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Life

Disney World: Is It Worth It When You’re Grown Up?

Ariana Rosa
Allie Bausinger
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at PSU chapter.

For Spring Break 2019, I visited family in Florida. To my surprise, my brother was gifted hopper passes for Disney World. Now, hold your excitement because I am 20 years old and my love for Disney has lessened since a few years ago when I visited one of the parks: Magic Kingdom. 

 

I’m not saying Disney World isn’t the happiest/best place on Earth (as many say it is.) But I am saying there are ups and downs to the parks, especially when you’re 20 years old. So, my question is: is it really worth going to Disney if you’re 20 years old? Is it worth the money and time? 

 

First things first, it had been one freezing cold Winter in State College, PA. I was going to Florida to escape the cold. Escape. The. Cold. But, what did the cold do? It followed me. The temperatures in Florida these past couple of days were in the 40s. The highest it has been was probably 65. AND IT RAINED WHILE I WAS IN LINE FOR A RIDE. RAINED. 

 

 

Yes, that may have been warmer than State College, but I wasn’t planning on wearing a sweater at Disney. You don’t wear a sweater at Disney. I don’t know exactly what you wear at Disney, but I know for sure it’s not a sweater. Who wears a sweater to Disney?

 

But, anyway… I’m getting carried away. 

 

My first stop: Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before, I didn’t wake up early enough to get to the parks before they opened at nine in the morning. The first ride my family and I walked by was the Tower of Terror. 

 

The wait for that ride was two hours. TWO HOURS. You read that right. Now, it was 10am at this point. We were going to two other parks after (Epcot and Animal Kingdom because we realized Magic Kingdom was REALLY for the kids… sorry Magic Kingdom lovers.) Do you think we would wait two hours in a line for a ride that would only last about 3 minutes? You bet we did. 

 

Yes, it was still raining. Yes, it was still cold. But, it was the Tower of Terror. I had heard good things about this ride. So, it had better live up to my expectations. And it did, I won’t lie to you. It was fun, I almost died, but fun. Fun times. Would I say waiting in line for two hours was worth it? Probably not. But, only half of the elevators for the ride was working, so they’re off the hook… this time. 

 

Next stop: Epcot. Going into Epcot, I had no idea what the theme of Epcot was. I didn’t do my research… I’m adventurous like that (not really.) So, I was very excited to learn that Epcot was more so the “learning park” to say the least.

 

The “Living with the Land” ride was super educational and it was very nice to see what Disney has done to help the environment. 

 

 

The Spaceship Earth was my first stop and I have to be honest… though it was fun to see all of the magical lights and learn about space and all, there wasn’t a seatbelt and it caught me off-guard when we were going up and it was a little steep.

 

You could say I held onto the ride a little too tight. 

 

Animal Kingdom was the last park we went to, and the Pandora ride was just so beautiful. The lights, the electronic figures (which, by the way, look so realistic it’s scary), everything. Just wonderful. 

 

One thing I didn’t like was the safari ride, and that is only because the hyenas and other animals looked miserable. Now, I’m not an animal rights activist, and I don’t exactly know how those animals are treated, but I was just not comfortable the entire ride.

 

Those animals didn’t look happy (and, yes, it was around 6 in the evening, so maybe they were tired), and I just want to dig deeper into how these reservations are taking care of the animals. But that’s totally my opinion. 

 

Actually, everything is totally my opinion. I think Disney did a great job on many of the rides and family activities. All in all, I had a great time. 

 

But, as a 20-year-old college student, I still don’t know if it was worth it. Yeah, I got to see all of the parks (except the Disney water parks and Magic Kingdom) in one day, but Disney is truly meant for kids. 

 

So, if you’re a kid at heart. Go crazy at Disney. But, don’t waste your money if Disney isn’t at the top of your bucket list as an adult. Save it for the kids. 

 

"For me, being American-Latina means identifying with and being influenced by both my American upbringing and my Latin heritage, and I have so much appreciation for how those two cultures have created who I am." - Camila Mendes I'm a Junior, Broadcast Journalism major with a minor in Spanish; I'm very vocal and active in the Latinx community at Penn State and believe everyone's voice should be heard! Todo es pa' la cultura!
Allie Bausinger is a Penn State University graduate who majored in Print/Digital Journalism with a minor in English. She is from "outside Philadelphia," which in her case is Yardley, Pennsylvania. Allie is looking for full-time employment in writing, editing, fact-checking, podcasting, and other areas of the journalism and writing fields.