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We took our kids to Disney World in November - they were newly 2 and 4. My husband and I are not “Disney” people (I had never even been and my husband had been once) and the only Disney characters my kids really knew were Winnie the Pooh and friends and Mickey and friends - and even though they knew who those characters were, they weren’t obsessed with them or anything. I don’t know how to explain it, but the magic is real. The Magic Kingdom straight up blew my kids’ minds. It’s not any one thing - there is just so much for them to see and to do. There are little shows and musicals that happen all day that they loved, and they were completed amazed by the parades. They didn’t know who Cinderella was when we went, but they LOVED the castle. Because it’s so huge and the lines can be crazy, it is definitely helpful to plan so as to not be overwhelmed, but you don’t have to be OCD about it at all - I definitely wasn’t.

The magic is real. My DD was just blown away every day we were there. She loves loves loves characters and the princesses and she couldn't believe they were meeting her and talking to her. She loved the parades and the music. She'd see a character and say "Mommy, Anna waved to ME!!" and she felt so special. The staff goes out of their way to greet little girls as "princess" and DD just had so much fun.

I do think there is a "right" age for this... I think too young wouldn't appreciate it and too old wouldn't either..... DD was 4 and it was perfect age

@peachykeen: So true. My 3 year old was talking about Spiderman and I'm like huh?!

Seeing your kids have the time of their lives is pretty special - but a lot of the magic for me comes from the parent perspective and how easy disney makes the whole experience. We don’t have to lug car seats or deal with traffic as we rely on the transportation. we don’t have to even pick up our luggage at the airport - they deliver it right to our room. I don’t have to cook or clean. My kids are entertained all.day.long so I can sit back and actually relax and enjoy them loving life. I can be the kind of mom I always want to be (but life gets in the way). I say yes all week, we do spontaneous silly stuff, and just enjoy each other’s company. It’s stress-free, for me. Obviously other travel destinations allow for quality family time too, but with young kids none have it down to the science that Disney does in my experience.

We went when our kids were 2 and 4. We're probably going to go again next summer (not this coming summer) when our kids are 4 and 6. I think those are great ages for Disney.

So...we were not a "Disney" family. My husband had never been and didn't care, we are a low-tv family and my kids don't watch the Disney channel (well, they do request some shows NOW, but not when we were planning this trip), and when we decided on the trip, neither of my kids had even seen a Disney movie. I went to DW when I was a teenager, so I had fun, but I wouldn't call it "magical". For a teen, I'm not sure much of anything in the world would be magical.

But we decided to go because I wanted a big family trip, and my traditional vacations (things like All inclusives, beach vacations) are way less enjoyable with small kids. we've done beach vacations, but it's a marathon of making sure kids don't run into the ocean alone, making sure kids don't get sunburned, making sure kids find time to nap, making sure kid doesn't eat sand, playing constantly in the hot sun because kids (for some crazy reason) aren't happy just sitting reading a book for hours at a time. In short, beach vacations weren't much of a vacation. And our youngest was too young for most kid's clubs and my husband isn't a "kids club" type of parent anyway. So I wanted a vacation that all 4 of us would enjoy and that was kind of affordable. When you compare to flying to a resort in Mexico or Turks for a week, Disney is less in that respect, unless you go absolutely insane on spending. There's a lot of ways to do a more budget friendly trip.

So for that, Disney was great. A lot of the gripes about Disney really depend on the person. For some people, nothing will ever live up to expecations--no hotel room is ever clean enough, or nice enough, and the food is never good enough, lines are too long, etc. My husband and I are pretty laid back about stuff, so it's just not in our personality to find fault with everything. If our kids are happy, we're happy. And they were definitely happy at DW. We didn't even have 1 tantrum or issue in our 6 night stay. Disney is made for families, so they make it very easy to operate as a family, and there's tons to keep kids occupied. It's nice.

But all of our vacations are more young-child friendly these days. Now I always forgo luxury hotels for hotels that have free breakfast and a suite. If a hotel has an arcade or a great indoor pool, then I get excited because I know my kids will be excited. Like...cheesy magic show? Sign me up! I need low-hassle, kid friendly venues for the next few years, and that's what Disney is.

Of course, we went at a low-crowd time, but we only had 1 attraction that was a line (It was meeting Mickey, and I regret standing in a line to do that, but it was day 2 at Magic Kingdom and we'd kind of already did everything else we wanted to do.) Other than that, we never waited more than 15 minutes and most rides we walked right on with a fast pass. The transportation was seamless when we were there. There were lots of food options for us. My kids loved the swimming pools and arcades at the hotel.

To "prep" for the trip, I got a few Little Golden Books about disney characters and we watched the few Disney movies my oldest was interested in (turns out she IS into the princess movies, but not interested in other stuff. She'll be 5 this summer, and I still can't get her to watch Cars or Toy Story or anything that doesn't have a disney princess in it--go figure). But by the time we actually went to WDW, she knew almost all the characters from the books and movies and she was *very* excited. We made a little photo album of our trip, and my kids STILL talk about it now. They take out the photos all the time to talk about the trip.

@PinkElephant: @Iced Tea: my 4 year old has always refused to go near any character, including the Olaf that (randomly) showed up at our towns July 4 parade. She was a little shy, but wasn’t afraid. That said, the character meet up part of the trip was a very small part of their experience and wasn’t part of her “magic.” Particularly bc shes normally so freaked out by them, that she knew that they are just regular people with costumes on.

@looch: Hahaha! This reminds me of my son seeing Mickey the first time at the Disney Cruise. He commented, there IS a person in there, mommy, when is he going to take off his costume? LOL. But then later on he went with it and was happy to take pics with all the characters without pointing out there is a person in there, haha. Even with the Easter bunny brunch we went to, he would point at the Easter Bunny and insisted to the waiter that "he's dressed up!" The waiter was like, "um, that's very nice" lol

To me, the magic is when all the grown ups (actors/actresses, employees, parents ...etc) in the park are all playing pretend that magic is real. You can't help but feel and believe it. That's what I felt when we were at the Disney Cruise.

It is kinda like the Santa Claus magic - you know it is fake when you are older, but it is magical when you were a little child.

Another magical part, I think, it is how could there be a piece of "land" that all these cartoon characters I watch in the movies/on tv actually reside in? And this place is so huge and you see cartoon characters just walking around, and everyone is so happy. It is very different from reality, it is overwhelming, and it is too good to be true for a child. If it is too good to be true it has to be magic. Or that's what I felt when I went to Disneyland as a child.

It is all not real and the imagination can run free. Creativity abounds and everyone is happy and excited because it is a special place. Diversions and novelty are everywhere and nobody expects anything from anyone except having fun. For me, the magic is just being out of the real world and escaping to a child friendly place that promotes play, exploration, curiosity, and surprises. I think as long as you can suspend reality, it can be really enjoyable and unlike anything in daily life. Imagine being in the North Pole for a week with elves, Santa and riding on reindeer!! Fun, right? That is like a kid at Disneyland. Also kind of like Vegas...but not. Lol.

Yes, for us it was the glimmer in DD’s eye when she first met Mickey. And then the other characters as well but nothing like meeting Mickey. It was the pure joy on her face riding the teacups, the dumbo rides, and don’t even get me started on the shows. It’s hard to explain. I love Disney and DH is not a fan but now even he says it was the most magical experience he’s had and is so glad we took DD. She went when she was 2, and still talks about it and will be three next month. Disney does the whole shebang right. I think the entire experience is worth the $$$.