Has anyone ever had an altercation with another guest and/or family while at WDW?

[LovinPooh]

If people would just worry about themselves life would be so much less stressfull! IMHO anyway. Getting upset about someone using a bathroom stall.... good grief! Just go in and go already !

When my daughter was really small and we were out I used to use the handicapped bathroom stall. I would bring her in there with me while I.... peed. (just had her turn around lol). I really didnt care what anyone thought. The fact is is that there are so many crazy people out there, and my daughter wasnt leaving my sight!

I am horrible with confrontation... i am so glad none of these things have happened to me. Dont think I would have handled it well.

Love the 'rash' story. I bet it works well

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed reading this thread! I really loved the designs and the rash idea...that's awesome!

I do wonder how people who come to Disney can possibly be grumpy (or worse yet, mean!). Guess I'm just not that kind of person and boy am I glad! Think how miserable it would be to go through life that way.

 

[lucigo]

We had an incident with a snippy CM...we were at the character spot at epcot, and went ahead and went through the normal line rather than show our GAC. When we got to pluto (my son's favorite) he got excited, and having autism he backed into pluto for a hug rather than a front hug, and then turned around and wouldn't face the camera for a picture. The CM I guess got frustrated that it was taking too long to get a picture, and says really snippy "Well he is just in his own little world isn't he."

I said, yes, he has autism, he was born that way...and we walked away. I kinda felt bad for her because she had this look on her face like "oh man what did I just do!!" She was probably afraid I was going to report her LOL

 

[Whosemom]

OK, not at WDW, but it was on our WDW trip, so can I share?

We went to Bible Land, which is in Orlando, and really pretty cool, if you are a Christian I'd totally say work it in sometime. I'm not sure I could again, but its not their fault, really. (Not the most fun for little people, by the way)

We were in a theater for a show about the tabernacle, and my then 3 yo daughter kept jumping out of her seat and I had to keep sitting her down. Well, after the show I'm kind of giving her "the talk" and this lady says, "I am sorry, it is my fault. I couldn't stop touching her hair." EGADS! DD had that flaxen blonde curly curly baby hair and bright blue eyes and is colored like a peaches-and-cream china doll. This lady, who had a very thick accent was as dark a person as I've ever seen. They did make quite a study in contrasts (I can make a joke now. DD is 9) She went on to say something about just the rarity of DD coloring where she was from and maybe she hadn't been here in the US long or something. I wasn't really listening at that point, but hustling out of there away from her. Come up in front of me and tell me my kid is beautiful, and I might not wig out about you touching her hair (happened alot really) but sneak and touch her from behind? That was creepy!

So, DH and other 2 kids are ahead, no idea what's going on other than DD getting in trouble for getting out of her seat. The indoor theater dumps into an outdoor theater. I kind of make sure we don't end up near the lady. There weren't many people there. So we are watching the show when I realize DD is kind of engaging with someone down the row. Again, typical 3 yo stuff. So I look to see who has caught her eye, and its that same lady, holding out a cookie and trying to get DD to come over. I grabbed DD up, told DH "We have to leave, NOW" in a very stern voice and just ran for the gate with him and the other kids streaming behind. Not typical of me at all of course, so he wasn't about to stop me for a long discussion. We got to the car and I told him what happened. ugh.

People have chastised me since that I didn't confront her or point her out to the staff, or whatever. And I am sure they are right. On the other hand, it was probably very innocent and just a cultural difference. But all I know is I wanted my baby out of there. My "fight or flight" instinct chose flight, and no higher order reasoning was involved.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

That's just too creepy in this day and age. UGH! I'm so sorry!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I am embarrased to say this, but I am guilty of a stroller incident.

This was my ds first trip to the world, he was 18months old & in a stroller. We were trying to get down main street after the parade to get to fantasyland. The cm's were directing ppl going "backward" to go thru the stores. As I am pushing ds in the stroller out the side door(front stroller wheels are outside/back wheels are still inside)to the jewelry shop a man pushes his way thru the crowd & steps one leg over my son. The next part happened very quickly. He has several bags that r shoved into my sons
face & body. Once one leg is over he loses his balance trying to get 2nd leg over & kicks ds in the face. My instant reaction is to push the stroller hard to get man out of the way so I can tend to ds who is now screaming holding his face. Man lands with a very loud thud on his hands & knees. The kind of thud that ppl turn around to see whats going on. He gets up & grabs the front of the stroller, w/ds still in it. Screaming at me & asking if I have ins. He is literally pulling the stroller away from me. I,of course scream right back, something like "Get your hands off my baby!!!" So now even more ppl have stopped to look. My dh was finally able to get thru the crowd & comes over to us. I am a short woman, 4ft 11in. so the man has no prob yelling @ me. DH is 6ft 8in/320lb. DH came over asking what was the prob. the man is still yelling about ins. All my dh said to him was, "Yes, we have ins. do you??" and pointed @ ds. Mans wife grabs his arm & off they go.

I kinda felt bad for his kids, I know the next day he had to have been a total grump. Those knees of his probably really hurt.

Well I guess you are a better person than I am. I would not have felt bad for that idiot at all. Sorry you and your baby had to go through that.

 

[tttessa]

Last year at Hollywood Studios we were in line for a character with our kids, and there was a family that had four adults and six children. They would have an adult stand in each line, and just as you thought you were next... all six kids would come and file into line in front of you.
<cut>

We MUST have met the same family there this year!!!!!! We stood by the parade stop point with the kids behind a mum and little kid - then just as the parade started 10 others turn up as their space was being kept for them - TEN ---- now, kids I understand, but these were mostly adults - and they stood IN FRONT of my 2 little kids.
I said "excuse me we have been waiting a long time" and put the kids in front to take part in the parade and did not believe the looks we got followed by "they sure ain't part of our family, why in h*** should they stand there" etc. Luckily our kids and theirs enjoyed taking part in the dancing, but I felt bad the whole time...

Oh, nearly forgot, I also once had to ask a woman to put her mobile phone away actually GETTING ONTO Soarin!!!!!! She had been chatting on it in the queue (luckily it was the FP line!) and was describing it to her hubby - "there are 3 rows of seats and a big screen....." I still wonder when / if she would have stopped before the ride started??

Tessa

 

[LORNA ANN]

We had a problem while waiting for a bus back to ASR from MK one evening a couple of years ago my DH, DS then 13 & I were standing in this huge que when my DS got slightly seperated from us as people were pushin in line, so as we neared the front my DH pulled him forward to us well this man started shouting at my son for jumping the que we exlained that he was with us and had got seperated and was our son of 13 the man called us liars said he had been behind him for at least 10 mins which he had and should join the back of the que !!!! My DH was livid he told the getleman that as he was a 13 yr old child and to polite to push past his elders to get to us but could see us & we could see him had politely waited till we were near boarding bus before squeezing past. We got on bus after this & thought this was end of it when next morning sitting outside having breakfast hells bells did this man not spot us and came over & started again, my 13 yr old was very nervous & sat there not saying a word while this man told us no way was our son 13 & we should be ashamed of ourselves for letting him que jump. My DH told him politely that if he seen us again & did not walk the other way he would inform the CM's that he had indeed been harrasing a 13yr old child.Never had any more bother and he just left.It did leave me & DS slighly nervous for the rest of our hols but did not have any more bother. As my DH says some people are never happier than when they are making someone else miserable

 

[ISP2MCO]

I have also used handicapped stalls when taking my children in with me. I never for one minute thought that these stalls were "reserved" for handicap only. It is not like a parking spot. Youre not going to get fined if you take a seat. If there is a line, whoever is next takes the next available spot and if that happens to be a handicap stall thats what you get. Of course, I wouldnt use it if there was other stalls available and didnt have a need. Am I wrong on the rules?

 

[MickeyNicki]

We were walking through Adventureland and DH said where to next? I said lets skip Fantasyland there are too many kids right now, we would go later that night since we had MNSSHP tickets.

Well this woman that was near us turned her head and said "If you dont like kids dont come to WDW!"

Ok I was floored and DH said to her "Mind your own business"

I never said that I didnt like kids, DH knew I was saying that we would hit it later when it wasnt that crowded but this lady took it completely out of context.

Another time we were entering MK and there were 2 grown adult men fist fighting and cursing at each other...Dis security was all over it breaking up the fight and escorting both men out, their kids and wives were all freaking out and crying and yelling...it was quite a scene

 

[SharpMomOfTwo]

Well, I don't have any stories about WDW, but I was in the Bronzx Zoo one year, and DD had to go potty. So I go in there waiting for a stall with her, and there is this woman in there with like 5 kids. One of the kids said something (don't remember what) and the mother just slaps the poor thing right in the face. I just stood there with my DD, watching, and I said something to the woman (can't remember what now) and she told me to mind my own business, these were her kids, not mine, etc. Then she cut me in line for the stall!!! I wanted to say more to the woman, but I didn't, and when we got out of the bathroom I was glad, because I got a glimps of her husband, and he was HUGE MAN - way bigger than my DH could have taken on!! Its not on the same line of the rest of the stories, but what are you supposed to do when you see something like that. I mean, even if I call a CM over (not that they have anything like that in the Bronx Zoo), what would they have done? And its not like it would have changed anything when they got home, for all I know, the little girl may have gotten hit again because she caused so much trouble. Just sad... sorry to bring down the thread!!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I understand your concern but I don't really think a slap in the face was a need to call a CM or Bronz zoo worker over. Some parents do believe in a spanking or a slap in the mouth for backtalk. I am not debating if it is right or wrong but I don't think it is abuse. YMMV.

 

[dato63]

I was on the receiving line of things about 5 or 6 years ago. At the time my son was on the mend from some significant medical issues and remained under a doctor's care.

I'll share with you that we're really lucky, today, he's a healthy 10 year old child who has fully recovered from his early medical issues. We had come close to losing him several months before that Disney trip and we were celebrating that things were looking up while still cognizant of the fact that he had a long way to go and we wanted to take him back to Disney "just in case." Anyway, here's what happened.

We entered the bathroom (the one near Peter Pan) and the only stall open was an accessible stall. I took my son in there because he needed lots of extra help with several medical devices that were hidden by his clothing and a bag he carried. Anyway, we weren't in there long...just long enough to address his needs, get everything secure, wash our hands and leave.

This woman on a scooter comes over to the stall as we are leaving with her 2 daughters (both teens or older) and begins yelling at me for taking my "able bodied" son into a handicapped stall that is reserved for the use of people in a wheelchair! She and her daughters who are yelling at us at the top of their lungs then begin to follow us out as I pushed our way through outside and then another of her relations...a man...tells my son and I that he's a police officer and that he should arrest us and throw us both in jail while the rest of the family has kinda circled around us!

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a CM (one that tends to the restrooms) standing right there and never once did she help us, even as I was standing there yelling for someone to please help me that I was scared these people were going to hurt us and yelling for the family to leave us alone and stop threatening us. I finally picked up my son and ran through the circle of the family to get away. We were both terrified and kept on moving to get out of the park, and I was praying they weren't following us as they were clearly not rational people!

When we got out of the park, I sat on a bench and cried while trying to console a terrified child that thought the "police man" would take me away from him. What's really sad is that a man in a "uniform" who was a Disney employee came up to us and my son started screaming at him "don't take my mommy." I explained to the man what had happened and he was kind enough to get someone to escort us back to our hotel room to make sure we didn't have any problems. For that, I am forever grateful!

What I learned from my experience with my son is that not all "disabilities" are visible and I never question someone who appears to be "able bodied" who parks in a handicapped space or uses a handicapped bathroom stall. I'm sure they have their reasons and it's up to them to make sure they are valid because I'm only responsible for my actions and the actions of my child.

What I also learned is that there are people who aren't very nice everywhere you go and when you're in a bad situation, get out of it! If no one will help, do everything you can to get away from it!

Finally, the last thing I learned is that "bad" people come in all shapes, sizes and abilities and they can be anywhere so it's important to remain aware of your surroundings so you can navigate a pathway to safety.

Let me also add this, I was really lucky that I was able to get away and that no one physically harmed us in any significant way. They pushed us, yelled at us and cornered us...but we escaped!

I will tell you that we have been back to Disney several times and have met some truly wonderful people.

To this day, I'm glad my mom taught me to get away by any means possible when you find yourself in a bad situation...and I'm doing my best to teach my son that as well.

For a while the "magic" of the Magic Kingdom was lost for us, but I decided about a year after this incident that the "magic" was still there and that bad people could never take it away from me or my son unless I allowed them to do so. I also realized about this same time that the reason the CM (the restroom attendant person) didn't help was because she didn't know how to and that was OK since I really didn't either.

How horrible.

Like another poster - I'm guilty of using the handicapped stall. I have small childen - and if it is the only stall available, and there isn't a handicapped person there, I will take them in there before they have an accident. It has never crossed my mind that someone would get that angry about that. And regardless - if they felt inconvenienced, they certainly could have voiced it without being so hateful. It is sad that there are hateful people everywhere. I'm glad the magic is back.

On a side note - how wonderful that your son is doing well!

 

[Chelley00]

We were going into Muppets 3D, and some guy behind us was refusing to file all the way across. He was a very large guy and just stopped in the middle of the row and sat down, refusing to move to let anyone past. The CM is making announcement after announcement very everyone to keep moving, and motioning to this poor woman who was stuck in the row. She kept arguing with the guy that he needed to move, and he kept telling her to "f*&^ off" and calling her a "b*&^#". He was one row behind my 4 children, and we're clamping our hands over DD5's ears so she couldn't hear.

Finally the lady screams out "HE WON'T FREAKING MOVE". The CM came over and asked him to move and he refused, saying he already had his stuff sat down and his family was comfortable and wanted to be able to see the show, so she called security. They eventually asked everyone in the theater to file out back through the doors into the lobby, and 5 minutes later let us all back in and the guy and the security people were gone.

 

[momtoBrandon&Jacob]

I was on the receiving line of things about 5 or 6 years ago. At the time my son was on the mend from some significant medical issues and remained under a doctor's care.

I'll share with you that we're really lucky, today, he's a healthy 10 year old child who has fully recovered from his early medical issues. We had come close to losing him several months before that Disney trip and we were celebrating that things were looking up while still cognizant of the fact that he had a long way to go and we wanted to take him back to Disney "just in case." Anyway, here's what happened.

We entered the bathroom (the one near Peter Pan) and the only stall open was an accessible stall. I took my son in there because he needed lots of extra help with several medical devices that were hidden by his clothing and a bag he carried. Anyway, we weren't in there long...just long enough to address his needs, get everything secure, wash our hands and leave.

This woman on a scooter comes over to the stall as we are leaving with her 2 daughters (both teens or older) and begins yelling at me for taking my "able bodied" son into a handicapped stall that is reserved for the use of people in a wheelchair! She and her daughters who are yelling at us at the top of their lungs then begin to follow us out as I pushed our way through outside and then another of her relations...a man...tells my son and I that he's a police officer and that he should arrest us and throw us both in jail while the rest of the family has kinda circled around us!

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a CM (one that tends to the restrooms) standing right there and never once did she help us, even as I was standing there yelling for someone to please help me that I was scared these people were going to hurt us and yelling for the family to leave us alone and stop threatening us. I finally picked up my son and ran through the circle of the family to get away. We were both terrified and kept on moving to get out of the park, and I was praying they weren't following us as they were clearly not rational people!

When we got out of the park, I sat on a bench and cried while trying to console a terrified child that thought the "police man" would take me away from him. What's really sad is that a man in a "uniform" who was a Disney employee came up to us and my son started screaming at him "don't take my mommy." I explained to the man what had happened and he was kind enough to get someone to escort us back to our hotel room to make sure we didn't have any problems. For that, I am forever grateful!

What I learned from my experience with my son is that not all "disabilities" are visible and I never question someone who appears to be "able bodied" who parks in a handicapped space or uses a handicapped bathroom stall. I'm sure they have their reasons and it's up to them to make sure they are valid because I'm only responsible for my actions and the actions of my child.

What I also learned is that there are people who aren't very nice everywhere you go and when you're in a bad situation, get out of it! If no one will help, do everything you can to get away from it!

Finally, the last thing I learned is that "bad" people come in all shapes, sizes and abilities and they can be anywhere so it's important to remain aware of your surroundings so you can navigate a pathway to safety.

Let me also add this, I was really lucky that I was able to get away and that no one physically harmed us in any significant way. They pushed us, yelled at us and cornered us...but we escaped!

I will tell you that we have been back to Disney several times and have met some truly wonderful people.

To this day, I'm glad my mom taught me to get away by any means possible when you find yourself in a bad situation...and I'm doing my best to teach my son that as well.

For a while the "magic" of the Magic Kingdom was lost for us, but I decided about a year after this incident that the "magic" was still there and that bad people could never take it away from me or my son unless I allowed them to do so. I also realized about this same time that the reason the CM (the restroom attendant person) didn't help was because she didn't know how to and that was OK since I really didn't either.

So sorry you had to go through this Bu think of it this way - this family was obviously crazy and will one day piss off the wrong person. I believe in karma - what goes around does eventually come around.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

You know something...reading this thread has reminded me that I need to thank my parents for raising me well, teaching me manners, making sure that I grew up believing the cup is half-full, and giving me the skills to be a good parent to my own child!

I will also say that I still don't know the rules (or law) of the use of handicapped bathroom stalls. Common courtesy would tell me that you don't use it if a handicapped person is waiting...but I still would think that using it if you are next in line, AND there is no one waiting in a wheelchair or using another assistive device, would be appropriate. To this day, however, I won't ever use one! What's that old saying...once burned, twice shy. Yep, that's me!

If anyone does know of the rules (or if there's a law, I sure would love to know though!)

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

How horrible.

Like another poster - I'm guilty of using the handicapped stall. I have small childen - and if it is the only stall available, and there isn't a handicapped person there, I will take them in there before they have an accident. It has never crossed my mind that someone would get that angry about that. And regardless - if they felt inconvenienced, they certainly could have voiced it without being so hateful. It is sad that there are hateful people everywhere. I'm glad the magic is back.

On a side note - how wonderful that your son is doing well!

Yes, we are very, very, very lucky to have him! At 10, he shows hardly any signs of his previous medical problems (other than a scar or two) and the docs say that he should live to a ripe old age!

 

[Doc CW]

I have been annoyed plenty of times by those who just don't seem to understand the personal bubble concept.

Last August while at the World I had a woman behind me in line for Peter Pan that was sooooooooooooo close to me that I finally had to say something. It was BOILING HELLISH HORRID HOT and I couldn't stand another minute of her tail gating me.

Me: "Excuse me but the last time someone got this close to me and touched me this much, they at least bought me dinner!!"

Her: Blank, puzzled, slightly embarrassed look on face...took 2 steps backwards.

Thats funny and a good way to make a joke out of a bad situation

 

[_queenie_]

This is a little different, but back a few years ago, when my older two kids were five and nine, my BIL and MIL LOST them at MK! They were fine in the end, but the whole thing got me steamed. Apparently when looking for my niece's (BIL's daughter) stroller, not holding at least my DD, then five's, hand, thet just lost track of them. They were only missing for like ten minutes, but still, when your five yo tells you a story like that, even saying that she wasn't supposed to tell you, you get really worked up. We were fine the next day, but you can bet that that night they got a lecture in the proper way to keep track of children in a theme park.

I'vee got lots more stories about other people, too many to tell!

 

[TKERBELL]

I love eeyoregons comment to the personal space hogger!!! Very clever!!

We have one rule (one of many) we taught our kids while standing in ANY line but especially at Disney - you must be ONE ARMS LENGTH away from the person in front of you!!! I generally try and keep my kids in front of me while waiting in a line - I would rather they swing thier arms back and hit me then some poor unsuspecting man or woman or Heaven forbid child - not that my children are rude by any stretch of the imagination but accidents happen and the people around you are not always as friendly as we would like for them to be (see many previous posts - the one with the bathroom family takes the cake - they give new definitions to uneccessary rudeness - to the poster - KARMA is wonderful thing!!! BELIEVE IN IT - it is true!!)

My family personally has never been involved in any personal altercations - come to think of it - I am not sure we have ever witnessed any However, I will stand up for someone who can't and I will defend anyone who is right - I teach my children the same thing!!! Never be the bully but always stick up for the kid who is being bullied!!!