How have your kids embarrassed you at WDW?

[mster425]

So, we just got back from a great week at WDW.

My kids are high spirited, and at home we have it under control and contained. This was our first non-beach vacation though, and we had no idea-

what too little sleep, too much sugar, and too much sensory input would do to our kids

I thought I was prepared- I ordered the yogurts and cheeses and cereal that they eat at home from Garden Grocer- they were too overwhelmed to eat them. I took mid day breaks- they didn't sleep.

Anyway, at times I swore my kids were going to end up on one of the "worst thing you've ever seen at WDW" threads here- so I thought I'd start my own

"worst thing your kid has done at WDW" thread, and to keep it constructive- how did you handle it?

At Ohana the host was so pleased that we had a theme park view, and as he seated us told us what we were looking at outside. My 2 yr old son promptly threw a raging tantrum that he could not play in the volcano pool right that very second. We walked him out, walked him back in, repeat tantrum. Finally we just took turns hanging out with him in the Poly lobby while the other two ate.

He also blasted someone's poor grandmother with one of those giant water gun things at Kidani, then laughed hysterically. I apologized profusely.

At AKL, we had a great savannah view on the Ostrich trail. I emphasized how we couldn't throw anything off the balcony bc it could hurt the animals. I turn around- and that quick DS chucks his freaking MAGIC BAND off the balcony. I sold him to Dumbo's Circus and was done with it.

DD (5 and ASD) wanted to play in the Winnie the Pooh line so bad she ran out of the FP line and into the honey area. It was packed. "Sorry, just getting my kid- not cutting- not cutting- so sorry"

She was also so excited to meet the characters she threw stuffed animal versions of them at them.

At the Emporium, she asked if she could look at a (plastic) snow globe- she immediately drops and breaks it, water everywhere.

Sooooo.... what's the worst thing your kid has done in the World? And how did you handle it?

 

[LynnA]

Oh, honey, I UNDERSTAND! The good news is, all the memories of the not-so-lovely behavior has faded to the background, and just like childbirth, I mostly remember the awesome parts

 

[TravelingTotMom]

I second what the previous poster said! You do end up only remembering the good... and later (possibly much later) laughing at the more unfortunate events.

Every time we go, I walk around sounding like you did at Winnie the Pooh. "Sorry... sorry... sorry..." on repeat. My two year old wants to walk by himself everywhere, on his own. It's not so bad at, say, Epcot, with larger open spaces, but in Fantasyland in the MK? Luckily most of the people he cuts off are understanding parents (b/c everyone has been there), but after a couple minutes it's grabbing him and power walking to the next ride before the protests get too loud.

One of the worst things he's done, in my book anyway, affected us more than anyone else (and I type this laughing). We have the worst - the WORST - time making it to rope drop. Well, we finally make it one time within a half hour of opening, and everything is still pretty much walk on. We beeline it to Pirates, and right as we start entering the queue, he starts yelling "I DON'T LIKE PIRATES! I WANT TO GO TO THE TIKI ROOM!!!! I WANT TO GO TO THE TIKI ROOM!"

Stubborn kid... nothing was going to make him stop except, yep, the Tiki Room. We spent prime morning time at the MK in the Tiki Room.

 

[Nancyg56]

I have finally recovered from our first family trip to WDW back in 1987. If was an extended trip and began in Daytona Beach to visit area attractions and ended in Disney for New Years Eve. When we checked into the CR there was a little flyer on the bedside stand that advertised with a 4 night stay in Disney you could have a 3 night stay on the Big Red Boat. Oh No!!!!!!!!!!! We missed out. Nope, my DH told me it was a good thing we did not know because he would have tossed them all overboard.

You are not alone! LOL!

 

[joannamet]

Hilarious. I'm glad you can laugh about it.

There's a little story in the Unofficial Guide about a family who put their kid on lockdown in the hotel room for the rest of their trip because he did something unforgivable. I've always wondered what that kid must have done.

 

[BellsFam]

In about 20ish years this will be a story you are telling as fabulous memories...

 

[Gwade4]

Fun ideas for a thread! We went last June and and horror stories have long since been forgotten. I only remember the good ones. We leave in about a week so I'm probably doomed now!

 

[DopeyDame]

At AKL, we had a great savannah view on the Ostrich trail. I emphasized how we couldn't throw anything off the balcony bc it could hurt the animals. I turn around- and that quick DS chucks his freaking MAGIC BAND off the balcony. I sold him to Dumbo's Circus and was done with it.

Perfect plan! Why have I never thought of that?

 

[kboo]

OP, your post was hilarious! During the trip, DH and I are always saying "We aren't coming back for a LONG time!" but then by the time we get home, we only remember the good times. I do remember many times on a recent family reunion trip having to really hustle to make our in-park ADRs - we weren't managing the schedule well so ODD was overtired by the time our 5pm dinner ADRs came around. Even CRT was a big hustle and it was so much stress. On our most recent trip (just the 4 of us) we managed rest times and the schedule much better (fewer cats to herd). Even so...

ODD just got into pin collecting (she doesn't trade), and had her own pin purse with other special "treasures" in it. We agreed to get her 1 pin a day which really cut down on requests for other souvenirs. One morning after a breakfast at Gasparilla Grill that included whining for a smoothie that ended up all over the floor before anyone had even had a sip, we got ourselves out to the monorail to MK. We are about to step on the monorail when she suddenly says, "My pin purse! I think we left it at the restaurant!" We froze, one foot on and one foot off the monorail.

How did we handle it? Deep breath, didn't think about the $150 worth of pins in the purse, got on the monorail and decided we'd call when we got to Guest Services at MK. Thanks to Disney's amazing customer service/guest relations, they had found it, pins and all, by 11am, and we lost less time than if we'd run off the monorail and gone back to the restaurant to look for it. I had to take many deep breaths and stay zen.

 

[quagmire0]

On our last trip, DS3 (who was pretty well potty trained at this point) grew a sudden fear of the automatic flushing toilets. He'd refuse to go and ended up having accidents. Well, the first time he had his accident, we were totally caught off guard. Had to end up putting him in one of his little sister's diapers, buying a pair of Disney shorts for him at the shop, and then ended up buying pull-ups in his size from the Baby Care Center. Made for some excellent drama.

 

[100AcreWood]

That's the best part of Disney - even when your kids misbehave there is always another kid doing the same or worst!

 

[BrightOwl1]

Not us but on our last trip, there was a family with elementary school aged kids behind us in the pool and one of the little boys says, "why are we here in the pool? We want to go to the park!" And the dad patiently says, "Do you remember yesterday? How everyone had a meltdown? Even Mommy? We'll go back after lunchtime."

 

[kboo]

On our last trip, DS3 (who was pretty well potty trained at this point) grew a sudden fear of the automatic flushing toilets. He'd refuse to go and ended up having accidents. Well, the first time he had his accident, we were totally caught off guard. Had to end up putting him in one of his little sister's diapers, buying a pair of Disney shorts for him at the shop, and then ended up buying pull-ups in his size from the Baby Care Center. Made for some excellent drama.

OMG! ODD also developed a sudden fear of the flushing toilets! And we've been to WDW so many times, AND gone lots of other places with automatic toilets, and all of a sudden THESE flushing toilets were a problem. I ended up having to promise her that I'd put my hand in front of the sensor so it wouldn't flush while she was on it. She'd still jump off when she was done and stand by the stall door. (Something tells me that if we go to Japan the washlets there are going to Blow. Her. Mind.)

 

[kboo]

How could I forget - the toilet story reminds me ... Back in March I had ODD (4.5) and YDD (3 months) at Tusker House with my parents. My mom has dementia so my dad mostly has to make sure she is where she needs to be, etc. Anyway, I sent them to the buffet after I got food for ODD and myself. YDD is on my lap and suddenly wants to nurse. No problem, ODD is eating, so I start nursing her. About 2 minutes in, ODD announces, "I hafta go potty!" I wait a minute or two to see if my dad comes back so he can take her. Nope. "I have to go really badly!" ... wait ... "I might have an accident!" Meanwhile YDD decides now would be a good time to really settle in for a nice long meal. "It's an emergency!" So I awkwardly get up, YDD still latched on, and we walk to the rest rooms. I look at the buffet area but my parents are nowhere to be seen. YDD still nursing, I am standing in the stall doorway talking ODD through going to the bathroom herself (luckily this is before the automatic-toilet-phobia developed), and while she is sitting there, I ask, "Are you going pee or poo?" "I hafta go poopy!"

Sigh.

Somehow ODD manages to do this all by herself, a nice woman helps lift her up so she can wash her hands, and we make it back to the table, where my parents are now sitting. "Where were you? You were gone for a long time."
YDD nursed through the entire episode.

 

[Oswin]

I think me and my siblings all embarrassed our parents plenty of times growing up.

I remember my brother got gum stuck in my hair and I had a screaming fit all the way out of line of Splash Mountain, down through MK, and on the way back to the resort. They had to cut it out of my hair and I was inconsolable for hours. I also remember being afraid of the auto flushing toilets and would go through this routine of holding it until I was about to explode and then we ALWAYS had to leave line to make a beeline for the bathroom, only for me to get into the restroom stall and freak out because I remembered the toilets were scary. So I'd refuse to go and get into an arguing match with my mom or older sister about going to the bathroom, which ended up with people waiting in line yelling at us to get out if we weren't going to go. Which would then turn into me sobbing about having to go potty so baaaaad that I was about to go in my pants. My mom let me go in my shorts once, and refused to change me until we were back at the resort an hour later, and after that I learned to put up with the scary toilets. When I was about five, my mom said I actually tried jumping out of the boat on potc because I wanted to be a pirate so badly. This was back in like 2001 or 2002 when the first pirates came out in theaters and I really liked the movie and dedicated a 10 year chunk of my life to wanting to be Elizabeth Swann. I once created a petition to add Elizabeth Swann to the ride when I was like 8 or 9 and brought it with me to vacation and would go up to random CMs and guests to have them sign it. My mom was so embarrassed by that.

My older sister also decided once at a character meal to go use the bathroom by herself, and came back with a wad of cash. She ended up wandering her way through the restaurant and took a server's tip that was left out on the table. My parents were mortified and got a manager to return the tip to and apologize. They made my sister go up to the server to apologize in person, and she ended up saying that she wasn't sorry she took her money because she wanted to use it to buy a Mickey doll. The server and manager came to our table with mickey dolls and a balloon for all of us, and my parents were furious my sister didn't learn anything from what she did. They took away her mickey and balloon and we left the place with her having an epic meltdown and everyone staring at us. To make the situation worse, me, my brother and other sister thought were were like celebrities since everyone was looking at us and we just smiled and waved to everyone as we walked out.


See, whenever you think your kids are bad, just be grateful that you don't have brats as bad as me and my siblings were as kids!

 

[mster425]

I think me and my siblings all embarrassed our parents plenty of times growing up.



See, whenever you think your kids are bad, just be grateful that you don't have brats as bad as me and my siblings were as kids!

Give me some hope here- you've all turned out to be fine upstanding young adults? Right???

 

[LISmama810]

My kids don't have issues with the self-flushing toilets, but I've heard of people carrying post-it notes to stick over them.

I think our most embarrassing moment was when my son puked all over a walkway at Epcot. I'm sure there's probably more that I've blocked out.

My older sister also decided once at a character meal to go use the bathroom by herself, and came back with a wad of cash. She ended up wandering her way through the restaurant and took a server's tip that was left out on the table. My parents were mortified and got a manager to return the tip to and apologize. They made my sister go up to the server to apologize in person, and she ended up saying that she wasn't sorry she took her money because she wanted to use it to buy a Mickey doll. The server and manager came to our table with mickey dolls and a balloon for all of us, and my parents were furious my sister didn't learn anything from what she did. They took away her mickey and balloon and we left the place with her having an epic meltdown and everyone staring at us. To make the situation worse, me, my brother and other sister thought were were like celebrities since everyone was looking at us and we just smiled and waved to everyone as we walked out.

Oh my gosh, this is hilarious!

 

[quagmire0]

I could totally see our DD4 doing the cash grab thing.

 

[CharleneR]

We went back in 1984 with another family. As we were walking through EPCOT there was a bridge with metal fencing/railing with a kid with his head stuck between the rails. My Dad and the dad from the other family with us were able to get his head out (one kind of pulled on the rails and the other held his head and and gently worked it through). It was just a mother and son and now all these years later I don't know/remember where the rest of their family was (or if they had other family there). Never a dull moment at Disney!

 

[katyjeka]

Four kids over 20 years equals a ton of embarrassing situations. Some worse than others. My youngest and I were waiting on the rest to get off Mt. Everest. A family was arguing with a child to get on the ride. They were being quite mean and the boy was in tears. She walked over to them, called them meanies and said we were going to take him with us. Her daddy had all girls and we could use a boy.... She proceeded to grab his hand and pull him away. This happened in a matter of 30 seconds and needless to say the kids parents were not too happy. I apologized and made her do the same but the damage had been done. Of course we saw the same family several times that day. Our oldest dropped her mickey bar while waiting on the parade. She preceded to pick it up and eat it while several people around us watched. I stopped her but she yells to the crowd we follow the three second rule at our house. A couple of cast members at Rainforest Café were discussing the ones boyfriend. I guess he had been caught with someone else. It was a conversation that should have been left at home but wasn't. Well our four year old went up to her and proceeded to tell the girl, "If I was you I would kick him, pee on him, and show him to the door". I wanted to die. I didn't even know she understood what they were talking about. My husband gave her a high five and an older couple couldn't help but smile. What a day. Kids, you just never know...