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).
You're not wrong, but isn't "consumption" the entire point of every vacation ever? Do you do anything other than consume when you, say, go for a cruise? Road trip across the country? Go be a tourist in a city abroad? What could you possibly get out of a vacation other than "consuming"?
While I agree somewhat with the descriptive aspect of your comment I think you assume a view of humans that is too atomic or individualistic as agenents. No doubt "these people" have "made" consuming a large part of their identity, but this is only half the story.
The reality in which many in the US and maybe the West generally (perhaps elsewhere too) is one in which one's life as an agent is constrained within the bounds of being a consumer. What I mean is people are habituated into expressing their agency as a consumer: Someone or thing offers you something, you "decide" to accept it or reject it. If you don't like what's being offered, you leverage your ability to consume as the means by which you exert power over the producer, i.e., "Make me an offer I like or I'll consumer elsewhere (if I can)".
So, of course people's identities are consumption centered. This is because is what reality is for peoples' everyday life, consumption choices. So people express who they are through the available consumption choices. Think about how people are marketed to, at least in the US. People are slammed with "Your choice" and "have it your way" and "be you" in advertising as if consuming a product is an expression of their respective identities.
Anyway, this is all just to say: The structure of society and the discourse that supports it plays a big role in constraining and guiding how people think and what choices people can even imagine are open to them when making decisions. So not all the responsibility or blame should be focused on individuals, but on large social structures, practices, and discourses.
There's nothing wrong with targeting a different ICP from who you were previously.
As a business you in fact have an incentive to target these kinds of identity-driven consumers as they are much more likely to spend more on average than others.
And Disney is shifting their entire GTM as a result, but frankly there is nothing wrong with that - consumer tastes change.
That said, it sounds like you are dismissive of Disney-fanatics when in reality everyone is hypertargeted by their specific subculture. Doesn't matter if your a Tater, a ranked MMO gamer, Boardgame addicts, fantasy football aficionado, CrossFit enthusiast, mechanical keyboard collector, etc.
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
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.
You can't scale up the Magic Kingdom, no. But Disney had a pattern going for a while where they opened a new Florida park every 10 years or so: 1971, 1982, 1989, 1998. That probably helped a lot. They've done some small expansions in the existing parks since then, but they're about 20 years behind in adding a new park. I think that's a huge part of the crowding issue now.
(Now Anaheim, there they're kind of hosed. No space to expand.)
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.
I agree, I think it does simply make sense to cater to the customers with the money. If I were starting a business selling products or services to consumers directly, I wouldn't target a customer base that could only afford to buy it once or twice. It wouldn't matter why they have more money, being child free or being a software engineer from San Francisco, I would just figure out their demographic and target them.
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.
parl_match|4 days ago
parliament32|4 days ago
simon666|4 days ago
The reality in which many in the US and maybe the West generally (perhaps elsewhere too) is one in which one's life as an agent is constrained within the bounds of being a consumer. What I mean is people are habituated into expressing their agency as a consumer: Someone or thing offers you something, you "decide" to accept it or reject it. If you don't like what's being offered, you leverage your ability to consume as the means by which you exert power over the producer, i.e., "Make me an offer I like or I'll consumer elsewhere (if I can)".
So, of course people's identities are consumption centered. This is because is what reality is for peoples' everyday life, consumption choices. So people express who they are through the available consumption choices. Think about how people are marketed to, at least in the US. People are slammed with "Your choice" and "have it your way" and "be you" in advertising as if consuming a product is an expression of their respective identities.
Anyway, this is all just to say: The structure of society and the discourse that supports it plays a big role in constraining and guiding how people think and what choices people can even imagine are open to them when making decisions. So not all the responsibility or blame should be focused on individuals, but on large social structures, practices, and discourses.
glasss|4 days ago
tylerflick|4 days ago
coldtea|4 days ago
alephnerd|4 days ago
As a business you in fact have an incentive to target these kinds of identity-driven consumers as they are much more likely to spend more on average than others.
And Disney is shifting their entire GTM as a result, but frankly there is nothing wrong with that - consumer tastes change.
That said, it sounds like you are dismissive of Disney-fanatics when in reality everyone is hypertargeted by their specific subculture. Doesn't matter if your a Tater, a ranked MMO gamer, Boardgame addicts, fantasy football aficionado, CrossFit enthusiast, mechanical keyboard collector, etc.
ChrisArchitect|4 days ago
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...
casey2|4 days ago
These social classes will collapse quicker than you think, you're seeing the final death throes with age-verification laws
mrguyorama|4 days ago
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.
danorama|4 days ago
(Now Anaheim, there they're kind of hosed. No space to expand.)
Bender|4 days ago
profdevloper|3 days ago
mothballed|4 days ago
glasss|4 days ago
puskavi|4 days ago
burnt-resistor|4 days ago
unknown|4 days ago
[deleted]
WentFullRetard|4 days ago
[deleted]