JFF: Is There Anyone Else Out There Who Is NOT a Disney Fan?

Oh come on...Disneyland Rocks!!! We live close enough that we always had the annual passes without blackout dates. We didn't have to make a big vacation out of it and could even pop down after school. We know the tips and tricks and how to navigate it well, we are not rookies! This is just one thing we do and still manage to travel the world!

My 22 year old daughter's favorite movie is Finding Nemo and we swore when it was re-released we would see it no matter where we were...we saw it in Hawaii.

I am totally with you,I don't get the attraction. What I find most distressing is that folks go over and over and over when there is a great big world out there waiting to be explored but they can't find their way to anyplace but the mouse. I feel so badly for them for all the things they are missing. And yes, I've been, three days was plenty and we don't need to do it again.

We are not Disney fans and or kids are not into Disney movies...my daughter who is 6 is not even into princesses! But there are some movies our kids really like...Big Hero 6, Wreck It Ralph, Toy Story, Up. They both really liked Finding Nemo. Anyhow...I was a person who said I'd never do a Disney vacation but we just did one. We got a deal and free plane tickets. So we went. We stayed at Fort Wilderness Lodge which is a Disney resort where you are in the woods and stay in a log cabin. It was peaceful. You take a boat over to Disney World. Very convenient. We just used our Fast Passes (so no long line) for our 3 fast pass rides a day and then did some attractions with short lines and then would leave mid afternoon and go swim in the fun pool back at the resort. We didn't try to do everything. We would get take-out at our resort for dinner and sit outside at a picnic table. At the resort there was a playground, a pool, pony rides, a bonfire with smores, evening movies outside and other kids running around so our kids were very entertained in the evening. We'd both order beers or sangria and have a mini date under the stars. I have to say the rides we did at the park were really fun. Our kids had a BLAST and loved it. I must admit I had a pretty good time. Surprising! I'm glad we did it. I too was a Disney grouch...but I kind of take it back. We don't plan on going back like some families that seem to go every year...that was our one and done deal.

We've done Disney World a few times.
I know exactly what you mean.
It's ok, but I've spent HUGE amounts of money to stand in line most of the day (last time we went was before Fast Passes were invented).
It was different when the park was new (our Mom took us the year it opened - not crowded! No huge lines!) - it was a whole different experience back in the day.
Now - other peoples kids are brats (whiny, huge grown up kids being pushed around in strollers that are way too small for them - when I was that age I would have been ashamed not to be on my own feet), and some people will let a baby stink all day rather than change the kids diaper and there you are sitting at a show smelling sewage the whole time.
I'd rather be beach combing and looking for shells.

i am SO with you. i've enjoyed a few disney movies over the years, and appreciate that they're attempting to make their heroines stronger and more independent. but mickey has always annoyed me, and it makes me nut up that they took powerful, beautiful and often dark fairy tales and sanitized them into mediocrity.

we took our kids to disney when they were very small. my older remembers it a little, the younger not at all. we all had fun to some degree, but we stayed in a fleabag motel to save money which was gross, and what i remember most is standing in line. endlessly. forever. and spending a fortune for the privilege.

all amusement parks are bad for charging you through the nose and then having stupidly long lines, but few are as awful for it as disney.

when my older hit 18 he went on a roller coaster trip with his best friend. they hit a bunch of them on the east coast and had a blast. the best part of it was that i didn't have to go.
:) khairete
S.

I can get the going once, sort of. The sort of is I have seen friends that every FB post is how broke they are, but we are going to Disney every year. Um.... From here that is a flight for everyone, hotel, tickets. Flying to Florida from here isn't bad, but still, didn't you just say you were broke and don't know how you will pay your cable bill? Just a suggestion, don't go to Disney this year!

I went to Disney once as a child, I did not enjoy the long lines, going on maybe 4 rides because of the lines, just as I looked back on my childhood that didn't rate a mention. So my kids have never been there. I can assure you the two who are adults are not in therapy for that oversight. So I guess I am saying, I don't get it either.

It's not my cup of tea either. I love the animation of some of the very early Disney movies--it's quite stunning and elegant-- but overall, just not our thing. And Kiddo is still happy with Legoland as well as our own Oak's Amusement Park on the Willamette River or Enchanted Forest, down past Salem here in Oregon. If we want a stunning vacation, we get a cabin for a few days at the coast. No lines. Quiet or loud as you want. No crowds and plenty to do.:)

Obviously people have different taste. Disney works so well for our family though because my husband doesn't know how to sit still and relax like you would do at a vacation at the beach (and I don't care for going to museums on vacations) Now that I am older the thrill rides don't excite me but I do love the attractions although I am not a fan of the movies either. I am an artist and the costuming and backdrops are so well done. Also, we went to Disney last July...heavy crowds but we never waited in lines. We spent our afternoons by the pool had late dinners in great restaurants and took advantage of magic hours and fast passes. It was a fabulous vacation for my husband and I and our girls ages 12 and 17. (That was our 5th trip to Disney as a family)

Well since I live minutes from Disney World we visit often (annual resident pass holders). We enjoy the different things they have to do at the different parks. My family never seems to get tired of going and we always see something new each time.

I have never been to Disneyland so I only know that it is much smaller in comparison, we have 4 parks, 2 water parks and Disney Springs, formerly Downtown Disney, ESPN Sporting (I have family that go there for cheering and sporting competitions), and there are also golf courses.

I wasn't much into Disney in my younger days, but it has grown on me. We always make it to the food and wine festival and garden festival at Epcot, the Halloween party and Christmas party at Magic Kingdom and we do home-school play-dates at the parks too. There is more to it then characters and rides, but some people prefer the beach or mountains.

I should add that having an annual pass makes it easier to visit and only stay a few hours at a time, we also go when it's not very busy.

Yeah, I'm with you. When we were kids, Disneyland was truly a wonderful place. It wasn't overrun with people, the prices weren't completely outrageous, and you could see all of the characters without spending $100/person for breakfast. I took my kids a few years ago and was so disappointed at how money-grubbing Disneyland has become. And frankly, it seemed a little shabby around the edges, like they aren't putting all that money back into the park. To top it off, we were there in July (never again), it was over 100 outside, and they raised the prices on bottled water to $9 each. What could we really do but pay it, though? It was totally ridiculous. We spent $2500+ for 3 days at the Disneyland Hotel, passes into the park, and food. We could have flown to Europe for that.

I loved 70's Disney TV nights, and all through childhood we BEGGED our parents to take us to Disneyland. They finally did when I was an awkward preteen, and I HATED IT THERE SO MUCH!!!! Ugh, the conry-ness, expense, sun, lines, ugh. So that cured me of ever being a Disney fanatic.

Fast forward now I don't mind the movies. Like you, they aren't my favorite but they're fine. I don't get worried the princess will corrupt my daughters or anything like some people. We live nowhere near Florida or CA so no way would we fly to one of the parks, but we have an awesome amusement park called Knoebels 20 minutes away and Hershey and hour away for rides.

We never have big planned travel vacations, but do make time to get to nature whenever we can.

If I won the lottery we would totally go to Harry Potter World. We've been reading through the books together for years and are almost done! I wanna go!!!!

I didn't go as a child (my parents were the educational outdoorsy vacation type) and get in car and drive across the country or visit family. We did go to some other amusement parks though so got to experience that. But because I've never been, I always feel I missed out on something because it does seem like most everyone has been. My husband did as a child for example.
The Harry Potter park/place would really interest one of mine who was obsessed with the books - the rides would interest others, then there are the princesses ... so I'm sure there would be something for everyone, but for us, it's the cost involved. Our friends who do it have grandparents who winter in Florida so they don't pay for accommodation and don't go crazy at the parks. They do beach days, etc. too.
I would like to go once. Off season. And with those fast passes. But it won't be end of world if we never go. My kids don't seem to care that much. 2kidmamma's account of Disney (how they did it) sounds nice - kind of like how we would break it up if we ever did go. I'd want to go back to resort and swim in afternoons. I'm done with crowds by mid day.

I am not a huge fan of Disney either. I believe kids should experience Disneyland or Disney World once in a lifetime but to go repeatedly is a waste of money.
I also think the Disney animators are a bit lazy. If you look carefully in the Disney movies. They tend to use the same characters over and over again. The same little man character shows up several times. He is the king in Cinderella, Belle's father on Beauty and the Beast and I think he shows up in The Little Mermaid, probably a few others I haven't watched a Disney film in years.

I grew up watching Disney movies, and because I had younger siblings, I watched them over and over, probably way past the age most girls would quit watching them. LOVE them. Having said that....

What Sapphire912 describes is along the lines of why we've never gone. I was taken when I was 6, but again that was eons ago and things were different.

The cost is staggering (I'm sorry, it seems the "in" thing to do these days, like you, I see tons of people on FB talking about it all the time, I think it's ridiculous to spend that much money on something like that), the lines/wait/wasted time are ridiculous, and to top it off my son has a "thing" about Disney movies. I suspect he'd love it if we ever went (he loves theme parks, water parks, carnivals, etc) but anytime it's mentioned I hear about how he "HATES DISNEY MOVIES!" - he thinks they're either babyish (Cars) or for girls (all the princess movies).

So we have not gone, and may never go. My fiancé wants to go eventually, maybe we'll go for our honeymoon lol. I might consider that. But with the whole family? Just doesn't sound that fun to me.

I live about 45 minutes from Walt Disney World. Born and raised here, I was there the year it opened when i was 4 years old. We always went a few times a year. Enjoyed the concerts they used to have when I was in high school. One mom would drop a car load of us off in the morning and another Mom would pick us up end of day when I was 14/15/16. we always had a blast, but ticket prices were about $19.95 in the 80's.
I have stayed at many Disney resorts, I get the "resort, all inclusive, disney-immersion total experience" and have always enjoyed it when taking my own son when he was 5/6/7.
Fast forward to today and prices are sky-high and everything must be scheduled in order to eat where you want and ride the rides you want. You cannot be spontaneous anymore like we used to be back in the day. You have to plan, save and reserve and it is annoying as heck.
I used to love just being anywhere on Disney property. it is magical and hard to describe. Seeing the joy on the children's faces, the smells, the music, its all there.
But Disney now caters to tourists only. Locals don't get deals( I can't justify spending $350+ for an annual pass per person)
My now 12 year old doesn't really care to go. Doesn't like rides and lines. I have a 4 year old who has been twice and doesn't remember, but sees the commercials and wants to go. So we will continue to figure out a plan to get him there so he can enjoy and remember it. We are lucky we live close and don't need airfare/hotel. But the magic is not the same so we have little motivation to go.

Disney movies result in a couple of weeks of nightmares for my youngest and in general aren't a big draw for my other two kids. I was almost certain "Finding Nemo" was going to scar him for life; he recounted how terrifying that movie was for a good year at least. Now when we watch the movies on occasion, I am unimpressed and can easily see why they frighten my youngest. Because we don't watch the movies there is zero interest in a Disney trip. Besides I detest theme parks in general. At least Disney lovers won't have to worry about my family adding to the lines.

Our family enjoys Disney movies and our three trips to Disneyland-LA have been wonderful memories. BUT, because we can drive there (about six hours away) and because we never did more than a few days at a time, it was never the overwhelming, crazy expensive, DEBT INDUCING experience that some people make it out to be.
As a matter of fact my 22 year old son met me in LA for spring break this year, because that's about halfway from here and where he goes to college, and we had a blast spending a day at Disneyland, just the two of us.
Oh and we hike and enjoy nature too, but sitting in line at Space Mountain with my grown son, me in Minnie ears, him in an Indiana Jones hat, chatting and smiling at all the happy families around us? Yeah, that's priceless :-)

I've rarely seen a Disney movie that didn't entertain DL and WDW is magical for kids of a certain age. Not my idea of s vacation it's a trip but I want my kids to have that magical experience that I did too. We will only go once most of our trips are focused around the beach and family that lives far away

Me! Me! Me!
I'm an Anti-Disnite too.
I think it's a creepy place.
Truth be told, I think people that are *that* into Disney are creepy too!

Actually, I just got back yesterday! My HS friend and our adult daughters first went to Orlando when The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened, and also spent a day at Epcot. After that, my daughter visited WDW several times and has become very knowledgeable about the parks, so we went back when Diagon Alley opened, but spent more time at Disney than Universal. This trip was for the Wine & Dine Half-Marathon weekend - sadly, weather caused delays in the race and it was cut short. I actually quite admire Walt Disney's vision in building separate parks and the "Disney business model" that make for an enjoyable atmosphere for the guests. Spending time with my friends and my daughter is like the Master Card commercial: (save extra money all year), buy transportation, park tickets, hotel, souvenirs...but the experience: PRICELESS!
To each his own, really.

I asked about Disney here last year. I have since moved the money into a Philippians fund. I'd much rather go somewhere fun than to Disney. My oldest was bugging me because all of her friends had been, and then i thought, well, we could go once. Maybe we will. My one BIL wants to take his daughter there to ride coasters. If they go, we may join them, but as of right now, i'm saving my money for a cool international trip.

I'm right there with 'ya. I think my GD is the ONLY kid I know who hasn't been to Disneyland. I feel like I SHOULD take her, but the thought of just standing in one line after another all day doesn't really motivate me to make a plan/reservation!