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This thread is spot on but also Disney already positions its parks as destinations for childless adults, couples, groups. Again, that's not the focus! But it's good business and always has been.
I've been to Disney World many times as an adult (it was my mother's happy place) and, like. I have done things like yield a nice parade spot to someone with children and I will certainly reassure worried parents I'm not judging their kids or about to complain about them.
I do that kind of thing because I believe Disney is *for* children more than it's for me, and again, my mother took me again and again and I don't know, this might be this family's one-and-only and I want them to have a good time.
I'm not going to ruin some kid's day at Disney. I will not make them stand behind me at the rail of a parade overlook, because. I'm taller than a kid. That's just what it is. I'll "By all means..." a harried parent with children in front of me at the ice cream shop. I'm fine.
But like that story that was circulating, that I think prompted the discourse that prompted this thread? If there's a line of thirty people for a pretzel stand... well, first, I'm not going to be in that line. But if I was I wouldn't get out of it to save a pretzel for the kids.
If you do have kids and you want to go to a Disney park... join the forums. I'm the wrong person to tell you which one. But Disney... Disney was my mother's D&D. It was her Overwatch. She knew the metagame. She knew the lore. She knew the hacks and exploits.
There is a Disney metagame and if you master it -- bearing in mind that just like any game they will adjust things if it gets too unbalanced -- but if you master it, you'll never be in a line of thirty people for a pretzel.
Join the forums. Learn the ins and outs, the ebb and the flow. It is possible to walk right into a big candy shop when there's no wait at the counter, to wander into a princess photo encounter, etc.
You can speedrun a Disney park. That's not the most fun way to encounter it, but knowing it's possible to do that, you can figure out how to do things with far less stress and still have a good time.
Before they nerfed FastPass (I told you, they rebalance things) my mother used to get whole a family group on Toy Story Midway Mania 3 or 4 times in a day without having to go through the standby line. My hand to Mickey.
After I'd been a few times I started to appreciate a more sedate stroll, more focused on lore and exploration than achievement, but she could still give me an itinerary that as written in the form of "IF you go [place] at [time] you can do [thing] and [thing]." and it was nice.
My mother min-maxed Disney World.
