In Defense of the Disney Adult: Disney World Was Never Just for Kids
Disney Adults get plenty of criticism, but Disney World was never just for kids. Here’s why Disney can be an amazing vacation at every stage of adulthood.
Estimated reading time: 24 minutes
Apparently, at some point in adulthood, we’re supposed to stop liking Disney World.
I’m not exactly sure when that happens.
Maybe it’s when you turn 18.
Or maybe it’s when your own children get too old to care about meeting Mickey Mouse.
Maybe somebody mails you an official notice along with your AARP card informing you that you are now too old for Dole Whip and must restrict your recreational activities to museums, wine tastings and watching birds from your back porch.
I don’t know.
But somewhere along the way, the term Disney Adult became an insult.
And I think that’s ridiculous.
Now, to be clear, I’m not defending every single person who has ever behaved badly at Disney World.
If you’re knocking children out of the way to get to Mickey Mouse, screaming at a Cast Member because your Lightning Lane didn’t work, or having a complete emotional breakdown because somebody walked through your livestream, this post is not your permission slip.
Obnoxious people exist in every fandom.
I’m talking about the much more ordinary Disney Adult.
Someone like me.
I’m 54 years old.
I love Disney World.
Sometimes I go with my daughter.
And sometimes adult friends who go with me.
I love riding TRON and Pirates of the Caribbean… and don’t get me started on eating Dole Whip. I love wandering around Harambe. In my humble opinion, nothing comes close to the quality of Voices of Liberty. And yes, I admit to getting a huge grin on my face while watching those birds sing at the Enchanted Tiki Room.
Yes, I will happily get my picture taken with Mickey Mouse.
I don’t think any of that is weird.
Because I think the entire argument about Disney Adults starts with a faulty premise:
Disney World was never just for kids in the first place.
Disney World Is Not Just an Amusement Park
I think this is the first thing people who don’t understand the appeal of Disney World get wrong.
They think it’s an amusement park.
And technically, sure.
There are rides.
But if Disney World were simply a collection of rides, I wouldn’t keep going back.
I’ve been to amusement parks with bigger roller coasters.
I’ve been on rides that were much more terrifying than anything Disney has ever thrown at me.
Disney World is different because you’re not just moving from ride to ride.
You’re entering an entire environment.
There’s music.
Architecture.
Landscaping.
Food.
Entertainment.
Hotels.
Transportation.
Characters.
Shows.
Fireworks.
Tiny details that most people walk right past.
And yes, rides.
Put all of that together and you get something Disney people refer to as the Disney Bubble.
And the Disney Bubble is real.
The Disney Bubble Might Be More Valuable When You’re an Adult
There is something that happens to me when I drive underneath that big Walt Disney World entrance sign.
I can actually feel myself relax.
I’m here.
For the next however many days, I don’t have to think very much about the rest of the world.
Obviously, Disney World doesn’t make your real life disappear.
Your problems are still waiting for you when you get home.
But for a few days?
My biggest problem might be whether I should get my pineapple upside-down cake before or after Pirates of the Caribbean.
That’s not a terrible problem to have. 😂
And here’s the thing:
Kids don’t really need that kind of escape.
Adults do.
Adults have jobs.
Mortgages.
Bills.
Aging parents.
Teenagers.
Medical appointments.
Marriage problems.
Work stress.
The news.
The general mental load of being responsible for approximately 8,000 things at any given time.
There’s a reason adults spend thousands of dollars going to tropical resorts, taking cruises, hiking through national parks or renting cabins in the mountains.
We need breaks.
We need places where the ordinary responsibilities of life recede for a little while.
Disney World does that exceptionally well for me.
That’s not childish.
That’s vacation.
And People Seem Just a Little Kinder at Disney World
This is another part of the Disney Bubble that’s harder to quantify.
Not everybody at Disney World is kind.
Let’s get that out of the way.
People get tired.
People get hot.
Kids melt down.
Adults melt down.
Sometimes the adults are worse. 😂
There are rude people at Disney World because there are rude people everywhere.
But after spending a lot of time in the parks, I’ve noticed something else too.
People seem slightly more inclined to be kind to each other.
You’re trying to take a family selfie and somebody walking past offers to take the picture so everybody can be in it.
You’re dining by yourself and the people at the next table strike up a conversation.
Someone makes room on the bus for an elderly guest.
People chat in lines.
They compliment somebody’s ears or T-shirt.
You have these tiny little interactions with complete strangers that last 30 seconds and somehow make your day a little nicer.
I’ve experienced something similar in national parks. People are generally happy to be there, and that shared excitement creates a certain camaraderie.
But I’ve noticed it even more at Disney.
It’s almost like people put on their Mickey ears and become a little more considerate, a little more gracious and a little more kind.
Not everybody.
Not all the time.
But often enough that I’ve noticed.
And those tiny interactions are part of what makes the place feel happy to me.
Nostalgia Isn’t Just for Kids
Then there’s nostalgia.
And this is where I think the idea that you somehow “age out” of Disney makes even less sense.
Because nostalgia gets more powerful as you get older.
I took my daughter to Disney World when she was five and deep in her princess era.
We had a different princess dress for every day.
We went to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
She was transformed into Princess Aurora.
We met princesses.
We rode the rides.
It was magical.
Not because I thought Cinderella was real.
Because she did.
And I got to watch it.
That’s the thing people miss when they say there’s no point taking young children to Disney because “they won’t remember it.”
Maybe they won’t.
You will.
I remember my five-year-old daughter at Disney World.
And now those memories have become part of what Disney means to me.
Sometimes the Nostalgia Isn’t Even Originally Yours
Frozen is a perfect example.
Frozen wasn’t part of my childhood.
I wasn’t a little girl running around singing Let It Go.
My daughter was.
For something like three Halloweens in a row. 😂
So now when I watch the Frozen Sing-Along Celebration at Hollywood Studios, I’m not just watching characters from a Disney movie.
There’s another layer underneath it.
I’m remembering my daughter when she was little.
The same thing happens with Disney properties that were part of my childhood.
I’m Gen X.
Give me Star Wars.
and Indiana Jones.
Give me classic Mickey Mouse.
Those characters and stories have been floating around in my brain for decades.
So when I walk into Galaxy’s Edge, I’m experiencing something very differently than a seven-year-old who discovered Star Wars last year.
Neither experience is better.
They’re just different.
And the longer you live, the more of those associations you accumulate.
That’s why I actually think Disney can become more emotionally layered as you get older, not less.
Adults Notice Things Kids Don’t
There’s another reason Disney World works so well for me as an adult:
I notice things now.
Take Harambe at Animal Kingdom.
A kid might walk through Harambe because they’re trying to get to Kilimanjaro Safaris.
I can spend an absurd amount of time just looking around.
The buildings.
The signs.
The weathering.
The music.
The details tucked into windows and corners.
The way the entire place has been constructed to feel lived-in rather than newly built.
I’ve been there many times, and I still notice things I haven’t noticed before.
That’s true throughout Disney World.
The architecture changes.
The landscaping changes.
The music changes.
There are visual jokes.
Backstories.
Forced perspective.
Details in attraction queues.
Things tucked onto shelves.
Details painted on walls.
Things Disney Imagineers knew 95 percent of guests would never consciously notice but put there anyway.
Kids can absolutely appreciate immersive theming.
But adults often have the patience and context to appreciate how it was created.
And that gives you an entirely different way to experience the parks.
Disney Doesn’t Require You to Be Terrified to Have Fun
This is something I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve gotten older.
I still like thrill rides.
Holy moly, I love TRON.
I love Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
I love Big Thunder Mountain.
But I am also rapidly approaching the point in life where I no longer need a ride to convince me that death is imminent in order to consider it exciting.
😂
I’ve ridden attractions at other amusement parks where I spent the entire experience thinking:
I hate this.
Not because it wasn’t thrilling.
Because it was too thrilling.
At some point, my brain stopped interpreting “I may fall out of this thing and die” as recreation.
Disney occupies this wonderful middle ground.
You can get thrills.
And go super fast.
You can drop.
You can get launched.
But most Disney attractions are built around something besides raw adrenaline.
Story.
Music.
Theming.
Humor.
Beauty.
Wonder.
Which means that when I’m done riding TRON, I can walk across the park and ride Haunted Mansion.
Or Pirates.
Maybe It’s a Small World.
Or sit on the PeopleMover for ten glorious minutes because my feet hurt.
And all of those things count as entertainment.
Adults Are Still Allowed to Experience Whimsy
And maybe this is the part of the whole Disney Adult debate that bothers me most.
At some point, we developed this strange idea that adulthood requires us to become increasingly serious.
Entertainment needs to be sophisticated.
Or edgy.
Challenging.
Or adult-y.
But why?
Why can’t a 64-year-old laugh at the terrible jokes on Jungle Cruise?
Or why can’t an 82-year-old sing along with the Tiki Birds?
Why can’t I tear up listening to Voices of Liberty?
Or grab a hug from Mickey Mouse?
Why can’t we stand in front of Cinderella Castle and watch fireworks and think they’re beautiful?
Adults understand perfectly well that Mickey Mouse isn’t real.
We also understand that Jean Valjean isn’t really standing on a Broadway stage living through the French Revolution.
Nobody walks out of Les Misérables and says:
Well, that was ridiculous. Those were actors.
Of course they were.
That’s how entertainment works.
We agree to enter the story for a little while.
Disney asks us to do exactly the same thing.
You don’t have to believe the castle belongs to Cinderella.
You just have to be willing to look at it and think:
Wow. That’s beautiful.
And I don’t think there should be an age limit on that.
Wholesome Doesn’t Have to Mean Mediocre
This is another distinction I think gets lost.
Disney World offers an enormous amount of entertainment that adults can genuinely appreciate without requiring it to become edgy to prove that it’s for grown-ups.
Festival of the Lion King is phenomenal.
Voices of Liberty can give me chills.
Fantasmic! is spectacular.
Happily Ever After is gorgeous.
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor makes me laugh.
The Dapper Dans are ridiculously charming.
The mariachi performers in EPCOT are fantastic.
Festival concerts can bring in musicians you’ve known for decades.
I’ve watched Air Supply perform at EPCOT.
Air Supply.
😂
Yes, they’re an ’80s band.
That’s precisely why the 54-year-old in this story was excited about it.
And all of that entertainment exists alongside the rides.
Which is why I think calling Disney World an amusement park doesn’t really capture what you’re paying for.
You’re not buying admission to a collection of roller coasters.
You’re buying admission to an enormous entertainment destination.
And we haven’t even talked about the food yet.
Disney World Food Is Definitely Not Just for Kids
If Disney World were really designed primarily for children, I have a question.
Why on earth does it have this many restaurants?
😂
Seriously.
If Disney World were one enormous children’s amusement park, the dining situation could basically be:
Chicken nuggets.
French fries.
Pizza.
Hot dogs.
Mickey ice cream bars.
Done.
Kids would be perfectly happy.
Instead, Disney World has an absolutely enormous dining ecosystem.
You’ve got quick-service restaurants.
Table-service restaurants.
Character meals.
Signature dining.
Lounges.
Festival food booths.
International restaurants.
Steakhouses.
Seafood.
Sushi.
French pastries.
German food.
Moroccan food.
Mexican food.
Italian food.
African-inspired food.
I mean, there are approximately 47,000 different Disney World snacks that I apparently feel compelled to try and rank for the internet.
This is not a dining program designed exclusively for eight-year-olds.
EPCOT Might Be the Most Obvious Example
Spend an afternoon eating your way around World Showcase and then tell me Disney World is only for children.
You can get Japanese food.
French pastries and crepes.
Mexican food.
German food.
Italian food.
Moroccan food.
Fish and chips in the United Kingdom.
Canadian steak.
You can sit down for hibachi at Teppan Edo or grab something small from a festival booth and keep walking.
And then Disney throws festivals into the equation, with even more food and drinks changing throughout the year.
Is every single thing you eat at Disney World going to be the greatest version of that food you’ve ever had?
Of course not.
I’ve had mediocre Disney food.
And I’ve certainly had things I wouldn’t order again.
I’ve had meals where I genuinely didn’t understand why everybody else was cuckoo coconuts over the restaurant.
But I’ve also eaten things that I will deliberately rearrange part of my Disney day to have again.
Hello, pineapple upside-down cake with Dole Whip.
We meet again.
😂
The point isn’t that Disney World is secretly the greatest culinary destination on Earth.
It’s that the range of dining experiences makes absolutely no sense if we continue pretending this destination exists primarily for children.
And Then There Are the Resorts
Here’s another problem with the “Disney is for kids” argument.
We haven’t even left Disney property yet, and we’ve already talked about rides, shows, concerts, animals, architecture, food, fireworks and immersive environments.
But now let’s leave the parks.
Because Disney World has an entire resort ecosystem too.
And those resorts are wildly different from one another.
I’ve stayed at Disney Value Resorts.
Moderates.
And I’ve stayed at Deluxe Resorts.
And while the experience obviously changes depending on what you’re paying, even the less expensive Disney resorts can be incredibly fun.
Pop Century is unapologetically Disney.
Art of Animation is ridiculously over-the-top in exactly the way you’d expect a Disney hotel to be.
Then you can go in a completely different direction.
Stay at Wilderness Lodge and suddenly you’re walking into this gorgeous, soaring lobby that feels like an enormous national park lodge.
Stay at Grand Floridian and you’ve got a completely different, much more elegant experience.
Animal Kingdom Lodge?
There’s wildlife outside.
Disney built a resort where I can drink my morning coffee and potentially look at a giraffe.
Explain to me how that’s only entertaining if you’re nine.
😂
Your Resort Can Be Part of the Vacation
This is something I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve traveled to Disney World more often.
The hotel doesn’t have to be merely the place where you collapse after spending 14 hours in a theme park.
It can actually be part of the vacation.
You can have a resort day.
Go to dinner.
Sit in a lounge.
Walk around.
Look at the architecture.
Enjoy the pool.
Take Disney transportation somewhere just because you feel like it.
Visit another resort.
Look at the Christmas decorations.
Have breakfast somewhere beautiful.
And this becomes increasingly appealing to me as I get older.
I don’t necessarily need to extract every possible minute from my park ticket anymore.
Sometimes having a lovely dinner and going back to a beautiful resort sounds pretty freaking great.
Disney World Is Also Surprisingly Easy
I don’t mean inexpensive.
Good grief, no.
😂
I mean easy in the logistical sense.
Once you’re inside the Disney Bubble, Disney has created an infrastructure designed to move enormous numbers of people around.
There are buses.
Boats.
Monorails.
The Skyliner.
Walking paths.
Resort transportation.
Signs everywhere.
Cast Members you can ask for help.
The app.
You can arrive at Disney World and, depending on how you’ve structured your trip, go for days without needing to drive anywhere.
That’s incredibly appealing on vacation.
And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve increasingly appreciated destinations that remove friction.
I still love an epic road trip.
And national parks will always be my first love.
I still love exploring someplace completely new.
But sometimes I don’t want to navigate an unfamiliar city, figure out where to park, research a new restaurant three times a day and constantly decide what happens next.
Sometimes I want Disney to pick me up at the resort and take me to Magic Kingdom.
Thank you very much.
Disney Is a Pretty Comfortable Place to Vacation
This is related, but slightly different.
Disney World is designed to accommodate an enormous range of people.
Little kids.
Teenagers.
Adults.
Grandparents.
People who want to ride everything.
... and people who don’t want to ride much of anything.
People who need to sit down frequently.
… and people who want to eat somewhere nice.
People who want to eat a pretzel while walking.
People who want to be entertained for 14 straight hours.
And of course, people who would really like an air-conditioned theater right now.
Hello.
It’s me.
😂
Obviously, Disney World involves a ton of walking, and it can absolutely be physically exhausting.
But you don’t have to be an extreme athlete to have an extraordinary Disney vacation.
You can build the experience around what you’re physically capable of doing.
And I think that’s something Disney and national parks actually have in common.
You Don’t Have to Hike 14 Miles to Experience Something Extraordinary
This is basically the entire philosophy behind how I approach national parks.
I love national parks.
But I’m not a hardcore hiker.
I’m probably not climbing a mountain before breakfast.
I don’t think you need to hike 14 miles into the wilderness to legitimately experience Yellowstone or Yosemite or Glacier.
You can take a beautiful drive.
Walk a shorter trail.
Stop at an overlook.
See wildlife.
Have lunch somewhere with an incredible view.
Experience the park in a way that works for you.
Disney World is strangely similar.
You don’t have to be seven.
Or ride every roller coaster.
You don’t have to arrive before sunrise and stay until midnight.
And you certainly don’t have to drink around World Showcase.
You don’t have to wear Minnie ears.
Or meet Mickey Mouse.
You can build a Disney vacation around the things you enjoy.
That’s one of the reasons I write about both national parks and Disney World.
They seem like completely different destinations.
And they are.
But my philosophy is basically the same.
You don’t have to experience a destination in the most extreme or stereotypical way for your experience to count.
“But Haven’t You Already Been to Disney World?”
Yes.
Many times.
😂
And this is another criticism of Disney Adults that I’ve never completely understood.
People return to places they love all the time.
Nobody says:
“You’ve already been to New York. Why would you go back?”
Or:
“You’ve already been to Yellowstone.”
Or:
“You’ve already gone to the beach.”
We understand that complicated destinations aren’t exhausted in one visit.
Obviously, I’m not suggesting Disney World is comparable to an entire country or continent in scale.
But the basic principle is the same.
One trip does not mean you’ve experienced everything there is to experience.
I Still Haven’t Done Everything at Disney World
This is the part that continues to amaze me.
I write about Disney World professionally.
I intentionally seek out things I haven’t done before.
And I still haven’t done everything.
Not even close.
There are restaurants I haven’t tried.
Resorts I haven’t stayed at.
Experiences I haven’t booked.
Foods I haven’t eaten.
Characters I haven’t met.
Shows I haven’t seen enough.
Little corners I’ve barely explored.
And Disney keeps changing while I’m trying to catch up.
Something opens.
Something closes.
A restaurant changes.
A new attraction arrives.
A festival comes back with different offerings.
An old experience disappears.
Something I haven’t done suddenly becomes something I want to prioritize.
And even when I repeat something, I’m not necessarily having the same experience.
The People You Travel With Change the Trip
This matters too.
Disney World with my five-year-old daughter was one vacation.
With my nine-year-old daughter was another.
And with my daughter at 11 was different again.
Disney World with adult friends is completely different.
Disney World by myself?
Different.
Even trips with the same people aren’t identical because we aren’t identical anymore.
Our interests change.
Stamina changes.
Budgets change.
Priorities change.
… Our lives change.
And that’s where I think the Disney Adult conversation becomes much more interesting than:
“Why would a grown woman want to ride It’s a Small World?”
Because the answer is partly:
Because I’m not the same person I was the first time I rode it.
Your Relationship With Disney Can Change as You Age
Think about what Disney World can look like across an entire lifetime.
At five, Disney might mean princess dresses.
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
Meeting Cinderella.
Dumbo.
Ice cream.
At 15, maybe it’s TRON.
Space Mountain.
Guardians of the Galaxy.
Staying up late.
At 35, maybe you’re bringing your own five-year-old.
And suddenly you’re standing there watching her meet Cinderella.
The thing you experienced as a child becomes something you’re now experiencing as a parent.
Then your kid grows up.
And maybe she doesn’t particularly care about Magic Kingdom anymore.
Mine certainly reached that point. 😂
And ironically, that’s when I discovered just how much I enjoy Magic Kingdom without kids. The experience changes when you’re not working around someone else’s interests, stamina or schedule, but that doesn’t make it any less fun.
Does that mean Disney World is finished for you?
Of course not.
At 54, my Disney trips look different.
I care about food and photography.
100% I notice Imagineering details.
The entertainment is peak.
I want to wander around World Showcase.
Explore Harambe.
Eat something I’ve never tried.
I want to ride TRON.
I also want to sit down.
These things can coexist.
😂
And I Hope I’m Still Going When I’m 75
Maybe someday my ideal Disney day will look completely different again.
Perhaps 75-year-old me won’t particularly care about riding TRON.
Maybe she will.
I hope she does.
But maybe her perfect Disney day is staying somewhere beautiful, having a lovely breakfast, going to EPCOT, listening to Voices of Liberty, riding Spaceship Earth, eating something wonderful, watching people for a while and ending the evening with fireworks.
That’s still Disney World.
That’s still a legitimate vacation.
And that’s really the point.
Disney World Can Grow With You
Disney World doesn’t remain frozen at the age you first experienced it.
And neither do you.
At one stage of life, the magic might be watching your five-year-old believe she’s a princess.
At another, it’s riding a roller coaster with your teenager.
And then, it’s traveling with your best friend.
Eventually, it’s taking your grandchildren.
Or maybe there aren’t any children involved at all.
Maybe it’s just you.
That’s allowed too.
You don’t need to borrow somebody’s child to justify wanting to eat a Dole Whip and watch Happily Ever After.
So, Yes. I’m a Disney Adult.
I’m also a National Parks adult.
A Europe adult.
A New York City adult.
A Broadway adult.
A road-trip adult.
A sit-on-my-own-couch-and-watch-television adult.
Humans are allowed to like more than one thing.
😂
Loving Disney World doesn’t mean I think it’s the only place worth visiting.
It doesn’t mean I want to live inside Cinderella Castle.
It doesn’t mean I believe Disney is perfect.
Good grief.
I’ve written plenty about things Disney does that annoy me.
It simply means Disney World is one of the places I genuinely enjoy spending my time.
I love the escapism.
… the nostalgia.
I love the Imagineering.
and the food.
… the entertainment.
Rides.
Resorts.
I love the ridiculous dad jokes.
I adore the the fireworks.
And mostly, I just love those tiny moments when some stranger offers to take your picture because they notice you’re trying to fit everybody into the frame.
And I love that Disney World gives adults permission to experience something we don’t always make enough room for in ordinary life.
Joy for absolutely no practical reason.
Disney World Was Never Just for Kids
That’s why I don’t think Disney Adults actually need much of a defense.
The criticism starts with the wrong assumption.
Disney World isn’t a children’s amusement park that adults have inexplicably taken over.
It’s an enormous vacation destination intentionally filled with experiences that work differently for different people at different stages of life.
Kids belong there.
Teenagers belong there.
Parents belong there.
Grandparents belong there.
Adults traveling without children belong there.
You can be five and lose your mind because you’re meeting Cinderella.
Or 15 and race toward Guardians of the Galaxy.
You can be 35 and cry because your daughter is meeting Mickey Mouse for the first time.
And you can be 54 and ride Pirates, eat a Dole Whip, notice something new in Harambe, laugh at the Jungle Cruise, listen to Voices of Liberty and stand in front of Cinderella Castle watching fireworks.
And at 75 you can do whatever the heck you want.
That’s the beauty of it.
Same place. Different vacation.
And maybe that’s why some of us keep coming back.
Not because we’re trying to stay children forever.
But because getting older doesn’t mean we have to stop being delighted.
