The Disney Bubble is an expression that really isn’t used by Disney officially, but blogs and websites use it all of the time. If you’ve hired a travel agent, they may also use this expression when asking about how you want to travel to the parks. The Disney Bubble is used to describe the feeling you get when you stay on property at a Disney resort. The concept is that you never have to leave Disney property during your entire vacation. This obviously doesn’t affect people who are only going to the parks for one day, and focuses on people staying several days.
What Encompasses the Disney Bubble?
The Disney Bubble includes your hotel, all of the parks, as well as all of the places you might be eating. The notion is that if you stay in the Disney Bubble, you leave the real world behind and live in the “magic of Disney”. This means that during your stay, Disney has complete control over the quality of your trip. This also means that they have control over the prices everything and to some degree where you go. While this might seem a little confining, the resorts are often designed to make this experience very comfortable.
Why Does Disney Make it Hard to Leave the Bubble?
From a company standpoint, it’s much more profitable if you stay in the Disney Bubble. Disney has and continues to make it harder to leave their bubbles, and more inviting to stay. For the bigger resorts, like Florida, this means that Disney provides free transportation in the bubble. They offer ways to get from one area to another that are both efficient, but also try and put some fun into it. This could be anything from a friendly bus driver, to a boat trip all the way to a monorail or skyliner. The Disney Bubble also tries to keep you fed, without leaving the resort. Each hotel offers many dining options, outside the parks, and many Disney resorts also offer shopping districts with more options.
How did Disney Realize the Benefits of the Disney Bubble?
The history of the Disney Bubble comes from the mistakes that happened with Disneyland. While the park was a huge success, Walt noticed the problem with having outside hotels, restaurants and stores moving in close to his theme park. He could hide certain aspects of the outside world from his guests, but they always had to drive through the real world to get to his parks and to get to their hotels. When he was planning Walt Disney World in Florida, Walt bought enough land to separate his guests from the outside world. Since learning that lesson, Disney as a company does everything in their power to keep the Disney Bubble from bursting.
4 Misconceptions (and silly rumors) About the Disney Bubble:
- Disney does not control the weather inside the Disney bubble. You’d be amazed at how many people blame Disney for rainy days.
- Most Disney bubbles are in wildlife areas, and that means wild animals. While Disney does do what it can to keep people away from animals, it doesn’t always succeed. Snakes are common, gators and bears are rare (but no unheard of).
- While Disney almost always offers transportation inside the Disney bubbles, not all transportation is equal. Many parks only offer buses (that can be very busy at certain parts of the day) and Paris Disney does not offer any form of transportation at all.
- One thing you’ll notice inside all Disney bubbles is the that all merchandise is official. Disney does not allow any street vendors or people selling material anywhere inside the Disney bubble.