How I Became A Disney Person

I wasn’t always a Disney Person.

I can remember when Disney stores started popping up at local malls in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. My friends and I were in our  20’s and I was a smidgen appalled when they wanted to shop there. At a kid’s store. For themselves. The idea of a grown adult wearing a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt seemed like an arrested development, living in your parent’s basement in your 30’s kind of thing.

Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t down on Disney. My childhood self had an age appropriate fascination with Disney movies. My blonde Barbie often cosplayed as Aurora. I sang along to my Sleeping Beauty album and watched The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights just like every other American kid growing up in the 1970’s.  But as a grown up, I really didn’t give much thought to Mickey Mouse. And wearing cartoon characters on my clothing as a grown woman? Yeah, that was not happening.

And then I went to Disney World.

Here is where I always want to insert “And then I went to Disney World”. It is a phrase that keeps coming up in my life now on a regular basis. Prior to taking my son to the parks, I would never have considered myself a “Disney Person”.  I had zero desire to wait in horrifyingly long lines in staggering humidity for rides that I most likely was terrified to get on.  I wasn’t going to drag a toddler around in that mess. Maybe, MAYBE, once my kid was old enough to walk on his own through the park I would consider it.  Someday I would take him if he really, REALLY wanted to go. I could endure a week of screaming children and frustrated parents if it would make my kid happy! But, I thought he would never really be interested. He was into Pixar and Studio Ghibli movies, but never a big fan of Mickey Mouse. I figured I was off the hook.  And then WE went to Disney World.

I have Legoland and Universal Studios to thank for that. 

The first trip to Disney World was really a product of our curiosity after  great visits to Legoland  and Universal Studios Florida. Legoland was a no- brainer. The kid was obsessed with Lego when the land opened in Florida. He was thrilled and I was thrilled that he was thrilled. My husband even went on that trip and he is not a fan of amusement parks. Except for one particular brush with a demon dragon, the trip was a lot of fun.

That success under our belts, we test drove Universal Studios Florida. My sister, son and I read all the Harry Potter books so a trip to the Universal made sense. We had a great time exploring the Wizarding World and, essentially, were all bitten by the amusement park bug. Not super crazy about most thrill rides, the whole immersion, world building, entertainment situation was right up our alley. That is the type of amusement that we all could get behind.

I started getting Disney-curious.

I started wondering if maybe this world building stuff was a little like the “Disney Bubble” that folks talked about. “The theming!” cried the Internet, “It’s like entering a different world! It’s MAGICAL!”  Hm. So, I Googled and gathered advice from friends who had gone before.  We decided we would give it a try. Honestly, I thought that we would all go, have a good time, but decide, in the end, that we were really more into the Harry Potter stuff at Universal. Disney World was just going to be “okay”,  but a one and done kind of thing.

That is not what happened. 

Whatever bug bit us at Universal was the smaller, less viral version of whatever bit us at Disney. While I think that my reaction to this virus is more severe than my sister’s and maybe my son’s, we all fell hard for Disney World.

I’m not sure at what point in our first trip we realized we we were hooked. Was it our lunch in Morocco? That first safari ride? The time we spent listening to Cast Member Jeff’s bad Star Wars puns while waiting for fireworks to start at Hollywood Studios? I know that we were in awe at the scope of it, the attention to detail, the hidden Mickeys. But, I think that the full blown Disney fever snuck up on us.

I had planned that trip like it was my job. Not wanting to waste time in line and determined to get that kid into Jedi training, we could have become slaves to a schedule. Thankfully my research paid off and I was able to schedule just enough to do the things we wanted, but with the flexibility to go with the flow. That’s where we found our magic:  in between the hustle and bustle.  

Somewhere in mix we fell hard for Disney. 

We are unashamed and unapologetic of this newfound love despite the eye rolling of my sister’s boyfriend and my husband. Neither of them have any interest in going.  I get it.  Disney World is supposed to be enjoyed by kids and tolerated by adults.  Remember, I was the one who thought Little Mermaid pajamas had no business coming in adult sizes. But, now? Now, I run around the parks in mouse ears and get my picture taken with Chewbacca. What?! People can change.

Turns out, Disney World IS a magical place.

Sounds hokey, but it’s true. Around nearly every corner is something interesting, imaginative and just, FUN.  As an adult, there is a certain freedom that comes from celebrating the wonder of childhood and nostalgia for a time when you just BELIEVED. There is also really great stuff to do and see and eat. I am all for doing, seeing and eating.

I know I am not alone in this. 

Disney People are all over. There are social media accounts dedicated to documenting every park snack, souvenir, or special event. Park fashionistas post their creative photo shoots on Instagram. Crafty entrepreneurs make mouse ears and tee shirts and pins. Disney nerds track crowds and dissect ride patents. Gossip gurus follow every park and attraction rumor. Granted, Disney People do seem a wee bit obsessed. But just like I don’t get why people spend hours on YouTube watching other people play video games, some people will never “get” how I could watch  livestreams of people walking through the Magic Kingdom. 

All I know is that I’m a Disney Person now. 

Researching and planning trips is therapeutic. Reading news and rumors about the parks is interesting to me. I have a Disney bucket list. It has become a hobby and, honestly, I could be doing worse things with my time, right?

I know that it’s not for everyone. And maybe that’s good news. The parks are already pretty crowded. But, who knows. If you aren’t one already, you may be just a Dole Whip or Dumbo ride away from being a Disney Person too.