Another summer vacation season is upon us.  Millions of American families will pack up the car or hop on a plane and partake in the pilgrimage that is a vacation at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

I myself have undertaken the journey many times as a youth and as a parent.  I also worked for the company for a total of sixteen years (and continue to follow them closely via the internet), so I’d like to think that I have a more intimate knowledge of their corporate inner workings than most.

Which brings me to my issue with my beloved Walt Disney World, announced just a few weeks ago.  Since its opening in 1971, the Magic Kingdom in Florida has been devoid of one item on all of its menus throughout the theme park – alcoholic beverages.  This hearkens back to Walt himself, who created the original Disneyland as a safe and fun place for families to gather together and experience a day of bonding and magical memories.  A clean and booze-free environment, where the emphasis was on wholesome, family togetherness.  Hot dogs, apple pie – all of that stuff that hearkened back to a simpler time and nostalgia for an old-fashioned “Americana” experience.

That changed in 1992, when Disney opened a theme park outside of Paris, France (I was there and helped to open that park, by the way).  The French were staunch defenders of their own traditions, and if you think there was going to be a theme park with no wine – in France – then you’d be sadly mistaken.  It was one of the concessions the Walt Disney Company made in order to seal the French deal.  So, beginning in April 1992, alcohol was served for the first time within the borders of a Magic Kingdom theme park (easy there, Disney trivia buffs, I’m not talking about “Club 33” in Disneyland, which is a whole different tale).

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I like a cold beer on a hot day or a nice glass of wine with my dinner.  I’m no prude.  As a matter of fact, I’ll borrow a quote one of my favorite comedians from the 1950’s and 60’s, Brother Dave Gardner, who stated “…I’ve drank enough to float the ‘Kate Adams’ [a Missisippi riverboat] from Memphis to New Orleans…” – and there are plenty of other places at the Walt Disney Resort to do that.  All of the other theme parks offer alcoholic beverages (EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom).  All of the resorts offer alcohol – you can even drink at every pool on property.  Trust me, I’ve completed the “drinking around the world” challenge many times at EPCOT (a beer is consumed at each of the ten World Showcase pavilions), and I have to say that downing ten beers in the hot, Florida sun is not an experience I’d necessarily recommend for the faint of heart.  Bottom line – if you need or want to have a drink at Walt Disney World, there are ample places to find one.

The Magic Kingdom; however, was different.  It was considered sacred ground.  Walt’s vision.  If Walt didn’t want beer or wine in the Magic Kingdom, then there would be no beer or wine in the Magic Kingdom.  Period – the end.

Sadly, times have changed.  After twenty-six years, the precedent set at Disneyland Paris back in 1992 has made its way across the Atlantic.  So now, in 2018, at seven of the restaurant locations within Florida’s Magic Kingdom the theme park, adults 21 and over can now order either beer or wine with their meal.

It just feels like a money grab.  After all, the company has been doing fine all of these years without this addition, so it’s hard to believe that they needed this revenue stream to keep them afloat.  Besides, at $7.25 for a Bud Light and $9-$13 for a glass of wine (yes, these are actual menu prices), that’s more than floating, that’s downright piracy on the high seas.  That $3.29 Diet Coke or $3 bottled water on the menu looks like a downright bargain, comparatively speaking.

I also find it hard to believe that even the hardest of hard-core drinkers doesn’t understand that for one day, heck even half a day – they’ll have to settle for a soft drink, water, or some other non-alcoholic concoction while they are inside the Magic Kingdom theme park.  You can’t spend eight hours riding rides and watching dancing characters with your kids without cracking open a beer or sipping on a Pinot Grigio?  Really?

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned.  Maybe I’m just naïve.  Perhaps I also crave some of that elusive American nostalgia that Walt was in search of.

Either way, I’ll just furrow my brow and shake my head, wondering what happened to another long-standing tradition that was pushed aside in favor of profits.

 

 

 

What are your thoughts on this change of policy at the Magic Kingdom?  Drop me a line in the comment section below!