Pixie Dusting Adults

[Yubbie]

Troll farts trump pixie dust?

 

[LiveYourLife]

OP, I see from your signature that this trip in June will be your Parents' first trip to WDW. Enjoy yourself through their eyes. If it were my Mom and Dad's first trip somewhere that I have already been, I would be focusing my time on making sure THEIR days were brightened and not a bunch of random strangers in a theme park.

As far as what would brighten my day, well:
-people paying attention to where they are walking
-not stopping in the middle of a major walkway
-not taking flash photos on dark rides
-cleaning up after themselves after eating at a QSR
-if an attraction is full, move down to the end of the row

Easy and free!

I will agree with others, just because people may post a different opinion or thought process as you, does not make them trolls. At. All.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Praying Colonel]

And I'm not doing this to make ME feel good. I just thought it would put a smile on someone else's face.
In the past year I have:
Donated items to a no-kill, donation ran pet shelter
Wrote cards to soldiers and nursing home residents
And currently hold a drive to donate money to Mississippi tornado victims
Donated items and toys and money to a donation run youth home
Even given coupons and freebie tickets to people in line at stores.

I don't do ANY of this to make ME feel better. I do it to make OTHERS feel better and that they are cherished as a person on this earth.

Then to follow on in the spirit of your post, there are some things you can do that will spread pixie dust.

Just as you wrote cards to soldiers and nursing home residents, you can go to guest relations and leave positive comments for Cast Members who helped you during the day. DS is a CPer and it really helps when people leave positive comments for him.

Take the $ you would've spent on extra toys and doo-dads and increase the tip you leave Mousekeeping. That will be a tangible benefit to them, and they certainly need it.

 

[jm106]

I agree, nice gestures mean so much more then ppl trying to give me or my kids things. (They do get a ton of stickers from CM)
Hold the door when I am pushing a stroller(no longer but in the past.) Or just hold the door to be nice. Saying excuse me instead of racing past means a lot.
Taking pictures is a big one.
Every day things like exchange pleasantries when you can- Get on a monorail or bus and sit by some one or there is just one family/person/couple- smile, say hello or a simple, enjoy yourself. Its nice to be around nice pleasant people. We had a lady walk up and tell us how well behaved our kids were in a restaurant and wished us a great trip!! Totally made our day to have someone be kind and notice that.

Offering your chair by a crowded pool when you see us wandering and you are leaving or a crowded TS place. And cleaning up before you go so others dont sit with old napkins and mess on table.

I loved when nice ppl offered to make a little room for us waiting for parade or let kids stand in front. Those moments are the best, we actually wound up chatting with a family even after AK parade ended and the kids had fun.
THOSE are things that make a difference.

 

[rcklein5269]

To be honest I don't think you need to give dollar store trinkets to strangers who already are having a great day visiting the MK. If you have some money burning a hole in your pocket and want to help out others I would give a donation to a homeless shelter or Children's Hospital. They are the ones needing to 'brighten their day" not a family at an expensive theme park. BUT if you do want to do something nice at the parks just do stuff like offer your seat on the bus, let others go before you in line, say good morning to people at the bus stop, etc. That kind of thing.

I totally agree..I love that commercial of someone seeing someone else doing a good deed and then it comes all the way around and back to them. Just treat people well.. Keep a smile on your face... And do your best to either ignore or kill with kindness the people who just seem to not get the happiness of Disney

 

[robinb]

Well, looking back through grammimouse's old posts (since she is a rather infrequent poster, I'm afraid she won't come back into here), I have confirmed that we were at Disney during the same time in October 2012. We were approached by an older lady at The Little Mermaid show at DHS and asked if she could give our daughter a porcelain doll. We said that was fine, and she did present us with a porcelain doll. So, I guess I'm one of those people who looked like they couldn't afford to be at Disney. Though she told us it was because our daughter looked sweet and was well behaved.

Grammi, it was a nice gesture, but all I have to say is...I think your perceptions of other guests are kinda off. I can assure you that Disney isn't a financial strain on us, we do indulge our kids at Disney (probably too much), and we take at least yearly trips to Disney. That day was a rough day for us for a couple of reasons, and our (then) 2 year old was definitely acting like a 2 year old that day, it was super hot, and I'm sure we seemed a little...ragged. But we're not paupers, by any stretch. It's a little eye opening (and embarrassing) that we apparently put off that vibe though.

I'm going to go crawl in a corner now. Though I think that DH will find humor that the "porcelain doll lady" (as we refer to her) gave us a doll because we looked like we couldn't afford to buy one ourselves.

This kinda makes me sad for grammimouse. She gave your child a gift and considered it a nice thing and now it's not . I guess this highlights how giving strangers gifts can backfire on you.

 

[morethananyonex]

This kinda makes me sad for grammimouse. She gave your child a gift and considered it a nice thing and now it's not . I guess this highlights how giving strangers gifts can backfire on you.

If all parts of the story are true, maybe a lesson can be learned that if you truly want to help people that are less fortunate, looking for people who look poor (and thinking you can determine someone's financial situation by their looks) at an expensive vacation destination isn't the way to do it.

 

[Acedink]

I agree w/ a few posters. I'm going w/ my parents, wife and daughter. On the night my parents are having dinner by themselves at the Luau, I had a cake (from my DD) ordered that will be delivered to them, thanking them for sharing Disney with her for the 2nd year in a row.

But doing things for those you don't know is also very nice, but also could make some suspicious of why you are doing it

 

[Jennasis]

Things we have done for others:

Offer to take photos for them so they can all be in the picture.
Had extra DDP credits left and used them to pay for the meal of the couple behind us in line before we left the resort.
Wished a button-wearer happy birthday/anniversary.
I have been known to bow to a kiddo in princess garb or offer an enthusiastic "My LIEGE!/Your Majesty!" with a curtsey or bow.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

If all parts of the story are true, maybe a lesson can be learned that if you truly want to help people that are less fortunate, looking for people who look poor (and thinking you can determine someone's financial situation by their looks) at an expensive vacation destination isn't the way to do it.

Oh, I can assure you it's true from my side. I can describe the doll and everything (brown hair, red and navy striped outfit with a little white...it looked kinda 4th of July-ish). I would post a picture but we did get rid of it in the last pre-Christmas toy purge at our house.

 

[morethananyonex]

Oh, I can assure you it's true from my side. I can describe the doll and everything (brown hair, red and navy striped outfit with a little white...it looked kinda 4th of July-ish). I would post a picture but we did get rid of it in the last pre-Christmas toy purge at our house.

I don't mean to call you a liar or anything, I just tend to always put that disclaimer whenever I hear something like that on the internet. Never know, you know?

And by the way, I don't think you're the one who needs to feel embarrassed about this story. I think we've all had our days of looking a little ragged in the parks, I think most people realize that's nothing out of the ordinary in a theme park and don't make assumptions about the family.

 

[HookdonWDW]

This is reminding me of one of the best experiences we ever had with guest-induced pixie dust. DS was in a wheelchair during one of our visits due to a soccer injury. DS and I decided to checkout AK. We got into Asia, and the crowds on the narrow paths became CRAZY. A group of people literally LANDED on ds's leg which was propped up (extended) in the moving wheelchair. DS yelped out in pain. This was NOT the pixie dust, lol.

The pixie dust occured when 4 good sized men who were walking near us with their families witnessed what happened. They expressed their disbelief, and then surrounded the front of ds' wheelchair so no one would bump into his leg, and escorted us to the First Aid station. They laughed and joked with ds on the way, talked to him about soccer and put him at ease.

That act of kindness did more for him than the pins and "Magic FPs" (good at any ride in any park) that the CMs gave to him afterward (although all of us were VERY happy and surprised to receive them). He still talks about the guys who rescued him, and now that he's older, I notice that he keeps his eyes out for others more in the parks. Definite pixie dust...

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I don't mean to call you a liar or anything, I just tend to always put that disclaimer whenever I hear something like that on the internet. Never know, you know?

And by the way, I don't think you're the one who needs to feel embarrassed about this story. I think we've all had our days of looking a little ragged in the parks, I think most people realize that's nothing out of the ordinary in a theme park and don't make assumptions about the family.

Oh, absolutely, to both paragraphs. When I was reading through the post last night initially my jaw was on the floor, because I was thinking there was NO WAY that this could be the same person. But the description fit to a T (she told us the same story about her goddaughter and the dolls as she relayed in her first post). And then when I looked back and saw that our 2012 trip coincided with hers...well, that's just crazy.

This morning, my husband and I were talking about it, and I was even paranoid enough to look through our pictures. I don't think we looked too bad that day (khakis, t-shirts, normal theme park garb), though during that trip it was super hot (over 90 every day) and none of us tolerate the heat well, and our son wasn't feeling well that day, plus he had decided that he hated pretty much everything at Disney that trip because he was 2 and in insane, and we'd been up early for a pre-opening ADR, so we were all feeling a little run down.

I just need to shake this off. Grammi feels good about what she did, and we were happy to accept her gift seeing how happy it was making her to offer it. So I guess there was pixie dust flowing both ways that day.

 

[skylizard]

FYI I have asked that this thread be shut down. Originally it was good for an exchange of ideas about spreading joy. Now the trolls have taken over and turned it into nothing more than a board for them to express their pious feelings.

Have you read other posts than yours? Some sound quite rude and hostile.

Apparently nobody else's parents let them watch Bambi and taught Thumper's most important rule:

IF YOU CANT SAY SOMETHING NICE, DONT SAY NOTHING AT ALL .

Who has been trolling and rude? You asked a question and people are being honest with their answers. Just because they don't agree with you doesn't mean they are trolls or being rude.
I tend to agree with a lot of people here who say that the trinkets aren't always appreciated. I'm not one for "stuff" so I'd be much happier if someone was kind to me by holding open a door for me or letting me step into the shade if I look overheated or letting me get ahead of you in a line at the store if I only have one item I'm buying and you have 20. It's the small gestures like that that add up and really make my day. And that doesn't make me a troll or a rude person.

 

[robinb]

If all parts of the story are true, maybe a lesson can be learned that if you truly want to help people that are less fortunate, looking for people who look poor (and thinking you can determine someone's financial situation by their looks) at an expensive vacation destination isn't the way to do it.

Absolutely. But I think it's also be a lesson on giving strangers things and trinkets in general. YOU may think you are spreading "pixie dust" and feeling really good about it, but the recipient may not really feel the same way. Even if they accept the gift since since it's rather rude to turn a gift down.

And by the way, I don't think you're the one who needs to feel embarrassed about this story. I think we've all had our days of looking a little ragged in the parks, I think most people realize that's nothing out of the ordinary in theme park and don't make assumptions about the family.

I agree with this too and I didn't mean to pick on jtowntoflorida . I believe her story.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

I did like the suggestion of offering to take pictures so that a whole family could get in a shot.

Otherwise, you all do realize the OP asked for suggestions for non-creepy things to do for adults, right? Honestly, if someone started offering to sprinkle me with glitter or hand me stickers and dollar store trinkets, I'd either be walking the other way or saying a polite "no, thank you".

I appreciate the OP's good intentions in wanting to spread pixie dust, but I have to second Peachkins on this.

 

[OurBigTrip]

I would hand them a card saying that a donation in their honor has been made to the Human Fund.

 

[pampam]

I wouldn't be embarrassed at all. I am guessing she meant that she wasn't being frivolous with her money and giving dolls to people with Birkin bags or something. That she was just looking for nice families who seemed like they'd appreciate a gift.

I think some of the posts in this thread regarding donating time or money instead of giving gifts to strangers at WDW may have made her sensitive, but I am sure she didn't think you looked like Disney paupers (although I am almost always a Disney pauper by the end of every trip).

Instead of being embarrassed, I'd look at this as a cool six-degrees-of-separation kind of thing. What are the chances of finding (and being able to thank) a stranger who did something for you a year and a half ago?

Nice post.

Very kind and gently said.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

I would hand them a card saying that a donation in their honor has been made to the Human Fund.

Bravo!!! This is my new favorite post. (shaking my head in disbelief that this is a 20 year old reference)

 

[grammimouse]

WOW. !!! My thread was totally misunderstood !! I guess I did not word my intentions properly. I honestly only wanted to give a smile to some little girls and get rid of the dolls. I certainly did not mean to cast any judgements upon anyone. I could have just donated them to a local charity , but, instead I thought that it would make someone's trip more memorable. That sure backfired , huh ? At least you no longer have the doll to give you such bad feelings. I only meant to be kind.