I have a serious question because I just don't get Disney. So many people say that they love the parks/overreact at the parks because of the ~*nostaaalgiiiaa*~. Is that because of all the movies they watched as a kid or because they went to Disneyland for every holiday as a kid? If it's the former, wouldn't it be more nostalgic to just watch the movies again? And if it's the latter (and let's not unpick that one from what we know of Brogan's relationship with her parents...), why are there never any other places you went regularly as a kid that feel nostalgic, like the beach or Butlins or the town where your grandparents live? Or is it just nostalgia for a candy-coloured idealised commercialised childhood no one actually had?
All my holidays as a child were 2 weeks in a caravan in Wales and they were the best holidays ever. Even if it was chucking it down with rain, we were camped out on the beach every day because it was the only break my dad got from work every year and I loved every second of it. We watched all the Disney films but I never had any merchandise, my parents never dressed me up as a princess, it was all about the stories (I was and still am a big book worm).
Fast forward a couple of decades and my now husband and I are planning our wedding. We're a little stuck for a honeymoon idea as we love to be doing things on holiday - as much as I love reading, I can only sit by a pool for about 30 minutes before I'm itching to get up and do something. So my husband asks "what's the one place you've always wanted to go?" and the first thing out of my mouth was Walt Disney World and I was kind of joking. Next thing I know, we're watching a couple of Youtube videos on WDW and it starts becoming a serious idea. He'd been to Florida a few times as a kid and always wanted to go back as an adult. Cutting a long story short we booked a week in WDW and then went up to New York so he could go watch his NFL team (the "bucket list" thing he always wanted to do).
The first day we walked into Magic Kingdom I was a little in awe at actually being in a place I never thought I'd get a chance to go to. It was everything we were looking for in a special trip - amazing service, lots of things to do, opportunities for relaxing when we wanted to, great food and the attention to detail and theming was beyond anything I had imagined. Beauty and the Beast was my favourite film growing up and actually meeting "Belle" made me cry; it was probably a lot of nostalgia and yes I know it's a girl in a dress and Belle is a fictional character, but it transported me back to all those hours watching the film with my mum and dad.
And the love for it grew from there. I can't explain what it is about the Disney parks that I love, but I guess it's that it gives me a chance to get some escape and immerse myself in the magic bubble for a little while. I don't cry at the castle, I don't dress like the Disney store threw up on me, my house is not a shrine to the Disney corporation, but I do love Disney. We don't go every year or even every other year, yes we've been to all but the China parks, but we love exploring the world too (and I don't mean It's a Small World or World Showcase).
Is it nostalgia for me, probably a bit, but also I think about all the memories I've made with my husband there. Like when we went on a horse drawn carriage ride through Port Orleans with hot chocolate on our honeymoon, or organising the Dapper Dans to sing to me in Disneyland on my birthday.
But the way Brogladyte and Binjuice react and "do" Disney is a million miles away from our way of doing it. Each to their own and you do you, but it infuriates me how people see them and their trips and think that's how everyone "does" a Disney trip.