My wife has a relative who has been to Disney World twice in her lifetime and has never ridden a ride or watched a show. The first time was in August several years ago, and she and her husband went to the Magic Kingdom, walked through the tunnel under the railroad tracks, saw the crowds, and then turned around and left. Her reasoning: the street surface was too hot and she was wearing the wrong type of shoes and her feet were burning.
Her second visit was even more inexplicable. My wife and I helped her book a room for three nights at the Shades of Green after Christmas in December and got her set up on a two day ticket with FastPass+ reservations for Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. On the drive down to Orlando her traveling buddy developed a bad head cold and spent the mornings of the two days in bed which just happened to be when their FastPass reservations were set up because they are both "morning people". So by the time they got to the parks and saw the holiday crowds, they just decided to walk around for a few hours without getting in any queues, and then went back to the hotel and ate dinner and then went to sleep.
I just don't get it. Paying that kind of money for tickets and reservations and then not really experiencing the parks just doesn't make sense. Yes, most of us have been to the parks with elderly or sick relatives who for health reasons weren't able to ride some of the attractions, but they still watched the shows and ate at the restaurants with the family. That's normal. This particular relative has no physical restrictions on her ability to enjoy the parks other than congenital laziness.
So I'm curious because I hope that my wife and I aren't the only ones with crazy relatives, and I'm wondering if any of you have friends or relatives who went to a Disney or Universal park and then just wouldn't ride anything for no apparent reason? What was their rationale?
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Holy cow it's the real life version of an old "Tiny Toons Adventures" show where Plucky goes on a hellish road trip with the Hampton family to get to Happy World Land, they ride the monorail...and then realize they're ready to go as "don't want to overdo it on your first trip, leave stuff for next year."
@ MikeW - LOL! I remember that Tiny Toons movie and that's exactly what they did! :D
I have a friend who enjoys going to MK and just sits on a bench and people watches. They don't ride and they don't go to shows...they move from bench to bench and just look at people all day. When I asked why on God's earth would someone do this, they said "I like the ambiance! The sounds, the smells and the people....it's my happy place!"
To each their own I suppose!
@Sarah Warner - Sounds like your friend actually has a great idea. It sure beats hanging out at Hardees and drinking coffee all morning with your biscuit buddies.
Next time try starting out at DSTP -- kind of ease them into the themed entertainment experience.
Man that sounds frustrating...
I know people who love Disney for the atmosphere and love to walk around and get the food but don’t really ride any attractions. I have to get on every ride during the day but at least I can understand just walking around because it’s entertaining to stroll around the parks. However, not even giving the parks a chance and spending thousands of dollars to not get any use out of it just sounds frustrating.
@the___man-
Yikes that doesn’t sound fun. I hope you were able to at least get some good memories out of the trip.
I chaperoned a group of high school seniors on a multi-day trip. There were two girls who I do not believe rode any rides or saw any shows. All they did was go from shop to shop, store to store, and looked at stuff (and bought a few things). That was their thing. Even when we invited them to come along with us, they preferred to shop.
Everyone does Disney differently. Whatever makes you happy.
I wonder if the type of sense-person we are (visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.) makes a difference in how we like to experience the theme parks.
I have a feeling there are a lot more Olivia Soprano types than we would like to believe.
It almost seems like they didn’t even want to go in the first place…If that’s the case then why bother at all 🤷♂️…
To add to what some others have posted regarding the ambiance and what not…For our trips growing up my father was never a ride person per-se…There was certain rides he loved like Big Thunder for example but he certainly didn’t make it a priority to ride every single thing in every park…
He was perfectly content with strolling the shops to look at the details, getting a bag of popcorn, and finding a nice shady bench to relax while my mother ran the rides with the kids…
On the outside you’d think maybe he wouldn’t want revisit a Disney park after a trip or two, but when the yearly vacation topic eventually came up he was always the first to recommend Disney…For him it was absolutely the atmosphere that he loved…It’s just how some people do Disney and now that I’m getting on in years I’m starting to transition to that approach myself…I can find comfort in relaxing while the kids go crazy trying to get on the next ride 😂…Give me a nice bench and a cold drink and I’m set for a good while…
From what I'm hearing from some of you, it's not unusual for some people to go to the theme parks and just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere, and I'll admit that as I get older, I'm starting to spend more time just enjoying the sights and the sounds and the desserts.
So if the food and the sound and the sights are what drives people to them parks, then Disney Springs just may be a theme park.
Hell hath frozen over! TH Creative is a VISIONARY!
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Wow i've seen lots of crazy things and heard lots of crazy stories over the years, but i've never heard anything like that. The only explanation is that they didn't want to go in the first place and bailed at the first opportunity they saw lol. I can understand if they are older and have kids with them, to want to just tell the kids "go do stuff" while they just took in the atmosphere, but i've never heard of people going without kids and just refusing to do anything at all.
There was one time I was very tempted to bail in the middle of a huge Europe trip and buy a ticket home, missing out on the rest of the trip, because my friends wife was being extremely rude to us the whole trip. But I didn't actually do it of course ended up biting my tounge and tried to make the best of it then never spoke to her again after that.