Yikes! Guess what DS said!

[gopherit]

DS 11 was watching TV (re-run of "Back to the Future" was on). At end of the movie, when the "Universal" logo was spinning, I made a comment about the "big globe you had your picture taken with this summer." DS gets up to go to bed, stretches and says....

"Yeah.... I love that place. Universal is better than Walt Disney World."

:holymoly:

So I promptly polled our other 2 kids:

DS10: Yeah, he's right. Universal IS better. But TL and BB rock. And Disney Quest!

DD6: Ummmm... I love them both. And the water places too! I love the Magic Kingdom!

"Ohhh," I said, "so you like the castle and all the princesses and Disney characters, right?" :slyasafox

"Huh?" says dd. :idontgeti "No - I mean, well, no, well, ok, some, but what I like at Magic Kingdom is the FAST RIDES! At Universal, they wouldn't let me on Dueling Dragons OR Hulk. But I got to ride the fast ones at Magic Kingdom. I just couldn't ride that one at MGM."

And there you have it - give her 3 years and 3 inches of height to go with it, and she may be my next traitor to the cause.... is there any cure for this? Anybody else have this problem? Is it a phase - an age-issue thing they grow into (and back out of?) When does the shift typically occur?!? They were quick to point out they still "love" Disney and want to go there ... they just say they love US/IOA MORE.

I suspect the biggest problem is that they are currently more into the effect and less into the ambiance - so the pains Disney takes to educate you are lost on them. Between that and getting front of the line privileges, they were "sold"! I think they also like the small proximity of the US park and not waiting in restuarants. A lot less fatigue factor there. I suspect too there is a certain appeal because US is very "new" to them - whereas they know WDW like the back of their hands. They love it when we go to WDW and there is a "new" ride to try out. But that's one or two rides each trip that are new for them.... whereas this recent trip to US was ALL new. I will be curious to see how they feel after ntheir next trip to US/IOA. Of course, we plan to do Sea World too next time.... perhaps they will fall in love with THAT place next!

[Ginger]

I'm sure it's a phase. Give them time, they will come around.

[Stimpy]

:faint:

That's why we won't take our kids to the other side! :hahahaha:

[ghost1000]

BLASPHAMY!!

Do you have any local amusement parks where you could take them for a "thrill fix" (where I live I have can go to HersheyPark, Dorney Park, or Six Flags Great Adventure--all within 1-1/2 hours driving distance). Take them there and casually point out the lack of ambiance at places like that. It may make them appreciate Disney more.

[PoohsPal]

Sendign my condolences. Hope it's a phase!

[AFMom]

I was terrified my kids would feel the same way - but we got lucky! They still love Disney, and just like Universal! We told them we wouldn't go back to Universal again until they were teenagers, and they were fine with it. They must have my genes. My older DS who is almost 10 keeps playing Disney soundtracks from the parks in his room, and I've currently got him hooked on the "Believe, There's Magic in the Stars" song from the old fireworks as DLR.
As long as I keep them brainwashed........:p
It is amazing how much different even IOA is from a Disney Park. I mean - you'll be in the middle of "The Lost Continent", great music, nifty themeing - but then the cast members from "Jurrasic Park" come strolling through joking loudly with each other, and 2 minutes later you've got someone dressed up like the Suess Train Ride operators walking in front of the dragons.....
Well - I just never realized how important keeping the right characters on stage was until then! It really brings reality crashing down!

[Rozzie]

:bagovermy I can't comment, as I am a triple sheeter, duvet cover, FOTL lover too!

[DSNY FN]

They will grow out of it. We asked our kids if they would like to go to the other place and not one of them has any desire to visit Universal. They want to go back to Sea World they are big nature and wildlife kids not much into thrill rides.

[jiggerj]

LOL! gopherit! I do feel your pain! My dd's told me that they prefer the rides at US/IOA to Disneys- I was sooo miffed and felt...I dont know???..betrayed! Their hearts are in WDW but they wanna ride those thrill rides!

[Colorado Belle]

Hmmmm. I like the thrill rides at Universal, IOA. But when there aren't lines, I can get my fix of both in one day and have no desire to go back again...for awhile.
I think that teens might like it for 2 days, but then my guess is that they'd be bored with riding the same rides over and over.

With Disney, there is so much MORE than rides. I don't think that the word 'ambiance' covers all of it completely. Immersion would be closer I think....you can't really get immersed in the Universal or IOA 'theming'. And there's just so much MORE at Disney.

I don't think of it as comparing apples with apples though. One is an amusement park with thrill rides. The other is ....immersion into a fantasy.

One way to deal with it might be to take Universal up on its 'buy 2 do 5 more free' deals and force the kids to DO Universal for 7 days running. I might be wrong, but I'm guessing that they'll quit midway.

[gopherit]

Actually, in retrospect, I think what they probably liked about Universal was the fact that it IS totaly do-able in 2 days (especially with FOTL). Despite our very best efforts to keep a Disney vacation somehow relaxing and eventful at the same time, there is so much at Disney that it is nearly impossible. Even hitting only the "favorites" still requires quite a bit of hoofing around too. Logistically, you simply CAN'T "see it all" the way you can at US/IOA. The fact that even my DH was willing to leave the park mid-day for a swim at the pool is testimony to their feeling of satisfaction that they could indeed do it all at US/IOA. I have never been able to get him to do that at Disney - no matter how I try, no matter what park we're in, or the fact we've been in DVC since 1999 and visited WDW frequently and know we will come back again - when we're at WDW and in a park, DH feels pressed to STAY in a park until they pitch him out. I did not have that issue at US/IOA, and maybe the kids felt this way too - more relaxed, knowing hey, we already rode everything at least once, when we come back later today, we can ride whatever we like again, with no waiting. I guess to DH, it didn't feel as "wasteful" of a day's admission to leave the US/IOA park for some mid-day resort time. Maybe his mother overemphasized cleaning his plate at dinner when he was a child, LOL....

I'm sure that by Day 7 of the same stuff, the kids might begin to wane on the appeal of US/IOA, but then, I'm not sure what they would think if I took them into the same two WDW parks vor 7 days straight. There are 4 parks at WDW, plus the water parks and DQ. THe US/IOA parks are just so much smaller and require less footwork than WDW. And for a fair comparison you would have to somehow normalize the line waits - the FOTL at US/IOA is just too sweet a deal. Can you IMAGINE just how much turf you could cover at WDW with FOTL? One of the biggest reasons we get "stuck" in a park is that darn oxymoronic "FastPass"... by the time we have grabbed a Fast Pass for BTMRR and hopped on Splash, then used the FP to ride BTMRR, then sent a "scout" ahead to grab FP at Space Mtn... the FP wait for Space Mtn will already be at noon. By noon our shot at a FP for BUzz LIghtyear will be 2 pm. You get the idea. The FP consistently had us clock-watching and doubling-back across the park, whereas with FOTL, you just walked right up. FP makes it tough to do the park sequentially - you will be forced to run from one end of the park to the other to hit the "main" FP-able rides, then wander off in-between FP times to find something to do. I am sure part of the appeal at US/IOA was the reduced back-tracking we did, relative to WDW parks.

We learned a long time ago that because we aren't the type who can casually leave a park to swim, we simply need more TIME (i.e. days) at Disney to avoid that rushed commando feeling. When the kids were younger, there were lots of rides they couldn't do, and their interests and abilities were more limited, so it was much easier to manage. Now, we typically spend anywhere from 7 to 12 days at a stretch at WDW... and it still doesn't seem like enough. Once you throw in all 4 parks, a water park, and with my boys, some DQ time as well, there's barely time to swim at the resort pool, LOL. We love visiting other resorts, going to DTD, swimming in the pool, using community hall, etc. but there hardly seems to be time for that anymore. I always plan an "off-day" in the schedule for just lazy resort fun, which helps, but this trip, our off-day sort of got killed when the kids wanted to spend it over at US/IOA. Perhaps in a way, US/IOA "killed" some of the WDW fun by taking away their "lazy day".

I can't see us taking 7 days at just US/IOA, but I can see us continuing to do 4 days there, and 7 over at Disney. I already told the kids that since they want to stay at BCV next trip, that's fine, but don't be surprised if I limit WDW park days to only 2, along with 1 water park day and a Sea World day. They love the pool at BCV so much, and points costing a premium there (vs staying at a std over at BWV where we own) they should get full use of SAB, so we may as well plan a few days of down-time solely to enjoy it.

[gcbsdad]

Even though we live close by we have not gone over to the dark side (US/IOA) yet. I really am not sure how my kids would react if/when we decide to go.
But we have Busch Gardens here in Tampa and it has plenty of thrill rides but the kids still love WDW.
And since Dad holds the keys right now they go where I drive them. And they like it. :) :)

[TW1]

So, if Friends of the Mouse jokingly refer to US/IOA as the dark side, how do die-hard fans of US/IOA refer to Friends of the Mouse?:headscrat

Enquiring minds want to know!