Have you ever had a Magical Meltdown at WDW?

[bellefan7757]

My meltdown occured on our first trip - back in 1989. The family was in line to ride Space Mountain. I am a roller coaster lover - DH doesn't really like them, but said he would ride. I had, of course, heard about the famous indoor roller coaster in the dark and couldn't wait to ride it. Our kids were 8, 7 and 5 at the time. Well,we waited and they could all hear the ride and see a little bit everyone, including DH, started to get nervous. One by one they all decided they would rather not go on the ride - we were about two rows from boarding by then. I said calmly, that's fine, you all go on out and I'll ride by myself and meet you outside. That's when my two younger children began to plead with me NOT to ride - that they would be "scared" if I rode. THAT'S when my meltdown began. I stomped out of the ride and proceded to yell at all of them about how they had completly ruined my trip, that this was the ONE thing I really wanted to do and "Thanks alot". Then I walked away and left them all. What a baby I was! The kids came over and hugged me and told me they were sorry - so I got over it quickly. I'm also happy to say I haven't any similar incidents since and first trip is still the one we think of as the most magical!

 

[KimRaye]

Husbands, you don't stand a chance with us! Just say yes and smile!

And kids, we're goin' without you next time if you don't start falling down and kissing our feet with gratitude for dragging you with us.

AMEN!!!!!!

 

[Brier Rose]

Oh boy.....I think my worst meltdown was at Mgm Studios, Dec. 2 years ago.

We had taken my grandparents for their first trip ever to the Studios, and I was so excited for them to see the Osborne Lights.

My grandmother had been suffering from cancer all year, and I had been planning overtime to make everything as special as possible.

Well, we went to see Fantasmic, and then went straight over afterwards to see the lights, but were met by a barricade of CM's saying that they were closed to the public.

There was a private party going on, and we had NO idea that they would be closing the lights to the public early.

It was our last night, so I knew my grandmother would not get to see them...most likely ever.

I started crying so hard, and I just could not stop. I tried, but I just could not get myself under control!

I think I actually sat there crying for over an hour.

 

[mamaprincess]

 

[southernbella]

Whew, after reading this thread, I feel better knowing, It's not just me!


My story-
After my oldest DD's 1st trip to WDW, she always said that she wanted to ride Splash Mountain (it was closed when we went). So, we got to make a return trip about 6 months later (Thank you Hurricane Katrina!). The whole way down, all I hear from oldest DD is " Mommy, I'm riding Splash Mountain with you!".

So we get to the MK. By the time we got to SM, little sis has decided to take a nap in my arms. Since moving her could mean waking her, I let DH & big sis ride SM first. Little sis & I go wait at the exit so we can do the child swap. After waiting 45 minutes for them with a steadily getting heavier baby in my arms, here they come. I am so ready for Sm, it's not even funny.

So, I transfer baby to DH & put my hand out for big sis. She looks at me and says, "I'm not riding that with you! We are going to see the princesses in Toon Town" just as snotty as you can please. As the air around me turned red, I proceeded to grab her by the arm, march her back to a bench & lay on the mother's guilt. I admit, I laid it on pretty thick. The tears began flowing.

Next thing you know, here comes a CM. "Princess, there's no crying in Disney World." The stickers start flying everywhere. Poor thing, she was just doing her job. My Irish/Spanish temper took over. I looked at her & said, "There IS crying in Disney World if I want there to be crying!" My poor Dh is the sweetest, calmest person in the world. I think he apologized for me.

After I walked a while, I came back down to Earth & apologized to my DD. And yes, I did try to find that Cm and apologize. Sbella

 

[Brier Rose]

Ok..on a lighter note, I have this one too that's so funny!

Several years ago we were staying at the Contemporary Tower one Dec., and had spent the day at AK. The last ride we went on for the day was Kali River Rapids, so we all got soaked and then left quickly for the resort.

On the way we decided to get tickets to that nights MVMCP, so I elected to go get the tickets while DH and the kids went to the room. I was freezing, so I quickly got the tickets and headed up to the room.

I didn't have a room key with me, so I knocked on the door. No answer. I knock a few more times..still no answer..I'm mad!

I didn't have a cell phone either, so I walked back down to the elevators to use the courtesy phone, and called the room. DD answered,and said DH was in the shower, and she didn't hear me! I say well I'm coming back now, you better open the door this time!

I walk back down to the room, and pound on the door this time. NO ANSWER!! I'm pissed figuring DD is too chicken to answer the door...(maybe thinking it's a stranger..even though I TOLD her it was me)..DH is STILL in the shower!

I'm bangin' on the door, and saying OPEN THE DOOR...I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! Still nothing! I'm wet and feezing....

OMG! I walk back down to the phone, and this time DH answers. I explain what had been going, and I'm PISSED!!

I tell him to go right then and open the door and stand there until I get there, and then I go charging off to the room. I get almost all the way there when I notice DH standing in front of our room. Our real room that is!!

The whole time I was knocking on the WRONG door!

Can you imagine being in your room, with some crazy woman pounding on your door screaming..OPEN THE DOOR...I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!

Thank God the room was empty!

 

[JudimouseNC]

My only metldown I can remember was this last trip we took with some friends of ours. The ages of the childrenw ere so diverse it was hard to get all of the stuff done. The teenagers (my friend's kids) were grousing the entire trip about having to do all the "kiddie" stuff. Finally, on Thursday I lost it. I informed my friend that we were going to split up that day. My grandkids (ages 2 & 4) hadn't even been to the castle yet.

I have noticed a trend here also....the most stress comes from taking trips with extended family and friends. We have done it on several occassions and have vowed never to do it again!

 

[Sleepy]

My only meltdown was at Universal back in 99. We went with a neighbor and her kid. We passed one of the bathrooms and I said I had to go. I went in and when I came back out, nobody was anywhere to be found. I stood outside the bathroom for close to 10 minutes and no sign of the neighbors or my son and husband. I went inside the women's bathroom again to see if my neighbors were in there. Nope. I figured maybe they went onto BTTF ride where we were headed to begin with. No sign of them there either. So, I stood there for about 5 minutes and walked back to the bathroom entrance. This time they were in front of the bathroom and furious with me for not waiting in front of the bathroom. Where they had been I have no idea, but I explained they were no where to be found when I initially came out of the bathroom, so I walked to the BTTF ride and waited there too. There was already tension with the neighbors and this was day 1, but having my husband yelling at me like I was lying and like I was a child was too much. We argued all the way to the line for BTTF. My husband looked at me and said "If you are not going to straighten up, we will just go home now!" I am not a child. Don't talk to me like I am one. I told him I was ready to go home if his behavior continued. The rest of the 10 day vacation was ruined. He never acted that way when it was just us, but why he would feel the need to be a jerk in front of the neighbor, I have no idea.

 

[mamaprincess]

Thank you so much for all your responses. It's always good to know you're not alone in your madness. I hope to read more of your stories, I've had some good laughs and even a cry!

 

[Mariposa]

We had 2 meltdowns on our Nov. trip, both times managing the rare but impressive Mother/Daughter Combo Meltdown. A sight to be seen, I'm sure.

Meltdown #1. Downtown Disney. DD8, DFiance and I have wandered over to a seating area after much shopping. I send DFiance off to take a few pics while we cool our heels. DD begins to give me major lip. I explain that if she doesn't stop there will be no more souvenirs, she informs me that this is fine and I can take back the ones we've just bought because she does not want them. She stays snotty, so I decide to call her on it and start to reach for the bag she's holding. This is when my seemingly normal child revealed that she had clearly become possessed. She begins screaming and screeching about how she's not going to let me steal from her and that I had better stop hurting her (I wasn't touching her??) because she was going to call the police. I was flabbergasted. I told her to stop that immediately, which prompted her to shriek that I was the 'worst Mommy EVER!' and also the meanest, then led into a rousing rendition of, "You're not my mom!" (I was at the delivery, trust me, I'm her mom.) Around this time, DFiance has wandered back, no doubt being drawn over by the soothing song of our dear child. When he gets back I inform him, rather loudly, that- since I'm apperently not DD's mother- I'm LEAVING and I storm off, yelling things that involved words like 'ungrateful' and 'foulmouthed' over my shoulder at my completely insane child. It took me a bit to calm down, but by the time I made it back DD was sane again.. However, she did inform me (and got in trouble for it) that none of that would have happened if I hadn't been so 'mean' to her.

I'll post #2 later.

 

[jann1033]

Ok..on a lighter note, I have this one too that's so funny!

Several years ago we were staying at the Contemporary Tower one Dec., and had spent the day at AK. The last ride we went on for the day was Kali River Rapids, so we all got soaked and then left quickly for the resort.

On the way we decided to get tickets to that nights MVMCP, so I elected to go get the tickets while DH and the kids went to the room. I was freezing, so I quickly got the tickets and headed up to the room.

I didn't have a room key with me, so I knocked on the door. No answer. I knock a few more times..still no answer..I'm mad!

I didn't have a cell phone either, so I walked back down to the elevators to use the courtesy phone, and called the room. DD answered,and said DH was in the shower, and she didn't hear me! I say well I'm coming back now, you better open the door this time!

I walk back down to the room, and pound on the door this time. NO ANSWER!! I'm pissed figuring DD is too chicken to answer the door...(maybe thinking it's a stranger..even though I TOLD her it was me)..DH is STILL in the shower!

I'm bangin' on the door, and saying OPEN THE DOOR...I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! Still nothing! I'm wet and feezing....

OMG! I walk back down to the phone, and this time DH answers. I explain what had been going, and I'm PISSED!!

I tell him to go right then and open the door and stand there until I get there, and then I go charging off to the room. I get almost all the way there when I notice DH standing in front of our room. Our real room that is!!

The whole time I was knocking on the WRONG door!

Can you imagine being in your room, with some crazy woman pounding on your door screaming..OPEN THE DOOR...I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!

Thank God the room was empty!

 

[sameyeyam]

Day 1 at Disney 2004 - DS(5) didn't want to wake up. I was on a schedule, had to be at MK before opening. He kept snoozing & snoozing & snoozing... Finally sent my DH & DD (12) down to get "take out" breakfast from the Food Court at POR. They were SUPPOSED to bring it back to the room. Of course we were at the far end of the resort!

DG(grandma) and I finally got DS halfway awake. We waited & waited & waited. Finally I went up to Food Court, met them halfway there. They thought "Take Out" meant get plastic dishes and sit and wait for us in the Food Court!!! They purchased breakfast for everyone, spent $40, and then dumped most of it in the garbage after they got tired of waiting for us.

To say I lost it was an understatement. I uttered several choice words on the way back to room. Then stomped around room getting ready to leave. Here I was planning the perfect vacation, my DH & DD are being completely stupid, my DS won't get out of bed! We finally arrived at MK about 2 hours behind schedule.

But there is a bright side of this story. The 3 of us that had not gotten breakfast stopped at the Main Street Bakery and had French Toast Loaf. It is awesome and has now become a family breakfast tradition at the MK every year!

 

[SLM]

These are so funny! Isn't it nice to know you're not the only one ????
I think we get ourselves in trouble because we want everything to be perfect and life just isn't like that! A Disney vacation is alot of fun, but it can also be exhausting (especially to the person who's done all the planning, packing, etc.)! Let's make a vow to be more laid back-more margaritas, less meltdowns!

 

[sameyeyam]

Oh my gosh, you're brave. I have a hard time having one of my DD's friends stay the weekend, let alone spend a whole week with them.

Opposite experience for me. DD 14yo best friend went and behaved better than DD! Think next time I'll take DD friends and leave DD at home!

 

[sameyeyam]

April 2002. Me, 2DD's, DM, and DSis went to the "world". Every day, everyone would be ready except for DSis, who had to smoke several cigarettes before she began getting ready. We would grab breakfast, then go smoke. Catch the bus to TTC, smoke again. Go to the park, smoke, go to the bathroom, get something to drink. Go experience 1 attraction, smoke, go to the bathroom, check to see if a refill is needed on the drink. Repeat. Every day for a week!

By the 3rd day, I lost it. We were luckily at the room, and I was so mad that I ended up staying at the room while everyone else hit the parks. I just needed as much space between me and smokey/drinker/bathroom goer as I could get. We are in WDW, and I can tell you every smoking location and bathroom area, but I haven't gotten to ride HM????? I did laundry, relaxed in the room, and managed not to kill her for the duration of the trip.......but NEVER again!

Sounds like last year's trip with my mom. Our entire family is non smokers, expect for my mom! We finally just left her in the smoking areas while we went on rides. I didn't even know the smoking areas existed, but she managed to find them all. And non-smoking areas, she thought they were only a suggestion, as long as someone else wasn't nearby it was completely ok in her mind! Think you get funny looks when you have a meltdown, try being with someone that thinks smoking anywhere is ok!

 

[ZoZo]

Yep, I sure did. Last year, the four of us (all adult females) went to Pleasure Island. I had never been there before and decided that I wanted to separate from the group for a few minutes and explore on my own.

I thought it would be easy to hook up with them again by cell phone, as we had done successfully at the other parks. Things I didn't take into account were 1) the noise; and 2) the bad cell phone reception. It was so hard for us to hear each other on our phones that I kept just barely missing them as they went into the comedy club show, the adventurer's club show, etc. I was on my own for nearly two hours and feeling very sorry for myself (I was near tears). We finally found each other (they felt terrible) and then had a great time. But it really ruined my evening. Moral of the story: don't count on cell phones 100% -- have a back-up plan!

 

[sameyeyam]

I think those of us that are planners sometimes have an unrealistically high expectation of our Magical Disney Trip! Most of our families don't have a clue how much time and effort goes into planning our vacations at Disney and we get totally frustrated when things don't go as planned.

This year I did the usual planning, right down to deciding what CS we would eat at. But I told myself in my mind, let 50% of it be flexible and changeable and guess what, it worked! I didn't become Disney Nazi this year and didn't have any major meltdowns like in previous years. I have to say we stayed about 75% on plan and really had an enjoyable time. This year was about having a fun family time, not having a perfect Disney vacation.

I think most of us need to be more realistic about time with our families. I don't know about you, but it is very rare that my family makes it through the week at home without a major meltdown of some type from someone. So what makes me think I can drive them to the point of exhaustion, add hot humid weather, unhealthier than normal food and expect perfect Magical Behavior?

This has been the greatest thread I have laughed and laughed and felt better about some of my past meltdowns! Next time I won't give The Look to anyone having a meltdown. Maybe I'll go buy them an icecream instead!

 

[JLS]

This is a great thread!... and its one of those rare long threads on this board where people are not snapping at each other.

I am a huge believer in planning. BUT - I think it is very evident from this thread that overplanning can put you in danger of a meltdown. I learned that lesson from my own meltdown experience. My BF, now husband, and I went on our first trip to WDW in July 2000, and it was our first long vacation together. It was his first trip there and my second. I planned obsessively every detail of every day for a week. I wanted to see "everything" at every park, including planning 2 days at Universal. My meltdown actually occurred about 5 days into the trip on our day at Islands of Adventure. I had really obsessed about the itinerary for that park because I heard horror stories about 2 hour lines and no fast pass. Back at that time, early entry for multi-day ticket holders at IOA was 7 a.m., and I forced by husband to get up at 5:30 a.m. so we could be to the front gates at IOA by 6:45 because I was convinced that we could not have a good day there unless we got there at opening and did every ride before 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.! So we go there on time and I was SO excited to be there, and the whole plan revolved around getting to The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman first and riding that 2 or 3 times before the line got long (GREAT, unbelievable ride, by the way). So, we get there and we ask for the front row, get it, and we are actually LOADED INTO THE RIDE and the ride breaks down just as we are starting to go. So they have to unload everyone and the ride goes down for a couple of hours, so they just tell us to come back later. WELL - this is too much for my planning self. I literally LOST it as we were walking off the ride. It was a "glitch" in my plan and I just could not have my careful plan derailed. I could not fathom that we couldn't follow through with my plan item by item. My eyes welled up with tears and I got very snippy with my husband who is the nicest person in the world and certainly didn't deserve that. I was saying insane things like "you don't UNDERSTAND... we will NEVER be able to ride everything now...." So we ended up in a big fight. Eventually made up and had a good day, but still...

To this day I think about that meltdown and realize that there is a point at which you can take planning too far. When you cannot roll with the punches and just accept things you can't control, that is a big problem. I am completely embarrassed and mortified that I ever had a meltdown like that over not being able to ride a theme park ride (fine if you are 8 years old, but I was an adult!).

I am a mother now, and obviously that requires a lot of "rolling with the punches", so I think I have learned my lesson.

 

[Jotash]

Here's mine:

We had our first real family vacation to WDW last February. I did all the planning. My DH's only request was that we not have to start "too early." When I made ADR's it was important that we go to CP since DS(5) is a WINNIE THE POOH FREAK!! DH did not want to do a buffet dinner or lunch (why? I don't know), so breakfast it was. I suggested we make an ADR for before the park opened but DH, who after all was going too, vetoed that as it was "too early and we were on vacation." So I made the ADR for 9:30 AM.

DS has moderate/severe autism, so I had been preparing him for the trip for months. He could recognize Cinderella's Castle in any form by the time I was done with him and he knew what to expect with all the rides. We arrive at MK before 9:00 the morning of our breakfast and DS is sooo excited, which is getting me excited. We watch the opening ceremony and head inside. DH wants to leisurely stroll down Main Street, while I'm telling him we need to go check in at CP. "But our reservation isn't until 9:30."

Needless to say, I finally manage to get him and DS there. The line for ADR's is huge, so DS and I sit on the bench, while DH goes to check in. DS is pointing at the castle and saying "Castle. We go castle." (He doesn't speak in complete sentences yet.) I try to explain to him we are having breakfast first, but he doesn't understand due to his disabilty and he is getting more and more upset.

DH finally comes back after a very long twenty minutes or so and informs me the wait will be an hour or more since we checked in late. He hands me the little vibrating beeper thing and I lose it! "We are not waiting an hour. Forget it. We'll try another day." I just didn't think it would go well now that DS was entering full meltdown and was in no mood to sit still for anything, even Pooh.

DS is still pointing at the castle and starting to cry. I start to cry too, so I not too calmly suggest we got to Fantasyland and take him on some rides. He had already eaten anyway since he's extremely picky, DS not DH, and I knew the actual food at CP would be iffy at best.

DH says no. We're already here. What's the big deal with going on rides anyway? He'd be perfectly happy if we didn't do any "stupid" rides. Now I really start to cry and start screaming at him something about why did we even bother coming here if we weren't going on rides and DS wants to go on rides and he can go back to hotel if he doesn't want to join us. He tells me he's not letting my son go off with me when I'm in such a state and the two of them are going back to the hotel without me!! I say fine, ruin the trip for your son and march off toward Fantasyland after returning the vibrating beeper thing to the ADR window, explaining to them as calmly as I could that we just couldn't wait an hour or more with an upset five year old.

As I walked into Fantasyland I began to regret everything, especially when I see no lines for the rides. I walked over to the smoking section near the fountain of Cinderella (yes, I smoke, sorry.) and called DH on my cell to apologize, beg him not to go to the hotel, and prey he hasn't already started divorce proceedings. I tell him there are no lines for the rides. He says he knows. I ask him where he and DS are. He's says, we couldn't find you. We're about to get on the tea cups." I ran over to get pictures and the rest of the day was fine.

One last side note: When we got back to the hotel that night I made ADR's for CP for the next morning - at 8:05 AM. We were the first ones in and everything was fine. DS got to see the Pooh gang and even ate a waffle.

Also, to anyone who might have witnessed this - I am so sorry.

 

[KimRaye]

Also, to anyone who might have witnessed this - I am so sorry.

Hey, no apologies needed on THIS thread!



I like the idea of giving a meltdown-victim a Mickey Bar! If you do see me having a meltdown this June, follow thru with that idea, ok?