Grew up going every year in the 80s and early 90s and had a pretty Disnified childhood (uncle was a career CM). But then "aged out" of going to Disney and after a 1998 high school band trip didn't return for 25 years .

Taking our daughter for her first trip in 2023 reawoke the love for Disney. Now I go into Disney hyper-fixation mode for a few months each year ahead of our trip. I try to not over schedule or over plan, but I am an obsessive researcher by nature. I love learning how everything to do with the parks works. And my reflexive response to crowds is to try to figure out a way to outsmart them (but fairly; I'm rather rules-oriented). I'm deeply grateful to Rob and Erick for all their work showing people how to understand and navigate the system, and for being delightfully clear and helpful voices amidst the mind-numbing cacophony of Disney blogs, vlogs, and websites.

I'm very active on the r/waltdisneyworld subreddit (at least when I have a trip booked) and less regularly active on DisBoards under the username MrBarraclough on both.