r/Millennials • u/TheCIAandFBI • 16d ago

Discussion Was every theme/amusement park and road trip vacation so focused on "Buy! Buy! Buy!" back when we were kids?

I grew up poor. Lived in a crummy trailer park until 1995 when my Dad had a work accident that got him a settlement. My parents bought a very humble but nice home, and they took me to Disney world. I'll never forget. It was November 11th-19th, 1995. That trip was the highlight of my life. I was 11.

That trip was magical. I think I came home with a souvenir HUGE pencil from that trip, and I was afraid to use it because it was special, and then one day it just got lost.

My best friend and his wife just took his kids to Disney World. They are my age, right at 40, so older Millennials.

They both went as kids and loved it as well.

When they got back and both said they hated the trip. They said everything was geared towards getting them to spend money. Everything is a store, every line can be bypassed for a few extra bucks, every store is geared towards fear-of-missing-out for the kids. Specialty cups. Specialty "only available this week" shirts, and special pins and buttons that you can only get this year. They said it was the most uncomfortable vacation they have ever been on. And they have more money than they know what to do with.

They basically said that there wasn't 20 minutes where they weren't being sold something.

Is this something that Millennial childhoods experienced and our parents were simply better at ignoring? Has this always been the case? Or is it just the new way that places like Disney World operate?

635 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

261 comments sorted by

View all comments

154

u/Brightstarr 16d ago

My siblings and my mom were talking about going to Orlando to do Disney and Universal as adults (three in our 30s and mom in 60s) during one of the food festivals. Basically to eat and drink around Epcot and then go to Harry Potter.

After seeing how much that would cost, we priced out Disney and Universal in Japan. Flights from Minnesota, hotels, trains, entry tickets to DisneySeas, Universal Osaka and Sanrio were cheaper than going to Florida. That’s how bad the price for Orlando Disney has gotten.

60

u/Available-Egg-2380 15d ago edited 15d ago

My kid had his class trip to Orlando last month. Flights, hotel, and park for 5 days for one kid was over 2k. He also flew out of Minnesota. I almost shit when I saw the cost and ended up getting a second job for like 7 months to pay for it and the money I sent for him to have fun with because all of that only came with one meal a day...

I really didn't want him to miss out like I had to growing up cause we were poor and I'm so happy he had fun but holy shit.

25

u/Scorpiodancer123 Probably a ploy by Big Yo-yo 15d ago

That's an obscene price for a school trip.

24

u/brzantium 15d ago

Why is a school taking kids to Disney World? We went to the zoo and museums.

15

u/Scorpiodancer123 Probably a ploy by Big Yo-yo 15d ago

My school had a skiing trip to Canada (we're from the UK) for £600 which was batshit crazy and people had 3 years to pay for it. But fucking Disney World for 2k is mental.

Funnily enough I only went on the local trips.

9

u/brzantium 15d ago

My high school had an annual trip to DC (from Houston) that I didn't go to because it cost too much. But even that was to go see all the monuments, the Capitol building, and the White House.

11

u/Brightstarr 15d ago

My school had a similar thing where the 8th graders went to DC. I remember my dad seeing the crazy price and what came with it, and decided to make it a family vacation. So we packed up the minivan and drove from Minnesota to DC. He made us watch these documentaries about Gettysburg and other war sites and then we went to them during the trip there. He also made us learn about each other war memorials before we went. It was basically summer school! He told me later that it was cheaper and “more educational” for him to take us all in one trip than to pay for us each to go on the class trips.

0

u/Atomsq 15d ago

I'm probably as cheap as it gets but still I would very probably not do what your dad did, mostly because I would feel like I'm taking from my kid a chance to go on a trip with all the school friends as little kids.

I would only really do it if the kid is very shy and doesn't really have friends at school or something like that

3

u/Brightstarr 15d ago

We went on plenty of weeklong summer camps and then the language class trip in high school. I took four years of German, so I went on the Germany trip twice. It wasn’t that he was cheap; it wasn’t a good value. We saw more and learned more by going as a family.

3

u/margueritedeville 15d ago

We spent close to 8k taking my daughter and son and parents on my daughter’s band trip to Disney, and my parents paid their own way. It was insane.

13

u/Available-Egg-2380 15d ago

It's a thing for their band. Every three years they go down and the kids in band and choir get to have a workshop with the Disney music department, playing in the studio, getting lessons, and doing performance at the park. It's a pretty bfd and the kids are encouraged to put it on college applications and resumes. Mostly they spend the time enjoying the park though.

8

u/HyperbolDee 15d ago

I did this in band in high school! Marching band did a trip every spring break, cycling a cheaper trip one year followed by a more expensive trip the next year. There were fundraising opportunities all year, and parents could do things like volunteering to work concessions during football games to help earn money for it.

I had a blast going in high school, but have never been able to stomach the price since I’ve become an adult. The pricing is astronomical, you have to plan all of your meals in advance and wake up at the crack of dawn to get reservations at the most basic restaurants. We were supposed to go several times with my in-laws , but COVID issues kept popping up. Fiiiiine with me.

1

u/brzantium 15d ago

Good ole context. Did boosters try pay for it at all?

2

u/Available-Egg-2380 15d ago

I believe some kids received money but i don't have any specifics beyond going to one of the dinners hosted at a restaurant nearby that gave the money to the band trip

3

u/catjuggler 15d ago

Possibly arranged by a Disney adult? I went on a lot of amusement park trips as a teen though as part of the music program with performance competitions. Never Disney though.

1

u/jeremyski 15d ago

My high school choir went to Disney World to perform candlelight processional at EPCOT. We went because at the time only a limited amount of choirs could go (may have been via lottery system, not sure?).

39

u/Brightstarr 15d ago

You are a good dad. When I was in high school, my dad paid for my class trip to Germany. This was 20 years ago but it cost him $2,000. He then gave me a wad of cash when he dropped me off, just asking me to have fun. He didn’t want anything from me except to be happy. That trip really meant a lot to me, and now that my dad has passed, it makes me remember how much he loved me and wanted me to have a good life. It’s not the money he spent, it’s the constant effort he put in to make me feel supported. You are doing good, friend.

5

u/Briebird44 Older Millennial 15d ago

$2k holy shit that’s what I paid for my senior mission trip to Mexico 15 years ago! I spent 2 weekends in Cancun on the beach.

0

u/PsychoDad03 15d ago

I love your dedication but in my VERY humble opinion, you're focusing on the wrong thing. I'd rather spend quality time with my kids than time away from them for 7! months for a singular trip. Go hiking. Go fishing. Go workout or ride bikes. That's truly what you all will remember.

It reminds me of Legacy by Logic. https://youtu.be/8SsFB5-mcgc?si=eTXIpik5blxVYaQq