patcheslee]

There's Disney characters that drink and smoke.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

Those places aren’t Disney and have plenty of the problems I discussed.

You're missing the point. Disney has those same problems. Security is just good enough that you don't see it. Disney is not some perfect little wonderland. Sans alcohol people still fight, people still get rowdy, people still get in trouble with security. The level of wholesomeness you seem to think the place has is all an elaborate facade to get rubes to spend more money. If someone stumbling around a little tipsy after a few drinks gets your panties in a bind you'd have a straight up heart attack if you heard the content of most backstage conversations that cast members have.

 

[Chef Mickey]

You're missing the point. Disney has those same problems. Security is just good enough that you don't see it. Disney is not some perfect little wonderland. Sans alcohol people still fight, people still get rowdy, people still get in trouble with security. The level of wholesomeness you seem to think the place has is all an elaborate facade to get rubes to spend more money. If someone stumbling around a little tipsy after a few drinks gets your panties in a bind you'd have a straight up heart attack if you heard the content of most backstage conversations that cast members have.

No, you're missing the point.

I'm not comparing Disney to just random places with alcohol problems. To me, Disney is its own entity...completely on a different level. They can afford to make these decisions because they don't rely on the alcohol revenue and have much larger exposure than your random establishment. Something bad like the alligator incident happening at Disney is national news. This risk is greater with non regulated alcohol availability.

To me, Disney is in position to make a greater statement that their parks are set up for minimum exposure to nonsense. Sure, there is a need for security sans alcohol, but that's exactly my point. People act stupid sober and some people will act even more stupid with the alcohol.

I already said keep it in the restaurants, but let's not have hard liquor available at stands across DHS at 2pm.

If you like it...that's fine. It's not like they are going to take my suggestion...they'll only do it when/if they are forced to by an incident involving it.

And LOL, I'm not naive. I know a lot about what goes on off-stage and even on-stage. I know several people who have worked at the company, in parks. That's not the point. I'm about as socially liberal as you can be and pretty much nothing would surprise me. At Disney, things are different. The alternate reality they very carefully create is protected in many ways. I think this route would protect it even better.

 

[BrittanyRose428]

Oh boy here we go. Alcohol and smoking are not really comparable, not sure why comparing them is a theme of this thread but yea.. they're not. Someone having a drink next to you will not have any effect on you, but someone having a cigarette next to you = secondhand smoke.

My parents smoke like crazy and have for my entire life. I have really bad asthma, and while I haven't officially been diagnosed it sounds like from what other people have mentioned in this thread I'm probably allergic as well. Because of my personal experiences growing up surrounded by smoke while dealing with asthma/allergies, I have very little sympathy for smokers. I'm sorry, and I don't mean to sound harsh, but I'm just being honest here.

The smoking sections in WDW never really bother me until I'm on vacation with my parents. It's much better now as an adult because I obviously don't need to stand there with them (though it's still incredibly annoying to have to constantly stop what we're doing so they can smoke). What concerns me in WDW is kids who are forced into smoking sections with their parents, because that was me as a child and quite frankly it sucks. (Heck that's still me as an adult when my parents smoke with me in the car despite my asking them not to). I don't really know what the solution to that is, as all I can think of would be to add a small play area or something to the end of a smoking section but that also seems kind of ridiculous. I just feel for those kids who are stuck by their parents side on vacation being forced to deal with the smoke.