We were on Loop 2000 taking site photos for this blog when we were stopped by a young Jedi toddler. He ran right in front of our golf cart, pointed his saber at my husband, and warned us to “Freeze.” We briefly obliged, but he absolutely refused to move, and took on the demeanor of the troll in The Three Billy Goats Gruff. After about four minutes, one of his 14 sisters or young cousins came to the road to explain to him that the saber didn’t work on anyone everyone. Just a few feet away, his parents and aunts/uncles sat under their canopies watching football and hammering away at a case or two. This, my friends, is how Fort Wilderness is supposed to look, right?
Meet Dani and the Dream Chaser
Contrast this to the young couple we met over in Jack Rabbit Run. With their cutesy A-frame travel trailer, their only “children” were a pair of German Shorthaired Pointers. After we commented on the unique look of their dogs, they told us that this was their first trip to Fort Wilderness. Although they were considering purchasing a DVC, the magic of the Fort had already made them think again. “This place is fire – never would have thought this would turn out to be the best of Disney,” said the girl with the Dole Whip mini-skirt.
Whaaaaat?
decadent morality and decay in the disney demographic?
Second only in the news cycle to the Democratic debate and the launching of missiles by North Korea is the increasing presence of people without children taking up space at Walt Disney World. A 2018 Facebook post by an angry mom was revived last week, resulting in a tweetstorm as well as editorials by big-time newspapers. New York Post writer Johnny Oleksinski awkwardly poured salt on the wound when he wrote an article titled, “Sorry, childless millennials going to Disney is weird.” The mom’s vile rant focused on long ride lines, frustrations with getting a Mickey pretzel for her 3-year-old, and her general disgust with the younger generation.
So what’s new? Nasty contempt of anybody who is not us is very 2019 and fashionable. Because hate has no boundaries and no recognition of the purported happiest place on earth.
And yeah, I get the general idea about millennials. I’ve hired some fresh out of college, and found their biggest complaint two years later is that their rise to vice-president is taking too long. They don’t like to swim because they can’t be disconnected from their phones for that long. But, hold on . . .
It’s a Small WoRld After All
We Gen Xers and late Baby Boomers have our own quirks and shadows, fueled by decades of rebellion, credit card debt, narcissism and binge-drinking. Last winter, some of us watched in horror as a Gen-X admin of a Fort-related Facebook group defended the racist comments of a Baby Boomer member. The member “joked” that Hispanic visitors at Fort Wilderness be placed in fences for the rest of us to look at in the way that we view animals at Animal Kingdom. Oh. My. God. Um, did you ever sing along to “It’s a Small World”or notice that Mary Blair mural in the Contemporary? What a mind-blowing disconnect.
But such is the problem with generalizations. Most of us born in the 1950s-80s live and love more gracefully. As do the young generation of millenials who are postponing marriage and childhood, sharing their moments on Instagram, and finding their elusive tranquility in nature and places like Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground.
ponies are more instagramable than pretzels, anyway
More than anywhere, Fort Wilderness is the melting pot of Disney World. The reality is that while it makes for an affordable and memorable vacation for a family, it is also a paradise for multi-generational groups, singles, retired couples – and yes, young adult couples with dogs.
The childless millennial is more likely than any other generation to have had a golf cart growing up. Yet, she is just as worthy as any other to indulge in that only-in-Fort-Wilderness activity called “looping.” If she’s making a YouTube video, she’ll find a forest of relatively-tame animals, and her film will likely be far more well-done than yours or mine. She now represents the age group with the largest number of campers (KOA, 2019), and you can bet that the RV industry is quickly shifting its attention.
So, welcome to the Fort, childless millennials. Maybe we’ll see you this afternoon taking a hundred pictures of Cinderella’s ponies. Or tonight at the Campfire show, where we can all get a Mickey Pretzel with hardly a line at all.
