Disney starts a bit differently for all of us.

For me it started when I was a small kid, rushing to the family room to watch tv shows and movies on a Saturday morning. My young childhood was filled with Pete’s Dragon, Apple Dumpling Gang, the Wonderful World of Disney and so much more.

Disneyland has been around for even longer than I have been, but it’s integrated it’s rooted so deeply into my life that I have a hard time believing I used to have reservations about the whole franchise. This is my story of Disney and what it means to me.

Finally, in my late 20’s I got to go and experience Disneyland for the first time. As fun and exciting as it should have been, it was the complete opposite. It was not a good first time. We flew down to San Diego for my daughter’s birthday; we went to the zoo, Sea World, Legoland, and before the sun was up the next morning we left San Diego to arrive at Disneyland when it opened. My little family and I started before the sun came up and stayed at Disneyland well after the sun went down to watch the fireworks.

Can you assume we had a crazy long day? Yes. Yes, you can. It started relatively calm, nothing too crazy, we went to Goofy’s Kitchen for breakfast and then headed into the park. However, we were at Disneyland during the summer. We were there in August, and all of Southern California showed up and so did the infamous 99-degree heat came with them. It slowly began to spiral out of control. You could say that it was mostly self-inflicted, but it was my first time. However, that experience left a sour taste in my mouth. I never wanted to go back.

Fast forward a couple of years and my wife managed to convince me to give Disneyland one more try. We were a bit smarter about it this time around. We decided to go in the second week of December and let me tell you. It was like a whole new world. It felt like we owned the place and to top it all off the weather was perfect for us. That’s when it started, my love for everything Disney. Being able to stop and look around. To take in my surroundings and appreciate what makes Disney, Disney.

Can I potentially make you believe in the magic that I feel every time I go to Disney? Or watching the awe and wonder spread across my children and grandchild’s face when we walk through those gates? When you see the magic light up in your children’s eyes too? Maybe, or maybe not, but what I can tell you is what I see and feel every time I step through those gates as well.

Now when you think of Disney, you probably envision a big, money hungry corporation; and you know what? You’re right about that. Disney has this amazing ability to market and then oversaturate the market. They did it with Pixar’s Cars, and they even made matters worse is when they made it expensive to go to the parks. I mean, seriously, what doesn’t Disney own nowadays. I, myself, was extremely thrilled when they bought Star Wars. Honestly, I don’t think it was all that bad of an idea to take George Lucas away from that franchise, considering how he handled the prequels…

Then Disney bought Marvel. Some people are afraid of what mark Disney will have on these different franchise, or how it’s nonsense for one company to own a lot of the entertainment universe. But that’s what they do, and they do it well. They don’t skimp out of budgets, their graphics are amazing and even all their exploding bomb scenes in their movies are incredible! Disney let Pixar and Star Wars and Marvel make their own decisions about their films; they seem to give freedom to their franchises.

Now, enough of my wandering off path there, back to my second trip to Disneyland. It was amazing. We were able to ride the rides over and over, can you imagine being able to ride the Indiana Jones ride four times in a row because you wanted too? All the rides were like that it was insane. The second week of December is unofficially dubbed our time to go to Disney. Our next trip to Disney was not to the land, but actually to Disney World. We did go in December, although it wasn’t quite as slow as Disneyland was, it was close enough.

Disney has become busier during December as the years went by, but if you’ve never been to Disney during Christmas time, I would highly suggest it. It’s simply magical. Our first night there was fantastic, it was enchanting. There I am, watching the fireworks with my family, and the music and fireworks were perfect. It was all choreographed to a tea.

That wasn’t even the best part of the night though, that was at the very end. As the fireworks ended, they began playing “Let it Snow” by Dean Martin and as it was playing it started to snow over Main Street. All the adults, including myself, were dead silent and you can hear all the children and their gasps of amazement. It was… magical.

Then our trip to Disney World sealed the deal for men being a Disney fan. We saw one of their shows called Fantasmic and wow was it spectacular. The attention to detail was stellar, and that’s what this is all about, that what made me a fan of Disney. If you walked into the Tower of Terror (now the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride) and you just took a moment to stop and look around. You’ll be amazed at the detail in the lobby of the hotel. All the dust and the placement of the props, to give it that look like it’s been sitting there for decades, uninterrupted.

Then take my personal favorite, Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland. When you walk to the start of Indiana Jones you get a taste of the of what is like being in the movie. It’s so crazily detailed; I love it. That’s what it’s all about. That attention to detail, to go that extra mile to transport you to another time, or place, or even galaxy. If you walk around and look, I mean look, at all the work their dedicated workers put into creating the most magical experience for you. It’s truly inspiring.

Now I mentioned before I hoped to make you a believer in Disney and so here it goes. There’s a couple of things that you should know about Disney before you go. Since you’ve committed to going, you should be aware that Disney is expensive. I mean it gets costly. Although you have to remember you’re paying top dollar to help their employees give you the happiest experience that you can get there. The price tag that comes with the park is far from cheap, but I know that my money will be useful in creating the magic. Secondly, more than just my family and I love Disney, so it’s going to be busy, super busy even depending on when you go to the park.

You’ll be waiting in lines for just about everything and no matter how much you want the lines to go faster they won’t (maybe invest in a FastPass), but take the time to look around and enjoy the scenery that goes into making Disney Disney. Relax, you’re there for your kids or maybe your significant others or even your whole family. Now for the best part, I know I’ve sounded like a broken record throughout my article talking about the attention to detail, and that may seem corny to you, but to me, it makes all the differences.

They keep the place immaculate in all areas, I mean who goes into that much trouble to keep the whole park clean like that. The younger kids genuinely believe that they’re meeting their favorite Disney characters. Sometimes I even forget they’re not real if I’m honest. The amount of training that it takes to become that figure seems quite intense. The park flows from one attraction to the next and they do a fantastic job creating this magical experience. All the gardens have little surprises and a purpose. If you go try to count how many Secret Mickey’s you can find in the park; here’s a link for more details

 http://visitanaheim.org/blog/disneyland-hidden-mickeys-visit-anaheim

I’m not sure if this will make any difference about how you feel about Disney, but you’ve made it to the end the article. I think it’s safe to assume that I have. I’m just hoping that you can understand my passion. How I get to feel like a little kid with my kid every time I got there. Remember to stop and take it all in and enjoy it like you’re five again. Also, don’t forget your camera!