Happy Place

What if the childhood day you remembered as one of the most magical of your life became every day of your life?

In Happy Place, Scott Renshaw explores the phenomenon of Disney theme park super-fans, and the unique connections they build with places known to most people only as occasional vacation destinations. Along the way, Renshaw meets a pass-holder who has visited Disneyland for one thousand consecutive days, another who has taken more than three thousand rides on his single favorite attraction, and even to some who have managed to turn visiting Disney parks into their job. Happy Place is also a personal journey to find out what happens when an infatuation with the parks turns into a relationship. Is that relationship always full of joy, or—when nostalgia collides with the realities of a corporation running a business—can it sometimes turn to frustration and disappointment?

Happy Place isn't the story of a place. It's a love story, about the kind of love that emerges when "happiest place on earth" becomes more than just a slogan.

Scott Renshaw has been Arts & Entertainment Editor and film critic for the Salt Lake City Weekly newspaper since 2002, with film reviews appearing in alternative newsweeklies in ten states. Over a twenty-year career as a professional writer and critic, he has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, and has contributed writing about Disney parks to the website IndieWire. This is his first book.