Ten Things I Learned From My DisneyWorld Vacation

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This year, through the generosity of a couple, circumstances were aligned that enabled us go to Disneyworld. I had been there as a child, a number of decades ago, when Epcot had first opened. It was to be my first time to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

My experience was both very positive, but also a learning experience. My kids had just turned seven, and one of them is on the autistic spectrum. Neither of them had ever gone away on vacation for as long before, partially because this disrupts my son’s rigid notion of structure. Even after it had been explained, the reality of a new experience has a tendency to elicit epic meltdowns. We did our best to prevent them, but were not always successful.

FastPass+ lines – let me get this off the bat. FastPass+ lines, the ability to cut to the front of the line, just simply rock. Apparently they had made some changes to the program that has parents program three Fastpass+ choices in advance, and then make further additions one at a time, it saved a lot of aggravation, and allowed us to maximize our time together. My only caveat is that one was unable to program three FastPass+ selections from different parks. A second caveat, that entire times were filled up, and you could be out for the day.

My Disney Experience App – Furthermore, the combination of FastPass with using the Disney App maximized the experience even more. We did not have to cross all across the park just to arrive at Space Mountain, just to find out the wait was over an hour. It ascertained where our location was, a list of all the attractions near us by proximity, and wait times. It also listed parental concerns, like how scary a ride is, or if it was dark. Playing a day by ear has never been easier.

I have to remind myself that this, while extremely novel to me, is normalcy for my children. This is the culture my kids are growing up into. It makes me consider that whatever endeavors I pursue, I need to take into account that my experiences will not match theirs, and that there are positive and negative repercussions for this shift. I simply need to be prepared.

CGI Real-Time Interaction – Of all the technological advances Disney had been at the cusp of for the last few years, the biggest advancement I had witnessed was the ability for a CGI character (both from the Monsters Inc Laugh Riot Comedy show, and Turtle Talk with Finding Nemo’s Crush), to interact with the audience. The character would very clearly interact with audience members, and it appeared it was really speaking with us. It married the detail of CGI animation with spontaneity. I honestly don’t know how this is done, and it’s real cool to witness.

Star Tours Ride – A new ride this year celebrates Disney’s acquisition of the Star Wars franchise. It’s called Star Tours, and it was easily my favorite ride of the whole park. It is basically a simulator ride that puts you in the action of the best of the Star Wars movies, and at a level of detail that made you really believe you were there. Combining CGI, animatronics, and motion simulation, it was simply great fun to behold.

Indiana Jones Stunt Show – By contrast, the stunt show was both cool, and, well, a little lame. What made it difficult was that there were three major film set changes during the show, and the only way to get through them was that there was some way to lecture the audience as to how a film is made. Are these necessary anymore? With the amount of commentary tracks on home video, can it be assumed that most people know what a stunt coordinator is?

Disney Boardwalk – I had went to the Stunt Show solo, and then had to travel to Epcot to meet the rest of my family. I had opted to hoof it, since there was a walkway between the two parks. Traversing this walkway, I had encountered an old-style boardwalk, what Coney Island or Atlantic City must have looked like at the turn of the century. It was delightfully off the beaten path, the food was good, the parlor games and rented surreys were a treat. Hard to get to, and yet worthwhile. I had returned twice more afterwards.

Disney Weddings – I had to venture to the Grand Floridian resort to use the fitness center on premises, and this happened to be located next door to the wedding packages. One day I was there and I had witnessed what a wedding package consisted of. The six small horses leading a Cinderella style carriage. It was absolutely endearing, even though it sounds tacky.

Disney Cartoons – Disney set up a channel of nonstop cartoons from its early days to present day, yet their cartoons ran in a loop, and all of these were truncated to run about three minutes in length. So my child on the spectrum got very much attached to this channel, and his favorite cartoon of the bunch–the one where Donald Duck accidentally pours rubber cement in his waffle batter–this, sadly, caused one of the greatest meltdowns of the vacation. After he had missed this cartoon in the loop, I had offered to find the cartoon on You Tube and play it on my laptop. Only because the cartoon was the full version, and not the truncated one, he began to cry. When I found the truncated one, but for some reason the background music was a little off, and he was even more inconsolable. Our schedule was curtailed by two hours, and we had to let go of our plans to try to bring him to calm again. (Since then, he has warmed up to the full cartoon).

For our part, we had to remind ourselves to not get our child sucked into a routine where it would become an obsession. We learned to shake things up then.

Detail Oriented – People today are obsessed with the 80/20 rule, that is, to learn to do the right 20% of a task, and 80% of one’s satisfaction can be derived from that. One thing’s for certain, you can ride “It’s A Small World” and not sense they were playing by that rulebook. That ride, along with many others, are nothing but detail-detail-detail. You can see the amount of sweat it took to create such a ride from scratch, always something interesting there for the eyes.

“It All Started With A Mouse.” – A sign seen multiple places, is this quote from Walt Disney, to remind us of the humble beginnings of his empire. Love him or hate him, he is one of the shining examples of American entrepreneurialistic spirit that lives on to today. To be able to craft cartoons and films that still hold up today, and spearhead an organization that is at the cutting edge of technology, all at the service of providing a resort that caters to all age groups, is something that is unprecedented for today.

Now as I get back into my old routines, and work off the pounds that I had gained, I will have to not only recall the happy (and not-so-happy) memories we had, but also the deeper takeaways of the experience. We are in a rich, technologically savvy world that is much different from any civilization that had ever come before. We are to be proper stewards of such, but also learn to not fall in its trappings.

Nonetheless, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have gone.  My family is most important to me, and times to do this do not come easily.  It is my hope that we can experience even more adventures in the future.