Can you explain reason behind annual pass? I've seen it once. Enough for 10yrs, maybe a lifetime.

P.S. I do understand hobbies ;)

My wife and I, and her family, have been Walt Disney World (Florida) passholders for years. My dad was a passholder for years until he moved another 45 minutes away from Disney.

It's a little expensive, but there's always something fun to do. Most of us go to re-ride some of our favorite rides. My dad went to just walk around and get exercise and look at things.

Epcot center also has a ton of live entertainment including live bands and performers. They also have events with foods from around the world, flower or butterfly festivals, and more.

For what it's worth, my impression of Disneyland (California and Tokyo) wasn't nearly as good. They were fun, but they didn't have enough stuff to keep me coming back. But then, I don't live there, so maybe there's more to it. Those parks did have one thing that I wish Florida had: They change some of the rides once in a while to match another theme, such as Nightmare Before Christmas on the Haunted Mansion or "Hyperspace Mountain" (Star Wars) on Space Mountain.

I have to say... You're the only person I've ever heard say they went to Disney once and have no interest in going back.

You can add me to the list of people never wanting to go back.

I was fairly excited to take my kids to Disney as I had never been there myself as a kid for unknown reasons. And while I had good time, once is certainly enough. I'd rather travel and see different places as opposed to going the same place year after year.

I think I have had my fill of Magic Kingdom in Orlando. Last time I was there, I hated just about every minute of it. Every square inch of the park seemed to have been redesigned to suck more money out of my pockets rather than to ensure I was having an enjoyable experience.

Every last one of the rides seemed dated and lame, even if they had been recently renovated. Wait. Scratch that. The Finding Nemo one was okay. And that was back when they were using Fastpass instead of this wristband/app system they apparently have now.

I'll actually be in Orlando again a week from now, and we didn't even consider planning anything Disney. The entertainment value divided by the total daily cost of visiting a park is simply too low now. It isn't just the high ticket prices. They unabashedly overcharge for meals and food, and the nearby lodgings nickel and dime you on everything. And the time cost for everything is ridiculous.

The only reason it is so popular is that Disney cross-promotes everything in its media empire. If you let your kids watch enough Disney Channel on television, they will eventually want to visit a Disney theme park or cruise ship.

FWIW, they're still doing fastpass... It's just that the bands are another way to get a fastpass, as is the smartphone app. You can still just get one the old way, though.

I can't argue about the nickel-and-diming, though. It's getting ridiculous.

I guess it depends where you live and how far you have to travel. I live quite close to a major theme park (that many people travel a significant distance to visit) and for me it's a great place to kill a few hours on a lazy afternoon with my daughter when we have nothing better to do. Sometimes they have fun shows in the evening we'll drop by and watch. If nothing else it's a nice place for a weekend walk.

I’m pretty sure it says a lot about my aesthetic and political preferences, some aspects of which I’m not proud of, as I try to reflect on why this is, but the concept of a corporate theme park being a nice place for a walk gives me a physical feeling of revulsion.

I will likely take my daughter to a Disney theme park at some point, and will be willing to tolerate the hyper-branding experience for a day, but I will do so clenching my teeth while observing (especially) people pretending Disney Princesses exist in reality.

Different strokes for different folks!

There's barely any pedestrian-safe areas in Southern California where people congregate. And they say the malls are dying. I wouldn't know, I haven't been in one in years.

I've been to many theme parks (only Disney one was in Paris, I'm in Europe), and most of them I don't feel the need to revisit.

That's too bad - there is a world of difference between DLP and Disneyworld.

Disney Paris is awful compared to most others I have been. Taste maybe, but still.

I have friends who always go to Disney World in Orlando; although that is over the top for me, but to spend time with them we go there too. To have an annual pass makes it relaxed, if you travel around and they are inside the World perimeter to just come back at night and have dinner and drinks at Epcot etc. If you have to pay for it you would not do that, but now we did just that a lot for a few hours and then get back to the hotel. I rather go to difference places but I have friends, which includes them, who just always go to the same place (camping in France, resort in Greece and Disney world to name 3 families we hang with).

It's a very difference experience going as a AP holder then the insane one day visit. It's much more laid back. I typically do the three fast-passes I can get, plus a couple of favorites that I can hit when the lines are not long.

As a engineer Disneyworld is _fascinating_. Every type of engineering is at play, from social engineering to mechanical, IT, operational research etc. Think about the complexity of dealing with 80k people streaming randomly into a park, who all want to be entertained by a combination of rides, characters and shows. in my experience, the average fans wants around 7 rides/experiences a day to feel like it's a good time. Think about the processes and systems you need to support that.

I believe the reason is because they started doing payment plans for annual passes so sales shot up.

I'm sure the capital costs are crazy for building a new park, but with all the demand I'm still a bit surprised there's no talk of building a Disney park in the middle of the U.S. They appear to operate very independently (the fact WDW has had fastpass+ and magic bands for years and DL is just now announcing a completely different system, Maxpass).

You mentioned demand internationally. Disneyland Paris is the only park outside of the U.S. wholly owned by Disney. Not sure if it was a concession (I could see that for China) or as a risk-sharing thing. I would imagine Disney would want to own 100% of any new park if possible.

My biggest disappointment with Disney right now is that the parks no longer feel like places to escape for me. We mainly go to take the kids and, while they have a wonderful time, I used to actually enjoy going there to have fun. Now, every single bit of the parks and the surrounding areas have been engineered (perfectly, I might add) to make the most money for Disney even at the expense of being enjoyable. It used to be that I would gladly fork over a few dollars for a Mickey water-bottle fan because the rest of the park was so enjoyable but now it just feels like they care more about the money than they do about making it an awesome, "magical" place.