Disney Adults

Shades:

A race car bed is OK as long as their is no seat belt.

I observe IROC procedures when getting into bed.

No racecar bed. Just a regular bed. That's really funny though.

I'll take the ribbing with a smile. I know I'm a goofball. I've always been a big kid. I was only allowed to sit at the kid's table until I was about thirty years old. LOL

But you can't tell me that you don't do kid's stuff sometimes. When a toddler comes to visit, power up the Nintendo and challenge them to a game of Mariocart. When you are walking through the park, go down the slide once or twice. Find a toy you had when you were a kid and start collecting it again. Magic cards, Transformers, Lego bricks.

It keeps me young. It reminds me to stop and enjoy life sometimes. It's a break from all the adulting. I mean, this is a roller coaster discussion group full of middle-aged men and women who are obsessed with amusement parks, roller coasters, dark rides, carousels, theming, ect.

...Glass houses. YMMV.

I've been thinking about this. I think there might be a lot of merit in keeping part of my 7-ish year old inner self around. I might do more of that.

I'm closing in on 55 and I am longing for someone to invite me to play a game of kickball or dodgeball. Last week my 5-year-old niece played hide-and-seek with me for about an hour. It is pretty hard to hide my 6' frame these days, however.

Don't worry - you shrink in height the older you get

I’d argue riding roller coasters and going to theme parks are for kids.

**ducks for cover**

You guys are just trolling me now.

It's not about NOT acting like a kid. Who doesn't understand keeping the child alive and whimsy and all that? That was never the point.

The point was, actively and regularly participating (Jesus Christ, the semantics required to post on this f'n site) in an activity traditionally seen by society at large as too far from appropriate (in this case, child-like with all the Disney and the dress-up and such), you will be viewed as a weirdo.

I'm just the messenger. I thought we all understood this.

This does not include things like:

- Going down the slide once in a while if you pass an empty park
- Keeping an old toy or momento from your childhood around as a nice memory
- Playing Mario Kart against your juvenille relatives when you run into them

The fact that I'm having to explain it like this...

AAARRRRGGGHHH! How can a room so smart be so clueless!?

It's the trolling thing, right?

I don't know. I still come down to I don't agree with your premise, namely: It is not my experience that vacationing at Disney regularly is "an activity traditionally seen by society at large as too far from appropriate." Just because a newspaper tells me that should be my experience, that doesn't mean it is.

Large caveat: I'm pretty good at ignoring what society thinks is appropriate. For example, I often hang out with a group of friends where there are more felonies in the room than people. This is not a small group; there are probably several dozen who routinely show up.

With the birthrate falling, the future of Disney might rely very heavily on Disney Adults.

I will say this, I am put off by the live streamers in the parks more so than the adult costume wearers. People who are live streaming their entire walks through a queue or every step through a store have replaced stroller pushers as the people I'd most likely take a swing at.

Co-signed on the vlogger issue. They are insufferable.

Brian Noble:

where there are more felonies in the room than people.

You hanging with Trump?

Brian Noble:

I don't know. I still come down to I don't agree with your premise, namely: It is not my experience that vacationing at Disney regularly is "an activity traditionally seen by society at large as too far from appropriate." Just because a newspaper tells me that should be my experience, that doesn't mean it is.

Agreed...on the last line, at least.

However, it's my experience that this is exactly the case (hence the claim). So, where are we really? Does it matter? No one is saying you should ever give a second of thought about what others think of you. But that doesn't mean others aren't thinking of you.

Again, came here with the vid because, like the author, I was ready to laugh. But after seeing, hearing, and considering more, I saw it a little differently. Thought this room would be the perfect place for a discussion about all the pieces surrounding that - including changing fanbases, aging population, social dynamics and stuff.

I have no idea why it immediately went off the rails.

I still got some insight along the way. Win.

I will say that this has been some entertaining reading. Like Gonch, I expected the video to be poking fun at the "society labeled" crazy Disney adults who do the full on Disney costume thing, even when they are not at Disney (like was shown in the opening montage). Obviously the video took a different turn and stayed away from that for the most part. Instead it simply focused on "normal" adults going to Disney without any kids.

To me those are two very different topics that I think society in general views very differently. I don't hear many people bad mouthing the "normal" adults going to Disney. I think most people have grasped that Disney is not just for kids. As an example, there is an entire sub-culture built around drinking around the world at Epcot. To me Disney has matured into a generally excepted adult only activity.

Where I think the issue with society in general comes from is the folks who dress like full on Disney when they are not at Disney. I fully admit that if a co-worker walks into a meeting with a full on Peter Pan or Captain Hook outfit they are going to get the side eye from everyone in that room. And I don't think this is because I am an engineer, I think the average Joe 6-pack is going to have the same reaction. Like it or not, society has created norms and when people stray from those there is going to be a reaction.

But since the point of the video, as well as Gonch's post have been (at least that is how I am reading them), has nothing to do with Captain Hook walking into Walmart, then we are left with the basic question of whether society accepts adults going to Disney. And to me I don't see anyone, except the rednecks in Alabama, saying that is not OK.

Or I am completely wrong, as I usually am on these types of discussion.

Shades:

And to me I don't see anyone, except the rednecks in Alabama, saying that is not OK.

The state or the band?

How much of the issue is the result of social media? Back in the day, few people necessarily knew of whatever interests you may have. Now, many people share close to everything on social media for the world to see/judge. Way of bringing people together with common interests that back in the day were difficult to find. But also opens people up to the judgment of those who do not share those interests.

Vater:

The state or the band?

Yes

GoBucks89:

But also opens people up to the judgment of those who do not share those interests

And, gives the judgy folks a space to make their opinions known*, even if they live in mom's basement or share a mansion with 130 cats or otherwise, in simpler times, wouldn't have an audience for their thoughts.

*Like Coasterbuzz, for example

So judgement of, and gossip about, others didn't exist before the internet?

No, obviously people were judgy - I mean, have you read The Scarlet Letter? But social media helped turned gossip from an unattractive tendency to a profitable enterprise.

Lord Gonchar:

So judgement of, and gossip about, others didn't exist before the internet?

Who is trolling now? Of course it did. But with the internet, the reach is exponentially broader. On both sides of the equation.