Someone with boys has to agree with me!

[TowMater92]

My youngest boy is almost 7, so he missed most of the fun, but his brothers keep threatening to book a dinner in Norway or GF and marry him off to a princess!

thanks for the idea, my 8yo and 14yo nephews will be thrilled when I tease them with that. Wait the 14yo will probably like it and his girlfriend will get jealous

 

[staceymarie]

I am the mother of an only child-a girl. I totally agree with you! I often notice this very thing.

What is up with that?
It doesn't seem well thought out, in my opinion.
On the other hand, the whole of Frontierland seems to be geared toward boys, so my DD says.

 

[pequele]

Luckily I still have a 3yo boy who also likes the princesses still BUT come on boy stuff? As people pointed out WOMEN like to shop, and this woman likes to shop for her little BOY! I'm sure Disney has put their research in and finds more of a market for the princess (insert 4 letter word here), BUT when there is nothing out there to buy for boys how CAN we show we want more boy stuff if there are no meals to attend to and no things to buy? And putting more swords and guns out there is NOT what I want for my little boy (we don't even buy that stuff now so no wonder boy stuff doesn't sell!). Sorry but teaching my son that guns and swords are toys is not the way I want to spend my money!

 

[ErinsMommy]

I would love to see Buzz & Woody, Peter Pan, 7 dwarfs, Captain Hook, all the Prince, Gaston and John. I would like to see Jiminny Cricket and Pinocchio at character meals. Instead of LM, I think Peter Pan w/ Wendy, Tink, John, Michael, and Smee and Hook would have been a better choice. It can go either way.. boy or girl theme.

Coming from a poster with a daughter, even I agree with you as I know she would love seeing the villains/pinocchio/etc. just as much as the princesses.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Yes I do agree with you in that the boys activities are limited. My DS would love a Toy Story character breakfast with Woody and Buzz I felt so bad last year when we went because I wanted to see the princesses and he went along with me to Akershus and 1900 Park Fare where he did the waltz with Cinderella He said he would go because mommy wants to go

I haven't read through all the posts yet, but what the heck ever happened with that Toy Story character meal??? Didn't they offer one last Christmas time at the Studios?? I thought maybe it was a test run to see how it would do. I totally agree we need MORE BOY STUFF! Would love to see a Pirate themed character meal restaurant, or Toy Story, or Phineas and Ferb. I feel like having a 2 boys has cut about 1/2 of WDW out for our family. I love all the princesses myself but there is no way in heck my boys are going to be caught dead doing storytime with Belle or waiting in line to see Rapunzel. LOL

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

I wasn't bragging (?). Just pointing out the girly girl stuff (stationery, jewelry, dolls, whatever) has a much wider age range of appeal than the things aimed at boys (toy pirate swords, Cars merch, etc). Very few 15 year old boys would buy a plastic sword, but many 15 year old girls would buy a cutesy princess necklace. Including my daughter. Anyone (Disney) in the business of selling things is going to produce more of the items that have a broader range of appeal.

100% agree with this. Heck even I buy cutesy princess pens and notebooks for myself. My boys are way past the toy sword age. In fact when we were at WDW last January my mom was desperately trying to buy my 12 year old something as a souvenir, they went through like 10 shops together, and he couldn't find ONE THING he wanted. Disney is really missing a huge market to teen and pre-teen boys. I'm hoping that with the popularity of Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom they start putting out things that will appeal to their age group. We searched high and low in March for something they could store their SotMK cards in, couldn't find anything anywhere on property.

 

[brookmey]

I agree, especially with having gender neutral standard rooms at AoA. I have a 5 year old son and he is so not happy with having to stay in a "girl" room during our December trip at AoA. I really wish I knew the thinking behind designing the standard rooms after a princess movie. Why not make Lion King or Finding Nemo the theme for the standard rooms? Then they could have boy-themed suites (Cars), girl themed (Little Mermaid), neutral (LK or FN) and then neutral for standard (LK or FN). To me that makes more sense than the way Disney decided to theme AoA.

He's never gotten into any of the characters, but he is obsessed with Star Wars, so I'm glad Disney has plenty of that for him. He's also a big Nightmare Before Christmas fan, so I'm happy that we've been able to find some merchandise that appeals to him. I just wish the HM would do more with Jack Skellington at Halloween and Christmas.

 

[Planogirl]

Our son loved the Fab 5 when he was little so we were covered there. It got harder when he got older though.

A meal or resort with a Pirate or Toy Story theme would be nice. This girl would have actually preferred that when she was young!

 

[rabbitroger]

Didn't they used to have a Villians meal but it was cancelled several years back?

I would like to see more use of the "Hero" characters, Tarzan, Aladdin, Simba, etc.

 

[mid630]

A boy-themed character breakfast would be awesome!!

I have 3 kids, and my daughter is the youngest. She'll be turning 6 right after our return from Disney, so needless to say, a trip to BBB and a princess-themed meal are a must. I would LOVE for there to be something Toy Story, P&F, or Pirate themed for the boys & Dad to do while I'm doing princess-y stuff with my daughter.

We're already trying to figure out what they should do for food while my daughter & I are at Akershus. If we do the dining plan, it makes sense that they go do a TS meal, but there isn't any in WS that my boys will go ga-ga for the way my daughter will the princess meal. So more than likely they'll do a QS (whether we do dining plan or not) and ride some rides. I'd love for them to get some "magic" at the same time. In fact when I saw that Akershus had "....Disney Princesses, leading ladies and friends who visit diners at their tables to share a smile, give autographs and pose for pictures", I was hoping some of the "friends" would be villains, princes and maybe even animal characters from the fairy tales so my boys would want to go eat with us.

As for AoA, I agree that the standard rooms should have a neutral theme. We're a family of 5, so we would have had to have upgraded to stay there anyway. But it definitely seems like a no-brainer to have some neutral, some princess, and some more boyish rooms all in the the standard range.

 

[cmcadoo66]

As the mom of a teenage son and daughter, I have to say that the heavy princess themed stuff at Disney has never been an issue. When the kids were younger we did all of the princess meals for our DD and it never bothered my DS. We always countered the princess meals with a character meal with Mickey and friends for him which always kept him happy. And now as teenagers, they both just prefer meals with Mickey and friends (if we decide to do a character meal at all). When I waited 90 minutes to see Ariel with DD, my DH took DS to Tomorrow Land and rode a few things while waiting on us and he had a blast. We also stayed in the Pirate room at CBR that he loved. There are plenty of boy or gender neutral things to do IMO. My son has never complained anyway. We even went to Universal one year thinking he might like it more and all he could do was talk about how much better WDW is!

Having said that, I do agree that the decision to make the standard rooms at AoA LM themed was not a great decision. I would have preferred they made those suites and took either the FN or LK theme to the standard rooms. I also agree that Toy Story, Peter Pan, and Star Wars would make great character meals that could be enjoyed by everyone.

 

[ttintagel]

First of all, no villain character meals

\

Why would boys like villains more than girls do?

Have you noticed that a lot of the villains in Disney movies are just as female as the female protagonists?

 

[stepdisney]

I wish that Disney would go for the Marvel superheroes. It would not only appeal to boys more (I have two DS's) but it would also appeal to teens, adults and older ones as well (DS's are 17 and 11). I think that Disney should concentrate on a broader audience. I love Pixie Dust but would love it mixed with a little Super Hero. I'd love get it all in one place. Maybe the next park should be a superhero's park with thrill rides, comic book characters and villians. I already know that Disney owns Marvel but that US/IoA have the rights to the rides but I am I think that the agreement is that US/IoA will not expand that area. I hope that this means that Disney has the rights to superheros that are not featured at US/IoA. (Batman and superman rides are both featured at Six flags).

 

[cjsm&d]

Let's face it, a large majority of little boys outgrow the character stuff by the time they 11 or so.

Girls embrace the princess stuff all their lives. DW still loves this stuff.

So the market for little boys is alot smaller. My DS wanted every pirate toy or Indiana Jones thing they had when he was 6, But now he's 11 and could care less about the souvenir shops for the most part.

As for character dining, he isn't interested at all and hasn't been for a few years... Though being a good older cousin, he wants us to go to one next trip because we'll have his 4 year old cousin with us and he wants to see how he'll react.

 

[pequele]

I'm a grown up girl an have always hated princesses and all things pink! Why do they think ALL girls like sparkles, tiaras and fairy tales?

 

[kerriemiller]

I wish I could hit a like button on some of those comments.

I have girls. But they aren't really crazy about the girly stuff They really like all the movies The ones they want to watch are the 70s era Sword in the stone, robinhood those movies they've never seen the little mermaid or sleeping beauty they know who the characters are just because they get bombarded with everything princess all the time and as an adult I would love to see a bigger variety of character meals. I know they must have warehouses full of costumes. It cannot be that hard to rotate.

 

[smiths02]

I think the Little Mermaid hotel is pretty gender neutral. The exterior has a huge King Triton and sebastrian. The rooms have Prince Eric, Ariel, and Founder pictures. They don't seem to be overly princess themed.

While the look may be gender neutral...if you have only boys, the whole concept just might not appeal at all. My son has never seen the Little Mermaid (or most any other princess movie) so while he might be fine staying in one of those rooms, it wouldn't be "special" to stay with some prince and crab he doesn't know about.

Overall, though, I have not been really upset by it because I *love* the fact that I can go back to school shopping and get a few pairs of jeans and a few t-shirts and we are DONE. I don't have to comb hair and get accesories, etc., etc.

I am about to have boy/girl twins, so I am sure my attitude will change on this b/c I will want things to be more fair. [My poor youngest son will just get hand-me-downs and will suffer on our WDW trips and the daughter will get a ton of stuff while we eat at every princess meal b/c *I* have always wanted to do that ]

 

[Missoutandabout]

As a mom to one daughter, I would love to see less gender-specific meals...

I know my kiddo would LOVE a Toy Story and/or Phineas & Ferb character meal. Heck, she loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates so much, we had to get the only shirts the Disney Store had available a few months ago -- which were only in Boys' sizes. (Had to hem in the sides to make it more figure-fitting like a girl's shirt -- along with her Chewbacca t-shirt.)

(She's a girl who has got just as many dinos and cars as she has My Little Pony stuff. )

Anyway, I do agree about Little Mermaid being a poor choice in theming for the single rooms at AoA. Although, from the pictures I've seen, it's not overtly feminine. So, perhaps it'll be a non-issue once they've opened up that section and the reviews start coming in.

 

[PeanutButterMom]

We would LOVE a Toy Story character meal. My girl isn't into princesses at all (although she said she'd go to the CRT dinner because it would be cool to eat in the castle).

I agree 100 percent,

Making the only standard rooms at AoA Little Mermaid, was a bad idea. The rooms looks very girly. They have other themes but not everyone want/needs to stay in a suite. CBR does have the pirate rooms, but you have to pay extra for it, plus if you want a more gender neutral room at CBR you just get the standerd nemo room. We have been noticing more of this at Disney, and its not too fair to the boys.

I've been waffling between AoA and POFQ/POR, and this is one of the biggest reasons. I think the kids would LOVE AoA for the theming of the resort itself, but I would love love LOVE if some of the standard rooms were Cars/Lion King/Toy Story, etc. LM is just... meh.

 

[kamik86]

I wish that Disney would go for the Marvel superheroes. It would not only appeal to boys more (I have two DS's) but it would also appeal to teens, adults and older ones as well (DS's are 17 and 11). I think that Disney should concentrate on a broader audience. I love Pixie Dust but would love it mixed with a little Super Hero. I'd love get it all in one place. Maybe the next park should be a superhero's park with thrill rides, comic book characters and villians. I already know that Disney owns Marvel but that US/IoA have the rights to the rides but I am I think that the agreement is that US/IoA will not expand that area. I hope that this means that Disney has the rights to superheros that are not featured at US/IoA. (Batman and superman rides are both featured at Six flags).

US/IoA have rights to family's of characters. Depending on how exactly families are defined in the contract it may not leave much at all left. For example Iron Man doesn't have a ride but if there is anything at US labeled as avengers even if it doesn't have Iron Man in it he may be included.

As for Batman and Superman being at 6 flags that has no bearing on anything. They are DC characters. 6 Flags has had the rights to DC for a while.