Are you a Disney or a WDW Fan?

[Master Yoda]

I definitely fall into the WDW fan category. I am not super into the movies with the exception of the PotC series in fact there are quite a few Disney movies that I have never seen including Tarzan, Hercules, Mulan and Aladdin to name a few. I can not stand the programing on the Disney channel.

I don't care for the wand but I don't have nightmares about it like some. From an architectural perspective it is a piece of flash that takes away from an incredible structure. To me it ranks right up there with putting a gigantic neon sign above the castle that read "Magic Kingdom". Pretty much a case of less is more in my eyes.

 

[I-4Warrior]

I'm clearly more of a WDW fan. There are several Disney movies that I love (at the risk of incurring the wrath of everyone here, I'm particularly a fan of Pixar's selections and Lilo and Stitch), but I don't live for the movies, memorize songs or scripts, but I do memorize ride narrations at WDW. Seeing that in type makes me feel like a geek.

 

[sweetale]

I would say that I am a fan of WDW first. That is where I have spent the majority of my vacations and it holds great sentimental value for me. I think my best childhood memories relate in some way to WDW.

That's not to say that I don't like the "other" aspects of Disney, I enjoy some of the movies/characters. But I guess they aren't my main obsession.

And I really don't care either way about the wand. If they choose to never take it down :shrug: , meh? What really matters to me is what's inside!

~Amy

 

[emmersandjack]

I have been a very big Disney fanall of my life. I grew up loving art,specifically animation and comics and Disney and it's amazing animators were probably my main ispiration for persuing art. I was amazed at the skill of animators like Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston(even though I didn't know their names at the time) and their ability to breath life into a character and suck you into the story they were telling. I have very fond memories of watching World Of Disney(on Sunday nights if I remember correctly) and how drawn I was to Walt himself.

As a Disney fan I was very aware of the existence of Walt Disney World and Disneyland and I wanted to go desperately but my family had very little money and was never able to take me. I remember reading about and seeing reports on the news about the opening of Animal Kingdom back in 1998 and I remember thinking to myself "Ok, someday I absolutely HAVE to go to WDW". When it came time for my fiance(now wife) and I to decide where we wanted to go on our honeymoon I knew immediately where I wanted to go but didn't know if she would want to go. It turns out that even though she wasn't as big of a Disney fan as I was she was still a big fan and had always wanted to go to WDW too. We ended up going to WDW for our honeymoon back in April of 2005 and we fell absolutely head over heals in love with the place. I can still remember the first time I saw wishes and how incredibly moved I was. As I sat there on the ground in front of The Castle watching those amazing fireworks, hearing Jimeny Cricket's voice and just absorbing all of the "magic" around me, I began to fight back tears with everything in me as I realized I had finally found my "happy place". I was instantly hooked.

I don't know if I can give a definitive answer to the question because I have come to love Walt Disney World as much as I love Disney. For me they now both go hand in hand. I can't tell you how much I cherish every WDW trip. Going to Walt Disney World takes me back to a much simpler time when I didn't have the cares,concerns and stress that seem to fill my life now. The moment I land in Orlando and realize how close to "home" I am, the stress just begins to melt away and I feel once more like that pudgy little kid who used to get whisked away to another world on sunday nights as he watched Mickey,Donald and Uncle Walt. I can't put into words how much Disney AND Walt Disney World mean to me and my wife.

Oh,and by the way...

I LOVE the wand and I STILL tear up everytime I watch Wishes!:wave:

i can echo almost every exact sentiment in this post. i also grew loving animation and took art classes all through high school and have always indirectly loved disney stuff. i mean i never sat down and thought i love everything disney.
i grew up in the shallow end of the financial pool as well, so our big trips were to cedar point in ohio. fun yes, but disney-no. i now have an emotional attachment to to disney as my now husband grew up consiously loving disney. he took me for my first trip when i was...hmmm....let me think a sec....21. the next year he proposed to me on the side of cinderella's castle. insert here a cinderella themed wedding, an obnoxious amount of disney art, collectables, toys, movies, 2 kids-which everyone knows is the best because they get to experience disney with that innocence, grand gatherings with both sides of the family, and friends on our next vacation and you have the makings of huge everything DISNEY fans.

However, i don't get really emotional at fireworks and could care less about the dumb wand. but i have a cold tin chest where my robot heart would be....

i am surprised as well at the amount of people who are mostly just wdw fans as opposed to overall disney fans. i think enjoying all things disney enhances the wdw experience. just my opinion....:lookaround

 

[WDWGuide]

I've gotta ask...If you're not a "fan" then why bother joining a WDW fansite?

I realize most folks probably don't have the emotional attachment to Disney/WDW that I do but I just don't understand joining a web community that celebrates a shared love for something that you can't call yourself a "fan" of. Maybe it has alot to do with the fact that I'm a big ol' dork too!:lol:

I used to be a fanboy. It's mostly that the latter Eisner/Pressler years left me disillusioned (which is why I stopped going to WDW for over two years until Eisner "retired"). I felt that a lot of bad choices were made and the corporate board did not step up to their responsibility to the stockholders to do something about it. At the parks level, we all know that there were a lot of issues with maintenance and the quality of most new attractions at that time. Disney during that time felt "pushy", almost like they were telling you what to feel and think about their products and not willing to let you make up your own mind (I can explain that in more detail if my meaning isn't clear). Thankfully, those things have all improved, but I don't think they are quite back where they "belong" yet.

So what am I doing here? Well, I have always been fascinated with Disney's corporate history, which dates back to when I was a kid and reading about this, watching cartoons and reading excellent Carl Barks comic books (does anyone here even know about these) was all I could do because visiting the theme parks was not feasible at that point for various reasons. I am also a sucker for news about new attractions, and this is clearly the best place to go to for that. This board is one of the last remaining that still allows for a feasible, constructive discussion with people who know what they are talking about, which I love. I have been visiting WDWMagic since its early days, and find that it's simply the best resource for the kind of stuff I am interested in, and it has a very healthy and supportive, yet for the most part realistic support community.

Why do I go to WDW nearly every non-summer month if I am not a fan? Believe me, if I could feasibly go to any other Disney resort more frequently (other than Hong Kong), I would. I just enjoy Disneyland and Disneyland Paris more because it seems to me that more attention is being paid to quality there (again, besides the late Eisner/Pressler products). Same with what I have seen and heard of the Tokyo parks, although I have not been there. But they are far away and very expensive to get to, so I don't get to go very frequently.
But that doesn't mean WDW is "bad" by any stretch of the imagination. I enjoy myself there, especially in the World Showcase, and it's a reasonably cheap weekend getaway for us that we all enjoy and rarely seems to get old. I enjoy it for what it is to me, despite some issues and drawbacks here and there that I mind find bothersome or unnecessary. But I am quite optimistic for the future, that the current management will disappoint me much less than the previous one, despite their current obsession with everything Pixar, which I don't share.

 

[toadh63]

I'm primarily a fan of all the parks I've been to (WDW, DL, DLP). Really want to see Tokyo someday; HK looks kinda sad.

I like Disney films, although when I grew up (late 60s and the 70s); the movies (except Jungle Book and maybe Bedknobs) weren't much to write home about. Aristocats and the live actions (chimps, tennis shoes, alien cats) were sort of cookie cutter. Things really didn't spark for me until my kids' generation (Mermaid, Aladdin, Emperor's, Hercules) and the Pixar films. I always liked Wonderful World of Disney and WW of Color, though I never saw Uncle Walt's versions (I was only 3 when he passed on).

Don't mind the wand much, but it would be nice to see it magically disappear - after 7 years, it mostly just breaks the curves of SSE.

 

[Mr. Friendly]

I have to say that wdw is the best hands down vacation place in the world. About the only thing you can't do in Disney is snow ski. I take my family because it is the most logical thing to do.

I am a fan of Walt Disney the man, he has inspired me and guided me in my everyday life. I realy enjoy everything he was personaly invovled in. I don't realy care that much for everything after his death. Walt Disney World was inspired by him and every once in a while you can feel a bit of Walt here and there.

 

[Stitch69]

I love anything Disney. The movies are what the parks are based on. I love animation, the characters and WDW Parks. I collect disney art, Big Figs and Elisabete Gomes Charager Plates. I gave up on the pins. The Pin collectors freak me out too much. I was way to stressed out when I collected pins. I am actully looking to sell my collection. So any of you pin crazies can contract me if there are pins you are freaking out to find....maybe I have them. :animwink:

 

[mickeymouse2818]

My love for the parks inspired to research and get to know the mouse and the man that started it all. I've been very lucky to have gone to WDW about every year since I was one (I'm almost 19 now) and even more so in the past year or so did I decide to purchase an annual pass for myself. The love for the parks and for Disney as a whole inspires me to be more creative in everyday life( I think I'm the only student on campus that can look at a tree and see it as a living character, dancing to its own beat, NO KIDDING ). Its this child in me that never wants to leave and because of that, I'm following my own dream to hopefully work for the company. I still tear up when I see pictures and TV specials about Walt, knowing that his started this magical place that all of us love and enjoy. Its difficult to think of a world with out Disney and I happen to like the wand .

 

[JimboJones123]

Much more interesting poll if the wand part wasn't involved. Who buys the CDs, scans disney shopping for clearance items, buys old movies when they can get their hands on them? I just got Happiest Millionaire, and Toby Tyler is next. Who would rather spend a day at MK or Disneyland? Who buys every Walt Disney Treasure? Who has Alice in Wonderland bedding (yes, MK needs more Alice love!)?

 

[cloudboy]

Much more interesting poll if the wand part wasn't involved. Who buys the CDs, scans disney shopping for clearance items, buys old movies when they can get their hands on them? I just got Happiest Millionaire, and Toby Tyler is next. Who would rather spend a day at MK or Disneyland? Who buys every Walt Disney Treasure? Who has Alice in Wonderland bedding (yes, MK needs more Alice love!)?

I honestly had thought this would turn out very different. I expected a majority of people to be big fans of everything Disney. I never imagined that this post would generate this interesting a discussion about being a fan. I too wish I had simply done the whether you are a disney fan or a WDW fan thing, but I guess I never saw this coming.

I myself am/was a WDW fan. I actually was never big into Disney as a kid, and it was only in High School when a friend of mine who was a big Disney fan introduced me. And even then I really only got into the parks bit. A bunch of us went down there on a Spring Break trip to check it out ( a few later moved down tehre to work), and that is when I became a big WDW fan. Through the years I have seen a lot of changes, and I am finding my interest, and the magic of it, waning quite a bit. I tend to drop it come back to it - I guess I am on a bit of a kick right now - but my life no longer revolves around it. I tend to find I enjoyed it much more in the older days.

As far as this thread, the initial hypothesis was that Disney fans were going to be all for the wand, because they tended to associate the parks with Disney characters, while those who were primarily WDW fans I expected to be more concerned with the theming and style of Epcot and not like the wand. But that has apparently proved quite wrong.

 

[lilclerk]

Who has Alice in Wonderland bedding (yes, MK needs more Alice love!)?

I do... and I have an Alice lamp, an Alice ring (though it's based on the original illustrations) and Lady and the Tramp jammies
Maybe I am a Disney fan.

 

[justducky78]

I'm definitely a WDW fan. I love the resorts, the restaurants and the parks and the sense of "escape" we feel when visiting. It's like entering a different world. We'll spend months planning our trips and love looking back at old pictures. There are just a lot of good memories created at WDW. That said, I do love the history of Disney, many of the movies, and we have some collectibles and such. I like reading about Walt's life and dreams, and who doesn't love Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck? I love all things Disney but it definitely wouldn't be the same without WDW.

 

[George]

I honestly had thought this would turn out very different. I expected a majority of people to be big fans of everything Disney. I never imagined that this post would generate this interesting a discussion about being a fan. I too wish I had simply done the whether you are a disney fan or a WDW fan thing, but I guess I never saw this coming.

I myself am/was a WDW fan. I actually was never big into Disney as a kid, and it was only in High School when a friend of mine who was a big Disney fan introduced me. And even then I really only got into the parks bit. A bunch of us went down there on a Spring Break trip to check it out ( a few later moved down tehre to work), and that is when I became a big WDW fan. Through the years I have seen a lot of changes, and I am finding my interest, and the magic of it, waning quite a bit. I tend to drop it come back to it - I guess I am on a bit of a kick right now - but my life no longer revolves around it. I tend to find I enjoyed it much more in the older days.

As far as this thread, the initial hypothesis was that Disney fans were going to be all for the wand, because they tended to associate the parks with Disney characters, while those who were primarily WDW fans I expected to be more concerned with the theming and style of Epcot and not like the wand. But that has apparently proved quite wrong.

Thanks for giving me an idea of the poll results, which I may never see since none of the choices fits me. I'm more of a fan of WDW than Disney, but I'm so indifferent about the wand that I don't want to vote for loving or hating the darned thing.

 

[DisneyMusician2]

MK needs more love to A LOT of their characters! Still waiting for my Sword in the Stone ride....

 

[TheBeatles]

I didn't realize my obsession with Walt Disney World until 2005. I'm not sure why, but thats when it clicked. Growing up (I'm currently 19) I went to Disney World almost every year and I loved going. I used to watch all of the Disney films and the Disney channel was one of my favorite channels. I owned all of the old Disney classics so I was always familiar with the characters that existed before I was alive. I was really into the Disney films of the late 80s and early 90s only because I was a little kid during this time and the Disney parks did a good job incorporating all of my favorite films of that time into their parks. I think thats probably the reason why I like MGM studios so much because I went there in the beginning of the park and it incorporated all of the characters and films of my childhood.

Anyways, I'd have to say I am more of a Disney World fan than I am a Disney fan. Don't get me wrong, I love the company, but the World has always been good to me. I also have a hard time getting into the Disney films and personal that exist today. My Disney World obsession is also fueled by the fact that I'm an avid theme park memorabilia collector.

 

[bgraham34]

I am a fan of Both. I think of late it has become more of the parks though. When I have kids I think i can watch more Disney movies and enjoy that part more.

 

[Escarabaja06]

I LOVE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING DISNEY, Yes, EVEN THE WAND! I just think it doesnt make sense that Mickey's hand is coming out of a large globe...But it's still cute!

 

[Glasgow]

Growing up I went to the parks a bunch of times but they never really connected with me other than being a fun place to go. I wasn't exposed to the movies that much as a kid either.

As I've gotten older I've really enjoyed learning about the history of the company, the complexity of the parks and resorts and the overall operations of everything. Hey, I'm an engineer!

I think what put me over the top was staying onsite in 2003 which made everything kind of come together .. everything just started to make sense after that. lol

 

[doop]

I like everything Disney a lot, but what I LOVE is WDW. The entire place amazes me every time I'm there; the attractions, restaurants, theming, everything! Don't get me wrong I love Disney movies, but the theme parks are what have me hooked. And, I do in fact, hate the wand.