Why do People Choose to Visit Walt Disney World?

Why do People Choose to Visit Walt Disney World?

Introduction

I applied to Walt Disney World’s College Internship Program, was accepted, and begin the program in May 2024. As described on the program website (Disney Careers), participants can live in Disney-owned dorm-style apartments, work as a “cast member” [employee] in one of twenty different roles, and also participate in different classroom activities. The program started in 1981 and is now one of the longest-running internships in the country. My first role was custodial at the Yacht & Beach Club resort. Within the first month, I transferred to attractions, where I have worked at the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at the Magic Kingdom ever since. By the time my program concludes in January, I will have taken over 50 hours of classroom learning and worked approximately 1,000 hours. I have posted 15 weekly articles about my experience at jsfriedland.blogspot.com, and this capstone paper will summarize my thoughts about why people are willing to spend so much money on a vacation at Walt Disney World. Based on my research and first-hand experience as a cast member over the past seven months, the primary reasons people continue to visit are: escapism, nostalgia, family-friendliness, and variety.

Escapism

John Wills wrote about how even as far back as the 1950s, “The immense success of Disney came down to a range of factors: shrewd marketing, technical excellence, musicality and comedy, and emotional impact… Disney also provides escape, especially in periods of struggle” (18). Day in and day out as a cast member, I see how “guests” [park visitors] enjoy their time in the parks as a complete escape from the daily responsibilities and stresses of their regular lives. I also experience this during my time off. For example, back in September I blogged about how much I enjoyed Caring for Giants, a publicly available tour at the Animal Kingdom Theme Park. The up-close experience with Elephants was led by an animal caretaker and I completely escaped the stresses of work throughout the experience. Similarly, when my family came out to visit last week, the then of us were all able to escape the stresses of daily life and enjoy time together at the resort, in theme parks, at eating fun meals together.

Janet Wasko had a very different take on Disney’s motivation, describing the company’s goal as control, “The park layouts, as well as most rides and exhibit, are designed to control visitors’ activities and experiences” (184). There is some merit to her argument. Perhaps the most “controlling” of any experience Disney has ever designed, the “Galactic Starcruiser” was an ambitious cruise-like experience, but on land (Passy and Pohle). The idea was that guests would be completely immersed in a two-night Star Wars experience. But the experience was very expensive at over $6,000 for a family of four and shuttered in 2023. There are multiple ways to view the short lifespan of the experience. One is from Wasko’s point-of-view around control, and perhaps the experience was simply too inorganic to be successful. Another is around price, and the experience was simply too expensive. Yet a third perspective is from that of the cast member. I had the opportunity to chat with a relocated cast member and get more of a “behind the scenes” take on the now-closed attraction. They said the role was incredibly difficult because cast members not only needed to provide the entertainment, but housekeeping and multiple other roles all in the same day. This is different than how most of the resort operations are set up, where cast members tend to have a single role all the time. But ultimately, I expect Disney will learn from this experiment and try similar land-based immersive experiences in the future. Between their themed resorts and cruises, Disney has proven that guests are willing to spend money if the immersive experience is done well.

You need look no further than Disney’s massive investments in technology. Cliff Kuang wrote in 2015 about the then-unprecedented $1 billion investment Disney was making in their Magicband technology. While the focus then was on Magicbands, the core of the technology was integrating attractions, dining, character meet-and-greets, shopping, and more. The article describes how "People spend less time in line. They're doing more, which means they're spending more and remembering more." Back then, Disney was not yet monetizing the convenience, but perhaps the vision was already in place. Wasko also talked about MyMagic+ as another lever of control by Disney (184). Fast forward a decade, and even during my short time as a cast member, Disney has continued to leverage technology for both the guest experience and as a revenue-generator. According to a massive leak in September, "The [lightning lane] passes generated more than $724 million in pretax revenue between October 2021 and June 2024 at Walt Disney World alone" (McMillan et al.). And in just the time between my September blog post and now, Disney went from announcing a new premium (upwards of $400 per person) pass, to piloting for deluxe resort guests, to making it available for all onsite guests this week (Francis). Again, there are multiple ways to view the investment in technology. Wasco is not wrong; it is a way for Disney to maintain tight control over the guest experience. But it is also true that for guests willing to spend money, it lets them escape the long lines and simply hop on each ride in a park once with a very short wait. 

Nostalgia

Ironically, nostalgia has been a part of Disney’s strategy since the early days of the company. As Christopher Anderson wrote, the Disneyland TV “Program also educated viewers through its attention to Disney studio history… One of the pleasures of Disneyland was the chance it offered to halt the flow of mass culture by remembering relics from the Disney vaults” (25). The opportunities for people to experience nostalgia have only grown exponentially since. For example, when my family visited, my grandparents, father, and uncle all shared stories of their visits to Walt Disney work in the 1970s and 80s. Similarly, my brother and I shared stories about our visits in the 2000s and 2010s with our younger cousins who were visiting for the first time. In several of my Disney College Learning courses, I learned about how the company works hard to balance its sense of history with its desire to continuously update its attractions. For examples, in my Disney College Program blog post, I wrote about how Brandon Peters, a Senior Manager in imagineering, described his experience designing some of the new theme park lands announced recently at D23. 

One of the biggest reasons people love connecting to their past Disney experiences is because of Disney’s focus on storytelling. Josh D'Amaro is one of the frontrunners to be the next CEO of The Walt Disney World Company (Andriotis et al.). I actually met Mr. D'Amaro on one of my first days off. He was just walking through one the of theme parks and was a super nice guy. He was happy to take a selfie with me and asked how I liked the college program. Back in August, he gave a presentation at the INBOUND conference where he talked about Disney's six steps for storytelling. Megan duBois wrote a nice article summarizing the speech, and here are six steps D'Amaro described: Emotional Connection, Innovation, Relatability, Attention to Detail, Courage, and Boundless Thinking. I have seen these in action first-hand as a cast member on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. For example, parents will tell their kids about their first time riding the ride or being in the park. I get to see kids that start off the ride pretty scared come off the ride elated and ready to ride again. D'Amaro said much the same in his speech, that the experience needs to be emotional and "amazing." Attention to detail matters a lot to this day. Our attraction leaders emphasize this point, and cast members are held to a high standard for costume, safety, and guest interactions.

Wasco also describes cast member training and policies extensively. However, her view is decidedly one-sided, with comments like “it might also be noted that employees are carefully instructed about how to handle emergencies in precise ways” and goes on to talk about how allegedly “medical staff must wat until they are off the company property to pronounce a person dead” (100). My personal experience differed significantly from her accounting. For example, During the extensive ride-training I received for Big Thunder Mountain, safety was indeed emphasized. We learned every evacuation route and trained all the different ways to stop the ride to keep guests safe. The training was quite a bit more extensive than what the typical ride operator would receive at other companies like Six Flags (Indeed). I’d go as far as to make the claim that Disney’s long-term dedication to cast member training and safety is a big part of why guests are nostalgic about their visits to Walt Disney World. They feel safe because they are safe.

Family-Friendliness

This sense of safety, escapism, and nostalgia is no accident. Foglesong wrote about the unique development of Disney World and the relationship with the nearby government, “It was February 1972 and NBC anchorperson David Brinkley was telling his viewers about the wonders of the newly opened Walt Disney World… What impressed Brinkley was the Disney “new town” that existed outside the park, consisting of roads, transportation systems, lakes, golf courses, campgrounds, riding stables, stores, and motels” (78). Walt Disney planned all of Disney World’s nearly 25,000 acres to an excruciating level of detail with a single goal in mind, to build a place people of all ages would enjoy together as a family. Vanderbilt quotes Deyan Sudjic as saying “you don’t have to swallow Disney’s world view to see that what he is doing is astonishing, the urban equivalent of NASA. Most ideal worlds stay on paper, Disney has built his.” This planned environment has been written about extensively and is generally considered the origin of the entire phrase 'theme park', “Disney reconceptualized the amusement park as a full imaginative experience, a theme park, rather than a series of diversions” (Gabler xiii).

The company has continued to invest in its theme parks ever since Disneyland opened more than 75 years ago. Back in 1965 the New York Times wrote about how “Two million dollars [Twenty million in 2024 dollars] will be invested in the park this year and Walt Disney sees no end to future development” (Litwak). The most meaningful shift in Walt Disney World’s strategy over the past 10 or 15 years has been an emphasis on leveraging intellectual property (IP) and franchises. As Ben Fritz wrote a decade ago, then (and again) CEO Bob Iger “refocused Disney around what it calls “franchises”—or entertainment juggernauts that live on for many years as theme-park rides, toys, videogames, television shows, pajamas and just about anything else that keeps revenue rolling in.”

And while from a revenue perspective, intellectual property franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar films all bring in huge sums of money, it’s worth unpacking why Iger has continued to focus on these juggernauts. One of the core reasons is because Disney owns such a vast and diverse set of IP that they now have something for people of all ages. To put just a bit of its IP in the context of my family vacation last week, Disney’s “old” IP like Mickey Mouse and Haunted Mansion appeal to my grandparents. “Middle Age” IP like Star Wars and The Incredibles appeals to my parents and uncle. Its “Youngest” IP like the partnership with Fortnite (Tassi), Marvel, and Inside Out appeals to my brother, cousins, and me. There were, quite literally, rides for everyone in our group in every one of the four theme parks we visited. My grandparents enjoyed riding the slow classics while my cousins enjoyed fast new rides like Guardians of the Galaxy. Disney’s strategy to focus on guests of all ages is a big reason why people continue to spend big dollars on their Walt Disney World vacation. As Wasko wrote, “The Disney company has grown by vigilantly controlling its products, character, and images and developing its reputation as a company that product positive, wholesome, family, and children’s entertainment” (264). My family, and almost all of the guests I’ve interacted with would concur with Wasko on this point.

Variety

While Walt Disney World remains the largest theme park in the world by any measure (size, number of gates, revenue, foot traffic, etc.), its next closest competitor in the Orlando area, Universal, is gaining ground. With two existing theme parks, Universal recently announced they were going to open both a third theme park, Epic Universe, and their new signature, connected Universal Helios Grand Hotel in May 2025. The New York Times predicts over 10 million visitors in the first year, at least 1 million of which be "siphoned" from Walt Disney World (Barnes). Behind the scenes at Disney, cast members talk about, and visit, Universal on a regular basis. One of our program-led trips was to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights where I was able to compare and contrast experiences first-hand. Universal’s theme parks have more “thrill rides” and are definitely targeted more towards the teenage crowd. But their new Epic Universe theme park takes direct aim at Walt Disney World, with over 50 new attractions including franchises like Harry Potter, Super Nintendo World, and How to Train Your Dragon (Universal Studios).

While Disney has commented very little on the record about Universal’s plans, they have announced, perhaps not so coincidentally, a number of investments in Walt Disney World to add even more variety to the parks. It started in September when the company said they would invest $60 Billion over the next decade in its theme parks and cruises (Whelan and Lukpat). In April, the Wall Street Journal wrote extensively on the increasing competition between Disney and Universal (Passy and Whelan). I found this anecdote illuminating, “Iger holds a meeting every month or two to review major initiatives with Imagineers. He and D’Amaro, one of the executives on the shortlist of Iger’s potential successors as CEO, have delivered a clear message at recent meetings that one person in attendance described as: ‘Open the doors and show me your new visions.’” 

  I’ve seen this strategy evolve even during my short stay in the College Program such as all the new lands announced at D23 like Cars Land, Villains Land, Tropical Americas, and Monsters Inc. Land (Caramanna) to smaller changes like retiring Aerosmith and re-theming Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster to the Muppets (Taylor). Disney is continuing to lean into variety as a core reason why people would be willing to spend so much money on their vacation. And this variety plays out across multiple marketing channels. For example, I was able to get behind the scenes access to Disney’s ABC Holiday filming. As Robin Burks describes, this was the first year where Main Street was actually closed off to regular guests during filming of the holiday parade; only cast members were allowed for that portion. I learned from my behind-the-scenes access that this year the holiday special will not only be shown on ABC but will also stream on Disney+ and Hulu. Disney is not just working on variety within their theme parks, but across many different forms of media as well. Wasko discussed this at length, and even comments “Disney references abound on ABC, and it is difficult to believe that they are all ‘organic’” (60). I can confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that the cross-platform references are anything but organic, they are in fact an essential part of the strategy to build up the Disney brand.

Conclusion

Based on my research and first-hand experience as both a guest and a cast member over the past seven months. the primary reasons people continue to visit Walt Disney World are escapism, nostalgia, family-friendliness, and variety. This is by design. From planning to training to strategy, Disney differentiates their theme park experience through attention to detail, storytelling, and immersion. When my family wrapped their vacation last week and went home, they were already starting to plan the next time they could come down to spend quality time together in the resorts, parks, and restaurants. While they might also visit Universal, more of their time and money will be spent at Disney because all the elements of escape, nostalgia, family, and variety still come together much better at Walt Disney World than anywhere else in the world. The future of Walt Disney World is bright, though as with all businesses, it will require constant attention, investment, and dedication to retain its place as the premier theme park destination in the world. And to any future North Central College Communications or Media Studies major considering the Disney College Internship Program, I highly recommend applying. You will be immersed at one of the world’s largest media and entertainment empires and gain invaluable insight from a “behind-the-scenes” viewpoint of all the different ways you might be able to apply your education towards a career in the industry after graduation.

Works Cited

Anderson, Christopher. HollywoodTV: The Studio System in the Fifties. 1st ed., University of Texas Press, 1994. Accessed through https://web.mit.edu/21l.432/www/readings/disneyland.pdf

Andriotis, AnnaMaria, et al. “James Gorman, the Wall Street Veteran Leading Disney’s Search for Bob Iger’s Replacement.” WSJ, The Wall Street Journal, 22 Oct. 2024, www.wsj.com/business/media/james-gorman-disney-chairman-morgan-stanley-ceo-c1196c8b.

Barnes, Brooks. “Universal’s Epic Orlando Theme Park Will Open in May.” The New York Times, 17 Oct. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/10/17/business/media/universal-epic-universe-opening-date.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TU4.p6Eu.sc9G8lK5zKrg&smid=url-share.

Burks, Robin. “SPOTTED: Disney’s TV Crew Was Seen FILMING the Christmas Day Parade at Magic Kingdom.” AllEars.net, 9 Nov. 2024, allears.net/2024/11/09/spotted-disneys-tv-crew-was-seen-filming-the-christmas-day-parade-at-magic-kingdom/.

Caramanna, Carly. “Everything Announced for Disney Parks at D23 — from New Lands, Long-Awaited Attractions, and More.” Travel + Leisure, 2024, www.travelandleisure.com/disneys-d23-park-announcements-villians-coco-avengers-8693799.

Disney Careers. “Disney College Program.” Jobs.disneycareers.com, 2024, jobs.disneycareers.com/disney-programs.

Disney Parks. “Caring for Giants.” Disneyworld.disney.go.com/, 2024, disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/animal-kingdom/caring-for-giants/. 

duBois, Megan. “Disney Shares Its Six Ingredient Recipe for Storytelling Success as the Company Looks to the Future.” Forbes, 23 Sept. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/megandubois/2024/09/23/disney-shares-its-six-ingredient-recipe-for-storytelling-success-as-the-company-looks-to-the-future/.

Foglesong, Richard E. Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando. Yale University Press, 2001.

Francis, Katie. “BREAKING: Lightning Lane Premier Pass Now Available to Guests at ANY Walt Disney World Hotel - WDW News Today.” WDW News Today, 22 Nov. 2024, wdwnt.com/2024/11/breaking-lightning-lane-premier-pass-now-available-to-guests-at-any-walt-disney-world-hotel/.

Fritz, Ben. “How Disney Milks Its Hits for Profits Ever After.” WSJ, The Wall Street Journal, 9 June 2015, www.wsj.com/articles/how-disney-milks-its-hits-for-profits-ever-after-1433813239.

Gabler, Neal. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Vintage Books, 2007.

Kuang, Cliff. “Disney’s $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband.” Wired, 10 Mar. 2015, www.wired.com/2015/03/disney-magicband/.

Litwak, Leo. “A Fantasy That Paid Off.” New York Times, 27 June 1965, timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/06/27/97214423.html?pageNumber=246.

McMillan, Robert, et al. “Exclusive | Leaked Disney Data Reveals Financial, Strategy Secrets.” WSJ, The Wall Street Journal, 5 Sept. 2024, www.wsj.com/business/media/leaked-disney-data-reveals-financial-and-strategy-secrets-56573020.

“Okay for a First Job.” Indeed, 3 June 2023, www.indeed.com/cmp/Six-Flags,-Inc./reviews/okay-for-a-first-job?id=87440e361c9330d3.

Passy, Jacob, and Allison Pohle. “Disney’s Star Wars Hotel Was Too Much—Even for Star Wars Fans.” WSJ, The Wall Street Journal, 19 May 2023, www.wsj.com/articles/disney-star-wars-hotel-galactic-starcruiser-f2edd37c?st=TkXuCV&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.

Passy, Jacob, and Robbie Whelan. “Disney World Faces New Universal Threat from Epic Universe.” WSJ, The Wall Street Journal, 13 Apr. 2024, www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/universal-disney-theme-park-dominance-a71ba4c6?st=ds25gW&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink.

Tassi, Paul. “‘Fortnite’ and Disney Team-up Means Some Character Can’t Use Guns.” Forbes, 7 Oct. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/10/07/fortnite-and-disney-team-up-means-some-character-cant-use-guns/.

Taylor, Drew. “Jim Henson’s Muppet*Vision 3D to Close at Disney World, Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster Gets Muppets Re-Theme.” TheWrap, 22 Nov. 2024, www.thewrap.com/muppet-vision-3d-closing-rock-n-rollercoaster-muppet-retheme/.

Universal Studios. “Universal Orlando Resort’s Much-Anticipated New Theme Park, Universal Epic Universe, Officially Opens on May 22, 2025.” Universalparksusa.com, 10AD, media.universalparksusa.com/press-releases/universal-epic-universe-officially-opens-on-may-22-2025/.

Vanderbilt, Tom. “It’s a Mall World After All: Disney, Design, and the American Dream.” Harvard Design Magazine Fall 1999: 89-93.

Wasko, Janet. Understanding Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy. Polity Press, 2020.

Whelan, Robbie, and Alyssa Lukpat. “Disney to Invest $60 Billion in Theme Parks, Cruises over next Decade.” WSJ, The Wall Street Journal, 19 Sept. 2023, www.wsj.com/business/media/disney-to-invest-60-billion-in-theme-parks-cruises-over-next-decade-6fc87426?st=yXym1f&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink.

Wills, John. Disney Culture. Rutgers University Press, 2017.