Someone with boys has to agree with me!

[Salrx95]

Wife and I will be bringing our 2 boys for our second family trip in February 2013. I must admit that I did not notice how it would seem more to girls. I think we were in awe of the whole experience. Wife and I had been there before but not since our teens. I will be curious to see how this may become more noticeable this time around.

We will be going to the castle for Cinderalla's breakfast this year and hope they won't give us any issues. Wife always wanted to do it and it will only get harder to convince them to it when they get older so I convinced her to book it this year.

 

[letsgoagainsoon]

Wife and I will be bringing our 2 boys for our second family trip in February 2013. I must admit that I did not notice how it would seem more to girls. I think we were in awe of the whole experience. Wife and I had been there before but not since our teens. I will be curious to see how this may become more noticeable this time around.

We will be going to the castle for Cinderalla's breakfast this year and hope they won't give us any issues. Wife always wanted to do it and it will only get harder to convince them to it when they get older so I convinced her to book it this year.

OP here, we have done the castle on many occasions and my boys do enjoy that because that get swords! LOL

Also, agree with a PP about Whispering Canyon-- that was enjoyed by all!!

 

[jamuth]

I too am mother to three boys .. All under 11. We are dvc members but now spend a week at Hilton head or vero beach...which I feel is geared to boys. This trip in August we are doing 4 nights at universal and only 1 night at Disney..for me. I'm taking the youngest 2.5 into magic kingdom while my husband takes the other into Disney quest. Sad but this is our new vacations. My boys don't want to do Disney. They say it's for girls so our money is now spent at the dark side which I'm learning to love. Who cares if they have a few boy themed rooms when you don't spend time in there. Feels good to vent on this thread.

I have 3 boys under 7 and I feel the same way.

I did hear that they added Jake from the neverland pirates to Hollywood and VIne character meal.
So jealous I never got to experience any princess stuff. Got to have my picture with Belle last year because my 3 year old thought she was pretty.

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

We have one of each and haven't had any issues. Most of the character dining we've done has been Pooh, Mickey, etc. 1900 Park Fare has been our only meal with a princess so far, and the stepsisters were great with ds (one kissed his cheek and said she wanted to marry him, and drew hearts in his autograph book).

Most of the stuff we do is fairly gender-neutral...Buzz Lightyear, Monsters Inc., Jungle Cruise, Spaceship Earth, Soarin', etc. Both kids like meeting characters, regardless of who it is...ds has gone with his sister to meet princesses, and she's gone with him to meet Darth Vader.

 

[Planogirl]

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.

There has been talk that Six Flags might not have exclusive rights to DC. If true, I would love to see Universal switch to DC if they ever give up Marvel. I'd love to visit Gotham City.

If Disney ever gets the right to use Marvel, I hope that they do so correctly. These characters need their own distinct area or even park and not a lot of fluff. DS would have been thrilled.

 

[wdw71]

I would love to see a pirate themed dining experience.

 

[canopynut66]

write to guest services. as they want you to pay for the $$ suites like in cars and pirates andpeople doing it.

 

[party-of-five]

My DS6 told me the other day that he won't allow his baby brother to go to a Princess meal because the Princesses are "weird". This from a little boy who at age 22 months was kissed on the cheek by Cinderella (at Akershaus) and refused to let us bathe him that night.

My boys, (and DD) would love meals with the Toy Story characters, or Star Wars, Monsters Inc., Incredibles, Lion King, etc.

 

[ColonelHathi]

Oh and while we are on a vent, what is up with ALL boy clothes having skulls all over it these days? I am sick and tired of the stupid skulls. I don't know what dummy got it in their heads that boys only want to wear clothes with skulls on them, but every where I go to shop now, it's like 1/3 of the boy clothes has skulls on it and my kids don't wear that stuff! Grrr!

LOL, totally agree on the skulls!

DS will be 7+ when we hit WDW and he's already growing out of the Pixar stage (Cars, Toy Story...) He loves Phineas and Ferb (note to Disney, that encompasses more than just Perry too). Love that Epcot is starting to have the "Where's Perry" similar to Kidcot, but would love some Gravity Falls or Phineas and Ferb dining. They are totally missing the boat with the non-pirate fan boys, especially beyond preschool age! :S

 

[DopeyDonald]

Hmmm. When I first read the intro post to this thread, I disagreed a bit. But as I read all of the replies, I see the argument.

I guess my son is just different. He LOVES Disney. Walt is his hero. He loves the whole experience. He first went to Disney as on only at 1. Then him and his little sis at age 4 - CARS ruled at that time. Then again at age 6. These first 3 visits were to DL. With the exception of the CARS age, he really just loved ALL things Disney - there was plenty for him to see/do. Mickey is his fave, followed by Stitch.
When he was 8 we visited WDW for the 1st time and again a year later - again, just loved the whole experience. He is the kind of kid though who saved his money all year and went with 250 souvie money. He bought the bronze Partners statue and a fancy Mickey watch. He also loves WL where we stay and usually buys things with that.
After much thought, and maybe it's just my son...I don't think it's LACK of boys things, but that it just gets overshadowed by the ABUNDACE of girl things.... that and the fact that there really is nothing soley boyish anymore...it's much easier for a girl to wear a "blue shirt" than it is a boy to wear a "pink shirt"....
That being said our character meals this year will include 1900 Park Fare for dinner and DS cannot wait to go there dressed as a pirate and see what the step-sisters say about that!

 

[rabbitroger]

One of the few things that everyone seems to agree on is whether you phrase it as boyish or not. a new character meal featuring someone different from princess/pooh/classic needs to be created, whether it's Pixar, villians, heros or pirates.

 

[mousefan73]

This whole thread got me thinking creative. I know my son and us would love the following:

In Adventureland they build a floating pirateship (either permantely docked ala casino boat or sailable) that is a floating restaurant. They can make it really pirate like, sitting on barrels, servers as pirates, mini swords as knives etc. Characters could be anything Peter Pan, pirates etc.

For girls they could make mermaids sitting near the shore (fantasy island theming Peter pan etc. )

I could just see everyone totally loving boarding a HUGE old pirate ship with masts and all for a dining experience.

 

[mousefan73]

One more thing. Wouldn't a themed, disney sword knife with mickey ears as the handle be the cutest souvernier??

 

[stepdisney]

There has been talk that Six Flags might not have exclusive rights to DC. If true, I would love to see Universal switch to DC if they ever give up Marvel. I'd love to visit Gotham City.

If Disney ever gets the right to use Marvel, I hope that they do so correctly. These characters need their own distinct area or even park and not a lot of fluff. DS would have been thrilled.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This!!!!!


Because my DS's grew up going to Disney world, they want something that will grow with them. I think Disney should also look at doing a Comic book area. Men/boys/ never grow out of comic book charcters. My DH and DS's are big fans.

 

[Babbletrish]

But wait everyone! They changed the name of the carousel to Prince Charming's Royal Testosterone-Fueled Totally Radical Carousel X-TREEEEM, right? Are you mothers of young boys trying to tell me that DIDN'T fix everything?!?

(Oh man. Could barely type that with a straight face.)

So there's an overabundance of girl things, the only standard rooms in AOA are in the building themed to a movie that isn't gender neutral (though as I recall when it first came out, everyone and their mom and their dog loved "The Little Mermaid" but whatever), and there's a marked dearth of boy-friendly character meals.

The long-term solution to this seems pretty simple: Disney moms with sons, next time Disney puts out a movie that looks like it appeals more to boys, go vote with your wallet and see it. Let's make "Wreck-It Ralph" a hit this winter! Let's surprise the heck out of Disney and make "John Carter" a cult hit on DVD! If these things happen, Disney will notice! (Heck, the very reason why Disney has gone overboard with pirates and princesses is because pirate and princess movies were there biggest recent hits.) Imagine Ralph heading up a Villains Who Aren't So Bad Breakfast! I just did and my day is the better for it.

Typing on a phone is hard.

 

[rabbitroger]

the Toy Story trilogy certainly brought more money in than the recent princess movies, yet they didn't have anywhere near the marketing push.

 

[Babbletrish]

the Toy Story trilogy certainly brought more money in than the recent princess movies, yet they didn't have anywhere near the marketing push.

If I remember correctly, Pixar wasn't too happy with the merchandise Disney came up with for "Toy Story", to the point where its even the butt of a joke in TS2! Now the only movie Lasseter will let the higher-ups market to hell and back is "Cars", and oh boy have they ever! The rest of the Pixar titles aren't exactly off-limits or anything, but "Cars" has so far proven the easiest to not screw up. (And it still is. Some of the things they came up with for "Brave" are downright infuriating.)

Edit: I love that pirate ship restaurant idea too! Oh, if only they didn't fill in the lagoon for the old submarine ride; they could have built it in there.

Typing on a phone is hard.

 

[bwifan]

This whole thread got me thinking creative. I know my son and us would love the following:

In Adventureland they build a floating pirateship (either permantely docked ala casino boat or sailable) that is a floating restaurant. They can make it really pirate like, sitting on barrels, servers as pirates, mini swords as knives etc. Characters could be anything Peter Pan, pirates etc.

For girls they could make mermaids sitting near the shore (fantasy island theming Peter pan etc. )

I could just see everyone totally loving boarding a HUGE old pirate ship with masts and all for a dining experience.

A W E S O M E

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

 

[rabbitroger]

2p2p, i don't think the arguement was ever, thatthere needs to be meals/room/etc that girls won't enjoy.

But that after boys have grown out of Pooh/Mickey but are still too young to enjoy them again, so around 9-18, there isn't much aimed towards them. The obvious interests such as Toy Story, pirates, etc don't get as many facilities as the princesses.