I've said it before and I'll say it again (Actually, I wrote a very long trip report on this topic), NOBODY is better at separating people from their money than Disney.
No matter how crowded the parks "feel," or how much they reduce the hours, even if there's only one parade a month and it is at 3:00 in the morning, even if they take away the bars of soap and replace them with liquid soap dispensers, even if they only operate Carousel of Progress "seasonally," even if Adventureland opens an hour later than the rest of the Magic Kingdom, even if they create a section of Animal Kingdom and call it Dinoland, even if early entry comes and goes and comes back again but is magically called the Extra Magic Hour, even if the price of admission keeps going up at a rate which far surpasses the rate of inflation (if only my 401(k) increased at the same rate each year), even if they close Horizons, mess around with Journey Into Imagination, remove 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and replace it with, well . . . nothing, even if they seemingly stop doing routine maintenance and even if they visit the most horrible injustice of all upon resort guests and stop running the beloved Zip A Dee Doo Dah Tip For the Day and force us (force us, mind you) to endure Christa peddling their wares with a shameless lack of subtlety, WE WILL STILL COME!
Why? Because it's Disney and we love Disney and no matter what they do or stop doing, no matter how much magic we imagine is no longer there, no matter how many souvenir mugs we foolishly purchase, no matter how many "it's a small world" dolls no longer work, no matter that they suddenly stopped shooting the hippos on Jungle Cruise, no matter that Dumbo, Astro Orbiters, Aladdin's Magic Carpets and Triceratops Spin are virtually identical rides, no matter that they took away the Zip A Dee Doo Dah Tip For the Day (idiots!) no matter that it is so crowded in the Magic Kingdom after Wishes that people literally fear for their lives and seek refuge in the shops on Mall Street USA, we still love it there. It is still Disney World. It's like going home to visit your parents. You may not like what's happened to your old neighborhood, your basketball hoop may be gone and your parents may have turned your room into a crafts room, whatever that is, and the place might reek of cat, but you still go home. Because it's your home and you love your parents. Or at least you want to stay in the will. Either way.
For many of us, Disney World is still the best vacation spot we ever visit. That's why they keep building new resorts. Because people like me don't go to Hawaii. Or the Caribbean. Or even New York. Disney knows that we won't go to those places if we can visit a reasonable facsimile the next time we're at Disney World. People like me love it there and they know it. Why else do they make us ride a bus and tell us it's a benefit for resort guests only?
