These people have made consuming an experience a large part of their identity. That's it. They consume the parks. They consume the food. They consume the experiences. They even consume cheap clothes on amazon that match the general colors of their favorite cartoon characters (it's called disneybounding, look it up).
Sorry, but I can't get out of my mind one of the Monty Python PC games depicting a crowd of faceless people all wearing Mickey Mouse ears. While I can't relate to voluntarily paying money to go consume a corporate theme park media experience, but it floats their steamboat then more power to them.
Disney is also sort of stuck in a bad place. More human beings want to visit these parks than is physically, or at least safely, possible. They've implemented this entire virtual queuing system that absolutely sucks to use and experience and plan around but what the hell else are they supposed to do? Auction off rides? Use a lottery system?
It's not like you can just scale up the magic kingdom.
Disney theme parks are a scarce resource.
I loathe Disney but there's no such thing as the Disney park of 2000, today.
This is happening to a lot of tourism because there's just way more tourism today than 50 years ago. There are way more wealthy people who can just throw money at the problem of "I want to do <thing>". They will always be able to outcompete the normal family of yesteryear who got to experience magic on a budget.
Of course Disney doesn't want you to think about how they really wanted this to happen and worked towards this goal as they have sought more international revenue so it's partially their fault.
Wait until these people learn about Disney's Secret Club 33. Membership is $100,000 not counting annual dues and the current waiting list is about 14 years. That's the only way into the unpublished tunnel that leads to the special underground rooms. Not even park security have access. The normies that know about it think it's just about drinking alcohol in the ground floor room.
There is this pervasive cynical belief that anything adults like kids will dislike and vice versa it's important to remember that for the vast majority of history that hasn't been true. In the recent past people had to work very hard to create these define these social groups and sell products to/for them.
These social classes will collapse quicker than you think, you're seeing the final death throes with age-verification laws
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 38.1 ms ] threadIt's not like you can just scale up the magic kingdom.
Disney theme parks are a scarce resource.
I loathe Disney but there's no such thing as the Disney park of 2000, today.
This is happening to a lot of tourism because there's just way more tourism today than 50 years ago. There are way more wealthy people who can just throw money at the problem of "I want to do <thing>". They will always be able to outcompete the normal family of yesteryear who got to experience magic on a budget.
Of course Disney doesn't want you to think about how they really wanted this to happen and worked towards this goal as they have sought more international revenue so it's partially their fault.
42 Percent of People Who Waited in Line To Meet Characters at Disney Parks Last Year Were Childless Adults
https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3550984/never-grow-up-42...
2026:
Disney names parks boss Josh D'Amaro as its next CEO to succeed Bob Iger
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/03/disney-ceo-josh-damaro-succe...
These social classes will collapse quicker than you think, you're seeing the final death throes with age-verification laws