What was the biggest Disney meltdown you've witnessed?

On our first ever trip to WDW I had DS3. I had never been. We get to the MK and I see "Snow White's Scary Adventure." I think to myself "oh it's Disney.....they wouldn't have anything scary." We get on the ride and my son lost it. He clawed me, climbed all over me, screamed, cried. I felt HORRIBLE. Luckily no one was there to witness this. It was bad.

Years later DD3 wanted to go on it. I kept telling her it was scary but she insisted. We rode that ride 5 times in a row at RD. She loved it.

Well, it does say "scary" in the name. ;)

Actually, many of the classic Disney dark rides are on the scary side with some rather dark imagery. They come from the classic "ghost train" type of ride and are intended to offer a little thrill or scare. I was just at Disneyland and it's pretty easy to forget that until you are riding something like Mr. Toad, which is basically a ride about the horrors of drunk driving and a warning about what will happen if you do - the final scene of the ride is literally a depiction of Hell. That's it too. There's no happy ending, it just cuts there. It can be a little disturbing. Those rides like Snow White are actually quite a bit scarier than The Haunted Mansion!
 
Well, it does say "scary" in the name. ;)

Actually, many of the classic Disney dark rides are on the scary side with some rather dark imagery. They come from the classic "ghost train" type of ride and are intended to offer a little thrill or scare. I was just at Disneyland and it's pretty easy to forget that until you are riding something like Mr. Toad, which is basically a ride about the horrors of drunk driving and a warning about what will happen if you do - the final scene of the ride is literally a depiction of Hell. That's it too. There's no happy ending, it just cuts there. It can be a little disturbing. Those rides like Snow White are actually quite a bit scarier than The Haunted Mansion!

Trust me looking back I was having a big "DUH!!!" moment. I felt so bad. I was a Disney newbie and thought Disney was all about kids and no way would there be anything scary or not good for kids. Even with "scary" in the title I didn't think there would be anything scary. I don't even think I knew Disney had rollercoasters that first visit! lol I might've known about ToT but that was it. I didn't even know WDW had restaurants. I thought it was all QS. I'm much wiser now. :)
 
Not a meltdown, but really creepy and kind of scary. My first trip with my daughters was a very slow period and we were at MK late and hardly anybody was on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. The boat in front of us was empty and the boat in back of us was too. We had got on just before the closing that nite and when we were between the big fighting ship and the pirate town scene our boat stopped. It was so creepy and we started to worry that they had started closing up and we were forgotten. Yo ho yo ho after many many rounds really gets scary. Then the boat lurched and proceeded on. Whew! That was the scariest ride ever. Still love it and I bet it is always too busy for that to happen now.
 
Not a meltdown, but really creepy and kind of scary. My first trip with my daughters was a very slow period and we were at MK late and hardly anybody was on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. The boat in front of us was empty and the boat in back of us was too. We had got on just before the closing that nite and when we were between the big fighting ship and the pirate town scene our boat stopped. It was so creepy and we started to worry that they had started closing up and we were forgotten. Yo ho yo ho after many many rounds really gets scary. Then the boat lurched and proceeded on. Whew! That was the scariest ride ever. Still love it and I bet it is always too busy for that to happen now.

A sort of similar thing happened to my daughter and I on Haunted Mansion! It was during the first Boo to You parade during MNSSHP, so the majority of the crowd was watching that and we were the only ones getting on the ride. Walking through the Haunted Mansion queue and going in the stretching room was creepy enough with just the two of us, but when we were in the doom buggy and the part where you are kind of laying back as it goes up the track a bit...it just stopped!! Grim Grinning Ghosts was all slowed down and it was dark and I thought I was gonna have to start screaming. I am still wondering if someone behind the scenes did that on purpose lol
 


Oh my that happened in HM to us too but it was busy and not for long It must have been so creepy for you. We were stuck for 10 minutes or more.
 
Last year was my family’s very first trip to WDW and we went over spring break. My daughter was six and her favorite ride was Haunted Mansion. Being new to Disney and planning the trip in just 4 weeks we had no idea what rider swap was so I hung out with our two year old a lot while my husband and daughter would ride different rides. He enjoys them more than I do so I was good with it. I had my son’s stroller parked in the shade while they were riding HM again and my son napped and I saw a doozy of an argument between a couple that had three children with them. Apparently there was some disagreement on whether or not the middle son that looked around 4 was going to ride with his dad and older brother while mom stayed with the baby. Arms were waived, voices were raised “ he wants to go with you!” Finally dad storms off and the little boy goes to follow him but can’t find him in the sea of people. Goes crying back to mom and she was angry. Really angry. Lots of jerky hand gestures and muttering while she looked for her husband. Finally about 10 minutes later dad and older son come back and get him and go back to the line. Later I told my husband about it and he asked if they had magic bands. I was confused and looked down at ours and then finally told him no, they didn’t. He said that was the problem. The magic bands help you forget that your spending a ton of money on stuff because you just waive it and go. Doesn’t hit you until check out. It’s the ”magic” part of the band. The people without them are aware of how much they’re spending and it keeps them angry the entire time! That was our running joke all through the rest of the vacation. Every time we noticed angry people we would be side eyeing their wrists checking for magic bands! Lol. More often than not they didn’t have them so we’d grin at each other, shake our heads and whisper to each other that they should have gotten the magic bands.
 
Last year was my family’s very first trip to WDW and we went over spring break. My daughter was six and her favorite ride was Haunted Mansion. Being new to Disney and planning the trip in just 4 weeks we had no idea what rider swap was so I hung out with our two year old a lot while my husband and daughter would ride different rides. He enjoys them more than I do so I was good with it. I had my son’s stroller parked in the shade while they were riding HM again and my son napped and I saw a doozy of an argument between a couple that had three children with them. Apparently there was some disagreement on whether or not the middle son that looked around 4 was going to ride with his dad and older brother while mom stayed with the baby. Arms were waived, voices were raised “ he wants to go with you!” Finally dad storms off and the little boy goes to follow him but can’t find him in the sea of people. Goes crying back to mom and she was angry. Really angry. Lots of jerky hand gestures and muttering while she looked for her husband. Finally about 10 minutes later dad and older son come back and get him and go back to the line. Later I told my husband about it and he asked if they had magic bands. I was confused and looked down at ours and then finally told him no, they didn’t. He said that was the problem. The magic bands help you forget that your spending a ton of money on stuff because you just waive it and go. Doesn’t hit you until check out. It’s the ”magic” part of the band. The people without them are aware of how much they’re spending and it keeps them angry the entire time! That was our running joke all through the rest of the vacation. Every time we noticed angry people we would be side eyeing their wrists checking for magic bands! Lol. More often than not they didn’t have them so we’d grin at each other, shake our heads and whisper to each other that they should have gotten the magic bands.
I don't know about that some of the really bad behavior I saw was on the resort buses and all those people were wearing magic bands... Generally, though families with kids at different stages seem to have the hardest time. What I saw is if you are travelling with a Dad, he seems to set the tone good or bad.
 


Little bit CM, little bit me and sadly I was 29 years old...

We arrived early at MK for a pre-opening breakfast reservation at BOG, which we've done at other TS MK restaurants before with no problem. However, this was right when the new welcome show at the castle was first introduced, so we had no experience with figuring out how to get there. No one at the gate said anything about where to go. So, I pushed myself through a crowd to the rope at Fantasyland, thinking that's where we needed to be. BOG=Fantasyland, right? He said, oh sorry the breakfast check-ins happen at Adventureland and he was very pleasant. I said okay, no problem, thanks for your help, etc and pushed myself back out (apologizing and saying excuse me the whole time). So DH and I walk over to Adventureland. I walked up to a CM holding the rope and I said, "Good Morning, we are checking in for breakfast at BoG...." and I couldn't finish saying we had been directed over there before she screamed, "THIS ISSSSS ADVENTURELAAAAAND" (spoken as "This is Sparta" from the movie "300"). And my jaw dropped. I was trying to explain to her that we were told to go over there, but I had to yell in order to talk over her screaming "THIS IS ADVENTURELAND" over and over again. I think I told her to calm down at one point and then I just got so frustrated (still not knowing where to go) that I stormed off and DH followed. I'm a pretty laid-back person, but I was pretty mad at this point, and I asked him if he happened to catch the name on her tag, so he walked back and a guest said "uh oh he came back" and she screamed "THIS IS ADVENTURELAND" again. DH said "Okay cool, just getting your name for guest services." I ended up spotting a CM with the reservation book and we made it almost on time; we went to Guest Services later to complain. We found out she had just started College Program that week. I had to text my best friend right away who is a DCP alum and she couldn't believe it. Now we just laugh about it and yell "THIS IS ADVENTURELAND" to each other every time we walk through.

They now have signs for breakfast check-ins....not sure if they always have, but they definitely did not that day.
 
i've personally had a few meltdowns.

the first one was probably about 12 years ago my family and i stayed at the boardwalk. we got off the bus from MK to go back to the hotel room and i lost it and started to scream and lose my temper. i ended up losing one of my shoes and woke up some people in their hotel room that were nearby lmao (i was 4 at the time)

the second one that my family constantly reminds me of is where i was having another meltdown on the monorail because i was hungry. my dad picked me up and got off the monorail, leaving my mom and other siblings on the monorail at the GF (to punish me). we ended up taking the monorail to epcot and got ice cream and rode test track hahaha.
 
Either my first or second trip to the parks as a child, my cousin threw a temper tantrum because she wanted a safari costume from some shop in AK. It was so embarrassing, everyone was starting. Finally my uncle gave in and purchased it for her. Of course immediately after purchase, we all had to wait for her to change into it in the bathroom. She was spoiled, to say the least.

Also, that same said uncle missed the boat during our Disney cruise and got left behind in Atlantis. Lol.
 
a few years back while sleeping at one of the value resorts I woke up to hear a husband yelling at his wife. This guy was having a major league meltdown. it was bad.
 
Sadly, it was DH! Nothing like seeing a 40 something year old man throwing a tantrum, more than once! First was due to crowds before Wishes near Casey's Corner(never did get to see Wishes that night, had to take him out of the park).Second time he refused to get out of bed and pretended to be asleep so I left a note to meet me at the park we planned on when he was ready, well when I went to leave the room there was a major tantrum because I was going to leave him...sheesh
Sometimes I’m glad I’m single,lol.
 
Mine wasn’t that bad, but just weird. It was 1000 degrees, sun painfully beating down, crowded summer afternoon and it was clear the magic was gone for a lot of people. I decided to separate from my group and beat the heat by walking back to my hotel and taking a swim, but along the way I was going to get some food. Being alone, my food came up before the two people who had been ahead of me. I went up to get my food and the guy got angry at me when i asked if I could get my food. He started going on about how that was his, but i knew it was mine because they called my order and while our food was similar, mine was a combo plate and his wasn’t. Once I told him this he started to get angry at the food service people and in the process of checking to see if it was his order, he started touching my food. Being a bit of a germaphobe, I asked why he touched my food. I literally watched him lifting stuff around to look underneath stuff, but he got defensive and then kind of got in my face about how he didn’t. Anyway, I dropped it, I was hot, tired, and just wanted to be done with it, but he wouldn’t stop ranting about how he didn’t touch my food even though I let it go. I was standing right next to him and was looking straight at my food when it happened, had not been, I would have thought I imagined it by how adamant he was about it. Anyway, ruined my lunch/snack but I just went back to my hotel and swam. Again so hot and tired, I didn’t have the willpower to make any bigger of a deal of it or let it ruin the day. In the end, i can’t get over how the whole things was just strange.
 
I just joined this today so I was reading these to my mother. She told me about one that we saw when I was about 5 (I am 38 now). She said there was a line of kids waiting to see the characters. I always was scared of the characters in suits and still am. She said there was this little boy whose mother wanted him to go and see them but he was crying because he didn't want to. So his mother pulled out a ping pong paddle and started hitting him with it
 
I just joined this today so I was reading these to my mother. She told me about one that we saw when I was about 5 (I am 38 now). She said there was a line of kids waiting to see the characters. I always was scared of the characters in suits and still am. She said there was this little boy whose mother wanted him to go and see them but he was crying because he didn't want to. So his mother pulled out a ping pong paddle and started hitting him with it
Ah yes... The good 'ol days.
 
I just joined this today so I was reading these to my mother. She told me about one that we saw when I was about 5 (I am 38 now). She said there was a line of kids waiting to see the characters. I always was scared of the characters in suits and still am. She said there was this little boy whose mother wanted him to go and see them but he was crying because he didn't want to. So his mother pulled out a ping pong paddle and started hitting him with it
and the mother wonders why the kid won't give Mickey a big hug! Look at those gloves - they're like ping pong paddles... *facepalm*
 

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