Disney, unscripted
- Maryann
- Nov 13, 2012
- 4 min read
After a year of campaigning for public office, my family headed out to Orlando a few days after the election. I did not win the seat for which I ran, but as we left home, I was not angry or disappointed, I was just glad to be done. I was glad to have my own life back. Campaigning takes an emotional toll on your entire family in a way that I never imagined when I agreed to do it. It was a fun and interesting year. Jamie and I learned a lot about ourselves, our relationship and our family, but I was glad to be done. We were so busy all year that, although I knew we were going to Orlando, I had no time to plan anything related to Disney. A neighbor told me to book the character breakfast in advance, and I am glad I listened because, despite booking five months before the trip, we almost did not get in to see the characters we wanted. I read a few things right before we left, but it was not enough to really plan the way I like to plan.
We arrived in Orlando, and I asked if anyone was interested in finding a beach. My reason for seeking a beach was two-fold; one, Ethan had never seen the ocean and two, I needed to think and an ocean has a way of putting things in perspective. Being in Orlando, we had a choice of either the gulf or Atlantic coasts. I have always liked the waves produced by the Atlantic Ocean, so we headed towards Cocoa Beach which is a classic, old Florida beach town. The public beach was virtually empty on this warm November day, and it was perfect. After introducing Ethan to the fury of ocean waves, I found a spot on the beach to be alone with my thoughts. It was the best way to start our vacation. No cell phone, no schedules, no checking Facebook statuses was exactly what we needed. I was ready to get back to real life. This week, real life brought me to Orlando, and I intended to make the best of it.
Before we went to the Disney parks, we spent an evening at the Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament. It was corny, but entertaining. I do not remember anything special about the food except that it was part of the ticket price. We made the best of it wearing our crowns and buying Ethan a light-up sword. We cheered for our Knight and booed the competition. It was a great non-Disney experience.
The next morning, however, it was off to Disney. It was a beautiful, warm November day and we had nothing in particular planned except to walk around Magic Kingdom. It had been 34 years since I had last seen Disney World, so I had no real memory of it. The fact that I had not planned a thing made the experience so much better than if we had been racing off to "do everything". Instead of a fixed schedule, we used the Disney App to guide us through the park with no real plan at all. As a result, we ended up getting advance admission into the newly-built Fantasyland where we ate lunch in Belle's castle, and Ethan was invited to be part of a play re-enacting Beauty & the Beast. He was picked to play the role of Belle's father. We were invited in because we were simply walking by and looked interested, so the Disney Host invited us in. We then had a private tour of the facility where the host described all of the different technology that went into making it a "Disney" experience.
The entire trip was a series of stumbling into one interesting situation after another where we encountered no real lines, entertaining shows and an overall good time. We spent two days at Magic Kingdom, a half-day at Epcot and also bought tickets to the Disney Christmas Party event where only a fraction of the standard guest count is permitted to stay for the night. During the evening, different restaurants give out free hot chocolate and cookies, there is a special Christmas parade and the park is not crowded at all. During the parade, Ethan was confident enough to scoot himself to the front of the crowd and take a seat on his own right at the edge of the parade route. Every-so-often he would glance back to make sure I was still there and smile at me with a "look at me," excited look on his face. I was proud of him for being such a cool kid. At the age of 4, Ethan had just endured a year of campaigning, door-to-door, political events, riding around in the car and glad-handing with strangers and working parade routes instead of watching parades. It was important to me that we were able to bring him to such a joyful place. I was happy to have my family back and it being just us, private citizens again.
My advice to anyone who is planning a Disney trip is to not plan too much. Pick one or two things that are "must see" events, then leave the rest up to chance... discover the park and the different parts of it as a child would, by chance. No expectations, just an open mind. Jamie and I got the opportunity to have time by ourselves at the parks, and we rode Space Mountain multiple times. One time, the ride malfunctioned and all the lights went on inside the dome-- we thought it was funny to get to see that this classic ride is nothing more than an indoor roller coaster with flashing lights. Ethan, Jamie and I rode Thunder Mountain multiple times (Ethan's first roller coaster), and we ate giant ice cream cookies and cinnamon rolls and did not worry about schedules or rushing around. It was a blast.
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