Would you call it nostalgia? The Disney Bubble? Disney Magic?
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What keeps you coming back?
- Thread starter rreading
- Start date
I agree. It’s a place where everything is tended to by people who *at least appear to* care about their jobs and doing them not only well but also with grace.
Sometimes we find that in a well run restaurant; never in any other place so expansive.
It’s a place in which we remember that people can be nice to one another
Walt Disney1955
Well-Known Member
I could only pick three, so I picked rides, shows and cast members. The reason being, there is a significant difference in the experience of Disney based on the customer service. It makes a difference. After this I'd have to say family tradition. My dad went early on in 1973, I first went as a kid in 1991. There have been some gaps, but never more than 7 years in between at any time. So we keep coming back, and another part of that is the rides. I love Six Flags parks, and while I want to visit all of them and love to come up with my own comparisons, the truth is nearly all of these parks have much of the same sort of model. Lots of coasters, some tame ones, some extreme ones, always a couple of log flume rides and a white water rapids ride. Along with many family rides and kids rides and thrill rides. Often a train ride that goes through the park too. Hey, nothing wrong with that, I love pizza even though I get the same toppings on it every time.
However..................Disney is different. Their rides are something that no one else has. There isn't a pirate ride out there. There isn't a better haunted house to ride in. No one else but Walt Disney would have thought of a ride that goes through all the continents with a catchy tune. Then there is the shows. American Adventure, Hall of Presidents, Carousel of Progress, etc. are just great shows. Very relaxing to watch, very comfortable chairs, but unique in its own way. Singing country bears..............that's one of a kind, and other than Tokyo Disneyland it doesn't exist anywhere else but WDW. Even neat things like taking a raft to get to Tom Sawyer Island. Disney is different and just a totally different atmosphere all around that can't be replaced.
However..................Disney is different. Their rides are something that no one else has. There isn't a pirate ride out there. There isn't a better haunted house to ride in. No one else but Walt Disney would have thought of a ride that goes through all the continents with a catchy tune. Then there is the shows. American Adventure, Hall of Presidents, Carousel of Progress, etc. are just great shows. Very relaxing to watch, very comfortable chairs, but unique in its own way. Singing country bears..............that's one of a kind, and other than Tokyo Disneyland it doesn't exist anywhere else but WDW. Even neat things like taking a raft to get to Tom Sawyer Island. Disney is different and just a totally different atmosphere all around that can't be replaced.
My post was pure sarcasm.
Why is DME on the list?!........as if that could be why somebody PRIMARILY would vacation at Disney Word.
It's like asking what is the main reason you return to California Grill over and over and having the following choices:
1 World class wine selection
2 Renound food quality
3 Stunning views of the property especially MK fireworks
4 the table napkins used
Heppenheimer
Well-Known Member
Why do I keep going back? The same reason an addict keeps coming back to their habit. That familiar dopamine rush that Disney successfully wired into my brain as a kid.
That being said, I probably don't visit nearly as much as some on this forum. 10 times in 40 years for Disney World and Disneyland combined.
That being said, I probably don't visit nearly as much as some on this forum. 10 times in 40 years for Disney World and Disneyland combined.
Why not have it on the list? Maybe I really like the napkins at CG and can get great food/wine here at home
It’s a list. Feel free to not choose it. But it was a convenience to your vacation offered by essentially no one else making your trip more of a relaxing vacation (maybe Adventures by Disney does it though)
Pepper's Ghost
Well-Known Member
I agree. I love the DME! It was the official beginning of the vacation. It was like walking through the Disney membrane.
I'm exactly the same except my first time was as a young adult. I would enjoy just walking through the parks without even going on rides. The atmosphere is like being in a different era. It's partially why I don't understand the need for people to perfect the PF+ system to cram in as many rides as possible. I enjoy just absorbing the parks while I'm there and the atmosphere. To me of the choices given "parks" best represented the "bubble" everyone is referring to. I know it's more than the parks, but that's the closest correlation I could make.
Pepper's Ghost
Well-Known Member
Can you add "napkins at CG" as well? That's why I used to return to WDW. The fact they changed the napkins several years ago is why I haven't returned in a long time.
eliza61nyc
Well-Known Member
Not totally, like others I have great memories of trips when my children were younger but now they are adults the trips are different but just as magical.
We love staying onsite and many of the things are things money doesn't buy. Of course people here have called me "stupid" for staying onsite. Lol like I'm incapable of using the internet and researching what else is in Orlando.
Pepper's Ghost
Well-Known Member
Love staying on property. I've said it before in another thread, but I've stayed just off property within a mile at a nicer hotel for a fraction of the price, and it just wasn't the same. Passing in and out of the Disney membrane is like a bad night's sleep when you're in and out of dreams. It really effs with the "magic" when you leave property and you're no longer breathing Disney air. Don't get me wrong, I'm not duped into thinking everything at the parks is perfect, or that they haven't ruined many aspects of the experience like changing PotC, Soarin, and the plethora of other bad decisions, but the magic wears off the further you travel away from the property.
ILOVEWDW Pete
Member
Good morning. You hit the nail on the head. It is all three plus more. I grew up watching the original Mickey Mouse Club reruns on tv, I saw every classic film as they were brought out every 7 years, I spent my life hoping beyond all hope that one day I could go to Disneyland but due to my families financial condition, we never thought it would happen. When WDW opened it seemed possible that maybe one day I could make the trip. My wife is also a Disney Maniac like me. We finally had the ability to be able to travel to WDW in 1987 with my two sons. When we came around the corner and first saw the castle my wife and I both broke into tears. A life long dream had just come true. We still feel that way every time we visit. Dreams are very powerful and when your dreams, your hopes come true, it is a powerful feeling. We go to WDW to recapture that emotion and it never fails us.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
I will be honest there is nothing right now thats drawing me to Disney. That could change when my child gets older. Last time I went was 3 years ago and the magic just wasn't there for me. I had fun when I was there but it wasn't the same like I remembered it. One that you don't get much at Disney compared to other parks is the sounds of screams from people on rides. That is what gets my excitement going when entering a park.
Pepper's Ghost
Well-Known Member
My first time was in 2000 as a young adult. I literally had no desire to ever visit Disney. Not that I didn't want to, but I didn't grow up around Disney and had no idea what it really was. When my then girlfriend asked me on the flight down there if I knew "where" I was going, I said "yeah sure, it's like a really big Six Flags. I get it." She laughed at me, shook her head, and went back to her magazine mumbling something or other. I was none the wiser. We had some dumb argument on the bus ride from one of the All-Star resorts. Can't even remember what it was, but we said less than two words to each other all the way until we got to that same point, around the corner and in sight of the castle. We both turned into little kids practically skipping down Main St.
All we needed were balloons in our hands to finish the mental picture. We had completely forgotten what we were arguing about. THAT is truly magical.
Pepper's Ghost
Well-Known Member
That loss of magic is truly tragic... sincerely. I hope you do find it again. Maybe time spent away, and lowered expectations next time might get you there. Nothing EVER lives up to memories because memories get distorted over time. It's just a fact. Nothing is how you remember it due to the emotions you experience at that time, so good experiences are always remembered much more fondly than they probably really were, even if nothing has materially changed.
The part about screams, if that gets you going you're better off going to Six Flags, King's Island, or places like that. Much cheaper, and you can hear the screams from the parking lot.
JIMINYCR
Well-Known Member
If I could have said a combination of all of the choices above I would. All of the choices combine to make us want to return. But thinking of only one, I'd have to say the parks. I could go to the parks without doing rides, shows and all the rest and still be happy with all the surrounding elements of theming, gardens, sights, smells and sounds. The 4 parks make Disney a desired destination.
jloucks
Well-Known Member
I sorted this one out. You take a private SUV between parks and it helps preserve the bubble.
Now one trip we had Halloween at Universal and Christmas at WDW,,,, that was a little hard on the bubble.
jloucks
Well-Known Member
I went to WDW a few times from 2012-2016. It was a combo of nostalgia and just a great park experience.
1983ish Magical (I was a kid so, yea, of course)
1985ish Magical (still a kid, heckuva road trip tho, lol)
2012 Awesome!
2013 Awesome but a quite a bit more crowded than I am comfortable with
2016 Boat packed and miserable. Have not been back since. Wished I had jumped on the little low crowd Covid window, but too late now.
Oh, and none of the times I want were traditionally peak times. Go fig.
1983ish Magical (I was a kid so, yea, of course)
1985ish Magical (still a kid, heckuva road trip tho, lol)
2012 Awesome!
2013 Awesome but a quite a bit more crowded than I am comfortable with
2016 Boat packed and miserable. Have not been back since. Wished I had jumped on the little low crowd Covid window, but too late now.
Oh, and none of the times I want were traditionally peak times. Go fig.
Jrb1979
Well-Known Member
The magic may come back when my child gets older. She's is a year old so taking her now wouldn't be worth it.
Like I said I had fun but it didn't do it for me. Part of it could be that the year I went to MK I also visited 9 other parks that year. I would rank it 5th of this 9 parks I visited.
TotallyBiased
Well-Known Member
My wife and I both turn into kids. We took our youngest daughters (hers and mine). The best part of the trip was when we left them in the room (15/16 at the time) and hit the parks ourselves early in the day. We've been back a number of times just us, spent our honeymoon there as well. We don't agree with everything they've changed, but overall it's still a lot of magic for us, and she cries every time she sees the tree lit up at AK. We were there the xmas before C19 blew up and she got to see the castle in ice for the first time. One of her all time favorite moments as it was on her bucket list. I could ramble but put simply really, we just enjoy it.
dovetail65
Well-Known Member
Anyone says I went to MK it was okay, possibly not that great, may not comparing what I compare and that is fine. It's not a single park to me , it's not 4 parks, it's the entirety of the 42 sq mile resort. I cross that border and I feel a certain way.
If a person wants an adventure park Disney probably isn't it, go to six flags or other. None of the Disney Parks are even in my wife's top ten as Adventure parks(she loves the adventure parks), but she didn't want to move next to King's Island either. I thought I might love Disney and get that feeling when I cross that Disney line because of the trips I took as a child with my brother, sister , mom and dad and I am sure that is part of it. It was happy times for me as a kid, the best of times. But my wife never went to Disney as a child and even as an adult she felt that thing I feel when in the 42 sq mile zone and it was in an instantaneous way. She wanted go right back and we did over 20 times. I didn't take her until 2015, that first time I tricked her. For our anniversary trip on Dec 15th 2015 she thought we were going to Vegas. It took her until she was in her seat to realize we were going to FL, We stayed until Jan 3rd and she was hooked. She was hooked so much it changed our retirement plans, we bought a retirement/vacation home right near Animal Kingdom. So for some people Disney, whatever they are doing overall, just gets us sucked in. That may make sense to some here, to others maybe not. I don't let anything else come into it in my mind I guess, just the experience and good time we have when we are there matters. Our worst trip to WDW that was during Covid still wasn't near out worst vacation trip ever, not even close.
It's the 42 sq mile entire resort feel, even if it is a bit different with the larger highways cutting through. If that feeling we get when crossing that line is lost on someone then there is no explaining it to them. People that care more about roller coasters, ride to ride comparisons, park to park comparisons, that Disney is a big corporation or even constant comparisons on how Disney in their eyes is no longer matched up with their memories of the past or that WDW simply not as good as it was is their prerogative. That all may true and it's up to them to feel that way, they arent wrong. None of that changes how we feel when we are at the WDW resort. It is the entire concept in it's entirety that brings us back. Being able to watch the gleam in the little kids eyes or the happiness in the young families, even if they aren't our kids, certainly doesn't hurt.
We have been many places. I have been to all but 2 states, been to several countries, we simply prefer the overall experience at WDW and that is what we come back for.