Magic Isn’t Just for Kids

Before October 2022, I had never been to Disneyland. Plenty of my friends had visited as kids, however, so they had a lot to say about it, and of all the words used to describe Disneyland, “magical” had been by far the most frequent. And you know, that is a very helpful descriptor… if you’ve been to Disneyland before. However, as an adult who had never been to Disneyland and is predominantly left-brained in his thinking processes, the word magical meant, well, basically nothing to me. Magical is just how adults remember Disneyland, but Disneyland isn’t really magical.

…Right?

“Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”

As I read the words etched into bronze as we entered the park, I knew my three-year-old son was in for the time of his life. After all, my visiting Disneyland was primarily for his sake. I knew he would be forming memories and experiences that could very well follow him to adulthood, and he would truly experience Disneyland as magical. I thought I would have a great time, and that I would experience the magic of Disneyland not via the rides or in the experiences, but through my son.

We started where a group always starts at Disneyland: Main Street. At the time, my son wasn’t intimately familiar with many Disney characters, so while his disposition remained neutral at the first sight of Goofy taking photos with park visitors, he was clearly entranced, as though hesitant to believe it. He usually takes a few minutes to warm up to new experiences, so this attitude continued as we strolled down Main Street. He absorbed the sights, the sounds, and the people. It was shortly after Main Street that he gave my finger a tug, pointed up, and said, “Papá, a castle!”

And this was the first time I did my best to imagine what that castle must look like from the perspective of a three-year-old. That castle makes a memorable appearance at the start of basically every movie for a kid that age, and the joy that usually follows it is consistently delightful to say the least. That castle represents not just one world of magic, but many, and it stands as the gatehouse to that world. 

Basically, to a three-year-old, that castle marks an entrance to a dreamlike, imagination-capturing world of fantasy.

And for me, a grown adult, it was a fun castle. Magical? Yeah, to a three-year-old.

We had recently watched Monsters, Inc. together as a family, and our son found parts of it pretty scary, actually. Then we watched Toy Story. Same thing. I realized while rewatching those movies that a dreamlike world of fantasy is not exclusively sunshine, rainbows, and beautiful castles. There is drama, suspense, and sometimes a sense of danger. So when we went to the Haunted Mansion as our first major Disneyland experience and we saw that sense of fear rear its head throughout the first half of the experience in the form of tears, screams, and the tightest hugs our son could manage, I was partially worried that it would serve to sour future rides we would go on that day and the next. Luckily, our son found his courage and came around for the second half of the Haunted Mansion, so the subsequent experiences consisting of spinning teacups, a mission with Buzz Lightyear, flying with Peter Pan, and searching for honey with Winnie the Pooh were naught but joy, fascination, and delight. Magical? Through the eyes of a toddler, absolutely. For me, I was just having fun.

I made sure to accompany my son throughout each of these experiences to some extent, so I got to experience Disneyland through the eyes of a child. We hurried as fast as his little legs could carry him to each ride, we couldn’t be bothered to finish our pizza before chasing after Minnie Mouse, and we were so distracted by traveling back in time to see dinosaurs that we didn’t even notice Mamá wanting to take a picture.

As we made our way through the park that first day, my son was clearly experiencing magic. He had never experienced anything like this before, and he likely wouldn’t experience anything like it again for a long time. And I was succeeding in my goals as well: I was experiencing Disneyland vicariously through my son, and it was a great time! Was it magical for me? Meh. But that was okay; I was having a blast with my family!

And then came Rise of the Resistance.

Our son was too short to go on Rise of the Resistance, and one of our family friends did not want to go on it, so the two of them went gallivanting together while the rest of our group stood in line to experience the thing I had only been told was immersive and thrilling.

I soon learned that those two words are an understatement, because Rise of the Resistance had an effect on me that I had not seen coming. It put me in Star Wars! I was a member of the resistance fighting the First Order! I was fighting evil! Resisting force-pulls and running from Kylo Ren! Dodging stormtrooper fire! Making a crash landing on the planet below! It was so immersive! It was thrilling! Terrifying! Magica–

…Oh.

I get it now.

Is this what my son had been experiencing all day? I thought I had it pinned, but I was wrong. If the feeling I had after Rise of the Resistance was what my son was feeling after every ride, then he really was having the time of his life. I made a memory that will probably follow me the rest of my life, just like his memories will. I was scared, just like he was in the Haunted Mansion, just like a fantasy movie. I found unbridled delight, just like he did on those teacups. I left reality behind me and entered a world of fantasy. If you are thinking of going to Disneyland as an adult but never went as a kid, I can tell you from firsthand experience:

Magic isn’t just for kids.