What makes you return there each year over other things you could reach with the same amount of driving? If you're near California or Florida, you are a day or so from a huge range of amazing places. Is it ease and familiarity?
I'm Australian but have been to Disneyland (CA) twice and Disney World (FL) once; twice with kids, once without. It's a polished experience for sure, but we spent a lot of time baffled by people in themed t-shirts, spending days there or returning year after year in place of other holiday options.
We live 75 minutes from Disneyland. That means we can do things like time our visit so that the last night is Sunday night, stay in a hotel there, and then do the drive home as a commute to work. In any case we do a quick visit annually as a sanity thing after the silly season each fall.
But within California, we also go to places like the Sierra Nevada mountains and the central coast of CA that we can reach in a day or less by car.
I think that's because at Disney World, it's somewhat impossible to see everything in one day, even if you were to filter the list of attractions to things that you wanted to do. There's simply too much to see.
Same applies almost anywhere I guess. I didn't get to every US state on that trip or every national park or every hike in each park. In one day at Disney World's main area, we knocked off a fair few rides - from opening, until late at night with shattered kids. If I'm choosing between seeing the highlights of a whole new place, or getting to a few extra things that I didn't prioritise and missed at Disney, I'll usually take the former. The queueing to thrills ratios tips the scales too even with Fast Pass and Rider Share.
A few weeks after blowing $1k on a day at Disney World, we visited the Amazeum in Bentonville, Arkansas, to the tune of about $40 and my 7yo preferred that. Amazeum and Crystal Bridges as a day out was excellent, for anyone ever in the area.
I have travelled lots of other places too. I’m lucky to be able to travel maybe more than the average American. I like going to Disneyland. That doesn’t mean it’s the only place I go or that I don’t also like traveling to other places in the country and the world.
I'm Australian but have been to Disneyland (CA) twice and Disney World (FL) once; twice with kids, once without. It's a polished experience for sure, but we spent a lot of time baffled by people in themed t-shirts, spending days there or returning year after year in place of other holiday options.