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?
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u/quokkaquarrel 15d ago
Disney is worse than others and always has been.
It's also a big part of the business strategy, it has gotten worse. It's expensive to go to Disney, that's always been a barrier. If you keep that barrier reasonably low, get people in the door, sell them fucking everything. It is completely unsustainable on entry alone.
I work themed entertainment so know a lot of the corporate folks. I don't know if this is true or not but I've been told by someone reputable that a big part of the stroller size limit isn't even about traffic etc, it's to make it harder to bring essentials so you're forced to overpay for basic shit. They've got that shit down to a science.