Considering a Day at Disney

It was CavWife’s birthday, so a plan was formed.  Disney offers you free admission on your birthday (I hear this plan will come to an end soon).  We had a friend who works for Disney able to sign the rest of us in.  It was a great way to spend the day together, affordably.  Best of all, it was October and temperatures would be more tolerable.

Little did we know, when making these plans, that her birthday would be smack dab in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave in Central Florida.  The Happiest Place on Earth became … the Hottest Place on Earth.

We met our friend who whisked us into the parking lot, free of charge.  We didn’t bring one of our strollers because she could also get us a double stroller, free of charge.  This was looking better every minute.  The only money we had to spend was on food.

We made our way through Main Street USA toward Fantasy Land, little realizing we would nearly be trapped there the entire day.  Going to Disney with 2 pre-schoolers is, well, different.  Everything takes 3 times longer, and there are suddenly rides you never even considered waiting in line to get on.  There are rides you really want to ride that you will never see all day.

We started off on the Merry-Go-Round.  CavSon was not too excited at first, but warmed up to it.  From there we could see Dumbo, and at first CavGirl wanted to go.  But that all changed.  We would get used to this.  We watched Mickey’s Philharmagic, a 3-D show (when it is really hot, you take advantage of these moments in the A/C).  CavSon really didn’t like it when anything came toward him.  CavGirl was reaching for the floating jewels, which was priceless.  Then off to Small World, Peter Pan’s Flight.

in line for Dumbo

While waiting for our fast track time to come, we made a short venture to Tomorrowland hoping that I could ride Space Mountain.  Those hopes were dashed like an egg tossed off a cliff- closed until Winter 2009.  So it was Monster Inc.’s Laughing Floor instead.  It was on the way back that CavGirl decided riding Dumbo would be fun afterall.  Joy of all joys, the line had doubled.  CavWife bailed on us (birthdays have their privileges), missing a monumental tantrum by the boy in line ahead of us.  She also missed the guy in front of us, who must have had a gallon of water ooze from his pores while waiting for Dumbo.  And then there was the Muslim family wearing half a store in the sweltering 90+, feels like 100+, temperatures.

Afterwards we ate a lunch I thought we’d never eat because of our seemingly endless search for a table.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed the train ride.  It was priceless to see CavGirl’s joy as the train pulled into the station.  After our trip around the park, the kids played in the splash pad zone.  Grinning ear to ear, and soaked to the skin, they had to keep pulling their shorts back up.

We made our way to the Speedway to ride the race cars.  Now late afternoon, we stopped to enjoy an ice cream before heading over to Adventure Land or Frontier Land.  That tasty delay proved pivotal as we got caught in a rain shower that effectively put an end to our day.  We took shelter by a pond and watched the ducks swim in the rain.  It always rains when we go to Disney, even if it hasn’t rained for weeks.  The stroller really helped the kids so they did not wear out or over heat.  But CavWife and I were beat.  If we stayed for the show at the Castle, we’d get home too late.  So we headed home.  It was then that we noticed that we had not seen more than one character- a fairy godmother.  On the way out we passed Chip and Dale who accosted me as a 12 year-old.  Rather than getting a photo op, we watched them pushed on by their handler.

A few observations from our day at Disney:

• Depravity was on Display–  it was nearly unavoidable.  People consistently did what they were not supposed to do.  They cut in lines, bumped the car ahead of them, sat in the middle instead of going to the end of the row.  Children were melting down, at times hitting their parents for not fulfilling their desires.  Parents were melting down, shaming children for “ruining” the day.  Inappropriate clothing was everywhere exposing more flesh than I needed to see (except for the Muslims obviously- interesting contrast).  The “Happiest Place on Earth” was filled with unhappiness, lust, anger.
• Leadership is Hard–  I kept surging ahead, leaving my family in the dust.  I wondered how often I did that as a pastor, charging off to blaze a trail only to find the rest of the group delayed and waylaid.  I need to remember to move more slowly.

Despite the hot temperatures, human nature and more, we had a great day celebrating CavWife’s birthday.  We are grateful for the opportunity we had to enjoy a day doing something special together.  It was a rare treat for us.