Almost all of the places I have lived have been tourism heavy.
French Quarter, New Orleans
Park City, Utah
Kissimmee, Florida (Disney)
Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Austin, Texas (not at first, but definitely the later years)
Destin, Florida
There is one recurring theme. People on vacation are stressed the fuck out, desperate to enjoy their very limited and probably very expensive time off, and impatient. This makes many of them rude and entitled. Many people forget to bring their common sense and their manners when they go on vacation. They also have a propensity to binge on everything including food, entertainment, and especially booze and/or drugs. Locals are under no obligation to take your shit just because you are blowing $10k on a week or weekend vacation (of which you only get two of per year) with the family, and you are having an existential crisis that you hope your expensive vacation might remedy. Some of us are just trying to get a coffee on the way to our daily grind and you have decided to let your kids sample every flavor of ice cream in the shop before only buying a single scoop. If you see people waiting, be nice and offer to let someone else get their order in while your kids make up their minds. It is common courtesy.
One of my most valuable memories comes from i worked at an incredibly touristy restaurant in one of the most tourist friendly areas in the country.
This restaurant would routinely have a line out the door for walk-ins, despite the fact we had reservations. Im talking 700 covers a day at a minimum during peak season.
Entitled Tourist who walked past the line: Hi there, im super exhausted, and my family needs to seat 4 people.
Me: im sorry we have a 2 hour wait, you’ll have to wait in line
Entitled tourist: are you sure, we really need some food
Me: yes i am very sure, there are people outside who have waited in line for an hour plus
Entitled tourist: (irritated) but we just got off of our flight and we heard you guys were great
Me: yes im absolutely sure
Entitled tourist: you cant treat us this way, we came to your city to enjoy your food
Me: im sorry maam, we cannot let you skip the waiting list
Entitled tourist: (now visibly angry) you can not treat us this way, WE ARE TOURISTS!!!
Me: i look at the hostess next me and we both start cracking up at the absurdity
We continued to laugh until she left.
Was honestly one of the funniest things ive eve encountered in the service industry and thats after a career of almost 25 years.
Thats the thing I don’t get with vacations. I am stressed at work so I take a week off to be stressed somewhere else for a week? Don’t get me wrong, there is so much to love about vacations but I never found vacations to be relaxing just because I feel like I am under time pressure to go out and see and do as much as I possibly can in the limited time at the vacation spot.
In contrast taking a week off and just staying at home has been far more relaxing.
Almost all of the places I have lived have been tourism heavy.
There is one recurring theme. People on vacation are stressed the fuck out, desperate to enjoy their very limited and probably very expensive time off, and impatient. This makes many of them rude and entitled. Many people forget to bring their common sense and their manners when they go on vacation. They also have a propensity to binge on everything including food, entertainment, and especially booze and/or drugs. Locals are under no obligation to take your shit just because you are blowing $10k on a week or weekend vacation (of which you only get two of per year) with the family, and you are having an existential crisis that you hope your expensive vacation might remedy. Some of us are just trying to get a coffee on the way to our daily grind and you have decided to let your kids sample every flavor of ice cream in the shop before only buying a single scoop. If you see people waiting, be nice and offer to let someone else get their order in while your kids make up their minds. It is common courtesy.
One of my most valuable memories comes from i worked at an incredibly touristy restaurant in one of the most tourist friendly areas in the country.
This restaurant would routinely have a line out the door for walk-ins, despite the fact we had reservations. Im talking 700 covers a day at a minimum during peak season.
Entitled Tourist who walked past the line: Hi there, im super exhausted, and my family needs to seat 4 people.
Me: im sorry we have a 2 hour wait, you’ll have to wait in line
Entitled tourist: are you sure, we really need some food
Me: yes i am very sure, there are people outside who have waited in line for an hour plus
Entitled tourist: (irritated) but we just got off of our flight and we heard you guys were great
Me: yes im absolutely sure
Entitled tourist: you cant treat us this way, we came to your city to enjoy your food
Me: im sorry maam, we cannot let you skip the waiting list
Entitled tourist: (now visibly angry) you can not treat us this way, WE ARE TOURISTS!!!
Me: i look at the hostess next me and we both start cracking up at the absurdity
We continued to laugh until she left.
Was honestly one of the funniest things ive eve encountered in the service industry and thats after a career of almost 25 years.
Thats the thing I don’t get with vacations. I am stressed at work so I take a week off to be stressed somewhere else for a week? Don’t get me wrong, there is so much to love about vacations but I never found vacations to be relaxing just because I feel like I am under time pressure to go out and see and do as much as I possibly can in the limited time at the vacation spot.
In contrast taking a week off and just staying at home has been far more relaxing.