Seth did a brilliant job with this piece.

I've been to Disney with my children and it is a very easy place to go to relax and be relatively assured that everyone will enjoy themselves and everything will be kid friendly. God knows, there's certainly something to be said for that.

But I've also been fortunate enough to push my toddler in a stroller around London, to go camping in the Rockies with my kids, to bum around an island off of Mexico with them, and to ride a train from the Czech Republic into Germany and drive through Austria and into Italy with them. (And most of these trips were no more expensive than a comparable length Disney vacation.)

I have to say that given the choice, I'd take any one of the latter experiences over the Disney experience. I'm not saying this because Disney was in any way bad; on the contrary it is very good at what it is, but what it is is a theme park, albeit a very carefully constructed one. By definition everything is ersatz and completely predictable. There's no challenge or anything unexpected anywhere. And everywhere you turn, the Mouse is selling you something; the rides let out into gift shops with items placed at toddler height, for cryin' out loud. Its marketing genius.

But Disney, like Las Vegas, is a sort of highly refined fantasy of what someone else thinks the world ought to be, and while that's fun once or twice for a short time, it just kind of leaves me cold. In contrast, the other experiences that I've been fortunate enough to share with my family are direct interactions with what the world actually is. On each one of those trips, my kids have come back having learned things -- a few phrases, maybe, or a boatload of interesting facts. They're developing an appreciation for difference; different foods, different cultures; and different languages, and hopefully are realizing just how privileged their middle class American upbringing really is. And by traveling to real places where people live and work and which are not planned down to the finest detail, they seem to be beginning to develop an appreciation of these other places. Somehow, it just seems richer than they planned experience of the theme park. Not that there is anything wrong with escapism, but I think Seth's point is exactly right. Isn't settling for Disney (especially year-after-year) kind of complacent? The world offers so many wonderful, rich experiences. Why would you settle for someone else's planned vision, when you could go out and develop your own?

and your argument clearly is "I'm so much cooler than my kid who likes Disneyland." You weren't surprised at the interactive "Buzz Lightyear" ride? (where you shoot the guns as you ride through?).

I like the idea of going other places as well. (I did growing up- though it was limited to places we could drive in a day or two). I've come to love Disney for the family time I had there. Plus, my parents encouraged us to talk to the employees at the world showcase to learn from them. Traveling to these countries was not an option for us. Perhaps one child isn't too expensive to fly there but I was part of a family of 5. Airfare for 5 is expensive (thus driving a straight 18+ hours to get to Disney).

We did alternate Disney with other trips- beach, mountains, even a bit into Mexico since I have an Uncle we could stay with in Arizona so we didn't have to worry about hotels and could use the money to fly.

All this Disney deconstruction is bizarre. Really, did anyone need these five snarky, lazily-written articles to tell them that the France at Epcot is not the REAL France or that little girls are gaga for Cinderella? Jeez, is there anyone in America over the age of six who couldn't have written these predictable little travelogues?

It's great to take your kids all over the world. I plan to do so with mine when they're a little older. And I resolved to never take my kids to Disney--until my father offered an all-expenses-paid week in the Kingdom for all his grandkids. I didn't want to ruin gramp's dream, so we went. And we loved it! The kids still ask when we're going back almost a year later. It was fun. It was easy. We bought a few overpriced toys and ate ice cream after every meal. We left our over-educated, NYT-reading, News Hour with Jim Leher watching pretentiousness at the entrance gate and created some great family memories. We may even go back some day.