$100 to get in? This couldn’t possibly be worth it, could
it? Well, we are in Orlando. Why not? It’ll be a recon mission. We will find
the answer to the question. Will we ever want to take our kids to this horribly
expensive and crowded “happiest” place on Earth?
As we board the ferry to cruise over to the Magic Kingdom,
I’m already thinking the answer will probably be no. I feel like an immigrant
fleeing Cuba, heading for the sandy shores of Florida. Getting off the ferry
even tests our patience. There are people who can walk, but they’re riding in
motorized wheelchairs. They are all over the place. They expect you to jump out
of the way for them.
Now we are on Main Street. It’s a sea of strollers and
rascals. There are odd groups of people walking around. They all have the same
shirts on. As I study them throughout the night I realize they are wearing
family reunion shirts. Some of the shirts have the dates of the trip on them.
Another one read 4 generations, 4 parks, 1 magical Disney vacation. It appears
to be a trend to have a family reunion here. I am suddenly so thankful Orlando
was never a family reunion destination for my family, my wife’s family, nor
will it be for our family 40 years from now.
We are at Magic Kingdom for the nighttime Christmas party.
Crowds are apparently thinner during this time of year. It doesn’t feel that
way, but the lines are short. Thank God! We ride on every attraction that is
remotely interesting to us. We even walk through a giant tree. Decent headroom
in that thing. Kate sits out two rides. The Big Thunder Mountain and Space
Mountain coasters. On the latter, I hop in the rollercoaster cars with a mom
and her three kids. It’s really awkward. I’m sitting right behind her. Everyone
else is talking to each other, naturally, because they know each other. I’m
just the silent, extremely huge person sitting right behind you who is thinking
he should probably duck a little bit during this ride. Last time I was on these
tracks I was a lot shorter.
Peter Pan’s Flight is insanely short. The coolest part for
us comes as we fly over a miniature London. It’s beautiful, with little lights
darting here and there, mimicking cars. Cars have never moved that fast in the
real central London. But then this is Disney, everything is magical, like how
the hell did they manage to attract two adults to this park so we could pay
nearly $200 to stand in line for 20 minutes to ride this one minute flight?
As we exit another ride I see two adults yelling at a Disney
employee. They tell her to get the manager on the phone. I hear her say, Okay,
I will, because I haven’t done anything wrong here. It just makes me sad for
some reason to see the adults throwing a fit. I’m sure what ever happened
wasn’t that big of an issue. You’re at Disney World for crying out loud, get
over it! I feel for the employee. Dealing with the American public in a
customer service setting like that is poisonous. It can make you a little
cynical. Can you tell I’ve been there before?
It’s a whirlwind tour of Magic Kingdom. We pretty much see
everything. It’s after 11pm and we are dragging ourselves down Main Street one
last time. We aimlessly wander into a few stores, don’t buy anything, and carry
on toward the gates. At last, we exit and now I feel more magical than I did
while I was in the kingdom. That’s not what Disney intended, I’m sure.
And we have an answer to our question. The recon mission was
a success. We both don’t foresee us taking our family here. Certainly, the
youngest we would take a kid to Disney World would be five-years-old. Younger
than that, and you are spending $1000s on something a kid won’t remember when
they are 10. But even with, say, an eight-year-old and a five-year-old, would
we travel to Orlando to go to the Disney parks? Maybe not. There are many other
places we would want to go with kids instead of here. Going to Kauai with two
kids for a week would likely be cheaper than taking them to Disney World.
Actually, without a doubt, Kauai would be cheaper and insanely more magical
than any Disney park.
I guess right now, we are both people who want to take our
kids on really awesome vacations, but we also want those kids to remember those
vacations for much of their lives. I don’t expect either one of us to change in
this regard. So, as a Disney vacation is one of the most expensive trips we
could envision ourselves taking with kids, it will certainly not happen until
they can grasp its significance and remember it years down the road.
Even with older kids, a less manufactured weeklong getaway
would have a stronger appeal to us. For my wife, that’s because the most
memorable family trips for her were to the Oregon coast, where she could
explore tide pools with her dad and sisters, where they could return home every
evening to a beautiful house they rented for the week and make a wicked family
meal. For me, that’s because the most memorable vacations I had when I was
growing up were ones of exploration, where there was no admission price, no
walls, no massive crowds, just God’s good Earth laid bare in its many beautiful
forms, all enticing to a boy who wants to climb, swim, get dirty, and run down
a path without having to dodge fat people on rascals.
