I was depressed for a good week: how could I go back to my humdrum existence after having experienced the joy and perfection of Disney World?
I have loved Disney World for as long as I can remember. As a child growing up in Maine, I would go on a special trip with my parents and grandparents every March. Often, that trip was to DisneyWorld. I don’t remember most of the dates, but I do remember moments and images from many of those trips. I remember a Christmas spent in Disney World, probably around 1985 or so. It was crowded. I remember the glow-in-the-dark human skull I got at the Haunted Mansion. That’s the only Christmas present I remember from that year. It was heavy, probably made of cement, and I loved it. Back then Disney World meant The Magic Kingdom and Epcot Center. MGM Studios, now called Hollywood Studios, and the Animal Kingdom did not yet exist. Epcot and the Magic Kingdom were enough for me. I remember crying for two days straight when we got back to the snows of Maine after our nine-day trip. I was depressed for a good week: how could I go back to my humdrum existence after experiencing the joy and perfection of Disney World? “When?” I asked.
“How does tomorrow sound?” It sounded pretty good to me! I wasn’t wrapped up in any major rehearsals, and besides I’d only be missing a few days of school. I drove to Bangor the next day and boarded a Delta jet for Orlando. We stayed at the Yacht Club and had a ball, despite (or maybe because of!) the unusual chill in the air. I remember wearing my down North Face parka as I rode Splash Mountain over and over again with hardly any wait. I remember having difficulty signing my name on receipts because my fingers were so numb from the cold. An even bigger gap followed: I graduated from high school and went to college. (I went back eventually!) I sort of dropped out of college after my junior year and spent two years in New York auditioning for musicals. After the second year I finally got a gig and spent most of the next year in Virginia performing at the Wolhfart Haus Dinner Theater in the small town of Wytheville. They still have some pictures with me in them on their website. You can Google it. The next Spring found me touring with a humiliatingly terrible production of The Little Mermaid. I was playing Prince Edmund (not Eric: we didn’t want to be sued by Disney!), and hating my life. We performed in Orlando one day, and after the show I took a fifty dollar cab ride to DisneyWorld and shelled out my ninety dollars to spend a few hours in Epcot Center snapping pictures with my disposable 35mm camera and munching on a Turkey Leg. When the park closed, I jumped on a monorail and headed over to the Grand Floridian Hotel. |
The last full family vacation to Disney World took place in 1989. That was the year of the glow-dots. My little brother and I had matching wardrobes of offensively fluorescent T-shirts and shorts. My parents joked that they could see us from across the park. I was in fifth grade and old enough to venture out on my own a little bit. I’m pretty sure it was 1989, because that’s the year that MGM studios opened. We stayed at the brand new Grand Floridian Hotel, and every day a new gift would appear on our pillows when we got back from the park. I still have the duffle bags and the collector’s book. Throughout the rest of my childhood and adolescence my mother could always count on finding me thumbing through that book of pictures whenever I was depressed. Since unpacking my boxes of stuff at my new house, I have rediscovered my old favorite book of memories. Now my eighteen-month-old son is the one who spends his time seated crosslegged on the floor, pouring over exotic photos from long ago and far away.
After fifth grade there was a big gap. My grandparents were losing interest in Disney World. They wanted to show us more of the “real” world. We went to other places: Louisiana, Arizona, New York, Bermuda. Then, suddenly I was in high school and heavily involved in music and theater. I could no longer justify leaving school for a week or two in February or March. The trips dried up. One day in the dead of winter during my Junior year, my grandmother called. She wanted to know if I wanted to go to Disney World with her for a few days. |
My fellow cast members came to get me in the van. When I got a call on my cell phone, I was happily walking up the beach between the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian, lost in memories.
Several weeks later, we had a day layover in Daytona. I convinced the crew to make the drive back to Orlando, and we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom.
So, that was 2003. I didn’t go back to Disney World again until my honeymoon in 2008. My wife and I spent four days at the Grand Floridian, feverishly trying to get in every experience we could. After the first day, the videos show how tired we were. Natalie could barely form a coherent sentence by afternoon, but she was smiling as the mumbled “now we are going to Epcot...palace… Epcot palace.” I think she was making a phonetic reference to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but it’s a little hard to say.
As I write this introduction, I am listening to Mouseworld Radio, an online streaming site that plays random music from the Disney Parks. Right now they are playing the Main Street, USA loop. It sounds like Wall*E. It’s now 2014, and I am planning a new trip to Disney World. Marcus, our son, is almost two years old, and while he won’t fully appreciate the parks, I can’t wait any longer. I need my fix. The question, though is: how do I plan a trip to Disney World with a toddler?
Several weeks later, we had a day layover in Daytona. I convinced the crew to make the drive back to Orlando, and we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom.
So, that was 2003. I didn’t go back to Disney World again until my honeymoon in 2008. My wife and I spent four days at the Grand Floridian, feverishly trying to get in every experience we could. After the first day, the videos show how tired we were. Natalie could barely form a coherent sentence by afternoon, but she was smiling as the mumbled “now we are going to Epcot...palace… Epcot palace.” I think she was making a phonetic reference to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but it’s a little hard to say.
As I write this introduction, I am listening to Mouseworld Radio, an online streaming site that plays random music from the Disney Parks. Right now they are playing the Main Street, USA loop. It sounds like Wall*E. It’s now 2014, and I am planning a new trip to Disney World. Marcus, our son, is almost two years old, and while he won’t fully appreciate the parks, I can’t wait any longer. I need my fix. The question, though is: how do I plan a trip to Disney World with a toddler?
This I-Search is the answer to that question.