Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register/H. Lorren Au Jr.)
(Los Angeles Times) – Roxann Grzetich and her husband, Dave, have accepted a title bestowed upon them by their son: “Disney freaks.”
How can they deny it? The couple from Chicago spent their honeymoon at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. They have sailed on all four Disney cruise ships. And last month they traveled to Anaheim to drop $5,000 on souvenirs of Disneyland’s 60th anniversary celebration, including $175 on an illuminated Mickey Mouse figurine.
“It goes back to childhood,” Roxann Grzetich, 62, a travel agent, said of her love of everything Disney. “Sitting in front of the television, watching ‘The Mickey Mouse Club.'”
Walt Disney Co. can thank fans like Grzetich for generating an estimated $1 billion or more in annual merchandise sales at the company’s theme parks. Disney pockets an additional $40 billion-plus from licensed merchandise peddled each year in retail outlets.
