Hello. I'm a frequent consumer of this and other message boards though not much of a poster (as evident). However, I decided to take a flyer upon spotting this thread.
I'm a 30-year old man. Now then, on the originally posited 10 point scale, I'd say I'm somewhere in between a '7' and an '8'. My issue with '8' is that while I am certainly a Disney-o-phile, I also think there can, and should, be other sources of 'magic' days. To justify that claim, here's an example: When I first visited San Diego I rented a bicycle down near the Gaslamp district. The next morning I got up early and rode from downtown out to Ocean Beach, up through the Boardwalks of Mission Beach and Pacific Beach and further on up to La Jolla Cove. It was incredibly beautiful-- magic.
As for Disney, I was first at WDW when I was two. I have no memory of this, though apparently I was a source of occasional amusement for my family. My family did not have lots of money, but for a few years (1986-88) my father stretched the dollars and we got to go. I think that must be the perfect age to fall in love with it- I look at photos of myself from those years and it's clear that I was about as happy as could be. Anyway, after '88 the dollars became a bit more brittle and that was that. In fact, what with summer jobs to raise tuition money and other things I wasn't taking any vacations at all in the nineties. Fast forward a bit and with a BA, a signing bonus and year of tenure I finally had PTO to take. There was only one thing to do, right? I called up my older sister and in the winter of 2002 we went back. Some things had changed after 14 years, of course (heck, there were two new parks) but others were still the same as ever. I was back again in 2003 (my mom wanted in on the action) and most recently in 2007 (again with my sister, who is now plotting to get into DVC at the BLT).
Some Things I like:
-Imagineered thrill rides (Everest, ToT, RnRC, Mission: Space and of course the classics at MK)
-'Please do not lower the safety bar, --I-- will lower it for you' (even better after the most recent refurbishment)
-The Biergarten in Germany and the Musikanten show
-The first 45 seconds of the old 'Rio de Tiempo' ride by the volcano (I wish the whole thing were just like that)
-The fact that the Norway pavilion no longer forces you to stay for the post-Maelstrom movie every time
-Stacey J. Aswad (I have the most recent top-seven show on my video iPod) -- at first I was annoyed, but then it became strangely compelling.
-The defunct Who wants to be a millionaire attraction-- because I was good at it. Twice the time ran out with me in first place for the next person to go... sigh
-The new 'Canada' movie
-The 'surprise' the first time you see the Indiana Jones show
-Flights of wonder
-People who don't bother to use their Fastpass (thus making the system work for those of us that do)
Some things I don't like:
-The re-do of 'The Living Seas' (I miss the hydrolators)
-Blatant cross-promotion/DVD marketing (Why is Mickey dreaming about Pocahontas?)
-Sarcastic birds in the Tiki Room
-No more Mr. Toad going to hell (I think you can still see this in California)
-That they are just reusing the California movie for the "Soarin" ride in Florida. We're in Florida- why are we Soarin' over California?
-Always exiting to a gift shop
-The line/ride-length ratio for Peter Pan's flight
As I mentioned, DVC is soon to be in the family so I'll be going regularly now, starting with next winter when the sister wants to check out the BCV in person before getting some points there.