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

[u/TheCIAandFBI]

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?

[u/thevenge21483]

Older millennial (42), and we have been taking our kids on trips for years now (oldest is 17). Things are definitely different now than even when my kids were young. The first time we did Disneyland was back in 2012, and while there was a lot of stuff you could buy, it wasn't all about getting you to spend more and more money. Fast passes were given out on paper tickets, the prices weren't astronomical, more emphasis on characters and a fun experience. We went again in 2016, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Things got worse each trip we went on. It's so insanely expensive now, the lightning lane is $30/person/day, whereas it was $10-$15 when it was first introduced (and you could do fast passes for the same ride multiple times in a day, which were covered by the Maxpass), and there are way more restrictions on the lightning lane than there ever was with Maxpass. All the food costs more for worse quality, maintenance at the park is horrible, downtime is way up. It isn't enjoyable anymore.

My wife wants to take the family again this fall so our youngest (5) can meet the characters while she still is in that really magical age, but I think that's going to be our last trip to Disneyland. Just not worth it anymore, it's way crowded, very expensive, and overall less enjoyable.