What if Disney went dry......

[larryz]

Why does Epcot need to become a playground for drunk adults??

Rather, it has become a playground for adults where they can drink. And because the world.

This thread brought to you by the Japan Pearl Divers Benevolent Association.

 

[unmitigated disaster]

I do wonder why people who just want to go somewhere on vacation and get soused just don't hit up an all-inclusive. Disney (or Florence, Italy or a jungle lodge geared towards wildlife in Costa Rica or a National Park campground or......) would simply not be my first choice.

 

[GoofGoof]

Everything you're talking about, while being valid ideas, would cut into Disney's revenue stream. As long as people aren't puking everywhere you look, things are gonna continue as they are.

Of course this is true. This is purely an academic debate around what could be done. I agree that barring some major problems nothing will change.

 

[GoofGoof]

I think someone else mentioned, earlier in the thread, a good idea. Limit drinks to 2 or 3 per person (I think 2 would be better), tie drink limits to the Magic-Band or physical ticket (not the RFID itself but the ticket number, since some (like myself) still use the Magic-Band 1, which fortunately still works for touch-access), require a Magic-Band or ticket scan in order to obtain an alcoholic beverage. I definitely support something like this, because while you could get around it if determined enough, it'd require an extra step for people to get their alcohol and some might decide it's not worth the trouble to bother their party members for alcohol. It does bring up some problems (what about large parties who have 3 or 4 members that want to get drinks, for instance?) but that's easily resolved by requiring each party member to scan their ticket or band and only allowing one drink per scanned band.

I like the idea of removing drink carts... as long as the one by the Rock'n'Roller Coaster isn't counted, because that's the only place Tito's & Frozen Lemonade can be found, as far as I know.

The drink limit thing works in theory. At my office they occasionally have a happy hour type thing where they serve beer and wine and they use actual paper tickets. 2 per person. I think it’s a lot harder at a place like WDW where you have so many people and so many options for places to drink. Do you extend it outside the parks to resorts and Disney Springs? If not it would be easy enough to get wasted at the hotel then walk into a park. I still think the best line of defense is training your servers to see the signs and empower them to flag guests and cut them off.

I don’t know if getting rid of all drink carts is the answer either but it seems to me that they would provide the most likely way to abuse alcohol.

 

[Raineman]

I do wonder why people who just want to go somewhere on vacation and get soused just don't hit up an all-inclusive. Disney (or Florence, Italy or a jungle lodge geared towards wildlife in Costa Rica or a National Park campground or......) would simply not be my first choice.

We go to WDW every 2 years and to an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean almost every year, and they are two completely different kinds of vacations for us. One is for relaxing on the beach with a drink in your hand, and the other is for having fun. Not saying I don’t have a drink or two at WDW, but that’s no where near our focus while we are there. I want to remember every moment at WDW, not have a bunch of fuzzy or non existent memories caused by too much booze.

 

[GoofGoof]

I do wonder why people who just want to go somewhere on vacation and get soused just don't hit up an all-inclusive. Disney (or Florence, Italy or a jungle lodge geared towards wildlife in Costa Rica or a National Park campground or......) would simply not be my first choice.

I would tend to agree WDW isn’t the ideal spot for a drunken weekend bender, but not everyone partaking at EPCOT or other spots is there just for a bender. They could be there for a number of reasons.

• There are a ton of conventions in Orlando and I know when I’m traveling for work and especially if I’m not picking up the tab I’m going to have a few.
• Some people may want to do a traditional WDW trip but choose to have one night out “drinking around the world”. Especially popular for extended family trips where grandma and grandpa could take the kids for one night.
• When I was a young man in my early 20s I made a few trips to WDW with friends. We loved everything about the Disney parks but also enjoyed a little nightlife. This was back in the heyday of PI. We hit the parks at rope drop and ended every night with the New Years Eve celebration at PI. I didn’t drink a ton in the parks back then since there was a designated place to go do that which was really fun.
• The final example could be the family that splits up. Mom takes the kids on the Frozen ride while dad hits a bar for a few drinks. I’ve done this a few times with group trips where we traveled with multiple families. My brother and I hit a bar for a drink while my mom, wife and sister in law took the kids on some ride. If you happened to walk by and see us you may have assumed we were just 2 guys on a bender at EPCOT. Unfortunately for us the line wasn’t very long and we only had time for 1 drink so not much of a bender

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Agreed. I saw a noticeable increase in drinking related shirts on my last trip. There's something not quite right about seeing a T-shirt with a drunken Mickey on it, accompanied by a related slogan in the iconic Disney font.

I don't necessarily disagree with that in theory. I do enjoy drinking at WDW, and not just two. Now that I've done everything a billion times, a nice buzz (vs. "drunk") does make the experience more fun, the lines and crowds more tolerable, etc. And sometimes we really just sit at a bar and don't bother with the attractions much. We are likely to do a non-park trip in the future, and a Disney Cruise in the next year.

We "drink around the world" in our own way - mainly at the festivals, but we're not getting wrecked at that, not trying to have a drink at every country. We stop at every country and read the menu, and if a drink sounds worth the price because it's something different, we'll order 1 or 2 food items plus that one drink, and we'll share that drink until we get to another country that has an interesting drink or food item.

Usually, by the time we get to Germany, we've had so little to actually drink, we grab a "normal sized" hefeweizen (grapefruit beer.)

I would not wear shirts advertising trying to get sloshed. It seems...too young for us, too attention-seeking, and kind of cringeworthy.

That said, to each their own!

Rather, it has become a playground for adults where they can drink.

Yes. And I thank them for that.

 

[PeculiarReality]

The drink limit thing works in theory. At my office they occasionally have a happy hour type thing where they serve beer and wine and they use actual paper tickets. 2 per person. I think it’s a lot harder at a place like WDW where you have so many people and so many options for places to drink. Do you extend it outside the parks to resorts and Disney Springs? If not it would be easy enough to get wasted at the hotel then walk into a park. I still think the best line of defense is training your servers to see the signs and empower them to flag guests and cut them off.

I don’t know if getting rid of all drink carts is the answer either but it seems to me that they would provide the most likely way to abuse alcohol.

Oh yeah, I agree. It would definitely be hard to enforce. Now that I'm thinking about it, thought, what about a time-based limit? Still tie it to the actual park ticket, but, for instance, maybe a 4 or 8 hour limit? Because generally, dependent on factors such as weight and the person's actual metabolism, an average serving of alcohol metabolizes in just one to three hours, so set a decent limit of time to allow for people who like to have drinks back at the hotel. And close to park closing, remove the limit at hotels only because again, some people like to drink at their hotel.

I think that getting rid of most drink carts is definitely a good idea. Just leave a few that have unique drinks you can't get anywhere else, keep the rest of the drinking limited to sit-down restaurants, and maybe a system like one of the ones I've proposed, and it'll probably be a lot easier to deal with those who find a way around it.

 

[Walt Disney1955]

It is served in MK restaurants now. Walt was a drinker and yet possibly for that reason, he did not allow it in the parks. And no, it is not okay in Epcot! Please read my post. It has ruined Epcot, IMO. Why does Epcot need to become a playground for drunk adults??

I was just thinking of the Food and Wine Festival, which is pretty popular so it might be hard to get rid of that. I am not much of a drinker, if alcohol was removed from the earth my life would barely change at all. I wouldn't notice much.

 

[BraveGirl]

I do wonder why people who just want to go somewhere on vacation and get soused just don't hit up an all-inclusive. Disney (or Florence, Italy or a jungle lodge geared towards wildlife in Costa Rica or a National Park campground or......) would simply not be my first choice.

Yes. My friend just "drank around the world" this past weekend and all I could think of was how much money he literally peed down the toilets. I would prefer to use that money for an additional day in the parks!

 

[GoofGoof]

Yes. My friend just "drank around the world" this past weekend and all I could think of was how much money he literally peed down the toilets. I would prefer to use that money for an additional day in the parks!

On the bright side at least he made it to the toilets

 

[Qscout]

We go to WDW every couple of years from UK, and yes we enjoy a drink. It is just my wife and I in our late 30's without children and this is a 2 week holiday that we pay big money for and thoroughly enjoy. Because we are there for 2 weeks we take our time, and coming from the UK we enjoy the heat.

So yes we take our time and arrive in the parks later in the day maybe around 11:00 or 12 and think a nice cold beer would be nice. We have never been intoxicated at disney world, though, have been a bit buzzed after cocktails and wine after dinner in Sanaa. We like to stroll around and have margaritas, wine and beers in EPCOT for us WDW isn't just about the rides, its the atmosphere and two very valuable weeks away just the two of us and that includes sitting and enjoying some drinks in the Florida sun.

Like any other establishment, anyone too drunk or causing trouble should be removed.

Maybe coming from the UK I don't fully understand Disney being implicated if someone is DUI. If some has drunk too much then drives that is on them, surely Disney kicking them out of the park, has no bearing on whether they drive or not?

Removing alcohol from the parks may solve the problem, but at the same time would hit revenue, and make Disney much less enjoyable for us.

 

[righttrack]

I don't believe that alcohol being served impacts guest bad behavior because frankly those bad-behaving guests will find a way to drink, toke, etc as a pregame before even getting to the parks. It's also super expensive to drink at WDW anyway. As an adult with adult children I enjoy being able to do things and bond together and sometimes having a drink together is part of that experience. It's also a vacation, 100s or 1000s of miles from home. I like to try new things so a cocktail I wouldn't be caught dead ordering in my local restaurant, or a local beer I can't get at home or a wine makes for an overall nice vacation experience. Vacations aren't limiting. They are times and places to experience things and alcohol is part of that. As for the moderation part, I think the prices take care of that for most people. We aren't going to sit and have 5 drinks each somewhere, especially when there is so much else to do.

 

[unmitigated disaster]

I suspect it someone is kicked out for drunkenness they won't let them drive.

 

[Bpmorley]

if the parks went dry I'd probably never visit the world showcase again. Besides that WS it wouldn't really matter to me. Now if the resort went dry that would be a different story. Although I always bring my own beer, I do like having beer or booze with a nice dinner. I already eat most of my meals off property, that would make do all of them off property. They'd probably be doing my a favor though, figuring the amount disney charges compared to what off property does.

 

[yensid67]

I don’t think it would do anything except like stated above, have Disney lose money.

Bad behavior would still happen, because then people who NEED to drink a lot, would just do so off park, and show up drunk.

buttheads gonna be buttheads

I don’t know how people would want to get wasted drunk on a Disney vacation...seems like you’d miss a lot

...and why pay all that money for any vacation if you're gonna drink and get drunk!? You can do that at home for free!
But I am a non drinker and I would not mind if the Alcohol offerings were only at VERY SELECT restaurants and LIMITED to 2 per day per guest. This way Disney would still be making money, but at a slower rate. You go on vacation to escape your life and go somewhere that you normally don't go, why screw it up by drinking and getting drunk!? That's why I say there should be a limited drink per guest. Because not only are you screwing your vacation up for you by drinking, you most likely offended or mouthed off at someone and cause a scene for others travelling with you, who might be a little PO'd at you for drinking! YOU DO NOT NEED TO DRINK TO HAVE A GOOD TIME! YOU CREATE YOUR OWN GOOD TIME!

 

[Hockey89]

...and why pay all that money for any vacation if you're gonna drink and get drunk!? You can do that at home for free!
But I am a non drinker and I would not mind if the Alcohol offerings were only at VERY SELECT restaurants and LIMITED to 2 per day per guest. This way Disney would still be making money, but at a slower rate. You go on vacation to escape your life and go somewhere that you normally don't go, why screw it up by drinking and getting drunk!? That's why I say there should be a limited drink per guest. Because not only are you screwing your vacation up for you by drinking, you most likely offended or mouthed off at someone and cause a scene for others travelling with you, who might be a little PO'd at you for drinking! YOU DO NOT NEED TO DRINK TO HAVE A GOOD TIME! YOU CREATE YOUR OWN GOOD TIME!

THANKS FOR THE IMPUT AND I'LL STILL DRINK.... WHY I CAN AFFORD IT AND I ENJOY IT ON VACATION.... THANKS AGAIN...

 

[GoofGoof]

...and why pay all that money for any vacation if you're gonna drink and get drunk!? You can do that at home for free!
But I am a non drinker and I would not mind if the Alcohol offerings were only at VERY SELECT restaurants and LIMITED to 2 per day per guest. This way Disney would still be making money, but at a slower rate. You go on vacation to escape your life and go somewhere that you normally don't go, why screw it up by drinking and getting drunk!? That's why I say there should be a limited drink per guest. Because not only are you screwing your vacation up for you by drinking, you most likely offended or mouthed off at someone and cause a scene for others travelling with you, who might be a little PO'd at you for drinking! YOU DO NOT NEED TO DRINK TO HAVE A GOOD TIME! YOU CREATE YOUR OWN GOOD TIME!

Do you realize that the vast majority of people who drink alcohol don’t act this way? I realize you said you don’t drink so maybe you are just making incorrect assumptions based on incomplete information. It happens. I could list off a bunch of stories posted on these boards alone about people mouthing off to fellow guests and/or creating a scene and the vast majority of them did not involve people who were drunk or drinking. Bad behavior is bad behavior.

Most people probably don’t need to drink to have a good time. No need to scream it...most people agree with that . They also don’t need ice cream or Mickey pretzels or a dole whip, but those things enhance people’s experience if that’s what makes them happy. If you don’t like drinking and feel it would screw up your vacation don’t do it. Nobody is making you drink.

The 2 drink limit was brought up before, but it’s just not practical to enforce and quite frankly not necessary. The vast majority of guests probably limit themselves on their own based on desire or lack of funds If your time at WDW is adversely impacted by the bad behavior of a fellow guest who is intoxicated you should complain to a CM. It’s much easier to remove the offenders than to restrict everyone on the chance that someone could act up. I’ve seen guests reprimanded and removed for public drunkenness. Now if your beef is not even wanting to see someone with a drink in their hand thats a different story. In that case you need to limit yourself to places that are dry...WDW is not one.

 

[networkpro]

...and why pay all that money for any vacation if you're gonna drink and get drunk!? You can do that at home for free!
But I am a non drinker and I would not mind if the Alcohol offerings were only at VERY SELECT restaurants and LIMITED to 2 per day per guest. This way Disney would still be making money, but at a slower rate. You go on vacation to escape your life and go somewhere that you normally don't go, why screw it up by drinking and getting drunk!? That's why I say there should be a limited drink per guest. Because not only are you screwing your vacation up for you by drinking, you most likely offended or mouthed off at someone and cause a scene for others travelling with you, who might be a little PO'd at you for drinking! YOU DO NOT NEED TO DRINK TO HAVE A GOOD TIME! YOU CREATE YOUR OWN GOOD TIME!

Nice broad brush you just slapped over mankind. Generalizations like this are why politicians get elected because the details dont matter to some.

 

[Victor Kelly]

Would not bother me. I don't mind a drink now and then, but I am more of an eater not drinker at WDW.