I love Disney World. I really do.
But when I admit this, especially if I go on about it, I find that it can be quite an unpopular opinion. Disney World is unquestionably an extremely popular place with millions of annual visitors from all over the world, but there’s something about the whole experience that rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
It’s so commercial, they’ll say. There’re gift shops everywhere you turn. There’s nothing authentic about it.
Okay, fine, I don’t even disagree with the criticisms. But hold on, isn’t there a bigger picture here? Is there really nothing you can find to love about Disney World? Or does the bad totally outweigh the good?
All I have to do is think back to when I was a kid. My mom would drive my three siblings and I down to Florida every spring break to stay with my grandmother, who lived about two hours from Orlando in a tiny town called Silver Springs. We’d always go on a side trip to Disney World for a day or two, and to say that I looked forward to these visits to Disney is a massive understatement. To me, Disney World was a land of complete and utter happiness where I felt stimulated and my mind expanded. I was entranced by the fantasy of the characters and their adventures, but more than anything it was the optimism and positivity of the place that got me.
I felt loved at Disney World, by everybody, and everybody was in a good mood too, at least from a kid’s perspective. The visitors for sure, but also the ticket takers and food servers and street cleaners. Nobody’s happiness ever felt manufactured to me. On the contrary, each interaction felt enthusiastic and true to my young self.
Isn’t that the point? Kids are made to feel special at Disney World. Stories we love are brought to life so they can be felt and touched and explored. This is exciting and otherworldly to a child. I know it’s not the same for the parents, who pay for everything and get everybody dressed and out the door in the morning. But the focus is on the kids as it should be, because the make-believe world of Disney is very real for them, and that is a beautiful thing.
When I was young my parents didn’t have much money for luxuries of any kind. Expensive trips definitely weren’t our thing. But then something unexpected and amazing happened. My father ran a photography business and one day his Kodak sales rep gave him a few free passes to Disney World. Kodak was a gigantic company back then and they were a sponsor at Disney. Gifting us these passes might have been a small gesture from Kodak, but to our family, and to me in particular, it was a huge deal. The Disney passes came every year after that for probably five or six years, creating an annual tradition, a pilgrimage if you will, that was a major highlight of my youth.
So that’s why I love Disney World. Because it inspired me as a boy and made me unbelievably happy. I knew nothing of consumerism or the business side of the Disney experience back then. It was all about my imagination and having fun, and I can still access those long-ago feelings to this day.
I’ve been back to Disney World just a couple of times since I was young. Both times were with my wife and son, and I absolutely loved seeing how happy Des was when we were there. He was captivated and just threw himself fully into everything. Maybe I didn’t have as much fun on those trips as he did, or as I did when I was a boy, but I felt something different that was just as profound. I felt the bliss of being with my ecstatic child. Everywhere he turned brought him to a place of wonder and delight.
I know now that there are other sides to Disney World. It’s a business that’s always looking to grow and deliver shareholder returns. It’s an unbelievably crowded tourist destination. It’s also expensive, really expensive. But those sides can’t and won’t tarnish the feelings I felt at Disney World as a kid, or the way those feelings continue to influence me as an adult.
In high school I actually had the idea that I wanted to be CEO of Disney one day. I was serious about it, and I remember talking it through with my parents and my college counselor. I was so into the idea of bringing these illuminating experiences to kids that I wanted to be part of driving the company forward and expanding its reach.
That was before I learned how cutthroat and insane the world of big business can be, before I realized that these magnificent Disney experiences were also designed and value engineered for maximum resonance and profitability, before I had any idea that the purity of the Disney fantasy lived only in the minds of children.
It turned out that working for a huge corporation wasn’t for me. I learned that pretty quickly after spending a couple years at a couple big companies right after college. I feel much more at home in a smaller organization, in a job that allows me to connect with people deeply and personally and bring my unique qualities and personality to my work. Delivering experiences at scale according to detailed protocols just doesn’t inspire my adult self.
But I will always remain a big fan of the Disney World visitor experience regardless of what happens with the larger company or however many widgets they sell over time. Those were authentic and powerful feelings I had as a boy. They were creative and electrifying. They were also very real, even if the experience was manufactured.
Should I care that people went to great lengths to curate that experience, to optimize it for maximum enjoyment?
Should I care that the experience wasn’t authentic?
And what does it mean to have an authentic experience anyway?
I don’t know how to answer those questions, although they fascinate me.
Everything feels so manufactured these days to be honest. People everywhere have their own personal brands. Much of social media feels like personal advertisements and too-perfect versions of the people I know. Local mom and pop shops now have easy access to sophisticated management tools and computer systems and many use them to streamline and better-monetize their operations. There are also micro-businesses and blogs out there by the thousands serving the needs of seemingly every hobby and interest out there, creating recipes and formulas for what once were fringe experiences that you had to discover for yourself. And I rarely get seemingly authentic joy and happiness from the folks I interact with at either small or large organizations anymore. Employees these days often come across as detached and disengaged from their roles and their company’s mission.
To me, being authentic is being honest about your thoughts and feelings and who you are. You like what you like and you’re not ashamed or pretentious about it, whether it’s mass produced or one of a kind.
It might be harder to find people, things or experiences that are truly authentic these days, but it’s always wonderful to come across someone with a positive attitude who’s a force for good and happiness in the world. Small interactions like this are what it’s all about, regardless of how big or well-managed the business is that’s delivering them. If the folks on the ground at Disney World didn’t believe in what they were doing, they’d probably come across like a bunch of grumpy ride operators at the county fair.
While I don’t love each and every little thing about Disney World, I do love it fully and completely, kind of like the way I love my flawed but well meaning self. I don’t need perfection in order to love something.
I can’t wait to take my daughter to Disney World for her first visit someday. And god willing I can bring my future grandkids there one day too.