I agree that any of us could be clueless. I remember many trips as a child to WDW, where my parents would spend 3 days driving down from Ontario, Canada, and we'd stay offsite and buy tickets at the TTC on the day we arrived. And we'd enter the park mid-to-late morning and not know where we were going. Oh yeah, and we'd travel Christmas week. Every. Time. We eventually learned that if you were fast, you could get on a ride right at park open with minimal wait, and that later in the evening you might get walk-on rides... if you were lucky. But for us, waiting 2 hours for Pirates was the norm. We still had a great time and loved, it, but now part of me shudders when I think about it.
The first time I went on my own, I was traveling with my boyfriend (now husband) and found a copy of the Unofficial Guide in a bookstore (this was in the early days of the internet, and none of this stuff was online yet). I read it cover to cover, and it was such an eyeopener! Everything in there made perfect sense, and I was astounded that I had never realized it before! My boyfriend/now husband thought I was crazy, especially when we got to Epcot and the first thing we rode was... LWTL. (This was before Test Track and Soarin'.) But we followed the sample touring plan and were both amazed by how much we got done! We have never looked back since. My husband isn't as interested in all of the minute planning details, but boy, he loves the benefits of having everything planned so that we have reservations at all of the right times! We are now experienced enough that we don't have an actual *touring plan*, but we follow the same general style: headliners at rope drop, medium-priority attractions next, FP s and shows all afternoon, then back to medium priority and headliners going into the evening. I love touring DIsney this way, and never want it to change!
But I do remember being *that family* when I was a kid. My natural inclination is to help people like this. Yet I can't help but roll my eyes at people who refuse all assistance and then complain. I tried...