WDW Ticket Price Hike: Changing the Guest Dynamic

[Dwarful]

You know I talked to my husband about this thread. And we had a very interesting discussion. There were a few things we noticed this trip more than we had on previous trips....
1. More people bringing in rolling coolers/backpacks ..big ones..I didn't think they were allowed in the parks, but we saw lots of people dragging those things around. We were enjoying an ice cream in Epcot (you know the ice cream shop near Club Cool?) and a group of 8 -10 people had taken tables and seats outside and had themselves a full fledged picnic...they brought in bread, lunchmeat, mustard, mayo, sliced cheese, chips, cookies, bottled water..which they refilled at the water fountains when they were done. To me that is too much work. But we did see lots of people dragging those things around with drinks/snacks.

2. More people using any old cup at the resort food court. Some people were even using those thin little plastic cups you get by the sink. We also saw lots of families buying one water park mug, scanning the bar code and then filling up several different cups- resort cups, tupperware cups, etc.

3. lots of people asking for cups of ice water at various stands instead of buying a soda for $2 - $3 Some people even had those little flavor packets to add to the water.

Now maybe a lot of people were already doing these things and we just never noticed, or more people were doing these little things to help stretch their vacation money. I am not sure. But I know we now hate rolling coolers/backpacks more than strollers and evcs!

 

[SleepingMonk]

Hmmmm....

Q. Are there any personal items I should not bring with me into the Theme Parks?

A. Items that you may not bring into the Theme Parks include, but are not limited to:

Items with wheels, such as wagons, skateboards, scooters, inline skates, shoes with built-in wheels, two-wheeled or three-wheeled conveyances, strollers larger than 36" x 52", suitcases, coolers, or backpacks with or without wheels larger than 24" long x 15" wide x 18" high (coolers required for medication may be stored in a locker or at Guest Relations), and any trailer-like object that is pushed or towed by an ECV wheelchair or stroller
Alcoholic beverages
Weapons of any kind
Folding chairs
Glass containers (excluding baby food jars and perfume bottles)
Pets (unless they are service animals)
In Disney's Animal Kingdom® Theme Park (for the safety of the wildlife), balloons, straws and drink lids are not permitted.


Note: Guests are not permitted to pull items behind them. Any item that requires a Guest to pull it behind them, including a stroller, is not permitted into the Park.

 

[Dwarful]

I was pretty sure they weren't allowed. We only saw two kids with Heelys on the entire two weeks. One photo pass photographer stopped one kids and the grandma about had a coniption fit. Like poor Jimmy was being denied air to breathe or something. But those rolling cooler like backpacks were a real pain in the neck.

 

[coasterphil]

Full size coolers and rolling bags of any size are not allowed, but you'll almost never see a security guard say a thing about it. The fact that they let it slide when they actually inspect the bags/coolers pretty much leave the CMs in the park with an impossible task. How can the guest believe the item isn't allowed when security checks it and lets them move to the entrance?

 

[Dwarful]

Normally I don't care what other guests do if it doesn't impact my trip..i.e. big kids in strollers, over stuffed back packs, etc., Perhaps we saw more of it because we were there two full weeks..I don't know..but more than once we about fell over someone dragging a cooler/backpack behind them, or someone who sat the bag down in the store aisle while they shopped, etc. I can see the safety issue, but I can also see the difficulty in the control.