To not get Disney?

[Fridaysgirl]

I'm talking about adults here, not kids.

Why do grown men and women feel the need to wear Minnie ears, buy mugs, bags and T shirts of Disney related stuff?

And why in god's name would you pay £££££s to go and gawp and an artificial pink princess castle when you could pay far less to see something real? Or cuddle a Minnie/Mickey Mouse (or should I say a stranger dressed up)?

Please can someone explain all this to me?

"Talk about sucking the life out of everything/everyone"

Look, some people think critically about stuff. That's it.

No doubt if I told you about my love of Charlotte Bronte novels your eyes would soon start glazing over. Plenty of the DISNEY IS SO GREAT crowd would have zero interest in listening to me talk about Victorian fiction.

And that's fine!

Just because people enjoy different things doesn't mean they're sucking the life out of things. I will happily listen to people talk about whatever they want. But I'm not actually interested in participating myself.

We're allowed to find stuff childish/boring/stupid. Not everything has to be HAPPY CLAPPY FUN all day every day.

I enjoy Disney for several reasons- the nostalgia of a wonderful childhood and several Disneyland trips with my family in my youth. The movies and songs providing a soundtrack to my formative years (the first film I ever saw in the cinema was a Disney one, with my dad, and I think of him whenever I see or hear it) and the fact that now, my children love Disney too.

We have annual passes to Disneyland Paris and they call it our happy place. They also have cultural breaks both at home and abroad, but being able to hop in the car and head to Disneyland if we’ve had a bad week or need to reconnect is wonderful for us.

I don’t have Disney ornaments in my home or wear Disney clothes around the house (although I would never judge anyone who did). But when I walk through those magical gates, I am a tee shirt wearing, ears wearing, singing and dancing Disney mum- and it makes us all happy. It works for my family.

@LiveInAHidingPlace Your post comes across as very patronising. Why would her eyes glaze over because you like Charlotte Bronte and she likes Disney? The two are not mutually exclusive.

I love Disney. And literature. I happen to have a PHD in a highly niche area of literary history, and a high profile job I love. Doesn’t mean I can’t also enjoy wearing mouse ears one weekend a month!

"Your post comes across as very patronising. Why would her eyes glaze over because you like Charlotte Bronte and she likes Disney? The two are not mutually exclusive."

Nor did I say it was.

I assume you, with your highly niche phD, understand what an example is?

I love Disney. I have been without my LO with just friends and I'm taking my LO soon. I've been to real places, I have a grown up job, I look after my household. But I still like to feel the magic of the place, feel awe stuck by the big castle, going on the rides, meeting the characters (I never queued to meet but I loved walking past them) why can't adults have a bit of fun and escapism. I love the films and I love the whole place of Disney, it's fun and everyone is mostly happy, you can forget everything and you're unlikely to be bored when you're there. You literally forget about everything but live in the moment. It may be a slightly different experience for me with my LO but I'll love seeing her face light up and watching her experience it for the first time.

Your post, by the way, can be construed as just as patronising. What, if you didn't have your highly niche phD, would your opinion be less valid or something?

People like different things but when you hear about adults pushing children out the way at dlp so they can get a better look, I think they need to take a hard look at themselves. For me, the primary audience is children and they should be prioritised over adults especially at the smaller parks.

I’m on one of the planning boards to get tips for a trip for my children. There is quite a range between normal adults who want to go and enjoy it as a theme park and some of the more extreme ones who are a bit obsessed to the point it doesn’t seem entirely healthy. I’ve seen some really creepy pictures of a grown man (without children) having lots of cuddly pictures with the princesses. It made me really uncomfortable as it stretches the boundaries of why they are there. It’s one thing giving hugs to a 3 year old who wants to be Cinderella. It’s another posing with a 40 year old who wants a kiss.

If you told me about your love of Charlotte Bronte’s novels, @LiveInaHidingPlace, all you would get is my enthusiastic agreement and my argument for Villette being one of the greatest novels of the 19th c.

I still don’t get why anyone thinks queueing is a fun way to spend a holiday, however much they like Disney films or rides. I googled out of curiosity, and this link to a graph showing average Magic Kingdom queueing times suggests averages of between 20 and 40 minutes for most rides, far longer than the actual rides.

queue-times.com/parks/6/stats

Liveinahidingplace. I do not have any real academic qualifications. I do have several degrees from a well regarded university. But two of them are professional degrees that I would never think qualify me to debate the complex issues relating to something like Disney.

You and I exchanged thoughts and opinions. I respect what you said and there is certainly merit.

Please don't feel your views don't matter. They do, more than you know.

"Please don't feel your views don't matter. They do, more than you know."

You what?

Where did I say my views don't matter?

Obviously I think they matter or I wouldn't be on a forum, would I?

I love a Florida Disney holiday but don’t wear t shirts/ ears etc. I have never queued for more than 40 minutes either and have always done everything I wanted to do in the parks, even Flights of Passage.
We’re going again next year

@Frangible but queue times for rides are like that EVERYWHERE good. Go to Alton towers or flamingo land. Anywhere with rides has queue times 20+ minutes on busy days. You just deal with it. That's not just for Disney.

I don't get it either. I think the majority of adults who are Disney obsessed must not have children because then you get bloody sick of it.

Surely it is a matter of class and education? Someone whose idea of enjoyable is reading ‘Middlemarch’ isn’t going to relish pretending a sweaty student wrapped in Lycra imitating a giant mouse is a pleasure.

Disney is what it is. It is for children whose parents are prepared to pay for them to participate in the Disneyworld dream and make huge profits for the corporation which, after all, pays , millions of dollars to research the emotional needs of its custom base.

I wouldn’t be worried if adults did not grow out of it though.

I guess I misunderstood you when you said people would not understand about your knowledge of Jane Austen.

I apologize.

"I guess I misunderstood you when you said people would not understand about your knowledge of Jane Austen."

I never said anything about Jane Austen. And I also never said people wouldn't understand me. I said they wouldn't be interested. So I don't talk about it.

It’s not my kind of thing but I don’t find it a difficult thing to grasp, different people enjoy different things?

@ERS25, but it sounds awful whatever theme park you’re in! Hanging around waiting to do something by definition isn’t fun — and we did take DS to Legoland and some other UK theme park (which one has ThomasLand?) when he was little, so I’m not a complete theme park virgin — so I suppose what I’m wondering is how the fact that every time you want to go on a ride, you usually need to queue for several times the length of the ride computes with ‘magic’ and ‘dreams come true’.

It just sounds like very hard work, and completely joyless, especially with young children. But many people clearly don’t experience it as a joyless slog, so I suppose what I’m wondering is — why not? Don’t your children get bored and antsy?

Googling gets you endless blogs and tips forums with lists of ways of ‘beating the queues’ by showing up early and staying late, getting your second wind, being strategic, which sounds more like a military manoeuvre than a fun, relaxing holiday.

It is quite hard to explain why I love Disney. I think it is connected to a feeling of pure, innocent fun and a temporary lack of responsibility. Same for all theme parks, not just Disney. If I go to a theme park, I spend an entire day, being active, having child like fun and rid my mind of work stresses, politics, knife crime, secondary school applications - any serious issues and worries that plague my usual day to day. I also loved the movies and still think they were amazing works of art - especially the old ones. It is incredible to think some were made in the 40s and 50s and are still watchable and enjoyable today even with all the progress that has been made with animation. I think the corporation as a whole is just an incredible case study in terms of management, direction, creativity and PR etc. I also simply like the aesthetics of the characters and merchandise. I also have plenty of other interests. But I will always be a Disney fan.

Ok. My mistake. I am trying to make peace but failing. Sorry. Please, don't make me feel any more stupid. I have reached my limit. Very late and bedtime here. Best wishes.

Today I’m wearing my Aristocats coach hoodie, I bought my friend and I matching ones to wear at Disney.

We are more than happy to be consider sado’s!

"Ok. My mistake. I am trying to make peace but failing. Sorry. Please, don't make me feel any more stupid."

There's no peace to make, is there?

I'm not making you feel anything. If you feel something about yourself, that's your business, not mine.

Oh people like you get my goat.

Because we like it. Why isn't that enough of an answer for you?

I go to Disney multiple times per year. Have Disney clothing and quite a few pieces of Disney art in our house.

It's not stopped me from visiting 5 continents, 15 American states, most of Europe.

Getting a degree, job, married, house, children, non-Disney friends, hobbies etc.

I just don't see why adults get vilified if they enjoy something that's made to make people happy. It's such a fun holiday, Broadway quality shows, amazing rides, lovely food, great hotels.

If you don't like it fine, but why need to question us? I'm not moaning at you for not liking it.

I wasn’t really brought up with Disney and always preferred sci-fi to princesses, and I thought I didn’t like rides and theme parks, based on fairground rides and a couple of visits to Alton Towers. I first went to Orlando by mistake - got rushed into it by exDH because my DB was getting married over there - but loved it. I have now been 9 times and I ‘m going again for a few days (just Universal) this year with DH and DSS.

What do I like? Aside from the rides, there’s the fantasy of being in the movies, and the escape from reality for a while. It’s action packed, but the most complicated and risky decision is where to eat lunch. I don’t really “get” the characters (and am actually a bit scared of Mickey Mouse), however I adored Beast, was unreasonably thrilled to bump into Peter Pan in the Philharmagic exit area, and really enjoyed the character breakfast at the Grand Floridian.

For me, the planning is half the fun. I get to research and play with spreadsheets for something entirely inconsequential, and deliver a plan of action that meets everyone’s ride needs.

Having said that, I would never go in August again - too humid, far too busy - and I don’t usually join queues that state a wait time of more than 20 mins.

And for context, when in the USA I also like to hike and watch wildlife in national and state parks, but I’d choose New Zealand’s South Island over anywhere else in the world.

Someone on here is behaving like a massive cunt and it's not the OP.