What was your biggest surprise about America?

[Dimplenose]

I know we all enjoy (or dream of) visiting America but I was wondering what was the most surprising when you visited for the first time?

Mine were

1. How old fashioned things looked (e.g. washing machines and at the time of my first visit the cars)

2. That Americans had trouble understanding my very bland south east English accent.

 

[Head_in_the_clouds]

Mine was that you had to drive everywhere unlike the UK, where I was used to walking or taking buses everywhere with my mum!

Also, that toilets were called restrooms!

That Halloween was such a big deal and children were made such a fuss of getting sweets and candy - I was so spoiled as a child on my first trip by the shopowners etc even though I wasn't in fancy dress, I think they felt sorry for me and thought I was some sort of deprived child !

That you had to pay more at the tills due to sales tax!

The Have A Nice Day Thing!

How polite and family orientated the Americans seemed. The supermarket was a revelation to me - everyone calling their husbands and wives "Honey", and smiling, saying "Oh, no, please you go first" instead of just bumping into you with their trolley, and no one looking stressed like back home - people walking ALOT slower!

I have to admit on my first trip I was a bit disappointed. I grew up with the advert on the end of the Disney films where the kid opened their bedroom window and could see the parade at Magic Kingdom so I thought you literally landed on Main Street! I didn't realise Florida was anything except where Mickey lived so I was a bit of a grumpy kid when we had to wait for our hire car, drive to our hotel (which took hours to find!) and then wait a WHOLE WEEK for Dad to take us to WDW! And that was only because my mum put her foot down big time! All I can say is, he thought WDW would cost about the same for entry as Alton Towers...

 

[Jets fan]

Gosh, I first visited some 30 years ago and the thing that struck me was how friendly everybody who worked for Disney was, absolutely nothing was too much trouble. Unfortunately, in my opinion, this has changed over the years with the influx of other nationalities. They are still friendly but not as much.

Tina

 

[T16GEM]

Friendly people - walking round a department store and sneezing and having a member of the public just say "Bless you ma'am" can't ever see that happening here!

The big gaps between the doors on the "restrooms" I am always paranoid that people can see in!

The cars! When we first went it was 1989 and they all looked so square and old looking - they probably weren't but you know what I mean!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Definitely how friendly everyone is and how staff in restaurants and shops / bus drivers / porters etc genuinely seem to want to make your experience a good one.
Also how clean everywhere is, you never see any litter or dog p** in any of the residential areas or hotels or on I-Drive or wherever you may be (and not just in Disney property)
I was also amazed by how quickly huges deluges of water completely vanish about 15 mins after a storm.
Finally ... the size of the containers and packets of items in supermarkets.

 

[wicket2005]

I was just amazed at how good the rides were with all that themeing.

 

[jen_uk]

The big gaps between the doors on the "restrooms" I am always paranoid that people can see in!

I hate those gaps!! I always feel soooo embarrassed!

 

[Danauk]

I was surprised by how polite everyone was. Our 1st trip to the USA was to Las Vegas, I lost count of the number of American people who insisted we either had a better spot to watch a show, better seat in the helicopter (to the Grand canyon) or insisted we ordered before them at a coffee house just because we were English! The number of people who said, "English people are so polite and well mannered," or, "You are a visitor to our country and you folks always help the USA out." was unreal.

The other thing that surprised me, and still does after all these years are the portion sizes of food. I mean a 1 person banana split fed 4 adults and we still put some back in the freezer at the villa!!

 

[hildasmuriel]

Friendly people - walking round a department store and sneezing and having a member of the public just say "Bless you ma'am" can't ever see that happening here!

Okay, I don't say "ma'am" but I always say bless you when someone sneezes near me. Nine times out of ten the sneezer smiles and says thank you.

 

[joolz1910]

When we went to L.A. the taxi driver went through a red light when he was turning right. I thought he was drunk and that we were about to die.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

That toilets were called Rest Rooms and that chips were called fries.

 

[Lizzybear]

The size of the roads and cars and how much open space there was, I knew all of this beforehand but it still really 'hit' me! Also a Florida specific one: The humidity and the rain! I remember having moments of thinking we've come all this way for more blimmin rain, obviously never occured to me that it's part and parcel of a tropical climate

 

[ColdNorway]

That is´s NOT possible to get an Hamburger,anywhere until after 11AM.

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

That the skin was still on the potatoes for chips!! I was 16 and hated that - I didn't eat the ends - what waste.

 

[Tinks1984]

A strange one, but the GRASS! Oh my word it wasn't/isn't as comfy as ours is!

And asking for 'burger and chips' and being given burger and crisps!

And another that stands out was how clean everything was in comparison to over here. I mean, they 'wash' I-Drive every night!

I'm sure there's more too!

 

[Dimplenose]

I've just remembered the tax - I'm one of those saddos that adds up my purchases and has the correct money ready at the till ... I didn't know that the tax wasn't already included in the price.

 

[Tinks1984]

Oh and tipping!

Shock of my life having to pay people who carry my bags, I mean, I'd have quite happily carried them on my own at the airport! I didn't mind in the end obviously, but I was stunned when it happened

 

[Muscateer]

The chips/fries thing.

The roads being really wide.

The lorries being just like how I seen them in the Convoy film.

Some police cars are still like the old police car out of Dukes of Hazzard.

 

[tony64]

A strange one, but the GRASS! Oh my word it wasn't/isn't as comfy as ours is!

And asking for 'burger and chips' and being given burger and crisps!

And another that stands out was how clean everything was in comparison to over here. I mean, they 'wash' I-Drive every night!

I'm sure there's more too!

The chips/fries thing.

The roads being really wide.

The lorries being just like how I seen them in the Convoy film.

Some police cars are still like the old police car out of Dukes of Hazzard.

All of the above and the wall of heat that hit us as we got off of the aeroplane. It was like walking into an oven. I thought "my god there is no way we can live with this for two weeks". That night there was a major thunderstorm which cleared it and we had the best two weeks of our lives.

 

[~Piglet~]

A strange one, but the GRASS! Oh my word it wasn't/isn't as comfy as ours is!

Me too! the grass at the Pop looked so neat that I walked on it barefoot - ouch! my toes looked like they had been tickled by Freddy Krueger