Well, we're back from Disney and everything seems really anti-climactic now. How does one live in the real world once they've seen Disney? It was fun, but that place is a finely-tuned money sucking machine. It's incredible the way they make you forget about everything and keep you focused on spending, spending, spending. Like when you're finished with a ride, it empties out into a gift shop. And you find that you must spend your money. You can't help yourself. Beyond that, it really is a fun place. My daughter said it was the best week of her life, and isn't that really what it's all about?
Here are some things I learned while in Disney:
1. It's a bad idea to plan a trip to Disney when your children are babies or toddlers. We specifically waited until our daughter reached nine because I wanted her to be old enough to walk all day long and be old enough to control her emotions. At least be able to control them better than a baby or toddler. I saw these families dragging these kids around who were just miserable. I mean they were probably having some fun, but they were also crying and whining about the heat and having major meltdowns. To me, this is something you experience everyday when children are that age. I am not going to pay big money to take my child across the country to have her do what she does at home for free.
2. People are still jerks, even in Disney World. It's amazing to me how rude people are in a place like Disney World because everyone is there to have a good time, right? I mean, if you're going to get upset because the line is too long and the weather is sweltering, you shouldn't be there and you definitely shouldn't be taking it out on your family or other visitors. I saw some really harsh stuff as far as parents just going off on their kids and being majorly rude. For instance, I lost sight of my daughter at one point while she was watching this High School Musical thing. I was just trying to get through the crowd a bit so I could find her and know where she was. As I was squeezing by this lady, she actually started pushing me off to the side and I was like, "Look, I'm just trying to find my daughter, OK?" And she's like, well I'm keeping an eye on my kid, too. And pushes me off to the side again. Like she thought I was trying to steal her space or something. Whatever. I just wanted to catch sight and I eventually had to get down on my hands and knees so I could peer between people's legs to see where she was. But not until after I stood right next to the lady at ear level and screamed my daughter's name as loud as I could. Have I ever mentioned I can scream really, really loud? I mean really loud. I'm pretty sure they heard me at all the other parks.
3. I hate European tour groups. Everywhere we went, we encountered these tour groups compiled of about 300 hundred teenagers and God help you if you ended up in the middle of one of these groups, or worse, behind them. Seriously, it's like trying to make your way through a stampede of wildebeest or something. And they're clueless. They don't seem to have the ability to figure out what they should be doing or able to discern what's going on around them because they're focused so closely on the person with the flag that's taking them around the place. It's like sheep. Nothing else exists but the leader. So you get jostled and generally abused. They should outlaw those tour groups or mandate that any individual group can only hold up to 20 people.
4. People from the UK are generally very friendly. I cannot count the number of times we ended up in conversation with families from the UK because one of the parents just started talking to us. I didn't mind it at all and they were all very enjoyable conversations. Not so many Americans did the same. I just find it interesting that as a society, we seem so disconnected from each other that we're unlikely to want to speak to strangers. Even at Disney World.
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