What was the biggest Disney meltdown you've witnessed?

[mco65]

My youngest son had a mini meltdown on Test Track a few years back. I think he was 10 and we had ridden Test track as a family and my wife decided that it was time to ride solo.. we could get the ride in twice before heading to the other side of the track. So we shoot down the solo aisle and get all the way to the car loading section when I catch wind of my son standing in the middle of a car screaming "I am supposed to have a SOLO car"... I still rib him about that..

 

[robinb]

I don't know about anyone else, but every time I see this thread in my "Unread Watched Threads" list I think of *another* thread on the list .

 

[rastahomie]

The meltdown that wasn't.

I had taken my 3 kids and a friend for each to WDW. (I really should see a psychiatrist about my masochistic tendencies).
Well my son and his friend were about 16, two of the girls were 14, the other two girls were 12. My son's friend and my daughter's friend (14) took an instant dislike to each other, so now the battle lines have been drawn boys against the girls.
We're in the magic kingdom parking lot waiting for the tram and the girls got some stupid, little toy the boys had won at one of the arcades and threw it into the bushes and it was lost. So we're waiting for the tram and they are all bickering - I've had it and send the boys to the end of the line: "Just get away from each other before I lose it!" The tram arrives and I see my son in conversation with the cast member at the back of the tram - the one with the microphone to make the tram announcements, I don't think anything of it (I should have known better). So everyone boards the tram and I hear my son's voice on the speakers - he's auctioning off his sister and her friend to anyone on the tram willing to take them.
I was mortified - the girls,since he can see exactly what they are doing and is describing them in detail to the guests on the tram, are trying to hide under the seats.They turned so red a cooked lobster had nothing on them.

They are now 30 and 28, get along great and we all start an auction whenever we get on each others nerves.

OMG I laughed SO hard at this for like five minutes!

 

[BusyP76]

Maybe not the "biggest melt down" anyone has seen, but on this topic my own family comes to mind...on our first family trip I lost my marbles on DH. Backstory: He is notorious for spilling coffee. He's so well known for this, it's almost comical. (Weirdly, he spills no other drink. Just coffee.) He routinely forgets to put his cup under the Keurig and he's especially bad about getting coffee to go and not putting a lid on it right away which usually ends in disaster. Once at the airport, he tripped over a bag and threw coffee all over another man's white golf pants. Luckily, he's really only ever burned himself and not badly. Needless to say, I am wary around him when a coffee cup is in his hand. On this particular occasion it was to be our first day in the MK EVER and my DDs were almost 3 and just turned 7. Both were in their favorite princess dresses (Cinderella and Belle, respectively) and we were on the monorail on our way to breakfast at CRT, pictures with Cinderella and BBB right after. DH decides he can't wait to drink coffee when we get to CRT and grabs himself a big old extra large coffee to go in the lobby. No lid. So imagine the horror when the monorail lurches to a stop and he throws the entire cup of (not scalding but still somewhat hot) coffee all over DD7. In her face, all in her hair and all down her beautiful Belle dress. She was drenched and even although I know he didn't mean to do it, I just lost it! It was the coffee that broke the camel's back! Thankfully, she wasn't burned and I had planned enough time to get there on the early side so we had enough time to circle back around to the room, throw her in the shower, spot clean and blow dry her dress and make it to CRT just in time. Strangely enough, she didn't even really freak out. She got a little teary-eyed but calmed down quickly when she realized we would be able to go back to the room and clean her up. But I sure freaked out and I chewed him up and down all the way back to the room. I'm sure people who saw us thought I was a whackadoo....

By our second family trip, I thought I was a "pro" but conveniently forgot that on the first trip my youngest DD had been not quite 3 and easy to carry. That first trip both of my girls rode around in one of those rentable Disney double stroller/carts all day and my youngest napped when she was tired. They were able to last well into the night. On the second trip, she turned 6 and was past the days of napping in the stroller. So not really thinking it through, I made most of our ADRs on the later side because it worked out so well the first time. Now about my younger kiddo....well, when she gets tired she's not messing around and she just goes to sleep wherever and good luck waking her up! When she was 6 that meant if she had to lay down on the floor right where she was standing and go to sleep that's what she did. (She's only slightly better about that at 11.) Even so, our ADRs were late-ish but not so late I thought she couldn't hang. The first two nights of our 9 day trip, she was a trooper all day long until halfway through dinner. Then it was melt down time. Tears and tantrums at the table as soon as she was done eating and huge hissy fits all the way back to the resort. We were "that family" on the monorail or bus for those two nights. Then from the third night on she would just calmly and pleasantly eat her dinner and by the time we were paying the bill she was asleep. DH would have to haul her dead weight all the way back to the resort and I would have to get her into her PJs in a dead sleep. But she was enjoying our family dinners and wasn't crying and since there were no more tantrums we just kept our schedule and ADRs the same. On night 7, we were on the way back to the GF on the monorail and her sister catches her peaking out of one eye. We totally busted her pretending to sleep and she just cracked up laughing and told us she had been faking sleep every night so that her dad would carry her back to the room. She was one night short of getting away with it completely and she could totally recap the previous nights when we thought she'd been asleep...it still makes me giggle how committed she was to her con!

 

[wifey]

We saw a family last summer in AK next to on pe of the refreshment booths near the KS have a doozie of a melt down. We had popped over there to grab a bite to eat and decided to get some drinks and pastries with our snack credits and looking around to find a shady spot to eat them in before going into FOTLK show... The dad was completely at loggerheads with the teenaged son who hadn't even had the chance to fully wake up the mum was all yes dear blah blah to the daughter much younger than the son who was being really obsessive about seeing the Frozen characters. The son asked to find somewhere to sit ( whilst yawning so long it was a real feat) and the dad just lost the plot whilst screaming at his son and muttering about his journey to get there calling the whole family ungrateful ( insert insults yourself) and that he didn't want to be their either and who did they think he was making him go there for a week with his family!!! That kicked off another whole can of worms with his I'm assuming wife or partner about how little time he spends with then and how the kids can't even talk to him without a scene. Then the daughter started whinging about the princesses again and the guy just says " that"s it I'm done find your own way home and walked out!! I don't know who was more embarrassed that family or us. I felt so bad for the woman and her kids until she muttered almost under her breath about thank goodness he's left!!! She knew where she wanted to be that day and it wasn't with him clearly. Didn't see them again that day though.....

 

[CervezaSnob]

I had to bump this because these stories are hilarious. I also thought I'd add my own story.

Surprisingly it was DH that had a mini meltdown. He's usually the calm one and has an extreme amount of patience, but put him in Florida in August and all that goes out the window.

We were at AK day 3 (the curse?) and heading out of the park for the day and decided to take a picture in front of TTOL. We are ready and posed, CM is about to take our picture when this man stood right in between us and the CM. The CM tried to politely ask him to move and he didn't seem to understand so DH asked him to move. Nothing. Then DH got loud and told him to get the H outta the way. I have no idea what that man was thinking. He looked at DH then at the CM and just stood there. He moved after a while but it was all so weird that all I could do was laugh. It's been almost a year and DH still gets mad about it. Maybe a few more years and he'll cool off.

 

[pbbaby]

We had a deranged woman and her family stalk us. We heard this child really sobbing , her mother screaming in her face to shut the 'f' up. We glanced their way and deranged mother noticed and yells at us ' what the F.. Are you looking at, haven't you ever seen a kid cry before' my husband politely said no , it's not your child crying , it's the way you are acting. She counters with ' thats the F..ing way it's done in New Jersey' !!!!! She jumps up with her family , slams the crying kid into her umbrella stroller and the whole family runs at us! They followed us out of Magic Kingdom, onto the monorail, they were seething. This was before reality TV or we would have thought we were caught up in an episode. Poor New Jersey

 

[gottalovepluto]

We had a deranged woman and her family stalk us. We heard this child really sobbing , her mother screaming in her face to shut the 'f' up. We glanced their way and deranged mother noticed and yells at us ' what the F.. Are you looking at, haven't you ever seen a kid cry before' my husband politely said no , it's not your child crying , it's the way you are acting. She counters with ' thats the F..ing way it's done in New Jersey' !!!!! She jumps up with her family , slams the crying kid into her umbrella stroller and the whole family runs at us! They followed us out of Magic Kingdom, onto the monorail, they were seething. This was before reality TV or we would have thought we were caught up in an episode. Poor New Jersey

And lucky for her it was before the age of popping out a cell phone for the next viral hit on Youtube!

 

[verleniahall]

We had a deranged woman and her family stalk us. We heard this child really sobbing , her mother screaming in her face to shut the 'f' up. We glanced their way and deranged mother noticed and yells at us ' what the F.. Are you looking at, haven't you ever seen a kid cry before' my husband politely said no , it's not your child crying , it's the way you are acting. She counters with ' thats the F..ing way it's done in New Jersey' !!!!! She jumps up with her family , slams the crying kid into her umbrella stroller and the whole family runs at us! They followed us out of Magic Kingdom, onto the monorail, they were seething. This was before reality TV or we would have thought we were caught up in an episode. Poor New Jersey

How horribly sad for the little one

The meltdowns that I have observed have really been from parents - they are yelling at their kids that they had better be enjoying the trip because of all the money they have spent to get them there. Or the parents who are using the princesses or a FP+ that a child REALLY wants to do as a "if you don't stop crying we woont' do X" and they are crying ebcuase they REALLY have to pee and the parents wont' stop for a bathroom break becuase that isn't on the schedule for another hour and they shoudl stop drinking so much

 

[mybestieismickey]

I did my College Program in the Magic Kingdom parking lot. My "favorite" day was New Years Eve 2004. They had closed the park to capacity and were sending people back around to the main road so they could enjoy one of the other parks for the day. I was stationed with about five other CM's blocking the road into the actual parking lot. Traffic wasn't allowed to stop, we were just supposed to wave people through and encourage those that stopped to move along. Fortunately, the manager for the TTC had the foresight to arrange for an Orange County Deputy to be out there with us. There were two particularly uncooperative guests that day.

The first was a lady that insisted that she and her kids needed to be at the Magic Kingdom. She stopped in front of the cones and wouldn't move. We asked her to leave and she refused. The officer asked her to leave and she said, "We're going to the Magic Kingdom!" She even went so far as to get out of the car, open the sliding door of her mini van and tell the kids to get out, and then opened the back and activated the lift gate for her scooter. The officer then informed her that he would be happy to help her leave if she didn't pack up and be on her way. She wasn't happy about it, but she finally left. Not sure if she realized how far that walk would have been. We were all the way where the Richard Petty track met the road. So at least a mile to the TTC if I had to guess. But it's been awhile, so maybe I'm over estimating. But I do remember thinking that she would be even more mad about how far she would have to drive her scooter to get on the monorail.

The second was a mom in a convertible with two kids. She insisted that she was going to the park and no one was going to stop her. We asked her to leave, reminded her that she was blocking traffic (which was very heavy), informed her of the park being at capacity, told her that they wouldn't let her in the gates, everything. She didn't care. She was going and we were going to let her. She was down right mean and nasty to us and kept yelling for us to move the cones so she could park her blankety blank car. The kids looked liked they just wanted to be anywhere but there. She even argued with the Deputy. Finally, he had had enough and said, "Ma'am, you've got two choices. You can either drive away and enjoy the rest of your day elsewhere, or I can haul you out of your car, arrest you in front of your kids, call child services to pick them up, and embarrass the h*** out of you. It doesn't really matter to me." She finally chose the first option (well, not sure she enjoyed her day, but she did drive away). We loved having that officer work with us that day. He didn't have to use the filter we did. And obviously had a lot more authority.

 

[Yelloweaver]

two years ago I was in line for some sodas..I stepped back to let someone pass and just about stood on a ladies foot..I realized before I put any weight on it and quickly apologized...well she threw herself backwards on to the floor and started screaming and rolling about the floor!! I just stood there along with everyone else looking at her..her husband shook his head and walked away so I figured I would too..I just stepped over her and left her rolling about the ground still screaming!! Im still at a loss to this day why she did it apart from possibly wanting me to pay for her food?

I wonder if this was my mother. It sounds like something she would do.

 

[pktbMouse]

I wonder if this was my mother. It sounds like something she would do.

LOL mine too!!

 

[Chainsaw]

How horribly sad for the little one

The meltdowns that I have observed have really been from parents - they are yelling at their kids that they had better be enjoying the trip because of all the money they have spent to get them there. Or the parents who are using the princesses or a FP+ that a child REALLY wants to do as a "if you don't stop crying we woont' do X" and they are crying ebcuase they REALLY have to pee and the parents wont' stop for a bathroom break becuase that isn't on the schedule for another hour and they shoudl stop drinking so much

That's just the most horrible thing....hydrate-hydrate-hydrate (which means bathroom breaks happen-and that is a sign you are doing it 'right'!!!! Rides be damned, just HYDRATE!!!

 

[Rose DiVerona]

Mine, when I was seventeen. Luckily, my family was the only witness.

We had planned a week-long trip with one day at Universal at the beginning. We hadn't been to Universal before, so we thought we could do both parks in one day (this was before WWoHP). And we had a great time, but by the time we left the parks and drove to Disney, we were all pretty tired.

That's when the problem started. We were trying to plan out the next few days. My mom wanted the next day to be a pool day. If you know me, you know I don't do pool days. I am not going to "waste" a day at Disney sitting at the resort, I want to be in the parks every minute. And everyone thought doing Magic Kingdom on the last day was a good idea, because that day was my 17th birthday and it's my favorite park. I had pretty much agreed to this before the trip, but now that we were in our room at the GF, I wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom tomorrow...and I had a complete meltdown, shutting myself in the bathroom for a while. By the time I woke up the next morning, I was embarrassed by the night before, and though I still wasn't thrilled about a day of rest, it ended up being good for all of us. The rest of the trip was amazing.

 

[mickeyblue]

We had annual passes for years for Disneyland/DCA and our 3 boys were finally old enough to go off by themselves. One day, they ran up to us at Disneyland laughing hysterically and it took a while to make sense of what they were laughing about. They had seen a man and woman just inside DCA arguing and the man threw his wallet on the ground and told the woman "You want some money, there, have some!". The wallet was apparently full of paper bills that flew everywhere and the man walks away. This was hysterical to these young boys who couldn't imagine throwing money around--and in public, but, I still feel bad for this unknown woman all these years later.

 

[pbbaby]

And a sad meltdown was the women and her kids in line waiting to see Peter Pan, it's their turn next and they close the line. Mom flips " we just flew across the ocean so the 'wee bairns' could see Peter Pan" She was begging and crying to let the wee bairns see him. She was ready to give the cast member a beat down. It was definitely jet lag gone bad. The 'wee bairn' part was precious though

 

[DisneyGeekyParadise]

For some reason alerts turned off on this thread for me...and they turn back on whenever I comment...so BUMP! Let's get this thread to 200 replies!

 

[Mr. lncredible]

Not a meltdown by most standards but still an entertaining interaction. The last time my Family and I were at the Magic Kingdom we had just walked out of Be Our Guest after lunch and were headed towards 7DMT for our fast pass when we overheard a guest's conversation with a CM. She flagged her down and said "Miss, miss. I am quite disappointed. Is this all there is here, rides and food and stores?" Yep lady, that about sums up theme parks, rides and food and stores. She walked off in quite a huff when the CM suggested visiting characters or inquired if she had watched Philharmagic yet. "I'm not standing in line to take a picture with a teenager in a costume!!" Not sure how you can drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on a vacation without knowing at least a little bit about your intended destination.

 

[chelynnah]

Not a meltdown by most standards but still an entertaining interaction. The last time my Family and I were at the Magic Kingdom we had just walked out of Be Our Guest after lunch and were headed towards 7DMT for our fast pass when we overheard a guest's conversation with a CM. She flagged her down and said "Miss, miss. I am quite disappointed. Is this all there is here, rides and food and stores?" Yep lady, that about sums up theme parks, rides and food and stores. She walked off in quite a huff when the CM suggested visiting characters or inquired if she had watched Philharmagic yet. "I'm not standing in line to take a picture with a teenager in a costume!!" Not sure how you can drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on a vacation without knowing at least a little bit about your intended destination.

Just gobsmacked!

 

[DisneyGeekyParadise]

Hoping this thread doesn't die out- really love hearin' these stories! So BUMP! 180 replies!