I came across a depressing article in The New Yorker last week that had very little to do with New York. It focused instead on a happy and magical place called ‘Disney’.
Can I start a column that way? Confessing that an article about happy people, written by Amelia Tait, made me feel depressed? When in fact the people Ms. Tait interviewed were just trying to be happy?
The article title is Are Disney Adults the Happiest Debtors on Earth?
The adults interviewed by Ms. Tait — some were parents, some were not — had happily put expensive trips to various Disney theme parks on their credit cards. Emphasis on the word “expensive”. Like, going thousands of dollar in debt, and in some cases making multiple trips per year.
In her New Yorker article, Ms. Tait quotes AJ Wolfe, author of the book, Disney Adults: Exploring (and Falling in Love with) a Magical Subculture.
Twenty years ago, when [Ms. Wolfe] was in her mid-twenties, living on Staten Island and working as a nonprofit-grant writer in Manhattan, she was feeling jaded and started “medicating with Disney,” as she put it. During her daily commute on the Staten Island ferry, she would read Disney guidebooks and think about her next visit. “That is what I lived for,” she said. “Disney World was the opposite of New York City. It was clean. It was sanitized. There were no surprises except good surprises.”
She took more than ten Disney trips in five years and went seventeen thousand dollars into debt. “I needed to go into a space where I wouldn’t have to think, and I was willing to pay for that,” she said.
Obviously, Ms. Wolfe had indeed fallen in love with a magical subculture.
That’s the main problem with falling in love. Debt. And falling in love is definitely a space in which you don’t have to think. Better if you don’t, in fact.
Some of us already have plenty of debt on our credit cards without needing to visit Disney World. Maybe we’re also paying off student debt. (I’m not, but I have nothing against people who are.) And maybe also, a big fat loan for that new pickup truck? (I love my little old Subaru.)
My parents took me to Disneyland in California — “The Happiest Place on Earth” — when I was about six, and Darlene and I took our kids to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida — “The Most Magical Place on Earth” — when they were around that same age.
Either resort might also qualify as “The Most Expensive Place on Earth” but I would have to award that honor to the Florida resort. Walt Disney World is the largest Disney resort campus in the world, covering 43 square miles. Four Disney theme parks, more than 30 resort hotel/villa/campground accommodations, two water parks, a sports complex, two shopping and dining districts, golf courses, and recreational lakes with water activities.
I still occasionally wear the Mickey T-shirt I bought there. The watch stopped working years ago.
I’ve never visited the resorts in Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, or Hong Kong, with or without Darlene. And probably never will.
I hear the Disney Abu Dhabi resort is being planned. Another resort unlikely to get a visit from me and my credit card.
In The New Yorker interview, book author AJ Wolfe spoke plainly about her past as a former Disney debtor.
“It was a case of financial illiteracy and addiction,” she said. And yet she continues to visit the parks today, in part because she runs a media company that operates the Disney Food Blog, a website full of tips to help people save money on their vacations. “It’s still very much exciting and fun and magical and joyful for me,” she said.
Wolfe understands that Disney markets magic, but she also feels that Disney — in comparison to other theme parks — fulfills its promises: “Disney delivers.”
Perhaps this is why nearly all of the Disney debtors I spoke with said that they have zero regrets…
Of course, it’s also possible to have zero regrets about the debt you have accrued, without visiting Disneyland or Walt Disney World.
You could visit, for example, Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and have zero regrets about your increased debt.
You could even live here full time, and have zero regrets.
About your debt, I mean.
You might regret other things, however.
All that being said, it’s probably a good thing that a place like Walt Disney World exists. And also, credit cards.
Seriously. How else will people experience happiness?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.