Though we were gone to Florida visiting family for ten days, Hunk, Diva, my husband and I were only at Disney for two of those days.
In one way that was far too little time, and in another it was WAY too much.
For anyone who has been to a Disney park – especially with small children – I know you understand. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, let me explain:
First, Disney World is far bigger than you could possibly imagine. If you have ever been on a large military base (like Fort Drum, for instance), you might be able to visualize what it is like with the various parks spread over miles and miles around the property. Yes, our hotel was one mile from Disney World. What I failed to understand was that it was one mile from the entrance to the property. The Disney World property has its own highways, my friends. Its own exit ramps, gas stations, transportation services, and fleets of BOATS, for goodness sake.
But, Monday morning my husband and I innocently awoke from our (back-breaking) slumber on the hide-a-bed in our suite (Diva got the king-sized bed in the back room she shared with Hunk), and decided we might just as well go to Animal Kingdom on that day. No planning. Just go.
I had an inkling it might be slightly more complicated than all that. In my brief moments of trip planning before we left for Florida, I discovered a world of websites, books and even Android apps (thanks again Betsy!) available to use in planning a trip to Disney. Alas, I didn’t take much time to comb through them. (I don’t know if you can tell, but I stay fairly – well, okay, frantically – busy most of the time and had barely started packing – for FOUR people, including Hunk’s food for his FPIES diet – the day before we left.)
So, over a leisurely breakfast, we decided it might be fun to see the animals at Animal Kingdom instead of spending an extra day at Magic Kingdom or at Universal Studios with my mom and 16-year-old sister, which were the other options. We thought it would surely be less busy… A nice way to ease our way into our Disney experience. Yes, we decided. That’s the way to do it. Plus we’d get to see ANIMALS! Hunk – the animal lover in our family – agreed as well, “An’muwth!” he cried.
Animal Kingdom was NOT less busy!
We bundled ourselves off to our rented minivan (after we missed the shuttle during our made-to-order breakfasts) and headed to the Animal Kingdom park, a short drive, according to the concierge I’d spoken to the week before.
Traffic was already bumper to bumper at just after 9:00 a.m. (This was before we got to the entrance of the park.) Of course it was! Do any of you have any idea what Disney really is?! Dreams! Coming true! And everyone in America was there to experience it with us, bless their pushy, temper-tantrum-throwing souls.
I’m making this sound far worse than it was. It was uncomfortable some of the time. It was stressful too. But a few times, I literally cried from happiness.
For example: my son was so excited to see Goofy greeting people while we stood in line outside the gates of Animal Kingdom, I had to hold him tight to keep him from running into Goofy’s arms. And when I saw the actor wearing the big Goofy head completely embody a cartoon character my children (and okay, I) adore, it was such an emotional rush, I couldn’t help myself. It just made me so very happy! I know it sounds ridiculous, but hey, it was a very pleasant experience that I hope you all get to have – whether with your children at Disney or the next time you see a hummingbird. Or a really cool motorcycle. Whatever floats your boat.
Look at Hunk noticing Goofy. He can’t quite believe it.
I know this is a repeat photo from my last post, but I can’t help it. LOOK at that face. Even the people behind us in line said, “Look at that little boy. He’s so HAPPY!” He sure was.
I uploaded some of our hundreds of photos to my NNY Life Facebook page. Don’t forget to click “Like” when you visit the page!
