Oh my goodness. After yesterday’s post went live, I started seeing reports of lots of drama at the Disney Princess Expo. Some highlights:
Lines. So many lines.
People shoving and throwing elbows to get merchandise before others.
Women throwing wine glasses and breaking them (I think trying to toss them to each other for buying purposes?).
People grabbing at jackets as they came out of the back room.
People buying entire boxes of merchandise to resell. Apparently there’s a new rule that you can only buy 25 of any one item, so there’s that.
One of my favorites – people posting items on eBay using photos they took at checkout. Not even waiting to get back to the hotel room to list that puppy for up to twice what they paid.
My favorite – shoving and punching over merchandise.
Apparently the crowds got so heavy that the Fire Marshal came in and shut it down so the crowds could clear out.
People. It’s just stuff. I mean, I get the desire to have a cool shirt or jacket for your first half marathon. I’m sure I’m going to want all of the 70.3 gear later this year. But can’t we be a little bit civil?
Civility everywhere is dead. It makes me pretty sad 🙁
Sadly, when you have a race that entitles people to be princesses for a day, and you add the glamour and exclusivity that is Disney, it’s kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy that this would happen.
Only 25 of one item? What strict limitations!
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Back in 2008 I was going to do the Disney Marathon as my first race. I wound up having to pull out, and still haven’t done a marathon yet. But I know that my first won’t be a runDisney event. Which makes me sad, b/c I love Disney. Just not what runDisney seems to have become.
Happiest Place on Earth, people! Where a dream is a wish your heart makes! Why ruin Disney? I’m such a sad panda about this.
In response to Anne…most of theach hoarders and fighting at the expo was by the non-running public that just want the merchandise. Don’t belittle the runners that train very hard will blood, sweat and tears to complete these races.
Meredith, I don’t think Anne was belittling all the Princess runners, just the ones who take this “Princess” thing to heart and use it as an excuse to be rude. We definitely know that there are also great people there, people who worked hard in their training and were polite, normal human beings to those around them. That’s what makes this so awful! If everyone there were a jerk, then who cares? But this sort of attitude can if not ruin, then at least put a damper on someone else’s experience.
I’m not surprised after some of the runDisney expos we have attended. I am sad that people could be that greedy about making a profit on stuff….like you said it is just stuff that no one really needs.
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