Disneyland Fan/Reason for Visiting Type: Categories & Where You Fit In

[Californian Elitist]

This is for fun and out of curiosity. Also, I don't normally categorize Disneyland fans. Again, this is just for fun.

Over time, especially after working at Disneyland and joining discussion boards 10 years ago, I have noticed that DL guests come in a variety of different personalities with different expectations for the parks, and may visit the parks for specific reasons. I have noticed different types of fans, and their main interests drive their interest in visiting the DLR. I believe there are a few basic interests that almost all DL park-goers share: love of the Disney brand (sometimes) and just simply wanting to have fun. In saying this, I would say the fun factor is its own category. Here are my personal categories of reasons for visiting DL that folks fall into (I'm generalizing here, by the way):

Wanting to Have Fun: I have come across many people who fit into this group, including people within my own family. These guests may or may not go to Disneyland once every couple of years, if not more. They're not necessarily Disney fans, but can and do enjoy the parks every once in a blue moon. They may remember that it's been 10 years since they've visited and will go to do something fun for the day and enjoy themselves. They'll maybe even complain about how expensive it's gotten (as we all do lol). My brothers fit into this category. Neither have been in years, but won't necessarily turn down a trip. They've seen Disney movies, but they're not necessarily fans.

Disney (Brand): This is likely the most populous, and therefore most popular, group. As I stated earlier, I think this is a basis for many DL fans and parkgoers. This group has a subsection: the "unique" guests, which includes vloggers, social club members, and those alike). People in this category are, obviously, big Disney fans, especially of the brand. Naturally, Disneyland and every other Disney park around the world is of interest to them. They'll look into and consider almost anything Disney...well, because it's Disney. They watch the movies, know the songs, wear Mickey shirts, visit all the parks (or at least really want to), make reservations at Aulani, etc. Again, I think all of us here, at least, somehow fit into this category in varying degrees. They're the least likely to complain about changes to the parks.

Walt Disney: This is the group I would put myself into, and it's also the least populous (I personally know just one other person whom I'd put into this group), though I think a few of you here may somehow fit here. The folks in this group take the love of Disney to another level. We are likely Walt Disney fans first, Disney brand fans second. We not only know Walt Disney's history and how the company got started, but we value it in a way that casual Disney fans do not. We love and admire Walt-era things, including old Disneyland, despite many of us having never actually seen it during the Walt years. Even as a child, I found myself more drawn to older Disney media and programming. I loved Goof Troop, but would have preferred watching Zorro, the original Mickey Mouse Club, the Wonderful World of Color, etc., for example. As a Walt Disney fan, one of the biggest reasons we enjoy Disneyland is because it's the only park that Walt Disney had a personal hand in. We likely enjoy the older attractions more and value the park's history. Personally speaking, the biggest reason that I love visiting Disneyland so much is because of its ties to Walt Disney. This is why I don't necessarily feel the need to visit the other Disney parks around the world, or even DCA (let's be real, if any place is Disney World, it's California). Some of us maybe have never even been to the other parks. This is not to say that I would never visit, because I would (I'm going to MK at the end of this month). However, I don't have strong desires to visit the others, and would never travel to their respective locations only to visit them, simply because they lack the history and connection that I love and value so much, and I value the more cultural offerings more. This category of park-goers are more likely than not to be purists to varying degrees.

Theme Parks: This group of fans loves theme and amusement parks in general. They are theme park enthusiasts and seek to visit theme and amusement parks around the state, country, and maybe even the world. This naturally includes Disney parks, but it also includes the many other brands available.

For fun, which group/category would you put yourself in? Is there one that should be added?

 

[mickEblu]

I think it’s a bit of all of them for me but I’d say In this order …

Disney(land) brand fan. I’m a fan of the park first and foremost. My love for Disneyland started at a young age and simultaneously had some Disney VHS’s and watched the Disney channel but they were almost like two different passions growing separately and simultaneously. I’d also throw Walt in here. I appreciate it him very much but I don’t think I put him in a separate category from the park. He’s just part of the Disneyland brand/ lore for me.

Of course It’s also just a place to have fun with the family. And perhaps I should put this one first. If it weren’t fun, would I continue to go? Of course we can get really deep and debate if we are truly having as good as time as we think but I’ll stop here for now. Haha. What makes the park fun or desirable for me in addition to the rides is really just the atmosphere. The beautiful gardens/ flowers, mature trees, scenic vistas architecture and music/ sounds.

I think the Disney brand- as in characters, movies, etc is dead last for me. I wish the execs understood how many people are going to the park because they enjoy the park and less so for characters etc.

 

[Dear Prudence]

The same as you, the Walt Disney.

 

[waltography]

To co-opt astrology terms: Disneyland sun, themed entertainment design moon, Walt Disney rising.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I think it’s a bit of all of them for me but I’d say In this order …

Disney(land) brand fan. I’m a fan of the park first and foremost. My love for Disneyland started at a young age and simultaneously had some Disney VHS’s and watched the Disney channel but they were almost like two different passions growing separately and simultaneously. I’d also throw Walt in here. I appreciate it him very much but I don’t think I put him in a separate category from the park. He’s just part of the Disneyland brand/ lore for me.

Of course It’s also just a place to have fun with the family. And perhaps I should put this one first. If it weren’t fun, would I continue to go? Of course we can get really deep and debate if we are truly having as good as time as we think but I’ll stop here for now. Haha. What makes the park fun or desirable for me in addition to the rides is really just the atmosphere. The beautiful gardens/ flowers, mature trees, scenic vistas architecture and music/ sounds.

I think the Disney brand- as in characters, movies, etc is dead last for me. I wish the execs understood how many people are going to the park because they enjoy the park and less so for characters etc.

I’m closest to @mickEblu on this- I think. I’m first an Imagineering fan. Especially the original team and the following generation. I’m a Disneyland and a Walt fan. I’d love to see all the parks if time/ money were no object (or even if it was my main passion). I’ve seen some of the movies in the last 20 years but not even close to all of them. I buy what I like but the brand means little nowadays.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

@raven24 - Fun topic, BTW!

 

[Californian Elitist]

I would agree that Disneyland itself is a brand. @mickEblu @mandstaft and anyone else who would like to respond, how would you describe Disneyland as a brand? How would you differentiate it from the other parks, especially the other castle parks. How would you explain the Disneyland brand to someone who a never visited any Disney park and may bunch them all together, particularly the castle parks?

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Disney has a set of t-shirts/buttons/pins:

I think this breaks it down for starters - Ears (fashionistas), Photos (people who like to document the parks), Food (foodies), Pins (collectors). But I always wondered where the Shows and Characters were as those are my two categories.

Or to even be more specific: I'm here for the Cast.

If I couldn't go to the parks, I'd miss the theming, the attractions, the history, the lovely place to walk. But the thought of not seeing my favorite cast performers? Devastating. Above and beyond, I go for them.

And then the pin trading.

 

[waltography]

I would agree that Disneyland itself is a brand. @mickEblu @mandstaft and anyone else who would like to respond, how would you describe Disneyland as a brand? How would you differentiate it from the other parks, especially the other castle parks. How would you explain the Disneyland brand to someone who a never visited any Disney park and may bunch them all together, particularly the castle parks?

I think there's a bits of every group you mentioned in the original post that make up Disneyland as a brand. The original park and its evolution over the years is a masterclass on designing within constraints, the history of themed entertainment, nostalgia as a brand, and more. I've always viewed the park as a lightning in the bottle moment; themed entertainment as we know it today doesn't exist in quite the same way without Disneyland.

In comparing myself to the groups you identified:

1. I want to have fun, but there are more ways than just Disneyland to do that (and I feel more passionately about the park than just "having fun").
2. I like Disney™, but Disneyland doesn't need its IP to thrive (and the experiences I love the most at the parks don't use IP at all, so it can't be the company alone).
3. I'm sure Walt was a stand-up guy, but I'm not gonna be the guy asking "what would Walt do?" when something new changes at the parks.
4. And I love theme parks, but I love Disneyland in a whole separate class from other parks that may be technically better (Efteling, TDS, etc.)

I don't know if that made much sense or if it's all rambling. But I like to think Disneyland sits somewhere in the cartesian center of those groups.

 

[CaptinEO]

Themeparks fan! Lots of great stuff at DL even post Walt.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I think there's a bits of every group you mentioned in the original post that make up Disneyland as a brand. The original park and its evolution over the years is a masterclass on designing within constraints, the history of themed entertainment, nostalgia as a brand, and more. I've always viewed the park as a lightning in the bottle moment; themed entertainment as we know it today doesn't exist in quite the same way without Disneyland.

In comparing myself to the groups you identified:

1. I want to have fun, but there are more ways than just Disneyland to do that (and I feel more passionately about the park than just "having fun").
2. I like Disney™, but Disneyland doesn't need its IP to thrive (and the experiences I love the most at the parks don't use IP at all, so it can't be the company alone).
3. I'm sure Walt was a stand-up guy, but I'm not gonna be the guy asking "what would Walt do?" when something new changes at the parks.
4. And I love theme parks, but I love Disneyland in a whole separate class from other parks that may be technically better (Efteling, TDS, etc.)

I don't know if that made much sense or if it's all rambling. But I like to think Disneyland sits somewhere in the cartesian center of those groups.

I agree, but how would you separate Disneyland from, let’s say, Magic Kingdom?

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Started out as Disney brand fan as a kid

Dived head first into the theme park world in my teen years, going as often as possible, visited 4 out of 6 resorts worldwide, learning as much as possible about themed entertainment as a medium. As time went on the Disney IP became much less important to me than the parks themselves and their history.

Burned out around 2020 + started detaching myself a bit because of all the (negative) changes happening. I go to my home resort a couple times a year to escape and sometimes to introduce other people who aren't as familiar with the parks, but the feeling is nowhere near what it used to be and my opinion of Disney as a company writ-large is quite negative now for various reasons.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I am a theme park fan, and my primary interest in Disney is related to the theme parks, but I have some interest in other areas of the company too.

My visit to Disneyland (and WDW a year later) at a young age sparked not just an interest in Disney in a way that the movies had not, but also made me curious about other theme parks too. I remember going on the internet and looking up roller coaster/ride info and pictures, which happened in some cases years before I had the courage to actually go and ride some of those bigger roller coasters.

Another factor that I think contributed to this was the delay between visits to Disney properties. After one visit to each US Disney park I didn't have the opportunity to revisit any Disney park for more than a decade. If I had been able to go again at a young age, as I had wanted to, I wonder if I would have burnt out on it, as some of my friends who ended up getting DVC would later do, but instead going back to the parks remained out of reach. So I kept visiting the Disney site and looked at all of their parks, keeping up with what was new. Eventually this expanded internationally as well, and I vowed to someday visit every international Disney park. Eventually I discovered sites like MiceChat and was reading Al Lutz. My next Disney visit turned out to be Tokyo, which was a revelation-partly because of Tokyo Disney's own merits and quality, but partly because I finally got back to *a* Disney park. So really every visit since 2010 has been trying to spend as much time in the parks as I can, to make up for the "lost time" during my youth.

But back to non-Disney parks: As I became a teen, the amount of time spent looking up parks on the web increased, and I got to experience more rides at my local park. From there, any lingering fears of the bigger and taller rides evaporated and I began to seek out park travel in earnest. It would be some time before I was able to really make headway in visiting a lot of parks in this country, but at this point I have been on over 400 roller coasters and visited around 80 parks. I plan to knock out several more this summer, primarily in the southwest. After this summer, New England will be my only serious blind spot in terms of this country's parks/rides. Now that I've done all of Disney's parks and visited most of the big parks in the US, there are several parks I'd love to do in Europe-Alton Towers, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Grona Lund, Liseberg, Port Aventura, Phantasialand, Europa Park, Efteling, and others. Hopefully I'll be able to knock those off of my bucket list someday.

In terms of other facets of Disney specifically: I have seen all "official" Disney and Pixar animated films and continue to seek out each new release. I like or respect most of these films, but there are only a handful I truly love. I've seen a handful of Marvel movies and bits of the OG Star Wars trilogy.

I'd say I have more interest in the history of the company, parks and films, than in what the company is currently producing or involved in. To me much of it is fascinating and underreported. There are some great resources in print and on the web for Disney history and it's so much more interesting than what's happening now. In addition, there's a lot from its own past that Disney has seemingly forgotten, which can make the histories a bit depressing. Still, I'm always up for a good read and will always be on the lookout for more great resources on the company's history.

 

[Too Many Hats]

Great topic.

Of those categories, I mostly fall into the "Walt Disney" camp. When I was a child, I read my mother's copy of Marty Sklar's Disneyland book cover-to-cover and became fascinated with this place in far-away California I surely would never be able to visit (grew up in upstate NY). Lo and behold, my family took the requisite East Coast middle-class family trip to WDW in 1999, and 9 year-old me returned to NY fascinated with Walt, Imagineering, and themed entertainment in general (though I wondered where the Matterhorn was, and why Haunted Mansion looked different). Never much cared for Peter Pan, but I adored Peter Pan's Flight. And I voraciously read all I could about the man behind it all.

Largely kept the hobby to myself as a teen; figured ladies wouldn't exactly swoon over a guy with encyclopedic knowledge of Omnimovers and Thurl Ravenscroft. Finally made it to Disneyland in 2017 (turns out, Disneyland lives up to Marty Sklar's hype!) and actually ended up moving to Pasadena, CA in 2019. Love visiting the parks, but am just so deeply disillusioned with the modern Disney company. And I feel I have nothing in common with adult Disneyland fans who visit the parks to immerse themselves in Disney as a brand or to LARP as a princess/Avenger.

To be fair, I'm also a theme/amusement park fan in general. Was fascinated with low-budget dark rides like this and this as a kid, and therefore primed to be completely wowed by things like Haunted Mansion. Always liked coasters, and feel every human should ride Steel Vengeance at Cedar Point. And beyond Disney, I really enjoy Universal Orlando (not a fan of USH), especially Island of Adventure, which I love with all my heart (for very different reasons than I love WDW/DL).

 

[Californian Elitist]

We can add a fifth category, and one that is definitely valid: Disneyland Brand.

Anyone wanna take a stab at this and describe the Disneyland brand? I have some thoughts, but I’d love to hear yours.

 

[waltography]

I agree, but how would you separate Disneyland from, let’s say, Magic Kingdom?

Part of it is I value the urban design of Disneyland far more than Magic Kingdom. I think Disneyland's landlocked nature (in that it really has no room to grow without cannibalizing itself) is a blessing in disguise because it forced early generations of Imagineering to be creative with space. I do not like the spread out nature of really any other park in Disney's portfolio, Magic Kingdom included; I want things to feel people-scaled even when things are actually smaller than they seem, and by and large at Disneyland they do.

You could argue that makes me a Walt Disney fan, but I don't think that's unique to what Walt built, because I find the same sense of people-scaled design over at the Wizarding World a few hours away in USH.

 

[Stevek]

I would say I'm primarily a Disney theme park fan. Not a giant theme park fan in general given I rarely visit any parks other than the Disney parks. Can't tell you the last time I went to Universal Hollywood and we did do a year with APs at Knotts prior to the pandemic. Regardless, I always come back to Disneyland though even my desire to visit there is waning.

 

[Parteecia]

Disneyland is home, familiar. We're almost the same age, grew up together. It's always been there. It was one of our first jobs for my friends and me. It's always been a natural easy place to spend time. We've bought and worn plenty of merchandise but saw it more as family than an obsession; ok, sometimes obsession-adjacent.

Ditto Walt. He was the uncle on TV.

My trips to WDW were like visiting a cousin and noting similarities and differences. DCA was an addition to the family. We would discuss their shortcomings like you do about those you love but accepted them and still had fun.

That's until the changes upon reopening broke the spell. One friend feels betrayed like you would if someone close turned out to be false. For me, even though I've always known their purpose is to make money, the time away and new hoops to jump through have made it too obvious and pushed me away. But! should dream passes become available again I may still consider one, at least for a year. Because family.

 

[Dear Prudence]

I mentioned on one of the other threads that Disneyland for me was one of the few times in my childhood I felt even vaguely normal, and was one of the one places in the world that I felt safe. I score 10/10 on the CDC's ACE test (look it up), so looking back on it, it's honestly remarkable that I went as much as I did. It was a lot cheaper back then, and I am sure my grandparents covered a lot of the costs, but my mom and grandparents made it a point that I had something that was vaguely normal. The recent changes at Disneyland that I balk at aren't because I am some unmovable spoiled brat resistant to all change--because I recognize that Disneyland is NOT a museum even if some folks don't--is because I think the changes are... so deeply steeped in cheap and pointless greed. You add that with most of the Disney channel movies and programmes (along with the Walt Disney ones, obviously) being a babysitter for some of my earliest formative years and you have someone who, up until a few years ago, was completely brand-loyal.

 

[mharrington]

I guess I have elements of all four categories, but especially the Walt category, as I am a huge fan of Disney history. Obviously, I want to have fun and I like amusement parks in general, but Disney parks, especially Disneyland, are something else. As a Walt fan, I will get somewhat upset about changes to parks, but I try not to let that bother me when I'm in the parks.