Avoiding Gay Days

[MickeyMoose15]

Anybody know the dates for "Gay Days" next year for WDW? My family and I are traveling down and we want to avoid this as much as possible since we have a eight year old boy and a four year girl traveling with the group. We want to avoid the big summer rush so we are going the beginning of June to avoid those late June school releases. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RogueHabit]

Originally posted by RPMdfw
We're not evil people, we just want to see Mickey, too.

Y...y...you mean we won't catch it.....

Just kidding of course.

I think if Gaydays were in any way disruptive to the Disney experience then WDW would step in and take action to stop them.

I have heard nothing but positive reports of the conduct of participants on this event and personally would not plan my vacation around avoiding the dates.

 

[enfilm]

To mr toad: The magic kingdom is crowded only on saturday since that's the "official" day. Sunday a bunch of people go up to universal, and some go to epcot but it's not as organized. and a bunch of people will be in town friday too but I don't know which park is the "official" one. I don't think everyone even wears red (except saturday) so it's not nearly as organized and I don't think most people would notice the increased crowd.

I don't think there are protesters anymore (someone tell me if I'm wrong) and they certianly wouldn't be anywhere near the park gate. Disneyworld is private property and the mouse would never let people with protest signs where guests could see them. I think any protests would have to be out near the exit ramp for world drive (which means I wouldn't have see them because I stayed on property last year)

Ed

 

[GaryT977]

Originally posted by enfilm
To mr toad: The magic kingdom is crowded only on saturday since that's the "official" day.

I don't think there are protesters anymore (someone tell me if I'm wrong) and they certianly wouldn't be anywhere near the park gate.

In my experience, Saturday is the only day that's super busy. So busy, in fact, that most of my friends now skip it. I'm pretty sure that it either reaches or comes close to capacity. However, with the advent of FastPass, the lines are much shorter now than a couple of years ago.

As far as protestors go, I saw a small group outside one of the gates a couple of years ago, carrying some pretty hateful signs. The only thing I've seen the last couple of years is one of those banner planes with scripture, or someones interpretation of scripture. Easy enuf to ignore.

I think it's important to point out that Disney does not sponsor this is any way. This all started with a group of people who were chatting online, decided to get together at WDW on the same weekend and wear red shirts so they could easily identify each other. It's been growing ever since. Disney just sits back, rakes in the money and goes about the business of running the greatest theme park in the world.

 

[Dwarful]

we stayed on-site last year but never saw any protestors. Just heard several parents remarking that they wish they had known in advance about it. didn't make much of a difference for us, really, except for the crowds, which did get much larger than the previous week we were there.

 

[Yellow Shoes]

 

[Irrawaddy Erik]

Originally posted by Yellow Shoes

Wow very well said Yellow LOL LOL :lol:

My mom and a few of my friends are actually coming down this week b/c they want to see it for themselves.


oh yea... A lot of CM's look forward to this day b/c it is actually one of the nicest days to work. (maybe except for Guest Relations)

 

[WDWspider]

Originally posted by wdwcp98
I just want to point out in response to spider-man's post regarding designated days at the MK --that there are always groups of people who congregate at WDW. Year round there are large groups who come to enjoy what the resort has to offer. One example that comes to mind is the Brazillian tour groups which visit us every summer. They are a large, usually loud group of people (wearing all one color tee shirt) that descend on the parks annually. I think its just that most other groups don't receive this much attention. There is always a mix of folks visiting WDW, even during GayDays. And in terms of the crowdedness of the parks, the MK is the most crowded because not only do people come down for the event, but many of Disney's cast members make an effort to go to the MK that day and participate in GayDays

In response to that, I will simply say that I was only posting as it pertained to this thread, not to single out any particular race, creed, or ______.

 

[Merlin]

Originally posted by RPMdfw
These should be things that we think of every day, not just at GayDays. Don't judge people for their differences, look for the similarities. We're all people, we're all enjoying Disney World. What other common ground do we share?

I love the spirit in which your post was clearly intended, but there's only one part of your post with which I must respectfully disagree...the statement that we should look for similarities rather than differences. As it happens, I teach diversity training and this is a concept which we touch upon in the training. We have a natural instinct to be drawn to people who are like us. It is human nature to want to bond with those with whom we share things in common. Even in differences, we tend to not be satisfied unless we can find some commonality. In reality, we should be celebrating our differences. In business, it actually makes good business sense to capitalize on how people think differently from one another because from these differences come some of the most imaginative and innovative ideas. Walt Disney, a man most decidedly ahead of his time in a number of ways, understood this. That, above everything else, has always been the appeal of WDW to me. And as annoying as I find the theme song, "It's a Small World" communicates this message probably better than any other part of WDW. Diversity is something to be appreciated and valued

On that note, I think that parents who try to shield their children from seeing homosexuals in the parks aren't doing those children any favors. Like it or not, your children will grow up in a world which is much more tolerant than the one in which the rest of us grew up. I'm personally straight, but I absolutely love the fact that gays have chosen WDW as the place to organize this annual event. It seems perfectly fitting in my opinion.

One last comment to the person who thought it was unfair that gays get to have an organized event but other groups don't: Hey, we live in a free country. If you want to see an event for a particular group, organize one! No one is stopping you.