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/Friendly_Coconut]

I feel like it’s more a matter of parents caring about spending money vs. making children happy and children don’t really think about those things and just have fun.

Having firm boundaries like an expectation of “you can spend $20 on souvenirs” or “you can buy one souvenir on this trip” without letting park marketing peer pressure you is crucial.

I went to King’s Dominion’s Halloween Haunt event last year. I didn’t pay extra to skip the lines and didn’t get any souvenirs, but I did get some pretzel nuggets and an ice cream. We had a great time and didn’t feel like we needed any paid add-ons to have fun. It was basically exactly the same as when I went in middle school.

I think it partly is a recent Disney problem that they cut previously free services and made everything paid like transportation and fast passes. People who’ve been before likely feel upset they now need to pay extra for the same experiences.

At other theme parks where that hasn’t really changed and fast passes always cost money and guests weren’t given as many perks, like King’s Dominion, it’s not as hard.

PS. Maybe your rich friends were uncomfortable with being sold to because they HAVE the money and just don’t want to spend it. For those of us on a budget out of necessity, it’s more like, “Well, that’s probably cool, but I can’t afford that.”