Well, nothing like talking about the fact WDW is ground zero for 500-pounders on vacation (no hate there, just fact) to push this 'wittle thread close to 100 pages. I figure we can top that tonight.
I haven't had time to spend here today, but just skimmed six pages and think
@flynnibus actually got the dynamic quite right (be careful, though, he really enjoys being right!)
Flynn used the word 'coddled' to explain the HUGE growth in morbid obese folks vacationing at WDW. Let's not talk about what causes it (the most common and simple reason is the right one: eating huge amounts of unhealthy food and not exercising) ... let's not demonize the people (I don't. I have lost family to this horrible affliction) ... but let's also not justify it and excuse it ('oh, there's some mysterious reason you can't tell for why Melba weights 476 pounds and it has nothing to do with the burger basket she's eating while running folks over on her ECV!') ... and let's instead focus on how it affects WDW and everyone's experiences since Disney has decided to CODDLE these people.
For a company that claims to be interested in healthy eating (yeah, push those grapes or carrots with kiddie meals and people might forget how unhealthy much of your cooking really is!), they make sure that every menu has loads of options for someone looking to have a 3,000 calorie meal.
Why coddle morbidly obese folks? Well, many of them are loaded. Between disability checks and government assistance, they are buying DVC, they are spending weeks a year at WDW and they are eating and drinking their ways around the world. Food addictions are in the same category as booze, drugs, se-x, online, gambling etc. They destroy lives and affect all of us. Do you coddle a meth head? Someone who spends eight hours a day watching online ? How about someone who puts their paychecks into slot machines? Why are food addictions the stuff of ''they can't help themselves'' but someone who is a drug addict is a pariah? I don't care that you may find the above to be provocative. We are almost all adults here and this is a very simple point.
How does it effect you and I?
Well, beyond the tax and societal implications of having a supersized population, it has resulted in massive changes at WDW.
Green spaces, trees and planters have given way to more concrete walkways to allow the people with their ECVs and double wide strollers to navigate the parks. Shops, which at one time you'd be hardpressed to find a small stroller inside, are designed with HUGE empty spaces to make these folks more comfortable when shopping. Often the ECVs and strollers wind up damaging expensive displays or parts of the shops, so they get dumbed down and we all get a lesser experience.
Now, Disney wants to make it easier for ECV users to never get up and hence you have attractions constantly interrupted to load folks in special vehicles or, if they have to get out, stopped to let them on or off. Show quality for all suffers for the few.
ECVs also do a job on resorts. They have filthy wheels that go from theme parks to carpeted hallways and track in who knows what. They are often driven by folks who don't have them at home, so they tend to bump into things (and people) easily. Damage happens. I once saw a woman take a chunk of wall out at either BC or YC while trying to manuever in hallways not built for motorized vehicles.
WDI now designs WDW with larger people in mind. To me, that is the polar opposite of how a socially responsible company should conduct itself. Let's not confuse doing the right thing with doing the politically correct thing. Look at what UNI does. You think ECVs are common in WWoHP's shops? Show quality triumphs over trying to cater to a group.
I really don't wish to have this discussion prattle on while being labeled a 'hater' by folks who can't read the words on their screens or can't digest what is being fed to them. But WDW -- and TWDC -- has made conscious financially based choices to coddle people in a lifestyle that will lead these guests to illness and early death. Those are facts. I don't particularly like that they are. But most of the time (with a few exceptions) I don't help set Disney policy.
You can hate the fat and not the person. And you can understand that Disney's way of dealing with them is yet another way the company makes some of us feel very slimy.
