gistfile1.txt

It seems like a silly question to ask, from some perspectives - as in, why not disney? It's one of the most popular tourist destinations on earth, so it hardly seems like anyone would need to come up with an excuse to go. But people do ask, and wonder especially why anyone would go there as an adult, without kids in tow. And especially why someone who is very much not a mass-media person, not especially invested in popular culture.

I have a few reasons. 

Depth
Disney World - and the Magic Kingdom in particular - is a masterpiece of fractal complexity and artistry. Every square inch of the park has had decades of thought put into it. The closer you pay attention, the more little clever details you find, which is why I'm not going to be bored with this as my 4th visit in the last 5 years.

Contagiously Happy Atmosphere
They call it "The Happiest Place On Earth", and they're not kidding. They don't actually pump drugs into the air, but they don't need to - Disney are the absolute world masters of psychological tricks to get you in a good mood. You know how there are tricks in music to make you sad or happy? Key shifts, tempo shifts, specific patterns of chord resolutions? You know how people have studied this in advertising for the last, oh, 70 or 80 years? Now remember that you'll be in a place where they control absolutely everything you see and hear and smell. 

Is that creepy? Abso-fucking-lutely, in the context of "real life". That's why I use adblockers in my browser, don't really watch TV, don't spend all that much time on Facebook, etc.; I go out of my way, normally, to avoid the manipulatory tendrils of these things. But Disney is a place you go to intentionally have this stuff happen to you. And they're not trying to sell you anything - the sale's already made, you're already there. They're using their powers pretty much "for good" - to make everyone there happy and excited to be there.  [Ok, they might be selling you on coming back.]

An interesting side note about this - it really does work, as evidenced by observable changes in behavior in other people.  In any normal crowd - especially where people are in long lines - you'd expect strangers to yell at each other at least a little bit, right? It ... just doesn't happen there. People are nice to each other. Some of that is explained by us being used to the Northeast, and many tourists being from the Midwest, but not all of it. And there's so much trust - I've seen people leave things like ipads just loose, in full view, in stroller parking. 

Anyway, it's a really nice feeling to walk around and just feel like not only you're happy but everyone around you is too.

Logistics! 
This one might be less commonly a reason, but I'm certainly not alone. I really enjoy the challenges of navigating a complex ecosystem of timing and logistics and transportation and reservations, trying to fit everything in like a jigsaw puzzle. Disney works fine on a loose schedule - I wouldn't try to drag a kid under, say, 10 along at the pace I enjoy - but it also accommodates a tight one. A crucial component here is that things at Disney work. Because Disney is so good at making sure things run on time, there's this amazing degree of flow; you can run yourself ragged to get to things on time, but, crucially, when you get there, things happened -- Disney holds up their end of the bargain.  There's an old saw about the US Army that it is first and foremost an unfathomable network of typists and file clerks, secondarily a stupendous logistics mechanism for moving stuff from one part of the world to another, and last and least a fighting organization.  That goes for Disney World similarly -- sure, it's a theme park, but it's primarily one of the world's premier metropolitan-logistics facility - bus, rail, food service ...  People describe Singapore as "Disney with the death penalty", and, well, yeah.


Anyway, now that I've nerded out sufficiently on you - I hope this expresses a bit why I'm excited to go.