The Love of the Mouse

My grandfather, a barber at the Algonquin Hotel, used to cut Walt Disney’s hair when he was in New York. My mother told me that once I met him and sat on his lap during his haircut.

I have no memory of that but I mark it as the beginning of my love of Disney.  Sunday nights would find my family watching The Wonderful World of Disney and our first really big family vacation was to many of the western National Parks with a side trip to DisneyLand. Later as I pursued a career in planning, Walt Disney was studied as the one of the top planners of his time.  I still walk around his parks in awe of the layout, people moving and particularly the level of detail in every aspect of the experience.

Martha and I have taken our daughters to DisneyWorld 8 or 9 times,  always in winter as a break from the cold, snowy landscape of the northeast.  We went through the struggling with strollers stage, the waiting for character autographs stage, the waiting for the major thrill rides (I hold the hats) and the “have fun, we’ll meet up for dinner” stage.

Recently I have been to DisneyWorld a couple of times without Martha because she works in a school and prices are astronomical during school breaks. But she has been sorely missing The Mouse and so we planned a trip.  In August.  Florida in August.  

I know many people who hate Disney parks because of the expense and the crowds.  To me the magic is worth every penny and, having been so often, we know how to work the system and beat the crowds.

Our first day we reserved an event where we spent an hour eating mini desserts ( a LOT of mini desserts) and then had special seating for the fireworks show at the castle.  I have seen a lot of these spectacles but none that compared to this year’s with whole movie scenes being projected onto the castle.  

We have always stayed at a Park resort and therefore could book dinner reservations 6 months before the trip, always trying something new - Norway this year - and returning to old favorites like Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is an African buffet which allows non-adventurous eaters like myself the opportunity to try little bits of everything.  But I really go to Boma for the Zebra Domes.

You can find the recipe on-line which is basically coffee-kahlua flavored heavy cream, sugar, eggs, and chocolate ganache.  I ate an embarrassing amount.

This year a new section opened in the Animal Kingdom based on the movie Avatar.  There are only two attractions at this point - one a luminescent river ride through the land of Pandora

The other is a thrill ride which simulates flying on a Banshee.  Although I do not do standard thrill rides like rollercoasters or things that drop, the thought of being able to fly on the back of a large bird had me intrigued.  You sit on something similar to a motorcycle seat wearing 3D glasses, with your hands on the reins of your banshee. And then a screen opens and you are in Pandora swooping through lush forests, nose diving down waterfalls and soaring past floating mountains while you can feel your banshee breathing between your legs.  It is difficult to describe how awesome this ride was. We had a fast pass and waited about 10 minutes to go on but others have waited 4 hours and still said it was worth it.  

We had been worried about the weather in Florida in August and packed sleeveless, wicking shirts but except for the first day the skies were generally overcast and kept the heat at a moderate temperature.  But you would have never known it has August because the Magic Kingdom was already decorated for Mickey’s Halloween Party.  

WTF???  

Well except for that extreme rushing of the seasons, and the lack of “wow” I always feel when I travel from snow into palm trees in the winter, we had yet another magical time dining with princesses, hugging Pooh, eating foods from around the world, watching the wide eyed wonder of little kids, and generally reliving the sweet memories of youth.  

The world is such a crazy place right now. Five days in a fairy tale was the best medicine.