People who ask "Why do you want to go to Disneyland?" with an air of disdain

[BriannaRuth]

I was talking with my dad the other day, and when the subject of our upcoming DL trip came up, he said, "Why do you like to go there?" The way he said it, it was obvious that his attitude was disdainful rather than curious, and that he thought we should be spending our vacation time and money elsewhere. He knows that we've been a number of times, but it's not like we go all the time or that it's our only vacation destination.

So I've been thinking about this question and I think what I like about DL (other than it's just fun) is -- There's a concept, commonly experienced in reading books or seeing movies called the "willful suspension of disbelief," which allows you to have an experience you might not otherwise have by becoming a part of the story and "believing" it is true (or ignoring the fact that it isn't). The willful suspension of disbelief allows you to feel emotions that you don't normally feel, in addition to "experiencing" things you don't normally experience. In many ways, being at DL is like being inside a movie or a book. (Really nice hotels can also do this. They make you royalty for a day). Anyway, I think that's what I like so much about DL, it's literally being in Fantasyland *if* you will let it be that.

I don't think everyone who goes to DL gets this, or maybe they just don't experience it that way. My husband, for example. He goes with us every time, but he doesn't experience it the way I do or that my (now adult) kids do. Personally, I think it's because he never willfully suspends his disbelief. For our upcoming trip, he told me he didn't necessarily need a park ticket every day (gasp!). When he does go, he's frequently checking email or baseball scores on his phone.

Anyway, what I actually said to my dad was, "It's one of the few places we can go that nobody argues and everyone is happy most of the time." Which made it sound like we fight all the time, which isn't true, but for some reason everyone does seem to get along better at DL. It's certainly less stressful than trying to figure out a subway system or awkwardly trying to use whatever limited words we know in a foreign language.

What would you say if someone asked you this question?

 

[Pluto468]

I would say because it's magical



Most of my family and friends think I'm weird for going to Disneyland so much lol.

 

[LKing]

"Why do you like to go there?"

I would say the same to people who vacation in Las Vegas. Lots of people love it, but it isn't my thing and I avoid it like the plague.

 

[DizMe]

I used to get asked this question a lot. I don't so much anymore because everyone knows it's my thing.

I used to say that it allowed me to be an adult kid in a happy place. Once I entered the gates, the rest of my world was suspended for a few days.

I used to say that the pressures and stress I was under magically lifted while I was in DL. It really was a happy place for me and I simply set the real world aside.

But the truth is that the people who ask you that question in the way your Dad did aren't after an answer. They're just saying it to let you know they think you're silly/foolish/crazy/etc. They're trying to poke holes in your happy Disney bubble, maybe because they don't have anything that compares.

I feel sorry for those people because they don't get to experience the kind of elation that comes with feeling the spirit of Walt and seeing the joy on the faces of both adults and children. There is such a catharsis in embracing the freedom of being child-like again for a little while.

Disneyland is the best way for me to recharge, and I'm lucky to have several friends who enjoy it as I do! My dh supports it but he doesn't want to go. Golf is his thing. He used to go when our girls were little, though, and had a great time, but now I share it with friends and my sister. Interestingly enough, most of those friends I've met THROUGH Disneyland!

 

[Tinkaboo]

I can go be ME! Let my inner child run free. I wear my silly ears and match all my outfits and go chat with Cap and Loki and if you are lucky and it’s any crowded Sunday night before closing…you can chat uninterrupted for ten minutes or more as I once did. You can participate in a dance off with Star-Lord and laugh til you’re silly!

Gets hug from Genie that I didn’t get from people I should have. Marvel at the beauty of the princesses. I really felt like a member of the Resistance my first time on ROTR and was totally blown away. Sat front row in Rogers the Musical with tears streaming down my face and wasn’t embarrassed. See the Eiffel Tower aglow with lights, something I’ll likely never see in person. Feel my heart soar whenever I watch a Disney parade.

The emotional connection one has with Disneyland is impossible to explain to someone who is not equally aligned. I’m grateful for the “friends” I have on this website who accept without judgment.

I did not have a great childhood…so I’m having it now!

 

[Pluto468]

I can go be ME! Let my inner child run free. I wear my silly ears and match all my outfits and go chat with Cap and Loki and if you are lucky and it’s any crowded Sunday night before closing…you can chat uninterrupted for ten minutes or more as I once did. You can participate in a dance off with Star-Lord and laugh til you’re silly!

Gets hug from Genie that I didn’t get from people I should have. Marvel at the beauty of the princesses. I really felt like a member of the Resistance my first time on ROTR and was totally blown away. Sat front row in Rogers the Musical with tears streaming down my face and wasn’t embarrassed. See the Eiffel Tower aglow with lights, something I’ll likely never see in person. Feel my heart soar whenever I watch a Disney parade.

The emotional connection one has with Disneyland is impossible to explain to someone who is not equally aligned. I’m grateful for the “friends” I have on this website who accept without judgment.

I did not have a great childhood…so I’m having it now!

I cried all through the parade last time. I spend the whole time I'm at Disneyland smiling, looking around and soaking it all in. I love being at my happy place.

That must have been amazing talking to Loki and Cap!

 

[xApril]

I get it pretty bad because we are very close to WDW but we will end up at 4 trips to Disneyland this year. I just tell them we go on a budget and it has a lot of our favorite things there. They know Disney because it’s here but don’t get why we have to keep going there. It’s just better and we enjoy our time there more, even though we still have a good time on our day visits here.

 

[Disneyland1084]

What would you say if someone asked you this question?

People have asked me this question, with some sounding like your dad. I tell them I love the magical feeling when I'm there, the rides and how it's my one escape from the reality of life once a year. I love everything Disney, and everyone who knows me already knows that.
Are we married to the same man? My DH has made the same comment about not needing a park ticket every day. He'll stay until early afternoon, then goes back to the hotel for a few hours. He meets up with us in the park around dinner time.
The bottom line is, not everyone likes Disneyland. Some even hate it, and thats okay. Whenever I hear of people that say that, I think how it's one less person in the park when I go.

 

[katyringo]

I just stopped caring what other people think about it.

I didn't go for the first time until 2017 at age 30. We have now done Disneyland 4 times with 5th trip in 8 days and WDW 4 times. That includes family trip, couples trip and solo trips. We have our first Disney cruise booked for next year.

I wanted to go my whole life and decided to take my own family when my daughter was 14 months and my son 5. I remember how absolutely crushed I was when we left. Nothing had ever fulfilled a place in my soul like that before.

Thankfully my hubby is 100% supportive and he loves Disney too. Not the same as I do. But, enough that he keeps supporting as our vacation destination and supports my solo trips too.

The only person who actually made me feel bad about it was a southwest flight attendant who couldn't understand why my husband and I were going there alone...

Also- giving my children a childhood filled with wonder. Something I did not get. I want them to see their mom letting go and giving them permission to love something simply because you love it.

 

[tiffjoy]

“We have fun.”

I don’t really feel any need to justify travel to anyone else. And the less people who like Disneyland, the less crowds, so I don’t try to convince anyone!

We travel all over the world, not just Disneyland. But we did go to Tokyo Disney for the day when we went to Japan, and Disneyland Paris when we were in France. Funny enough, we also had people ask us why we would take a 3 and 5 year old to Japan since they wouldn’t remember it. “Because it will be fun” was my answer then. And it was! And we still all talk about it along with all our other trips. We make memories. We teach our kids about experiencing things beyond their own tiny space. We teach them life skills of navigating places, especially when you don’t know the language. We broaden their horizons to the idea that people are different but ultimately also all the same. But ultimately, we have fun, and that is why we go anywhere, including Disneyland.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

One of the main reason I go to Disney parks and have also branched out to Disney cruises is due to personal safety.

I live in a low income high crime suburb in Dublin. I dont drive and other than a mall which is 20 minutes walk , I am surrounded by houses. It takes an hour by bus to get to Dublin city centre. Its not safe to walk around after dark.

In Disney parks I am inside a security bubble. Restaurants, entertainment and shops are all located in the same area. When it gets dark I feel safe eating in a restaurant, then walking out , going into a shop and then going on rides. I dont have to fear that someone will come up behind me which a knife, or pull me into a dark alley and rape me.

Yes I know Disney security is not 100% and in America there is more gun crime than in my country. But its still far safer than my day to day life.

 

[A Squared]

My answer includes all the above. DH and I can forget about the real world and all its problems for a while. DH feels like he can, for brief moments, push all his many varied health issues to the back-burner. I can feel free, that if people find out about my autism, they don't treat me like I'm contagious, or worse, faking it, because you grow out of autism, right? ( insert massive eye roll )

 

[joseph821]

I was talking with my dad the other day, and when the subject of our upcoming DL trip came up, he said, "Why do you like to go there?" The way he said it, it was obvious that his attitude was disdainful rather than curious, and that he thought we should be spending our vacation time and money elsewhere. He knows that we've been a number of times, but it's not like we go all the time or that it's our only vacation destination.

So I've been thinking about this question and I think what I like about DL (other than it's just fun) is -- There's a concept, commonly experienced in reading books or seeing movies called the "willful suspension of disbelief," which allows you to have an experience you might not otherwise have by becoming a part of the story and "believing" it is true (or ignoring the fact that it isn't). The willful suspension of disbelief allows you to feel emotions that you don't normally feel, in addition to "experiencing" things you don't normally experience. In many ways, being at DL is like being inside a movie or a book. (Really nice hotels can also do this. They make you royalty for a day). Anyway, I think that's what I like so much about DL, it's literally being in Fantasyland *if* you will let it be that.

I don't think everyone who goes to DL gets this, or maybe they just don't experience it that way. My husband, for example. He goes with us every time, but he doesn't experience it the way I do or that my (now adult) kids do. Personally, I think it's because he never willfully suspends his disbelief. For our upcoming trip, he told me he didn't necessarily need a park ticket every day (gasp!). When he does go, he's frequently checking email or baseball scores on his phone.

Anyway, what I actually said to my dad was, "It's one of the few places we can go that nobody argues and everyone is happy most of the time." Which made it sound like we fight all the time, which isn't true, but for some reason everyone does seem to get along better at DL. It's certainly less stressful than trying to figure out a subway system or awkwardly trying to use whatever limited words we know in a foreign language.

What would you say if someone asked you this question?

Hi. I like you have traveled extensively. But lately I go to Disneyland. I enjoy staying at the GCH and at the DLH. I have always loved Disney and Disneyland growing up. After the pandemic, I reassessed my travel/vacation needs, I would rather spend my travel money on staying in the USA. I live on Long Island and though I live closer to WDW..I prefer DL. I also answer a question like that saying: my vacation is my vacation. Disneyland makes me happy. I like that I can visit the Resort and do not need a car until I need to go back to the airport to go home. Everything you need is right there. So many attractions and shows. I think I would like to visit all the Disney theme parks worldwide.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I see this topic come up a lot and I find it so sad that other people care about where you (a general you, not the OP specifically) go on vacation. If you're not paying for it, I don't need or care about your opinion on where I go lol

I've gotten more flack from people in my life for going to Disney parks when I don't have kids but I think a part of that is jealously tbh.

I would say the same to people who vacation in Las Vegas. Lots of people love it, but it isn't my thing and I avoid it like the plague.

Agree 100%. I have zero desire to ever go to Vegas and find it to be boring. But there are people who love it and I'm glad those people enjoy something I don't.

 

[BrianL]

I don't know that I have a great answer that silences the critics, but I have definitely been asked this, many, many times. If they don't get it, they never will and I just accept that. They can shut up about it though and usually do after a while.

 

[mdmost]

I tell people because it's the one place the entire family can go and everyone has a great time. There's something for everyone on a Disneyland trip. It's not really nostalgia for us because we didn't start going to DLR until 2016. WDW is a lot more nostalgic for me since I went a couple of times in my prime years as a kid. We took our kids to WDW in 2015 for the first time and it was great. But it was a huge undertaking for my wife and me to organize. A lot of pressure to get everything right. We wanted to see about Disneyland because of the great time we had at WDW. We found DLR is just so much more our speed. We could relax, save some money with the across the street hotels, the weather was great compared to Florida's muggy heat. I'd dare say that was a better overall experience because we could also go to the beach.

Now our kids are in their teens and they still want to go to DLR. It's a place we can all go and get in touch with that young kid who still finds magic and wonder in things. My brother had a great line about "there's something about watching your teen as they watch fireworks over Main Street that instantly transports them back to the time when they were much younger". It's nice to reconnect to that feeling. DLR does that for us.

 

[Diana ZP]

I get this too...my older brother just cannot figure why I want to go and/or accept it! I also didn't get to go until I was in my 30's and it is still as fun and magical now as it was then. I enjoy both Disneyland and Disney World and am so happy when I go. I wish I could go more to be honest! My typical answer to those type of remarks is you do what makes you happy and I do what makes me happy. End of discussion!

 

[crystal1313]

I don’t really care what anyone thinks anymore. Lol. I did have a friend who used to always make a comment about it. I finally told her, it’s like how you go to every Dave Mathew’s band concert, I go to Disneyland. We each have our own thing. And now she has a daughter who absolutely loves Disneyland. (And I actually ran into them at Disneyland, so that was a funny moment. Lol)

 

[Lisa24jks]

I just stopped caring what other people think about it.

It's that for me. I'm definitely at a point in my life where I don't care what people think of my choices. I'm an adult with adult money and I'm going to spend it the way I want. (And still pay all my bills on time and be responsible too.) I don't get why people take entire vacations where all they do is sit on a beach, but that's what they enjoy, so good for them. I absolutely hate camping and it is not for me, but I won't judge someone else who loves to go camping. I won't force anyone who doesn't like Disneyland to go with me, so don't force me to live on a beach or in a tent, and we're good.

I still travel to other cities and countries that have nothing to do with Disneyland, because that's what I love to do. (And I'm sure I'd go to Disneyland a lot less if I lived in the middle of the US, instead of a reasonable drive away from it.)

But I go to Disneyland because it's an important part of my childhood, my bond with my best friend, my bond with my mother, and so on. So it will always feel special.

Also, Disneyland is a communal experience, even when you go alone. You're still surrounded by people who like the same things as you, are there for mostly the same reasons, and many of us even wear outfits that show our favorite characters, movies, rides, etc. It's not too dissimilar from being a sports fan who goes to games when you look at it that way. People don't often turn their nose up at someone who goes to a lot of football games or baseball games, but they'll get snooty about Disneyland for some reason.

In any case, I just don't care. I'm gonna continue to do me. If someone doesn't like me, that's their loss.

 

[irlandaise]

I don't recall having gotten this question myself, but I have seen it discussed on Disney fan boards occasionally, sometimes combined with criticism about not traveling to places in the "real world." I would agree with that if a family has the means to go to other countries and instead only goes to WDW or DL repeatedly. I think it's really important for kids to be exposed to other cultures, preferably in depth but even a brief tourist trip is a start. Here in the U.S., I also think that parents should take their kids to some of our amazing national parks, national historic sites, etc. But if they're doing all that and going to the Disney parks, more power to them!