Obviously, not witnessing this means the mom could be spot on or she could have taken the comment wrong. What we do know is that the policy on party nights is non-ticketed guests are not given access to rides, shops etc after 7:00 so in that, the CM was right, wish kid or not. Had it been my family, receiving a free trip, I would have shrugged it off, and enjoyed the rest of my magical trip. The mom's reaction now if just diminishing the magic every time she dwells on it.
I agree with this.
We don't know what the CM said - it could have been insensitive or, it could have been an innocuous comment about being closed to everyone except party guests that the mom interpreted as insensitive.
It could have been as simple as the CM asking to see their party wristbands and when they didn't have those, a simple statement about the store being closed to guests who were not party attendees.
We don't know:
- that the CM knew it was a child on a MAW trip
- if the CM made any other suggestions for shopping - like going to Downtown Disney or going to one of the nearby resorts.
- what the mom's reaction was when they were initially denied access to the store
- what mom/family said to the CM and how the family acted
I could see possibly making an exception to go quickly in and out if they had a single item they already knew they wanted to buy (like maybe she promised the MAW child he could get on the way out). But, not to just let the family in for general shopping because they were a MAW family.
I'm pretty sure the CM could not grant an exception if they just wanted to do general shopping (who knows how long they would be in the store); another thing we don't know is whether the CM contacted a manager and was waiting for an exception from the manager before the mom stood there crying.
Also, why is this article in a local new york paper? The mother probably called the paper to tell then her story to get publicity
I would guess that is how it got there.
Interestingly, the article is mostly about how hard it is to be the child's mother, with very little about the actual incident.