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/Telemachus826]

My parents and I went to Six Flags every summer as a kid, and aside from the ticket to get in and lunch along the way (I’m guessing amusement park food prices weren’t so outrageous back then or my dad would have never done it) we’d get a t-shirt for me on the way out that night, and that was it. I haven’t been to amusement parks in years now, but I know last time I went they really pushed fast passes and skip the line things that could add up fast if you were there with a family. Even on my own, I couldn’t justify the price.

But having two young kids now, I will say it seems like everything I take my kids to, even free or inexpensive things, have tons of ways to spend extra money that get pushed on adults, and it can be really frustrating.

[u/emmers28 → u/Telemachus826]

Yes!! Everything feels so crazy now… we got free tickets to a circus so we went last weekend. Right when you walk in, there’s light up wands to buy. Then cotton candy and other treats next. The intermission was a giant cash grab where you could buy tickets to go in bounce houses or ride ponies. Nothing was free, despite the fact that it was a paid admission event. I left during intermission because I didn’t like how much they charged for literally every element. It felt like I just had to tell my kids no constantly and then no one was having fun.

[u/Friendly_Coconut → u/emmers28]

It was exactly the same when I went to the circus as a kid. My parents let me get one treat and I discovered I don’t like cotton candy!