disney diary

Still in a Disney haze and fresh out of the park, I figured I'd jot down a few musings while my 295 photos upload into kodak gallery. However, since it's 11pm on Friday night, I'm three hours off my time zone, I've just spent three days at an amusement park and "slept" with two kids in the same hotel room I am going to work in bullet format. Brain power limited. Must conserve.

1. Disney World is run like a freakin' machine. Not only are there people ushering you into the parking lot...but there is another pointing out the aisle...and as everyone gracefully & compliantly pulls into one parking space after another like a scene from a movie, there is another making sure you're parked just right in that space...and oops, no sooner are you out of the car and someone else tells you just where to walk.

Seriously, they appear out of nowhere like a computer graphics trick. Zuzu spills the popcorn and there is a broom under my feet cleaning it up before I can even grab the pail out of her hand. Was this just luck? I think not. This place, my friends, is a well oiled machine.

Sure there are lines but not because they are understaffed or inefficient. (Although it was quite fun to watch the three overly-friendly attendants at the Dumbo ride try to figure out what to do with the two empty elephants in the group ahead of us. Huddle. What to do? Do we run the ride with two empty cars? How could this have happened? Did someone run off with two of our orange color coded "boarding passes" that we use to herd people like cattle? Couldn't be! Or should we pull more people from the red "boarding pass" group to fill the empty seats? But that will lead to a chain reaction. What to do, what to do???) Truly. It was hysterical.

Needless to say, the whole experience started me thinking. There are some people that need to take a field trip to this magical land, pronto. The US government for one. All member of Congress. Yeah, they could learn a thing or two about efficiency and um, customer service maybe? In fact, I think all companies driven by customer service should ditch the August money-saving but still utterly expensive retreats to Scottsdale, Arizona and send all of upper management to a weekend at Disney World instead. Show them a little bit about how things are done in a seemingly recession proof fantasy land. Send 'em home happy, inspired, and with a pair of mickey ears to boot.

2. We are in a recession, right? Our family alone has lost about 40% of a portfolio that has taken us 40% of our lives to build. Retail sales are down everywhere even with all the additional markdowns and promotions thrown at us. People are fearful. So what do we do?...go to Disney World! Why not, it only costs $500 a DAY for a family of four in admission alone. And apparently we are not alone in our thinking. The place was mobbed. Kids are supposed to be in school (hey, we pulled ours of kindergarten, what's he really going to miss in four days?) & there are only 5 days of shopping & preparation before Christmas. Priorities people!

3. OK. This one is not so funny. But damn if it isn't true. Americans are really getting fat. It's one thing when you see an adult that has let it go a little but when you see little kids hefting all this weight around at age 5 it's terribly frightening. And I'm not talking just a few pounds or just a few people.

The fact that for three days straight my children ate nothing but chicken nuggets, french fries, chips & ice cream does not help the matter. And Scott and I did not fair much better. Of course, we were on vacation so we were pretty lax about the kids diet but I was truly horrified by the lack of healthy food options anywhere in the park. Horrified. This, of course, does not excuse the fact that some other parents can not control their children's diet and exercise outside the park but it just helped to amplify the epidemic. Or maybe they all just live there.

4. The Magic Kingdom is scary. Really. Even the rides you think are safe have somehow found a way to morph into a thrill ride. I get it, we were wrong to take a 2 1/2 year old and a 5 year old in the Haunted Mansion but Winnie the Pooh? Scared our five year old. He's still talking about it. Peter Pan? Why does it have to be so damn dark in there? Scary. The kids started to lose trust in us and we started to doubt our own judgment. But not before the Haunted Mansion, I'm afraid. We'll never live that one down.

Well, 156 of 295 photos have uploaded but I think that's it for me tonight. Plus, I really abhor bloggers that just ramble on and on and on...