We just got back from Walt Disney World a few days ago (the annual pass is good until May 3) and we had a kind of epiphany about it. Maybe not a very original one, but an epiphany for us just the same.

Walt Disney World is the everyman vacation. And it is anything that the everyman wants it to be.

It’s a camping vacation for a family on a budget and it’s a wildly extravagant honeymoon destination. It’s wholesome family fun and it’s spring break. It’s Mickey ice cream bars and character breakfasts and it’s Jell-O shots and clubs. It’s Audrey Hepburn meets the Brady Bunch and Peewee Herman, classy and kitschy all rolled up into one.

It’s the ying and the yang of Walt Disney World, except that sometimes, the ying is at war with the yang.

Exhibit A: the beautiful California Grill on the 15th floor of Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

The California Grill is a world-class restaurant with wonderful service, a great menu with west coast cuisine, and dramatic panoramic views of all of Walt Disney World. We love taking cocktails out to the adjoining catwalks that overlook the Magic Kingdom during the fireworks. It has a dress code (although sometimes loosely enforced) and it really is a pretty special place, a seemingly great location for a romantic dinner. But, hey Disney! What’s with the kids??

While I can see that they don’t want to exclude kids completely, I wish they’d lay down the law a little.

It gets wilder every time we go. Yes, I know, it’s Disney World. Yes, I know, it is a family vacation destination and some parents will fiercely fight for their right to not be told what to do with their kids. But when I’m getting a little dressed up, spending that kind of money, ordering a nice bottle of wine and having a special evening out, I really don’t want someone else’s child climbing under my table.

This past Saturday night at dinner, to the right of us was a couple (the green bean couple, as we liked to call them) with a baby that, to be fair, was pretty quiet. But almost immediately after being seated, the mom took out a can opener and opened up a can of Del Monte green beans, which the baby threw all over the table and onto the floor. It was really gross. And why did they keep bringing their ginormous stroller into the dining room and parading it around our table?

To the left of us there was a family (My husband dubbed them “the hills have eyes family” - never mind why)  with three little boys who cried, screamed, climbed on the floor, stood on the chairs, and threw things at the wait staff as the adults sat idly by.

I couldn’t see the family behind me very well, but I am going to say they were pretty bad based on the horrified looks on the faces of my husband and daughter.

Did we accidentally get seated in the middle of a seven year old’s birthday party?

Seriously. Would it be so hard to require a certain level of good behavior if parents want to bring their children to this rather grown up restaurant? I wonder if there are others like us who will become increasingly unwilling to spend all that money for sushi in this McDonald’s kind of atmosphere.