How can anyone not like Disneyland?

Too crowded, long lines, everything costs too much, they try to bleed you dry with overpriced junk to remember your visit, creepy life size cartoon characters? Don’t get me started.

I agree with the aforementioned… but I still love it!

All of the above, plus I can’t smoke there. Seriously, though, it’s mostly because I have very bad anxiety. Being in places like Disneyland (loud, bright, crowded) can easily give me a panic attack.

As a kid, I never noticed the problems. If one of your party has a disability, you can get a pass that lets you through the exit instead of waiting in the line.

Well, for one thing, some people have an extremely limited appetite for cute.

@bewailknot Really? You don’t like actors dressed up as characters to help kids have fun? I was afraid of clowns when I was little, but I grew up to be a costumer myself, and I love costume characters.

I wouldn’t know..I have never been. As a child I always dreamed of going there. But in all probablity, I guess I will never get to go. Oh well I always wanted to see other things too. My bucket list has a column of things that I will never get to enjoy. .

I thought the castle was incredibly disappointing. It looks wonderful as you approach it and the excitement builds as you get closer and closer only to find that the doorway takes you to a tunnel that leads to the other side. How do you explain this sham to children?

@YARNLADY I have a friend who did not like the idea of taking her kids to Disney World, because of the whole prince charming sweeping damsels off their feet. She allowed her children to watch only very limited amounts of television, and Disney stories were not her cup of tea. I argued her children would looovvveee Disney World and she should take them in my opinion.

Some adults get bored at Disney World.

@flutherother I have to agree about the castle.

:: raises hand ::

I really dislike Disney World in Florida. Mostly because it’s in Florida, the most vile, sticky, humid, uncomfortable state in the union. On top of that, Disney World is far to crowded and over-priced. The lines are ridiculous and I dislike most rides. And, frankly, I really am not a fan of Mickey and his gang. They’re very annoying.

I’ve been three times to make other people happy and I wanted to stab someone with a spoon.

Now, that being said, I did enjoy Epcot Center, Bush Gardens, and Sea World. I like those. I might even love them if they were not in the aforementioned hell-on-earth that is Florida.

I am extremely anti-Disney, so I’m sure I would dislike Disneyland. I also don’t like “rides”. Also, get off my lawn.

When I was 8 I did get to go to Disney World, and I had a great time (or so I hear). But this would be the absolute last place I would want to go if I had any money to go on vacation. Some people want “escape” and artificial environments. A friend of mine had an opportunity to go to Paris for 2 days. They spent the time in Disney Land Paris®. I don’t get it. It would be like visiting a new culture and only eating at McDonalds.

@cprevite Are you going during the summer? I know people go there in summer because that is when the kids are off from school, but my mother never would have done it. I have been there twice in the summer, because I met up with girlfriends for a day or two who were vacationing with their family, but I went to Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach while they were in one of Parks. Last time I was there it was January, no lines (not more than a 5 minute wait) on 90% of the rides and it was almost cold outside. @YARNLADY actually asked about Disneyland, which is in more temperate California.

Not my cup of tea either. I have been for my kids, but I would never go there without kids.
Too many people, too lines too long, over-priced everything.
I also agree with @flutherother the castle was such a let down. No turrets to explore, no grand furnishings. What a disappointment.

I love Disneyland. I have dreams of retiring, and just sitting on Main Street all day long.
That said, my complaints of the park are the crowds, the food quality and prices, and the lines that go on for hours.
I would still spend all the time there I could afford.

I’ll take a view of Whiteface Mountain over Disney any day. Up yours Mickey.

I’d enjoy Disney more if it was like this.

There is a wonderful sendup of Disneyland in the book The Geography of Nowhere The same corporate America that was tearing down small towns like that depicted in Disneyland’s Main Street in favor of soulless suburbia, offers a carfree fantasy. Did you know that everything on Main Street is ¾ scale to cutesify it?

I have not been to Disneyland since I was a child. Do they still have the Jungleland boat ride with its so politically incorrect cannibal holding a clutch of shrunken heads? I remember the tour guide saying that he would gladly trade one of his heads for one of yours. As an adult, it is hard to for me to dissociate Disneyland from its founder’s right wing leanings, like the historical hatchet job he did in the cartoon Pocahontas

@JLeslie: My wife really wants to take my daughter in the next year or so. We’ve compromised and decided to go after October. As you say, I expect the weather will be more tolerable.

And I have not been to Disney in California (despite being on the West coast numerous times).

Count me in the crowd who agrees with all-of-the-above.

Even though I am in agreement with many of the above posts about the things to dislike about the Disney park experience, I cannot help but have a fondness for it. That must be the nostalgia factor since I went so often as a kid and tend to have a wonderful time when I go now as a result. However, I do understand when people say it is not the happiest place on earth for them. Especially @augustlan‘s response. I sometimes hyperventilate at amusement parks, in general, and I’m not even claustrophobic.

See the first answer.

I dont have kids nor am I one. What is there for me at Disney? Nothing. I’d rather go to Universal if I’m goin to Florida but I can also think of a ton of other more fun places to go for a fraction of the price.

@uberbatman No no no. Soarin’ in Epcot is the best ride ever! And, the stunt car show in MGM is very entertaining. Even some of the rides for kids are very fun like Buzz Lightyear. The roller coaster Everest in Animal Kingdom is very roller coastery, going backwards in the dark and some wild drops amd twists. And, the water parks at Disney are great if you like water parks.

@YARNLADY – I can remember being disappointed in the costumed characters as a kid when I realized they were not real, that there was just a human behind that screen.

I was 4 when we moved to California and we went to Disneyland every year. By the time I was about 14 it was crazy crowded. The original way they did the tickets (A tickets for the little rides through E tickets for the coolest rides) helped control the lines for the cool rides since not everyone would buy extra E tickets.

I have been to Disney World in the off season (weekend after Thanksgiving) and it was not crowded and not hot and I enjoyed it. We didn’t stay on the grounds, but I think if someone stayed at a Disney hotel it would ease up the burden a little, because you could go for a few hours, go back to the room in the afternoon, and then go back out in the evening after a rest. Disney is definitely tiring.

I think another problem is people feel a need to take little babies and toddlers, who are too young to appreciate it, IMHO. It’s too tiring for them, too hot and too crowded, and too much for them to walk all that way. I think babies and toddlers are very happy with a playground or a small amusement park or fair, and to take them to a big, crowded place like Disney is more for the parents’ sake than for the kids.

I liked Universal, too. One day I would like to go on the Tower of Terror at MGM.

Mind you, when I say I like these places, I don’t go that often. Maybe once every ten years is enough. I have a small child so I imagine I’ll be going every few years now until she’s big.

All who were disappointed with the castle – I’m really amazed at your answers. Did they close the castle when you were there? It has a delightful walk through interactive exhibit all the way from one side to the other. It takes a good 10 – 15 minutes if you go fast, or slower if you walk like I do. What happened?

The long lines – yes, a bad feature, but not to hate. Many of the attractions have the lines built out so waiting is as almost as much fun as going on the ride. I always use an electric wheel chair (a grandma can do that), so the waits aren’t as long.

@jleslie, Southern California (or more specifically, Anaheim) may be more temperate than Florida, but it does get cold every now and then in the winter, it does rain, and in the summer, it can be very hot (Anaheim is inland, so it doesn’t get ocean breezes the same way an amusement park by the beach would). I will say that the humidity is MUCH lower.

I know Disneyland isn’t for everyone, but like @bewailknot, I have a fondness for it, for some of the same reasons. As a California native, I’ve gone there every few years or so, as part of visits to relatives who lived in the area. Now as an adult, I live just an hour’s drive away, and still try to visit every two or three years. I too remember the days of ticket booths and ticket books. I still enjoy most of the rides, and turn into a six year old again on some of them.

But yes, the magic is strongest when you’re a certain age, and that’s probably best experienced between 4 and about 12. As an adult, the expense, the cheesiness, and at certain times, the lines, are factors in why it’s not so “magical” anymore.

I’ve been to Walt Disney World in Florida, and I actually prefer Disneyland, for the most part. Now, Epcot is fun on a certain level, and I do enjoy the international buildings. But again, as some of you mentioned, it’s all a sanitized, corporate version of the reality (which is why Disney California Adventure, where the Disneyland parking lot used to be, failed so spectacularly; it’s now being “re-imagined” as Pixarland, more or less…).

As for Universal, I’ve not been to that in Florida (or MGM), but I’ve been to Universal here in California. It’s the kind of place you go once, or maybe take an out-of-town guest that MUST see it, and that’s that. a tiny handful of rides (about 10…?), more shops/food stands than Disneyland (if you can believe it), and not much else. The best part is the tram tour, but even that is something you can do once, then check off your list.

@YARNLADY, I don’t know about WDW, but Disneyland does have the walk-through Sleeping Beauty attraction in the castle. It was closed for a LONG time, then they finally cleaned it out, updated and refurbished it, and re-opened it a couple years ago. It’s cute, but “Sleeping Beauty” is one of the best, if not the best of Walt Disney’s movies, and deserved a much better attraction/ride than just the dioramas.

@AngryWhiteMale Yet, my sons have both loved taking their new brides there.

I don’t rememeber seeing anything like that at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and I have been to both WDW in FL and Disneyland in CA. I just remember a walk through a tunnel in one side and out the other.

At Disney World it’s Cinderella’s castle. Maybe Disneyland has a Sleeping Beauty castle? I think now you can stay at Cinderella’s castle for the night and then you wake up right there in the park.

@wilma When you come out on the Fantasyland side, there is a door off to the left which leads to an interactive diarama walk-through where you can pretend to be part of the story, with life size furniture and rooms. It extends the entire width of the castle and you come out on the right side of the tunnel.

When I first went there, I was a teenager, and they had mule rides in Frontierland. That’s been gone a long time now.

I’m a Disneyland lover, I wanted to be married in Disneyland and in fact, my first marriage honeymoon was at Disneyland. My husband is “meh” about Disneyland as are his three kids. At least two of my decades long dear friends don’t give a hoot about the place, it happens. They aren’t impressed by the whimsical, they don’t want to join the fantasy- they want hardcore rides with in-you-face thrills.

It’s ok, fewer fussy bodies for me to contend with in line for the Matterhorn or to board the Columbia Sailing ship.

I grew up a fan of Disney movies, and yearned to go to Walt Disney World. When I finally got to go, I was in my early 20s and had grown up in a town with a roller-coaster amusement park… so WDW was a letdown. I took my son when he was 7, shortly after the death of his father, because I knew there wasn’t much innocence left in him. He’ll be 21 next week, and our best memories from the trip are of playing in the pool and chasing lizards.

I am still a fan of Disney and Pixar movies, but I dislike consumerism. I don’t think the corporatized theme parks of today, and the Disney store in every shopping mall are what Walt had in mind. I have absolutely no interest in Las Vegas or other such commercial attractions.

@LostInParadise: Walt Disney, the “founder”, was dead nearly 30 years before Pocohantas was made.