Do I want to spend $$$$$ for the same product in California for less? I wouldn’t have to spend air fare, hotels, car rental just for a Disney vacation in Florida. I rather be sight seeing other world class cities in foreign countries with spending $$$$$.
I have the real deal with Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego with a real beach.
I would rather see international Disney parks than set foot in Florida. But I’m not spending a week exclusively at the international Disney parks. Thats absurd to miss out on authentic cultural differences.
To be fair, it's not the same product; it's a very different product with VERY different strengths.
What makes WDW special and unique is all the stuff you can't do anywhere else; Epcot, DAK (even though yes, it does pull pretty obviously from San Diego in spots), the mini golf (or regular golf, if you prefer), the water parks, the best shopping and dining district of any of the parks, beautiful hotels that are fun to explore, the plethora of unique, beautifully themed table service restaurants, and so on.
You just can't treat it like you treat Disneyland, because that tends to immediately throw the resort's flaws immediately into stark relief. Now, part of that is on WDW for not doing a better job on some things DLR simply executes better, but part of that is DLR vets simply being unwilling to meet WDW on its own terms. In California, Disneyland is the special place and everything else is basically add-ons of varying levels of quality and acceptance within the DLR fan community. In Florida,
the add-ons are the point, and the way it all can be infinitely customizable to fit any scenario makes it all VERY repeatable to some people who frequent it. Additionally, the locals in Florida don't hang out in Magic Kingdom or regard that as the best place to be most of the time-that is decidedly tilted in favor of Epcot. Whereas a lot of California locals go right to Magic Kingdom when they visit WDW because to them, a Disney Theme Park often
*can only be* something like Disneyland (DCA sure isn't cutting it, you know? And so the narrative becomes entrenched that there is One Correct Way to do a Disney Theme Park, even if subconsciously, for many people, IME) and discover, sure enough, the entire internet was right and Magic Kingdom is, indeed, a worse Disneyland. So some people are setting themselves up for a self-fulfilling prophecy and then screaming about their own failure to the internet, or so it seems to me.
I understand the notion of not wanting to do what you have at home, what might be inferior, etc., but I also passionately and sincerely advocate that if you love any one of these places, you owe it to yourself to try and see them all. The international parks in particular can often be done relatively quickly and cheaply. I find the differences interesting rather than being a deal breaker.
But it does take the right mindset. You have to be willing to go in and accept that things are done differently, and that the way one property operates is just that. Different is not necessarily bad. There is, of course, the opportunity cost. Visiting Disney elsewhere is likely to be expensive and come at the expense of something else that might be more personally interesting, and I can't fault people for being unwilling to give that up. But frankly, I think the parks fandom would be a better place in many ways if more people were willing and able to sample the other parks with an open mind, in addition to whichever one they happen to frequent.
