How Disney Learned to Love Its Adult Superfans

AJ Wolfe’s early-20s New York experience was in many ways typical, one we have come to romanticize thanks to shows like Friends and Sex and the City. She shared a cramped apartment with a roommate, struggled with the chaos of the city, and wondered if she would ever achieve the traditional hallmarks of adulthood. But rather than cope by drinking overpriced cosmopolitans or complaining to her friends over brunch, Wolfe sought refuge in the safety of Disney World — a place that was “clean and predictable,” where everyone she met was “kind and hospitable.”

Wolfe spent her morning commute poring over Disney guidebooks, escaping into cozy childhood memories of spring break trips to Florida and car-seat singalongs to the soundtrack that plays on a loop at Epcot. She stayed late at the office so she could print out Disney message boards and read them on the way home. “I didn’t really have a life — friends, partners, outings — other than Disney trip planning,” she writes. As soon as she returned from a pilgrimage to Orlando, she would begin fantasizing about the next one, a habit that eventually landed her in $17,000 of credit card debt. “It was almost like a drug,” she writes. “It was very expensive, but I couldn’t wait to take another hit.”