Does Disneyland have an adult problem? (2024)

It's no secret, Disneyland is just as popular with adults as it is with kids. What might be a surprise is that the cartoon kingdom's largest visitor demographic is now adults visiting without children. And some say they're spoiling the fun for others.

Last week, Rolling Stone published a withering op-ed titled "How 'Disney Adults' Became the Most Hated Group on the Internet".

Author and self-declared 'Disney Kiddult' EJ Dickson only half jokingly quotes theology professor Jodi Eichler-Levine - who gave voice to the concern that unaccompanied adults at the theme parks were a "plague upon society" and the "end of Western civilisation".

Such catastrophising is nothing new. The Magic Kingdom has become a frontline for the culture wars. The overpriced theme park tickets fall into the same bucket as smashed avocado on toast. It's used to moralise f*ckless millennials for failing to grow up and spending savings on Mickey memorabilia.

"There's a real moralistic judgement of Disney adults," says cultural commentator Amanda Brennan. "It's like, 'How dare you, instead of putting all this money into buying a house or raising a family, put [it] into fleeting experiences?" Brennan, who launched the website Know Your Meme, told the Rolling Stone that the issue had become a phenomenon in its own right.

The obsessive, slightly-too-old fans of feature-length animations have become a kicking post in online culture.

Disney Adults have been variously referred to as "the most terrifying people on the planet" in a 2020 headline from The Tab to "immature millennials" in viral online diatribes.

Yet for all the hand wringing on moral decline, one thing is for sure - adult visitors without children are now the largest visitor demographic at the theme park and the highest spending per head.

While Disney Corp is notoriously secretive about their park businesses, several independent studies have shown that it is adults, not kids driving up turnstile counters.

In 2018 a study of location-based service data of park visitors to the Florida Walt Disney World attraction showed that just 36.7 per cent of visitors came from households with children under 18 years of age. The report by StreetLight Data called it the most "surprising finding", adding the number of park workers would not account for the disparity.

It was also reflected in a poll from a popular Disney blog Disney with Dave's Daughters. The poll of 1,154 respondents in February found 42 per cent were adults visiting without children.

The EPCOT park was found to be the epicentre for adults who are visiting Disney without kids.

Despite the protests of other holiday makers and internet trolls, Disney Adults are not an aberration but a large cohort of visitors. They're one that Disney is clearly keen to cater to.

In 2019 the parks opened their first bars serving alcoholic drinks inside the Star Wars land. Oga's Cantina in the Galaxy's Edge broke the parks' 63-year-old tradition as a dry park, serving up sci-fi inspired co*cktails to adults.

Since buying the Star Wars - a film franchise with its own special appeal to kiddults - the parks have taken a decidedly more adult-orientated range of attractions. Having first come out in the late 70s, fans of the movies are likely to be on the older side - if not more mature.

Earlier this year the theme parks revealed their Star Wars Galactic StarCruiser hotel. The cost of spending the night in a make-believe spaceship came with an eye-watering $1916pp. Charged per room, and without childrens rates, it's an experience largely aimed at adults - adults with a healthy credit line.

With a movie franchise which began in the late 70s, attracting older visitors might be expected.

Whether flavour of nerds the parks are attracting one things for certain: the childless adults who are visiting the kid's entertainment parks are largely unabashed about their mania for Mickey mouse.

For a self conscious millennial like Dickson, she is aware of the scorn, the semi-ironic humour of being an "entitled childless millennial" in the eyes of joyless parents who find no pleasure in wheeling their kids around the tourist attraction.

In the end, Dickson concludes its jealousy that fuels the Disney Adult rage.

"I feel no need to apologise for that," she says.