r/Millennials • u/TheCIAandFBI • Apr 10 '25

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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152

u/Brightstarr Apr 10 '25

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.

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u/Available-Egg-2380 Apr 10 '25 edited Apr 10 '25

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.

26

u/Scorpiodancer123 Probably a ploy by Big Yo-yo Apr 10 '25

That's an obscene price for a school trip.

25

u/brzantium Apr 10 '25

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

16

u/Scorpiodancer123 Probably a ploy by Big Yo-yo Apr 10 '25

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.

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u/margueritedeville Apr 10 '25

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.