to not understand grown adults squealing with excitement over Disneyland?

[GwendolineMaryLacey]

I just don't understand it. Perfectly lovely, sane, normal people. I have FB friends who are as described above, yet are making themselves sick with excitement, counting down the hours and not sleeping because they are off to spend a fortune standing in queues for hours to see an oversized stuffed mouse with a bored student inside or some silly woman dressed as a 'princess'. They are squealing about booking meals with these creatures fgs.

I can understand the children being excited but the children in this case are three and couldn't give a toss! The fuss is all about the adults.

Explain it to me please!

I'm one of those adults

But it is exciting! And it's fun to get into the spirit of the thing, if you're going to spend thousands to take your family to Florida, you may as well! I'd rather be a little squealy and excited than be boring and not bothered.

My ex and I went before we had children, and when we went after having children, most of the excitement was being able to share it with them, give them a holiday they would always remember, and knowing how enchanted they were going to be.

BTW, I think you sound a bit jealous!

I was in Disneyland Paris a few weeks ago, and to be honest, the adults were way MORE exited than any of the kids and most kids under 5yrs old seemed totally bemused by it all.

you squeal, bubble? an actual girlie jump up and down high pitched squeal?

Do people stare at you funny?

My review of Disneyland Paris:

queues - huge queues - like an hour queues for a 4 minute ride
bad food - really bad food and really expensive £3 for a small fries a la McDonalds but soggy
really expensive inside - Disney merchandise more expensive than Disney shop by about 1/3 as much again
lots of horrible people getting grumpy because of above
pretty decent roller coasters and some appalling rides
fastpass system designed to piss you off

Oh God, I'm starting to take this and myself too seriously, but ...

Really, do we squeal with excitement over anything once we're grown ups? Isn't it quite freeing, and somehow satisfying a raw, fundamental need to feel unadulterated happiness to squeal now and again?

This is why I defend Disney, even though my more cynical side can see that it's very clever marketing and planning. In spite of this, it manages to deliver magic, somehow, to children and adults. It appeals to the squealer in us.

OK, I'm skimming before I reply properly but I just wanted to say I absolutely totally am not jealous. I may get excited about a new iPhone, I may even give a little giggle of anticipation over my big family trip to Cornwall this month but Disney doesn't do it for me. I'm too old and cynical, the niceness is too sugary and people in mouse costumes give me the irrits.

Right, off to read properly, back in a mo...

There's a thread in Chat at the moment where someone is squealing about getting a skip. It's just not as fun, though, is it?

My review of DisneyWorld Florida

Queues- some queues, less in the morning even less on Sunday Morning. Plan your rides do the busy ones first.
Food-okay, not rip off like uk theme parks, slightly more expensive than outside the park, mostly pizzas, burgers and fries etc but on the whole okay.
Merchandise- again okay about the same as US Disney Stores which are cheaper than UK
Rides- Some for young, some for older, for truly terrifying head to Universal.
Fast pass system- great get there early and book your time.
Shows- like Indiana Jones stunt show, fireworks, etc amazing!
Weather- Hot and sunny, rains warm rain, love it!

Going back for 3rd time this year, to see Harry Potter land at Universal. It will be 3 weeks of fun, can't wait.

I love Tuscany too though, and reading good books, but there's room for fun and popular culture too!

See I went to Cornwall once and have vowed never again. iphones are made by Apple and are therefore complete shit whereas Disney has fast rides and excellent service.

Disney Land Paris I have no interest in, but Florida? Now you're talking.

I bloody love it. I love the rides, I love the full-on-ness, I love the happiness of it all.

I've got a great book that tells you your best plan of action to get around all the rides and shows in the quickest way and I love planning too.

I get us all into a diner for a pancake breakfast at silly o-clock and then we get to the parks way before opening time (they always open much earlier than they say).

Did I mention that I love it?

Disclaimer: I have nothing against skips.

Or Cornwall. Or iPhones.

Just not squealing material.

And here is where you must stay while visiting Disney Land www.expedia.com/Orlando-Hotels-Disneys-Animal-Kingdom-Lodge.h602436.Hotel-Information

I think its awful, but my kids loved it so my fun came from their enjoyment.

I dont understand grown adults doing it either. I have a friend who spends thousands every year going back to Florida, purely for Disney, not for her kids but for her and if they can squeeze in a Eurodisney trip too then so much the better. Her house is a shrine to plastic Disney tat, its like a bloody gift shop in there!

Erm, yeah, I probably do squeal a bit in DisneyWorld. But it endears me to the Americans.

Disneyland Paris wouldn't even make me smile, but none of the Disneyland's come anywhere near close to something you could compare with Disneyworls in Florida. Animal Kingdom and their safari ride is absolutely amazing, one of may faviourite animaly type experiences. I think that's saying something because I've dived with sharks, mantas, dolpins, a whale shark, and all the usual stuff you get in the sea. Don't mean that to sound boasty, just trying to point out that Animal Kingdom is truly fantastic.

Magic Kindom isn't that great, it's all the stuff that surrounds it that makes Florida fantastic.

Yeah Disney Florida is nothing like Disney Paris. No offence to the French staff, but they are unable to maintain the requisite level of permanent enthusiasm required to "do" Disney properly. Americans are totally able to do this, and do. I mean, the guy who mans the bus from the car park launches straight into his stand up routine.

Florida was amazing 20 yrs ago. Can only imagine it's got better. Plus, in Florida there is loads of other stuff to see apart from Disney.

Squealing in any context is unattractive, but the thought of seeing my dd's (4.5) face when we go to Disneyland Paris next week does make me do a kind of internal squeal.

Thankfully she hates the princesses - they make me heave too. We're all about Jessie from Toy Story....

OK, my thoughts...

Yes Hec, I am afraid I am talking about female women :o About half a dozen in the last 6 months who were counting down, couldn't sleep etc but one in particular who was looking at the website last night and crying with joy. I sound bitchy, that isn't my intention, honestly. This isn't the usual FB slagging off and all my 'friends' are cows type thing. These are really lovely people, the type of friends I have met btw and the rest of the year they are normal . I just don't understand!

Yes, I suppose if you have spent squillions then you want to get excited and I do understand the anticipation of going on holiday. This is just...well, off the scale of excitement. I'm not criticising as such, whatever floats your boat and all that but it's a mystery to me. I have a friend who lives near DLP and I visited her not long after it opened (her and her husband had sex in the same room as me while I was pretending to be asleep but that's another story...). Anyway, we went to the free bit, like a parade of shops and restaurants or something, just so she could show me. You could see Sleeping Beauty's castle or whatever from her bedroom window and it was a bit meh.

And I get that sometimes you have a finite capacity for museums and galleries...I don't know, it just leaves me cold.

Ah but Florida is a great family holiday.
You can do the parks for a few days, then visit Kennedy space centre, then drive down the coast to the Keys, calling in the everglades, and stay here fro a couple of weeks.

I'm not from the tourist board, honest.

Supermoo, you put that better than I did. Internal squealing.

YABU. Disneyland is a magical place that I dreamed of visiting for 35 years. I couldn't contain my excitement when Donald Duck waved to me from his float! I was as excited as the DCs were!

Oh God, how do the links to MN discussions get on Facebook btw? PLease tell me you can only see those links if you are a 'friend' of MN on FB

Just got back from DLP with 5 &10 yo. For a place 'where dreams come true' there were alot of stressed parents (me included) and tantruming DC (mine included), was hell on earth. Must say a huge thank you to my mum who forced us to go by gifting the trip to us for xmas . Luckily for us we combined it with a trip to Paris. 4 days at disney 3 in Paris, could have happily reversed that. The DC got more out of the Louvre and Notre Dame than they did out of meeting Mickey and his friends.
DH & I were also much happier paying 130 euros for a fantastic meal in Paris than 90 euros on plastic burger and chips in the rainforest cafe at DLP.
However, there were a few moments of memorable magic at disney, like me chasing down donald with DD2s autograph book after we cued for an hour for a photo and autograph when his minder decided was time for him to go, BASTARDS.

Donald Duck has a minder?

I always thought him rather sort of feisty and cross and well able to look after himself.

Never meet your heroes, isn't that what they say?

The people who queue for hours are going at the wrong time of year - apart from our last trip I've never queued for more than 20 mins for a ride and usually only 5-10.

I think people who have never been to Disneyland have a certain image of it as being very Disneyfied and corporate and full of ways to take your money and have the characters all shoved in your face etc. The reality is not like that at all. Of course the shops and merchandise is there but it's easy to ignore. And there are actually very few rides that are Disney-related and those are all in the kiddie land. The rest of it is just beautifully themed and you could be there without knowing it was anthing to do with Disney.

My dad and uncle are the two most miserable cynical people you could ever meet and they were complaining so much about it beforehand, saying how it was just going to be Disney hard selling, and all corporate and horrid and they really disapproved and were just going for the kids sake etc. But they both LOVED it and I honestly can't think of another time I've seen my dad with a smile on his face. So you absolutely can't judge it before you've been there.