Disney Whirl

Walt Disney is the Love God!

I took lots of pictures on our trip to Disney World last weekend, but I find this one to be the most amazing. In a surprise twist, I managed to shed my ironic detachment while at the happiest place on Earth (good... the detachment still works) with Beth and the kids. I'd long dreaded going there, because I thought it would all just be too cheesy and artificial. And, sure, it was, but nobody does cheesy and artificial like the Mousketeers.

We went because Beth received a VIP pass to the park because (name of workplace redacted) has a business relationship with Disney. We flew down last Thursday, and got back late Monday afternoon. We spent three days amid the Mouse-attired masses, and had a fantastic time.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom on Friday under incredible blue skies, with temps in the mid 70s.



Joining the throngs, we hit Main Street, heading toward the castle. The crowds were bigger than I'd expected -- guidebooks told us that early December is generally somewhat quiet, but we were there during the taping for Disney's Christmas special. There were tons of people in front of the castle listening to "American Idol" winner Scott McCreery singing Christmas tunes in that incredible bass voice of his (I don't like his music, but you can't deny the guy's voice is sumthin' else).

We headed into Tomorrowland, per Owen's request. My got on the People Mover, to get the lay of the land. We did a few rides here, including Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (which Owen loved so much he worked VERY hard to convince Amelia to do it) and the Speedway.

From there, it was a whirlwind -- the Mad Hatter tea cups, the Magic Carpet Ride, the Haunted House, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain (roller coaster), Splash Mountain again, lunch, back to Tomorrowland and stuff I'm definitely forgetting. We had dinner back at the hotel and then chilled in our room after a long, happy day.

The next day we went back to the Magic Kingdom in the morning, doing many of the same rides, and adding in It's a Small World (all of us) and the Dumbo the Flying Elephant (Amelia and Beth), and other stuff that I'm forgetting. After chilling back at our hotel (which was in the park and accessible by monorail -- which Owen LOVED), we went to Epcot in the middle of the afternoon.



The highlight of Epcot, and our entire Disney experience, was Soarin', a ride that simulates a hang glider flight over the state of California. We waited for an hour to get in, and there were a few times when I thought we were going to have to bail, but the kids soldiered on and it was obviously worth it.

I won't bore you with all the other stuff we did there, but I will mention that going inside Spaceship Earth is worth it, and Beth and Owen had a great time on the Test Track (while Amelia and I ate ice cream).



On Sunday we went to the Animal Kingdom, which provided yet more terrific rides. The Dinosaur ride was loud, bumpy and a bit too crazy for Amelia (she covered her ears the whole time); the Kali River Rapids was a quick, yet very wet (for Beth and Amelia) ride; and the safari was much better than I was expecting.



I couldn't convince Owen to do Expedition Everest, the largest roller coaster at Disney.



He didn't want to do Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom, either. No big deal. Next time.

It was at Animal Kingdom that the kids finally got to meet some of the characters, including Goofy, Mickey and Minnie. Here they are with Minnie:



Later in the day, we returned to the Magic Kingdom for our final few hours of Disney. Had we realized the park was closing at 7:00 -- the Disney Christmas party, under a separate admission, was running from 7:00 until midnight -- we probably would have gotten there sooner than 4:15. Anyway, we ran a quick loop around the park doing a few more favorites and then headed back to the hotel for room service.

And that's it. The next morning, we ate breakfast, packed up and headed to the airport. The flight back went smoothly, unlike our trip south, which was delayed an hour and 40 minutes. It's good to be back home, even if the temps have finally dipped from the abnormal 60s we'd been experiencing in New England down to the normal 20s, 30s and 40s.

Finally, I just want to delve a little bit into the history of Disney World. I'm the kind of guy who appreciates a massive amusement megaplex like Disney for the rides and entertainment and food, but can't help thinking about how it all got put together, how it's run behind the scenes and what the landscape looked like before the Mouse stamped his likeness all over everything in sight.

Disney World opened in 1971, 12 years after Walt Disney decided his company needed to open an amusement park east of the Mississippi. After his advance men looked into the possibility of developing an area near Orlando, Florida, Disney flew over the spot in 1963 and liked what he saw: proximity to the planned Interstate 4, the Florida Turnpike and the Air Force base that would become Orlando International Airport (thanks Wikipedia!).

In order to buy up the nearly 28,000 acres around Bay Lake, Disney formed numerous shell corporations with wacky names such as Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation, Latin American Development and Management Corporation and RETLAW (Walter backwards). The land had been acquired in 1912 by the Munger Land Co. and divvied up into 5-acre lots. Since most of the land was swamp, the owners/speculators were more than happy to sell, according to Wikipedia.

Anyway, long story short: Walt Disney died in 1966, five years before the park opened. While I couldn't find any pictures of what the land looked like before the park was built, I did find a cool web site (Daveland!) that has some great early shots of the park.