Magic Kingdom...not so magical.

[smooch]

Right off the bat I notice that this dog is a breed that, for many good reasons, is generally selected for service animal use. My gut feeling is 95% of all legit, professional trained, service animals are labs/goldens. So, I am leaning towards legit on this case. (yes, I do know about the legit poodle school out there, that is the other 5% )

It is not a criminal offense to pet a service dog. At least, not in Texas. This is a good thing as toddlers and little kids do not read and constantly grope the service dogs in the school my daughter works for.

Now, if you are distracting the animal without permission and the owner runs into a pole, you would probably be liable for the visit to the Ready Clinic and a few stitches. ...so best not to distract the working animals.

Hint: a professional animal will not be distracted by anything in the environment that is not being offensive. No squirrels, cats, fire jugglers, other dogs, etc. are going to distract the animal. You are going to have to run up and start molesting the animal to cause a distraction. If the animal is jumping at you for a pet, it is likely a scam animal. LOTS of training goes into anti-distraction. My daughter was in FAA and raised rabbits, so we had some around the house. The school borrowed them to use in training. The dogs are trained to walk right by a cute live little wiggly bunny! For a dog, that is the gold standard of distraction prevention training. If the dogs do not master this, they flunk out!

Distraction training is a huge thing and that is mainly for seeing eye dogs and CCI dogs which help people in wheelchairs and with other things like that. My service dog is a medical alert dog so he alerts when my blood sugar is low. Since I am able bodied and have my vision my dog gets scared of people in costumes. This is allowed because I am able to see someone in a costume and can avoid the situation. That wouldn't be allowed for a seeing eye dog because they would not be able to see the person in costume and could lead to a bad situation. But you do have very good understanding of service animals, it helps that you have had interactions with training them. The petting them thing is not a criminal offense, if it was I could have gotten so many kids arrested in middle and high school. I told kids not to pet my dog, and had a patch that said do not pet but it did nothing and looked tacky so I took it off. If people asked nicely at lunch I would have my dog sit, remove the vest, and let them pet him because that is the procedure, they learn they don't solicit petting when the vest is on. However, while walking between classes, people would reach down and pet him while walking by in the halls and that definitely is annoying and doesn't help trying to teach the dog to not seek pets while in a vest. People just need to learn common sense, do not pet a working dog. They are doing a job and can't be distracted or be encouraged to behave poorly.

 

[Rosanne]

You’ve been a pass holder for 10 years, but you don’t know that they have the Christmas parties this time of year? Or you don’t double check the hours before you make the trip?

You are right. We were STUPID to drive to Disney and expect to stay our usual hours until 10 so we could see the Xmas show on the castle. We have never had to check in previous years (long ago) to see about Xmas parties or magic hours. STUPID us for continuing to pay for resident passes year round and having less and less hours to use them. Maybe its time for us to smarten up and stop paying!

 

[Rosanne]

You’ve been a pass holder for 10 years, but you don’t know that they have the Christmas parties this time of year? Or you don’t double check the hours before you make the trip?

BTW - We have been going to Disney for about 50 yrs. First in Disneyland & now Disneyworld. The times have changed for faithful Disney goers. No, we never had to check for hours, our tickets got us in the gate until the park closed. I know, time marches on. Now the parks are making alot more money with Magic Hours & special parties. You cant just "up & go" to a park anymore on the spur of the moment. Now you have to go online, try and get Fast Passes (they are always all gone) and check the hours.

 

[NickMaio]

BTW - We have been going to Disney for about 50 yrs. First in Disneyland & now Disneyworld. The times have changed for faithful Disney goers. No, we never had to check for hours, our tickets got us in the gate until the park closed. I know, time marches on. Now the parks are making alot more money with Magic Hours & special parties. You cant just "up & go" to a park anymore on the spur of the moment. Now you have to go online, try and get Fast Passes (they are always all gone) and check the hours.

Sadly, this is what WDW has become. Greed and more greed.
Disney was built on repeat customers now they choose to alienate "most" of them.
We also do not like this new direction the theme park division has been going.
All we can do is voice our concerns and pull back.

 

[Rosanne]

Sadly, this is what WDW has become. Greed and more greed.
Disney was built on repeat customers now they choose to alienate "most" of them.
We also do not like this new direction the theme park division has been going.
All we can do is voice our concerns and pull back.

That's exactly what we are doing. The chances of us getting in to see Star Wars or Pandora are zero. So what's the point of continuing to pay year round? All of the resorts get the passes 60 days in advance. By the time we get on at 30 days advance, passes are gone. We are faithful fans of Disney, but now we are seniors. We cannot (wont) wait in 3 hour long lines. It really is sad.

 

[Victor Kelly]

I had always wanted to move to Florida. For the weather and for the parks. But now, just for the weather. I have other things to spend my money on than to spend thousands per year for theme parks.

 

[Rosanne]

I had always wanted to move to Florida. For the weather and for the parks. But now, just for the weather. I have other things to spend my money on than to spend thousands per year for theme parks.

The parks used to be a wonderful escape where everyone was happy and having a good time. Now people are grumpy because they paid a lot to get in and then only got on a few rides after waiting in long lines. I feel sorry for the poor little kids that are waiting in line for hours for a few minutes ride. They are whining and crying & their parents ignore them. If you were a resident of Florida you can get an annual pass and its not "thousands" however, the thrill is starting to fade.

 

[Lilofan]

The parks used to be a wonderful escape where everyone was happy and having a good time. Now people are grumpy because they paid a lot to get in and then only got on a few rides after waiting in long lines. I feel sorry for the poor little kids that are waiting in line for hours for a few minutes ride. They are whining and crying & their parents ignore them. If you were a resident of Florida you can get an annual pass and its not "thousands" however, the thrill is starting to fade.

I think this can improve guest service. The cast members have free access to the parks. The grumpy ones, and there are plenty of them, should experience the park as a guest to recharge their senses and get their magic back.

 

[Rosanne]

I think this can improve guest service. The cast members have free access to the parks. The grumpy ones, and there are plenty of them, should experience the park as a guest to recharge their senses and get their magic back.

I guess the cast members get grumpy too since they are being pushed, shoved & poked by the crowds. Its just not a good day anymore. They need to think of something else to disperse the crowds. I hate the new fast passes. The ones they had before (kiosks) worked better. Now people put in for the passes and dont bother to cancel them if they cant make the ride or change their minds. That means people that do want to ride cant get a pass. Bad System.

 

[ChrisFL]

AP's should get 50% off party night tickets IMO and maybe just for select nights where the crowds are expected to be lower.

I also think FP needs to go the way of the dodo (no offense to dodos)

 

[MAGICFLOP]

Service dog in WDW is a smart thing for your dog... Let them spend hours walking on hot pavement, not only a toll on the paws, but their body is even closer to the cement to catch the radiant heat...

 

[RobWDW1971]

.

The parks used to be a wonderful escape where everyone was happy and having a good time. Now people are grumpy because they paid a lot to get in and then only got on a few rides after waiting in long lines. I feel sorry for the poor little kids that are waiting in line for hours for a few minutes ride. They are whining and crying & their parents ignore them. If you were a resident of Florida you can get an annual pass and its not "thousands" however, the thrill is starting to fade.

I think Fastpass has caused a lot of this tension - the stress of getting Fastpasses in advance, constantly looking at your phone to get new ones, being locked into a schedule, and the suffering of having to wait in a Stand By line that never moves.

The days of leisurely wandering the park, lines that always move quickly, and the feeling of freedom and spontaneity is gone forever unfortunately.

 

[Rosanne]

The days of leisurely wandering the park, lines that always move quickly, and the feeling of freedom and spontaneity is gone forever unfortunately.

And it has been replaced by greed and $$$$$. So no changes. Just more ways to make more money. I wonder what Walt would have to say if he saw his vision today. Just imagine if everyone was to boycott the parks and not go for just ONE DAY in protest of long lines. Maybe the cut off amount of how many people in a park should be less to stop the long lines

 

[Victor Kelly]

We are reaching that tipping point where people are starting to back away from going. I am sure that Disney is registering complaints about wait times, disparity of FP to standby ratios, and prices. Double selling the parks does not help. Then cutting back hours of operation makes it feel that you are not getting your money's worth.

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

with so many dogs in the parks, has anyone stepped in dog poop?

 

[WDWTrojan]

Fastpass is a mess generally but, for whatever reason, really is just overused at MK. There is zero reason why Buzz Lightyear or the Haunted Mansion should have a FP queue out the door. Some friends told me the FP line for Thunder extended all the way past Splash recently. I understand sometimes downtimes lead to backups later in the day, but there is no excuse. They're giving out way, way too many.

 

[Rosanne]

Fastpass is a mess generally but, for whatever reason, really is just overused at MK. There is zero reason why Buzz Lightyear or the Haunted Mansion should have a FP queue out the door. Some friends told me the FP line for Thunder extended all the way past Splash recently. I understand sometimes downtimes lead to backups later in the day, but there is no excuse. They're giving out way, way too many.

There giving out fast passes and then people dont use them. There has to be a way to control people having passes and then dont cancel them if they arent going to use them.

 

[Rosanne]

We are reaching that tipping point where people are starting to back away from going. I am sure that Disney is registering complaints about wait times, disparity of FP to standby ratios, and prices. Double selling the parks does not help. Then cutting back hours of operation makes it feel that you are not getting your money's worth.

I hope so. I'm afraid the gate price will keep going up and people will still keep going. I know the long lines keep us from going. What's the point of being there if you cant ride? A 2 or 3 hour wait for a 3 or 4 minute ride is insane.

 

[Lilofan]

I hope so. I'm afraid the gate price will keep going up and people will still keep going. I know the long lines keep us from going. What's the point of being there if you cant ride? A 2 or 3 hour wait for a 3 or 4 minute ride is insane.

In the mid 1990s when I rode Body Wars in Epcot, the wait was about 2 hours before fast pass. But at least one can talk to your neighbor instead of guests glued from their face to their iPhone screen.

 

[WDWTrojan]

There giving out fast passes and then people dont use them. There has to be a way to control people having passes and then dont cancel them if they arent going to use them.

That is not the issue here. The issue here is that too many people have them and too many people are using them. When you see a FP+ line that takes 30 minutes because it's all the way down to FP Return, that is devaluing the already limited value FP+ has.