I'm 24- I was born in 1997. My first Disneyland trip was in 1997, and I went fairly regularly growing up (except for a 5 or so year hiatus from 2008 or so to 2014) and have gone many, many times from 2015-2019.
I had a realization a few weeks ago that I'm not a huge fan of anything they've built in my lifetime. I enjoy DCA, but don't adore the place and am not bothered at all by any of the changes they do there. I enjoy Soarin' Over California but I'm not up in arms about that change like I am Splash Mountain. I don't care for the new Star Tours. I've just naturally been attracted to the older parts of Disneyland. And Disney films for that matter- I don't care for most of the Disney movies that have come out after Lion King. I enjoy a handful of them, but none resonate with me like rennaissance films and the golden age. Raya was bleh, Moana was fun but forgettable. Tangled was fun but eh. None are of the same caliber as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, or Lion King.
It's not like I'm an old timer that's like 'back in my day Disneyland was way better this new stuff sucks" since Pressler was running the place when I was a child. The new stuff and the decrease in maintenance/show has always been a part of Disneyland for me, I'm just uninterested in the new stuff. Which is weird since I have friends who love DCA/Pixar Pier and the new films. They were posting about how excited they are for the Splash change, and always wanted to go to SWGE when we would visit in 2019.
And if this trend of not liking anything Disney does to the place continues, I should probably not bother spending hours a week on here as well.
I'm just a little older than you, and also grew up in that same era. I completely agree.
Growing up the tapes I watched the most were Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Snow White, although I also really liked the Lion King.
In my adulthood I grew to appreciate the "Broadway" animated films more than I did as a kid, but they were never favorites of mine.
I know for my family seeing each Disney movie in theaters was an annual tradition, then we saw Atlantis and it was so bad that we never saw a Disney animated movie in theaters again.
People probably also mistake me for an old timer even though I'm in my 20s.
I also tended to love the original rides of Disneyland as a kid and not the new stuff, despite at the time having no idea when each ride was made.
It's not nostalgia at all, there were just really different themepark design styles/quality in that era that haven't come close to being matched, and it's super disappointing.
The problem is Disney has used social media and youtubers to promote blind brand loyalty and excitement. The whole online community for Disney now is only a praise fest, which is what the company wanted.
Notice how none of the big youtubers make videos critical of Disney or their announcements?
It's sad, the company was always "declining by degrees", but these last few years have been too much of a decline for me.
