Not our finest moment as a family..whats yours lol

[gwmort]

I am ashamed to say my least finest moment occurred on this last trip at Thanksgiving.

DW went back to the room early leaving me with DS7 and DD8 in MK. It was our last day at MK and the kids wanted to knock out some more headliners and the crowds were way down toward park closing.

MY DS really wanted to do Splash mountain and my DD really did not. We got there and it was walk on. I had to decide between DS being upset he couldn't ride it this whole trip, or forcing DD to ride it (I had no one else there to watch her).

I ended up forcing DD to ride, she screamed the whole time, pleading for her life for the CMs to stop the ride, it was miserable.

 

[Angebee]

Oh man, these have given me a good laugh -- not to mention great insight to stop for a treat if the family is getting cranky. No doubt we'll have another story by the time our upcoming trip is done but the onlly meltdowns I remember are three from way back when Cinderella's Castle was a big, pink birthday cake and involve taking family friends with us.

Dad, mom, myself (11) and DSis (5) took mom's best friend (MBFF), her daughter/my best friend (DBFF) and her other daughter (OD) on their first trip to Disney World. MBFF had been to Disney Land before and was looking forward to taking her kids on Haunted Mansion most of all. OD was having NOTHING of it! She threw a fit right in front of the line about how the ghosts jump out and grab you and other things they don't do but friends back home had told her they did so it MUST be true! Well that set DSis off even though she'd already been on before so my Dad grabbed their hands, yelled at the rest of us to "go on the da** ride!" and took the kids to wait on a bench. At least MBFF and BFF got to enjoy the Mansion together.

That night we went to eat at Cosmic Rays thinking there's plenty of choices for everyone, right? WRONG! OD wanted pizza which was all the way back over at Pinocchio's Village Haus. After arguing with MBFF and even Dad in the middle of Cosmic Rays, MBFF caved and took her back to Pinocchio's while DBFF stayed with us. It was a very quiet meal since we could tell Dad had had enough for one day.

Skip past a few other small breakdowns from everyone to our second to last day at MGM Studios (now HS). MBFF and daughters stopped to shop for family back home on our way out while my family waited in the courtyard and got a couple of character autographs for everyone. We expected a meltdown about not being able to meet the characters themselves. Nope. OD busted up crying on the tram back to the car because "DBFF bought EVERYTHING for EVERYONE and didn't leave ONE PERSON for ME TO BUY FOR!!!" That was it. Dad took off his ballcap and 'cap tapped' OD on the top of her head. It was always a light smack but just strong enough so we kids knew we'd been bad. OD stared up at her mom for protection but MBFF just said "You deserved that!"

To be fair, my meltdown had been in between when MBFF took her kids to Typhoon Lagoon while my family was "just staying at the motel to swim", but at least it was back at the motel and not IN Disney. Lets see what happens now that we're staying on Disney property this next trip.

 

[DisneyFan2013]

My Disney vacation companion had a meltdown the second night that we were there because we were at the hotel and I kept telling her (nicely) to hurry up and get ready so we can get back to the parks. She didn't appreciate it so she raised her voice at me, cursed me out, and stormed out of the room. Needless to say, we toured the parks separately that evening.

 

[DSLRuser]

Back before we had kids, like 1998ish. the wife and I were at WDW staying at Port Orleans (dixie landings at the time). It was my birthday the 1st day of the trip.

we went to Yachtsman Steakhouse on the last day of the trip. 6 days after my birthday. Had a nice dinner, splurged on a nice bottle of wine, like $75.

After dinner, we walked over to the ESPN club to finish watching a baseball game. Sat at the bar to order a beer. the guy cards me (i was 28) and says i cant serve you. your drivers license is expired.

I said bs. Sure enough, my drivers license experied the 1st day of our trip. this was the 1st person to "card" me. I argue, and decide to let it go. My wife then orders 2 beers. Slides one over to me. the bartender calls the disney cops on us and has them throw us out.

At this time i am HOT! I go to the boardwalk hotel manager and speak with the manager. my point, yes, my drivers license is expired. technically i cant drive a car. but it does not change my birth date. I am still clearly 28 years old.

the board walk manager wont budge. by this time I am scream ing at him, my wife is walking back to the busses so we could go back to the resort, via DTD.

Finally, we get back to our rooms at Port Orleans. I charged or dinner to the room, the one with the bottle of wine.

I go to the Port Orleans front deskm a little calmer. Explain that the would not serve me a beer because my license is expired. the manager holds the line and says Dineycould get in a lot of trouble if they served me with an expired license. Even though he agreed with my points about still being 28.

I then asked them to pull up my room charges. Showed him the $75 bottle of wine, and asked him to explain that then.

He ended up comping me $75 for the bottle of wine.

I stand by my reasoning that yes, i should not have legally been able to drive a car, but that document still shows my correct age, and therefore I should have been served a beer.

Mt wife was very upset at me for not letting it go. but i had to prove my point.

long story short, make sure your license is up to date when traveling.

 

[Trek Girl]

[snip]

I stand by my reasoning that yes, i should not have legally been able to drive a car, but that document still shows my correct age, and therefore I should have been served a beer.

Mt wife was very upset at me for not letting it go. but i had to prove my point.

long story short, make sure your license is up to date when traveling.

Disney isn't the only place that will refuse service if you present an expired license. A few years ago on a trip to a casino, my sister (who had just turned 25 or 26 at the time) was refused entry because her license had expired earlier that week.

I guess I can understand why businesses would do that. In some states (like my home state, Mississippi), the dmv allows you to keep your expired license when you get a new one (at least, they used to. I suppose the law could be different now, but I don't know for sure). Anyway, someone of age could give (or sell) their old, expired license away to someone underage, and if this person resembles the person on the license, they could try to use it like a fake ID, with the excuse "Oh, my birthday just passed, and I forgot to get my license renewed. But you can see the date of birth - I'm old enough." You feel me?

I don't think Disney or any other business do it to be jerks. They're just trying to cover their butts to prevent scenarios like the one I just described.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Disney isn't the only place that will refuse service if you present an expired license. A few years ago on a trip to a casino, my sister (who had just turned 25 or 26 at the time) was refused entry because her license had expired earlier that week.

I guess I can understand why businesses would do that. In some states (like my home state, Mississippi), the dmv allows you to keep your expired license when you get a new one (at least, they used to. I suppose the law could be different now, but I don't know for sure). Anyway, someone of age could give (or sell) their old, expired license away to someone underage, and if this person resembles the person on the license, they could try to use it like a fake ID, with the excuse "Oh, my birthday just passed, and I forgot to get my license renewed. But you can see the date of birth - I'm old enough." You feel me?

I don't think Disney or any other business do it to be jerks. They're just trying to cover their butts to prevent scenarios like the one I just described.

It is actually illegal for anyone to serve you alcohol if your form of ID is an expired license. They are required by federal law to see your age with a VALID form of ID, and an expired license is no longer valid, so it cannot be used. If Disney had served the PP they could face a ton of legal issues.

 

[aaarcher86]

I have sworn an oath not to drop the F bomb in Pixie Hollow this trip

 

[smidgy]

It is actually illegal for anyone to serve you alcohol if your form of ID is an expired license. They are required by federal law to see your age with a VALID form of ID, and an expired license is no longer valid, so it cannot be used. If Disney had served the PP they could face a ton of legal issues.

this is true. I Illinois, to serve alcohol, you need to have a Basset Liscence.. it involves taking a class, etc. this is one of the many things I learned. another is: In Illiois, driver's lisences for anyone under age 21 are different.. they are vertical instead ofhorizontal, have a big colored strip on them that states UNDER 21.

I have quite a few times come upon someone who is over 21, but still hasn't gone down to have their liscence changed. it is illegal for me to serve this person. (It's really a bumber when they are out celebrating their 21st birthday and get turned down.) I had a guy once on his 21st. he couldn't get it changed that day cause the DMV was closed for a holiday. (I won't say what I did...this was when I worked at a very small neighbor hood bar.)
but at a place like Disney or any chain place of big restaurant, no way is the server going to risk a huge fine and spending a night in jail and risk losing his job and the place getting their liquor liscence suspended to accomodate someone who didn't notice their lisence would expire soon. sorry.

 

[ionz13]

Made a terrible mistake of planning no breaks. We stayed eight days at the world off site and planned to hit the parks for seven of the days. We visited all the parks, but were there from open (rope drop) to close, and had to take the bus to an off site hotel.

Every morning we woke up exhausted but felt we had to be there for rope drop at every park. NOT doing this again...Planning breaks of a day or even half day are a treat.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I have never admitted this to anyone, and I just hope it didn't get caught on camera. That's how embarassed I am.

On our last trip, the biggest drama we had was mealtimes. Both kids were in super picky phases and meal times were just stressful. But the kids get cranky if they don't eat, so it's a catch-22. We went to Cosmic Ray's for dinner, and of course the kids wanted something different than what was on the menu board that my husband was ordering from. I said fine, I'll take the kids and order from the menu board of their choosing. When we were waiting in line both kids were being pills, but my 6 year old in particular was acting like a monkey on crack. We don't tolerate bad behavior in public and I wasn't going to allow an exception just because we were at Disney. I kept reminding her to settle down and she just wouldn't and I was growing more and more frustrated because this behavior just isn't acceptable, it's not tolerated, and she really never acted like that any other time. She was swinging around, nearly bumping into people and I went to grab her arm, but somehow instead she was moving so fast when I reached out to grab her, I caught her around the throat. So there I am, in Comic Ray's, with my hand on my kid's throat. Awesome MOTY here. Of course, I dropped my hand immediately and grabbed her arm (as I had intended to do the whole time), but I did, and still, feel awful. I looked around quickly and made sure nobody saw, but I've always still expected to see a post on the DIS about someone who saw a lunatic mother strangling her kid in Cosmic Ray's. LOL.

After that, I did decide to chill out a bit. If she wanted to be a crazy, hungry lunatic, fine. I wasn't going to let it ruin my trip. And what do you know...once I chilled out, so did she. The rest of our trip was pretty good.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I usually metldown at least once per trip and this past Oct was no different. It was exceptionally hot for Oct, we were on day 5 of a 6 day trip. I had pre-paid for Photopass and DH was being such a pill about getting pictures taken, so we hardly had any pictures. We went into Hall of Presidents and it was about 15 minutes to the next show, so I sat down in the floor of the lobby and cried. DH felt really bad and then the rest of the afternoon we had our picture taken lots of times.

 

[Sean's momma]

No meltdowns here but I don't give myself credit for that. It was a combination of paying attention to the advice of my favorite guidebook, previous visitors, and my level headed husband who only had 2 requirements for the trip: 1 sit down meal a day and a mid-afternoon break.

I did have a meltdown at Silver Dollar City once and it was uh-glee.

I also had a terribad meltdown at Silver Dollar City. I think it was a combo of cold dreary weather combined with that blasted huge hill. That and my step dad's scooter broke down, he and my ma had to go back to the hotel. Then my ma came back and just nothing went right. It was supposed to be a really fun trip using my son's world passport from his Make a Wish trip. I want a do-over. lol

 

[meowmarie]

Oh gosh, our first trip back to the world after nearly 20 years was filled with these moments because it was AUGUST and we decided to go with a 3 year old, what were we thinking. We went to Animal Kingdom first day, the park I had never been to (DH had) and the first thing we do is the Tough to be a Bug show. Daughter freaked out when she saw Hopper and then whenever the lights got dark in any room or ride she freaked for the rest of the trip. I thought we'd be ok in HS at the little mermaid show, she loved that movie. I prepared her (hah) for it, it was so hot and I just wanted to sit for 5 minutes. I hadn't been able to do hardly anything but stand outside with her for days. The lights went down and she flipped, and we were in the middle of the row, she was freakin. I got her into the lobby waiting area and just had a meltdown. Still sweating, crying, rocking her in my arms. And this CM came up to me and asked me to leave because she had to let another group in in a few minutes. Well that's when I lost it, I feel so bad. I yelled at her something like, "Can't I just sit here and cry and cool off for 2 minutes?!" I apologized after I regrouped but what a week. I'm so thankful she was too young to remember that trip.

 

[nic100308]

What is it about Epcot? It must be all the sun and walking that pushes people to that point.

My story was not from my first trip, but my DFs (then DBF) first trip.

Let me preface this story with this: we dont argue very often, probably because when we do our fights are EPIC. Long, drawn out, and at times downright nasty. Let me also say that it was hot, we were close to our dinner ressie time at Via Napoli, had been at the park all day, and had consumed a few adult beverages. Add in the fact that it was Epcot and we have the perfect storm.

This all started out as playful teasing. DF and I were walking around World Showcase, wasting some time before our ressie and we were just talking and joking and teasing. The DF starts to mock me in what I like to call the annoying, naggy, wife voice. Wives, you know what Im talking about; husbands, you know what Im talking about too. He didnt mean anything by it, but it flipped a switch in my head and I went off the deep end. Yelling at him, saying how disrespectful that is, saying he didnt love me&Well, DF doesnt respond well when crazy people are screaming at him for no reason (and we both have a lot of tolerance, but when the limit is reached our tempers are out of control) and he starts screaming back at me that Im nuts and insane. Well, of course this is now going to another level. So there we are, standing in front of Via Napoli screaming at each other and Im not sure what was said but all of a sudden I just start balling! DF looks at me and says Really? REALLY?!?! YOURE CRYING!?!?! Throws up his hands and walks away.

So I sit down on a curb in front of Via Napoli, crying, sulking, licking my wounds. This was our first fight and at the time we were long distance, DF was living in Seattle and I was still in NY (I moved a few months after that). I think between the heat, the walking, the drinks, and the stress of us temporarily living 3000 miles apart finally got to me. 10-15 minutes later DF comes over to me, holds out his hand to help me up, and the only thing I could say with big fat tears in my eyes was I sat in a wad of gum. Someone had spit out their gum on the ground and in all my hurt and self-pity I hadnt realized that I had sat down in it. We both laughed so hard! We kissed and made up and went to our ressie and had a great trip. And now were getting married in Disney World in 1 WEEK!!

I will say that he has never done the annoying, naggy, wife voice (even in sincere jest) since that day!

 

[Ametista]

the only thing I could say with big fat tears in my eyes was I sat in a wad of gum.

That is a cute story, congrats! Epcot is just too big, not enough spray features or ways to cool off. My dd only lasted 2 hours there before a meltdown so we went to a water park.

 

[alohamom]

We as a family have not really had the big public meltdown but we did witness a doozy once just outside of Pecos Bill's. I guess this dad had just had enough or something cause he just started screaming at his two boys, they were maybe 10 and 12. The dad was going on and on screaming all kinds of stuff and the poor mom just looked on in horror. He ended up saying something like-"just go ahead and hit each other, if you hate each other so much just fight it out cause I've had it" and boy, he sure had had it! WE walked away but now we always say "dont be like that dad at Pecos Bills!

 

[mccathy]

Our finest moment came the first day we were a family. We were on our honeymoon, enjoying a rainy day at Epcot. We were already tired from the wedding the day before. We had forgotten where we parked the car at, and as you all know, the parking lot in Epcot is very large. With the rain, and tired feet, my wife's emotions just got the better of her. She sat right down in one of the rows crying, and started yelling at me to find the car. She would not move until I found the car, and had to go drive it to the row she was sitting in.

We look back on it now, and makes jokes about it. We always make sure we mark our car's location in Car Matey so that know one has to sit and cry in the aisle with rain pouring down on them.

Funny. My husband and I lost our car on our honeymoon too. Except it was a rental and we honestly couldn't remember what it looked like!

 

[purpledisneyprncess]

Aww, I love this thread. It shows we are all human, all make mistakes, and all can look back at those cranky, angry moments and laugh...they are still memories!

My "moment" wasn't anything specific, but last year's trip we were all cranky and exhausted. We pushed ourselves too much with those park hoppers, and tried to cram too much into the day & night. In turn, the kids just wanted to stay back at the hotel and swim. You pay all that money for the park tickets, and here they are whining about swimming. Go figure. This year, lesson learned is 1.) Take breaks and let the kids swim during our afternoon break 2.) When they say they are tired, just leave the park rather than try to push it.

 

[1stvisit0909]

I cant think of a "family" moment, but mine was the last day of our Christmas trip.

We were past exhausted. We slept in that morning and had a 1020 ressie at KONA that I had been looking forward to for 110 days.

My husband and daughter ordered the big platter with a little bit of everything.

I said, "I just want the pancakes" - meaning just the pineapple macadamia nut pancakes, and not the sausage eggs etc.

Weeeeellll "just the pancakes" was translated to "plain pancakes"

When the waitress set them down, I asked about the pineapple stuff?

She said, I thought you ordered "just pancakes" which I did. I said, oh your right, I'm sorry.

And promptly burst into tears. over pancakes not having nuts and pineapple.

She said "oh my, oh honey I'll fix it!"

She brought me an order of the pancakes I really meant to order at no charge. I was so embarrassed!

Dh took me by the hand, and said, lets go back to the resort and take a nap. We'll go to a park this evening.

They were great pancakes. But I still cant believe I cried.

We did go back to bed, and got up about 230 and went to AK to see the Jingle Jungle parade.

 

[PetePanMan]

like many others, we also had a meltdown during an extremely hot day at Epcot in WS. Half wanted to go, half wanted to stay....you get the idea