Growing up in Orlando, I had always found plenty of opportunities to visit the Disney parks on a regular basis. In high school, my choir would perform in the Candlelight Processional every year, which provided me even more chances to visit the Mouse House, as well as see a different aspect of it by being backstage. During those formative, teenage years, I found myself growing more and more frustrated with the “decline” that I would notice on every trip. Broken animatronics, dirty pathways, less-than-stellar Cast Members would mar my daily opinion of Walt Disney World. It wasn't the Disney of my childhood, where the World was perfect and happy. However, I kept going despite my disdain for how the Resort was evolving (well, de-volving).

However, I joined the military after I graduated high school, and was pulled away from the Mouse. My once monthly trips to the Resort had suddenly been slashed into two or three times a year. The last couple of years, I have been unable to return home but for the holidays. It was during those now yearly trips to Disney that I discovered something.

I was just happy to be there.

I would still see the problems of a few years prior, but I didn't care. I was at Disney, the most magical place on Earth, and no chipped paint or burned-out light-bulb was going to ruin the fact that I was just there. And in realizing my pure contentment for myself I remembered how I felt just four years prior. Four years ago Disney was declining; no-longer the crown jewel that existed in my childhood. Yet now, it was my youth all over again. I was just happy.



This self-discovery also caused me to re-evaluate the Disney Community found on the Internet. I had an epiphany during my self-evaluation as well. I realized that the overly-concerned Disney-bashing fan that I once was was wrong. I'm a member of one of the largest Disney fan-sites established, and was an active contributer. I vented about the parks, made my arm-chair managerial decisions and essentially attempted to tear-down the company that I loved. I would also routinely read the editorials found that would second-guess and dissect every decision Disney Company would make.

I realized that my perspective was wrong, and I realized that the perspective of so many other Disney fans has been blinded by nostalgia. Kevin Yee's series “Declining By Degrees” isn't a documentary of how Walt Disney World is lesser than it was. It's an example of how repeatedly returning to the parks results in a cynical experience for himself. Reading the Web of families returning to a lesser experience after a year or two years or five years isn't a testament to what Disney once was, it's a testament to how nothing can ever beat the nostalgia of our first time.

The Sixth Sense is nowhere near as good a film the second time you watch it.

For every self-important blogger, or message poster you find online, there will be a person who loved Disney simply because they were there. For every gripe found on how Disney is declining, is poorly managed or isn't “What Walt would want,” there is a person who doesn't care about the negative. I'm just happy Disney exists, that I can go and I think that is the important thing. If Disney was really that bad, it wouldn't be as popular as it is.

And considering how all the complainers keep returning, it must not be that bad.