WDW MK to Offer More Alcohol Options...

From the Tampa article: "Attendance has been sluggish at the theme parks this year..." I don't understand where this notion keeps coming from. The third and fourth quarters this year have been insane, and at times even unpleasant.

If drinking around the world is too easy for you, you can do it on Hard Mode like I and my partner did last spring:

1. Take the ferry from the Studios and have one beer and a Snakebite in Britain.
2. Go to your Noon reservation at Le Cellier. Your drink in Canada is actually.....an entire bottle of red wine.
3. Continue counter clockwise after lunch, skipping Britain since you've technically already had two drinks there.

We made it all the way around the world, then took the monorail to MK....where I felt like white hot death. But, I powered through and by the time the sun had been down for a while I had sobered up a bit and was back to fighting form. Worth it.

^I suppose this sort of story is why teetotallers want to limit sales at parks but I'm also confident nobody but the two of us knew we were even mildly buzzed. I can't remember observing anyone noticeably drunk at a Disney park but hey maybe my limited sample size is misleading me.

I was there that day and you should've had a mint. 😜

Now you can make your dinner at MK and continue on!

Liquor has been available at the Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom forever. All the same families that visit MK visit those other parks so anyone who claims it is a concern for the kids is being foolish. I, for one, welcome a cold beer or a nice mixed drink at those other locations. Once in a while it is a necessity and not a desire. Bad pizza or a bad burger go down much better with a cold beer.

As for sluggish attendance, I agree that the MK has been bustling but the other parks (outside of EPCOT during Food & Wine) do seem to be on a slower pace than in previous years...not that I'm complaining.

Ths article went up on MiceAge today. I'm not the biggest fan of Mr Yee, but his articles are well written and I respect his opinions. Even though they're wrong :-) I thought folks here might find it interesting.

He seems to be holding to the idea of WWWD -- What Would Walt Do? -- ignoring that the Disney Company Walt oversaw was a fraction of the company as it is today, and that times, and markets, change, and what customers expected in 1955 is different than what people expect in 2016.

http://micechat.com/147690-drinking-around-the-magic-kingdom/

To Don's point, the widely available alcohol at the other parks has not "damaged" the experience, and frankly it hasn't at Epcot during F&W. Hell, Universal is still super fun and a place I'm perfectly happy to bring my kid, and they have people walking around selling drink shots at times. "What would Walt do" is stupid, because I'm certain that he would be first to sell alcohol because he was a capitalist that was sensitive to consumer tastes.

The whole thing that there's some slippery slope thing here is equally annoying, because, if they did start selling beer at counter service or carts, so what? You'd have... Animal Kingdom.

What would Walt do? Presumably, he'd evolve...

Jeff said:

"What would Walt do" is stupid, because I'm certain that he would be first to sell alcohol because he was a capitalist that was sensitive to consumer tastes.

No argument here; variations on that argument come up often on the Disney fan sites I follow. Walt would never do x, y or z and Disneyland, especially, must be kept exactly as is because that's what Walt created (ignoring how the park continually evolved when he was alive).

I was at all the parks last week and loved being able to drink and walk around the parks. Even when we did the Mickey's special event Christmas special at night I had to have several drinks at Port Orleans and bring a stiff one on the bus to MK since I know they dont have any booze.

SatanicCoaster said:

Even when we did the Mickey's special event Christmas special at night I had to have several drinks at Port Orleans and bring a stiff one on the bus to MK since I know they dont have any booze.

Trust me, you are not the only one.

You can also easily stop off at any of the monorail resort gift shops and they all sell pints of booze (rum, vodka etc.; and at fairly reasonable prices too). Pair it up with an ice cold bottled Sprite or Coke and you have yourself an instant MK mixer that you can walk around with to take the edge off.

But I wouldn't really know; I overheard this once from some guy I know..... :)

rollergator said:

What would Walt do? Presumably, he'd evolve...

He'll have to warm up a bit, first...

How about lingerie being sold in the parks? Little known fact. From 1955-1956 there was a lingerie shop on Main Street in Disneyland called, what else, the Wizard of Bras. So, now we know what Walt would do.

SatanicCoaster said:

I had to have several drinks at Port Orleans and bring a stiff one on the bus to MK since I know they dont have any booze.

Wait. The bus driver let you have booze on the bus?

We got kicked off the bus at Port Orleans last month for trying to board with an adult beverage after dinner at Boatwright's. The driver wasn't a jerk about it, but told us no open alcohol was allowed on any of the buses.

No obvious open containers on the bus. If your souvenir cup has rum and coke in it you probably aren't going to draw attention.

Yeah I put a little vodka and tonic in a Disney cup or coffee cup with lid.

Those resort sippy cups are a good idea, but I'd need a much larger one for booze on the go.

We're set to go again the first week of February. I hope it's not nuts busy. We did our FP+ and dinners 60 days out. Still couldn't snag Be Our Guest....

Have a great time RCMAC. Port Orleans was great last week. Riverside is the place for us. I didnt care too much for the French Quarter. It was crowded at the parks but if you know how to do the parks the line waits are not that bad.

by the way just put a little extra in the sippy cups...... lol

RCMAC said:

We did our FP+ and dinners 60 days out. Still couldn't snag Be Our Guest....

Keep trying on the app every day if you can, or at least every few days for BOG. While it takes some time and effort, I've almost always been able to get the dining reservations I wanted, including BOG. WDW dining reservations (even the hard to get places) are very fickle and open up and close all the time; you eventually can get what you want if you keep checking. It just takes some time and patience which is an unfortunate byproduct (but a reality) of the new MyMagic+ platform.

BOG is worth it one time to see the space, but otherwise I'm not dying to go back. The food was perfectly average compared to other places on property, and the main room feels like you're dining in a crowded cafeteria. Not my favorite.

But yeah if you've never been try to do it once, get your picture with the Beast, and move on.

MK kind of sucks for dining in the general sense, though there are a few bright spots here and there. Dolewhip and the BBQ mac-n-cheese come to mind.