Overall, I think WDW does a good job at appealing to all ages, but until very recently, with Avatar and SWL both being on their way, I feel as though Disney has somewhat neglected teens/young adults. Being a young adult myself, I understand that families with small children are their primary target and there is nothing wrong with that at all. I don't expect WDW to cater to thrill junkies or anything like that. I also know that not all teens enjoy thrills. That said, I do feel as though they have been almost strictly focused on appealing to very young children as of late, which I feel should not be the case. I don't mean just the fact that there hasn't been many thrills, there hasn't been that many attractions of any kind recently that have been aimed at a bit of an older audience. In the past ten years, the only rides I can think of off the top of my head that targeted teens are Everest, Test Track 2.0, and 7DMT (<--though that's a big stretch if you ask me). If Disney doesn't want to add a ton of thrills, that's fine by me, I'll definitely be pleased with great, non thrilling attractions meant for all ages. Here's the thing though, I think there's a major difference between "all ages" and "kiddie" and I feel like Disney has been doing more of the latter recently. It's not that they can't have kiddie attractions, but I think there should be a better balance, and I feel SWL and Avatar will help fix that. I'm very much anticipating these additions, along with Rivers of Light and Soarin' Around the World.
I know that everyone on these forums is tired of Disney vs. Universal arguments, but in regard to this topic, I imagine that most teens would probably prefer Universal over Disney simply because Universal aims towards them more. Now, I wouldn't say that I prefer Universal over Disney, but over the last few trips, we have mostly had a better time at Universal. After our first trip in 2005, Everest was worth a trip back to us, but ever since Potter opened, we've made Universal more central to our trip to the point where WDW has almost become the side attraction. That's because Disney just wasn't adding much that we found worth a return trip, whereas Universal had been on a roll with new, exciting additions. Now yes, I know Universal has kind of the opposite problem of Disney where they have too many thrills and not enough all-ages rides, but then again, I saw plenty of happy children there last visit. On the most recent trip in 2015, my parents were clearly very worn out on WDW, and told us that this will likely be the last trip probably until one of us has kids of our own (they have said on other trips that it would be "the last time," but you could really tell they meant it this time). I don't think a strictly Universal trip is out of the question though, as we were pretty sad that Kong wasn't open yet. As of right now, I personally wouldn't bet on us doing another Disney trip at least until SWL opens. If you were being honest, where would you say that a family with three teenagers seems to fit most, Disney or Universal?
I know that was a long read but here is the main question I want to ask: Do you think WDW does a good job at appealing to teens and young adults and should they?
