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Disney is not just for kids!!!
- Thread starter dixiegirl
- Start date
I told my mom about this thread. She's in her 60s. Her response:
"Disney World is lost on kids. You have to really live in the world to really appreciate leaving it behind. And people who think they are too old are boring. I'm sorry, but I'd rather eat lunch with in the castle Cinderella then at in a retirement home with people who talk about their bowl movements." :ROFLOL:
"Disney World is lost on kids. You have to really live in the world to really appreciate leaving it behind. And people who think they are too old are boring. I'm sorry, but I'd rather eat lunch with in the castle Cinderella then at in a retirement home with people who talk about their bowl movements." :ROFLOL:
scheat
Active Member
I'd say the opposite
We don't have children, but have taken nieces and nephews(6,7yo) with us on trips. While the kids have a great time, they do not completely "get it." In my opinion, WDW is marketed to kids but adults are the most entertained and immersed once on site. It makes since for WDW to market this way-get people to go for their kids the first time, but then have the adults fall in love with the place for all those return trips. They got us-we honeymooned there in '93 and dreamed of being able to take our kids someday. Alas, we can not have children(another story), but we still go back as much as possible. We walk by many frustrated parents in the parks and get to do more than I dare say, all of them(That may sound a little selfish, but I don't care-we didn't get the joy of having our own children like many of you did.) It may be marketed to kids, but if you have the slightest bit of kid left in your heart, you'll cry when you get there and you'll cry when you leave. How many of you use the time on your return trip home to start planning you're next trip? Yeah, us too.
We don't have children, but have taken nieces and nephews(6,7yo) with us on trips. While the kids have a great time, they do not completely "get it." In my opinion, WDW is marketed to kids but adults are the most entertained and immersed once on site. It makes since for WDW to market this way-get people to go for their kids the first time, but then have the adults fall in love with the place for all those return trips. They got us-we honeymooned there in '93 and dreamed of being able to take our kids someday. Alas, we can not have children(another story), but we still go back as much as possible. We walk by many frustrated parents in the parks and get to do more than I dare say, all of them(That may sound a little selfish, but I don't care-we didn't get the joy of having our own children like many of you did.) It may be marketed to kids, but if you have the slightest bit of kid left in your heart, you'll cry when you get there and you'll cry when you leave. How many of you use the time on your return trip home to start planning you're next trip? Yeah, us too.
durangojim
Well-Known Member
Not quite true. A couple years back there was an ad campaign, showing an older couple who were going to WDW by themselves and showed their adult children being totally bummed about not being able to go.
MMFanCipher
Well-Known Member
We went on our Honeymoon and had a good time and wanted to go back, but it never seemed important enough. Then in 2006 my wife got the "once in a life time vacation" bug and planned a trip for us, our 4 kids, her mom and dad and brother in 2007. Went for 12 days. Our youngest(4) was old enough to remember the trip and our oldest(12) was still young enough to want to hang out with his parents! 
We had the GREATEST time!!! :ROFLOL: We're trying to see if we can get back in 2010 or 2011 with the kids and then in 2015 for our 25th wedding anniversary. Still deciding if we'll take the kids with us in 2015 or not!:lol: DW and I are now wanting to go back as many times as we can.
We had the GREATEST time!!! :ROFLOL: We're trying to see if we can get back in 2010 or 2011 with the kids and then in 2015 for our 25th wedding anniversary. Still deciding if we'll take the kids with us in 2015 or not!:lol: DW and I are now wanting to go back as many times as we can.
Senderella
Member
You know, when we were there for our Feb Trip, I saw the sweetest older couple (over 50 yo) wearing their mouse ears and Disney Tshirts holding hands and walking around World Showcase. It was so sweet to watch them acting like honeymooners and getting so into WDW.
I think a lot of the problem with people thinking it's "just for kids" is the marketing. I don't think they do a whole whole lot to market to older people/people without children. Not to mention, I think a lot of adults aren't willing to shake off their "responsible adult" skins to have a good time at WDW. Opposite of those Orlando commercials with the 2 children playing and in the reflection it's the kid and her parent...I love those commercials. I really think those are the kind of people (the unwilling type) you couldn't sway their opinions of it so it's really not worth the effort. Even if they went, they'd be so set on it being just for kids and trying so hard not to have a good time just to prove a point. I've run into a few people like that and you know, I can't remember who they were. People with that sort of attitude about life.. they tend to be the kind who don't find much joy in anything other than "adult things".. aren't people I want to hang around so I don't. :shrug:
WIX
Member
My DH and I live in the Bay Area here in California so always went to Disneyland. We decided to go to WDW for our honeymoon. Granted our honeymoon was in our fifth year of marriage ten years ago, but we got there.
We have been going every year since and are DVC members as of three years ago . . . should have bought sooner, but that is another thread
We have chosen not to have children and could not even imagine not going there each and every year. We have even gone twice in one year a couple years back.
No kids and LOVE it, absolutely LOVE it!!!
We have been going every year since and are DVC members as of three years ago . . . should have bought sooner, but that is another thread
We have chosen not to have children and could not even imagine not going there each and every year. We have even gone twice in one year a couple years back.
No kids and LOVE it, absolutely LOVE it!!!
CBug88
Member
Since I was four, my parents have been taking my sister and I to WDW almost every year of my life. When I was younger, it was all about getting to see MM, but now, letting go of 'real world worries' (work, bills, stresssssss) is really nice and I can emerse myself in the magic and be a kid again, but more importantly, my trips to WDW w/ my parents hold a lot of memories for me and how much fun my family has when we are down there together. That is why I try to go w/ them every year and savor it b/c I don't know when things may change and I want to hold onto those memories as long as possible!!! 36 days and counting till the family adventure!:wave:
I love WDW soooo much that a few years ago, when I was a Junior in college, I suggested to my boyfriend and close friends that we go to WDW for our Spring Break trip. We had a great time and my boyfriend and I are planning to go back, hopefully in the near future!:sohappy:
I love WDW soooo much that a few years ago, when I was a Junior in college, I suggested to my boyfriend and close friends that we go to WDW for our Spring Break trip. We had a great time and my boyfriend and I are planning to go back, hopefully in the near future!:sohappy:
MichRX7
Well-Known Member
My wife always teases me that I get a perma-grin the moment we arrive and it disappears the moment we leave. I like this perma-grin which is why we go often, lol. We always have the kids with us, but plan an AO night out every trip where my folks take them and absolutely have a riot. On our one and only trip to Paris she didn't even question it when I said were were going to DLP and we actually had a blast without the kids though we did agree that if we went again we had to take our boys.
On the subject of too old, my parents are both over 70 and have AP's. My Dad loves to call me up and let me know they are once again randomly visiting one of the parks and I am stuck in an office! :fork:
Every time they go my mom has pre-written letters for the grandkids, adds a couple of lines while at the park and mails them on Main Street so they are "Disney" post-marked. Our boys love to read them.
I rarely run into people who refuse to believe they could have fun after hearing my stories. One that sticks out in my mind was on a business trip I had there we were interviewing a possible new employee who ask me how I could go to such an unsophisticated place. I looked at him increduously as we were standing inside the Grand Floridian and pointed out that he was standing (at the time) in front of the only 5-star restaurant this side of the Mississippi river and that on my last vacation here I visited Canada, the UK, France, Morocco, Japan, the US, Italy, Germany, a small section of the Outback, China and Mexico (did I miss anything?) and promptly asked him if he could say the same. I would also be staying the next night in an African Savannah, lol... Needless to say he huffed off and later found out that he didn't get the job!
On the subject of too old, my parents are both over 70 and have AP's. My Dad loves to call me up and let me know they are once again randomly visiting one of the parks and I am stuck in an office! :fork:
Every time they go my mom has pre-written letters for the grandkids, adds a couple of lines while at the park and mails them on Main Street so they are "Disney" post-marked. Our boys love to read them.
I rarely run into people who refuse to believe they could have fun after hearing my stories. One that sticks out in my mind was on a business trip I had there we were interviewing a possible new employee who ask me how I could go to such an unsophisticated place. I looked at him increduously as we were standing inside the Grand Floridian and pointed out that he was standing (at the time) in front of the only 5-star restaurant this side of the Mississippi river and that on my last vacation here I visited Canada, the UK, France, Morocco, Japan, the US, Italy, Germany, a small section of the Outback, China and Mexico (did I miss anything?) and promptly asked him if he could say the same. I would also be staying the next night in an African Savannah, lol... Needless to say he huffed off and later found out that he didn't get the job!
FreedomWrangler
Active Member
I read through this earlier and thought about it for a bit. I'm a single guy, say 30-ish. Last October was the first time I went back since the mid 90's (my mid-teens).
Since then I've traveled to Mexico (real Mexico), some of the Caribbean (real Caribbean), west, east, south, you get the point. I'm going back this October with my folks and I LOVE it.
It's not so much the characters, the 'magic', the usually Disney responses. It's the people. I realized this on my trip. The CM's make all the difference. The scale with which Walt Disney imagined, everything, is truly inspirational. And the CM's make it happen. Every DAY. I thank them for that.
Yeah, I know it's a business. But name another place or business that consistently produces a product/show, the scale of Disney Inc., equal or greater. I don't think it exists. Kids can't appreciate that.
I never went with my younger cousins but I see the pictures and I APPRECIATE the smiles from their trips. As well as the smiles of my folks from their many trips.
I may smile for a different reason, different appreciation but . . . smiles are smiles.
Since then I've traveled to Mexico (real Mexico), some of the Caribbean (real Caribbean), west, east, south, you get the point. I'm going back this October with my folks and I LOVE it.
It's not so much the characters, the 'magic', the usually Disney responses. It's the people. I realized this on my trip. The CM's make all the difference. The scale with which Walt Disney imagined, everything, is truly inspirational. And the CM's make it happen. Every DAY. I thank them for that.
Yeah, I know it's a business. But name another place or business that consistently produces a product/show, the scale of Disney Inc., equal or greater. I don't think it exists. Kids can't appreciate that.
I never went with my younger cousins but I see the pictures and I APPRECIATE the smiles from their trips. As well as the smiles of my folks from their many trips.
I may smile for a different reason, different appreciation but . . . smiles are smiles.
Well, I guess somebody has to play the villian here.
I have been going to WDW since 93. Been a good, what, 20 times (at least). Single guy, say early 30s (not that that is accurate, but it makes ME feel better!). I am NOT, nor have I ever been, a major "Disney" nut. I have really only enjoyed the parks, and not even the thrill rides (I can't do those). For me,. I understand both those who love WDW, as well as those who simply see it as for the kids.
In many ways Disney has changed substantially since those earlier years. It used to be that going to Disney was stepping into another world. It was all about the imagination, and letting your imagination free again. But I see that it has changed. Now it's all about the Disney Characters. It's gotten to the point now that there are rides I simply don't "get", because not having kids I haven't watched all the new animated features. I don't know the story lines, so I can't relate to the rides. There was a time when in the MK, there were only two rides outside of FantasyLand that were at all based on Disney movies - Tom Sawyers Island and the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse. Now everything is about the movie and the characters. It used to be that you could find quality merchandise and shopping was fun. Now it's just branded stuff.
I still have a sense of magic about the place, but only because I have learned how to do that. I often skip rides, and when I do them I am usually looking in the other direction. I have learned all the nice things there are outside the parks themselves. I have learned to ignore all the marketing hype and the sugar coating that makes you more uncomfortable and suspicious instead. I know how to avoid the herding and becoming the lowest common denominator.
I see adults go to Disney now, and they pretend to be kids again. They enjoy themselves and that is a good thing. And I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade about Disney not being fun. But when you do encounter someone who says "Disney is for Kids", instead of immediately trying to convince them that they are too serious, think instead of what perhaps THEY would be looking for in a vacation. Walt Disney World may very well offer their dream vacation, but if they keep being told that the way to enjoy WDW is to be childish, they aren't going to find it.
I have been going to WDW since 93. Been a good, what, 20 times (at least). Single guy, say early 30s (not that that is accurate, but it makes ME feel better!). I am NOT, nor have I ever been, a major "Disney" nut. I have really only enjoyed the parks, and not even the thrill rides (I can't do those). For me,. I understand both those who love WDW, as well as those who simply see it as for the kids.
In many ways Disney has changed substantially since those earlier years. It used to be that going to Disney was stepping into another world. It was all about the imagination, and letting your imagination free again. But I see that it has changed. Now it's all about the Disney Characters. It's gotten to the point now that there are rides I simply don't "get", because not having kids I haven't watched all the new animated features. I don't know the story lines, so I can't relate to the rides. There was a time when in the MK, there were only two rides outside of FantasyLand that were at all based on Disney movies - Tom Sawyers Island and the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse. Now everything is about the movie and the characters. It used to be that you could find quality merchandise and shopping was fun. Now it's just branded stuff.
I still have a sense of magic about the place, but only because I have learned how to do that. I often skip rides, and when I do them I am usually looking in the other direction. I have learned all the nice things there are outside the parks themselves. I have learned to ignore all the marketing hype and the sugar coating that makes you more uncomfortable and suspicious instead. I know how to avoid the herding and becoming the lowest common denominator.
I see adults go to Disney now, and they pretend to be kids again. They enjoy themselves and that is a good thing. And I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade about Disney not being fun. But when you do encounter someone who says "Disney is for Kids", instead of immediately trying to convince them that they are too serious, think instead of what perhaps THEY would be looking for in a vacation. Walt Disney World may very well offer their dream vacation, but if they keep being told that the way to enjoy WDW is to be childish, they aren't going to find it.