While you are sitting comfortably, reading this week’s edition of the Courier, I will be somewhere in the midst of a nine or ten hour car ride home from Walt Disney World listening to my children asking, for the hundredth time, “are we there yet?”
Whether or not Disney is the happiest place on earth certainly depends on who you’re asking. I have amazing childhood memories of traveling to Disney with my family and friends. Living in Miami, Disney was a regular vacation destination (Florida residents do get a discount after all). I also went many times as a young teen – mostly with my church youth group.
As a high school senior, I visited Disney as part of Grad Night. All Florida high school seniors had the opportunity to stay up all night and roam around the park with their classmates and with limited chaperoning. Could there be anything more exciting for a 17 year old?
My last visit to Disney was in celebration of my honey moon with my now ex-husband. We came in October (there must not have been a Clemson game), and, seasonally speaking, it was probably one of the best times to visit.
When Brian and I decided we were going to travel to Disney for Em and Ella’s spring break, elated cannot being to describe how I felt about the adventure. Memories from my childhood rushed into my head – the exhilaration of Space Mountain, the magic of It’s a Small World, the thrill of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the wonder of visiting countries from all over the globe, Figment and that gianormous golf-ball looking object parked right in the epicenter of Epcot.
I’m not quite sure if it is my perfectionism, or if it is a simple case of “things change,” but Disney did not quite live up to my childhood memories or expectations. Don’t get me wrong – being on vacation with my family is fantastic. Having the opportunity to bring the girls to Disney feels amazing. But after only three days here, I am ready for a vacation from my vacation!
The older I become, the less I appreciate crowds. While I love the cultural diversity by which I find myself surrounded, I could make due with a few thousand less people. Trying to snake through the throngs of people, everyone with his or her own destination agenda in mind, holding on to sweaty hands attached to children whining about how hot it is or asking how much longer they are going to have to wait – well, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Most of the rides I love were terrifying to my children. More than once we stood in a 40 minute line only to exit at the 11th hour when we should have hopped into the next available amusement vehicle or bypassed amusements altogether.
This trip has made me wonder what the Disney experience was like for my parents. Were they as exhausted at the end of each day as I have been? Or were they able to relax and go with the flow? As a parent, Disney has been a completely different experience for me – one quite different from my childhood.
From the maddening crowds of people, to the patience testing wait times, I wonder how much of the discrepancy between my memories and my current experience exists completely in my mind? I’m certain there are thousands of Disney goers who would say that I am a curmudgeon. Maybe they’re right.
