Disney's charmed precision

The hubs was curious that our 2-week long vacation didn't win an immediate spot in this blog other than a casual mention that "we had a great time" wrap-up. What can I say? I’m slack! There were obviously far better things to do like grocery runs, cooking, preparing lunches and dinners, wiping the snotty noses of my kids, cracking the whip and making sure their homework gets done, tidying the house, and other equally exciting activities that have me waking at the crack at dawn eager to get a headstart.


Or was it that the thought of having to edit and organize nearly 400 pictures was thwarting my enthusiasm? Or that I really feared that my granny memory might prove too brittle to remember details from every single fun-packed day?


All of the above reasons, if you’d guessed right. Anyway, I present a selected few photos from our trip where you can imagine the fun from the cheery faces.


Quintessential Disney and Pixar at Magic Kingdom

There are 2 kinds of people: ones who go to Disney and love it and ones who haven’t and don’t have any inclination towards it. Then there are people like myself who, as a kid, had badly wanted to go to Disney and listened enviously at that darn annoying kid boasting about her recent Christmas vacation at Disney Land. As the years drew on and Disney’s magic was still no nearer, I’d come to the stark realization that Disney Land was forever a pipe dream and it was best to quash the hopes and dreams along with wishing to see Santa Claus fly over our roof on Christmas eve. That Disney portion in my heart had shriveled over the years and I’d become indifferent to tales of families visiting my one-time love.

Since then, we have visited Disney Land in Anaheim some 5 years ago when my hubs’ work had briefly brought him to California. That virgin trip was a needed shot in my arm to reignite my childhood love for Disney. And like addicts, we have returned but this time to the location in Florida. Needless to say, I now fall into the first category of people who do love Disney and would revisit. It is a place where adults can bring their kids on a pretext to have little Jack and Jane see Mickey and his friends but in reality, they will be pushing past their kids to get to the cool rides. It is the same people who pretend to be sophisticated and poised but cackle like maniacs on the dizzying rides. At least the ones who walk around with huge Mickey Mouse ears on their heads keep true to their spirit. But Disney doesn’t mind if you let down your guard and act like kids in fact, it encourages the stifled kid in you to surface.


The hubs' preferred Animal Kingdom

The magic of Disney World, I believe, is much less the creation of life-size cartoon characters and having them walk around however appealing it is to children but more so the Herculean efforts that Walt and his team have undertaken to turn a make-believe world into, dare I say, Utopia. Comparatively, the rides at Disney are child’s play and for thrill seekers who like their brains to be shaken like a box of marbles would prefer the rides at Universal studios. The most terrifying rides at Disney, are scaled down to allow kids as tall (or short) as Sean to ride on it safely but with some amount of crazy packed in, still enough to make my hubs sick on a few occasions.

But I’m more fascinated by Disney’s attention to the most minute detail implies that nothing is left to chance at this amusement park. The rides are tended with polite efficiency; the foliage is carefully picked to match its surrounding -- bamboo in China and Japan over at Epcot; and leafy tropical trees in the Rainforest Café. And that boulder in the corner wasn’t left by nature’s accidental shoddiness but was intentionally added to the atmosphere.

I also respect the fact that Disney doesn’t try to profit once you step past the ticketing counter. You aren’t obliged to buy their food and drinks; and water fountains are easily found so that folks can refill their water bottles as often as they like. I’m thankful for that. As unlike Sea World where every 10 steps puts you in the way of a booth touting your children more plastic junk and another China-made stuffed toy, Disney doesn’t stoop to being tacky like that.


Hanging out with the local celebrities at Epcot

Disney’s aim to please its pilgrims might be simple but I’ll bet that the work that needed to get done to achieve that German-like precision was not based on serendipity nor magic. It was researched to a perfect pitch by a bunch of mad scientists holed up in the basement, fed from time-to-time on surveys and questionnaires, graphs and various coloured pie-charts of what people liked and what they didn’t. And anything that didn’t make it to perfection had to be remedied – immediately. Watching how the 2 maintenance chaps one day at Hollywood Studios putting up a simple poster proved Disney’s rigid adherence to perfection. Those 2 men did not randomly stick up the poster by eyeballing its position on the bare wall. They fished out a level and a measuring tape; they measured, centered, and checked it twice before finally putting in the staples. And what was laughable was that no one really bothered looking at that wall anyway but yet, it had to go up perfectly.


I was prepared for melt-downs (mine included) and to witness ugly, rowdy families shoving in the heat but it was as if people magically transformed once they stepped past the ticketing counter. Families left unattended strollers stuffed with Disney purchases and their children’s personal needs, and no one seemed worried about having their belongings stolen. I’d let Sophia walk a few steps too far away from me one time when a couple of kind ladies stopped her and started looking for me. Certainly, we did have a few obnoxious foreigners who simply refused to give up their seats to poor mothers carrying small children but those were few and infrequent sights of selfishness. But for most part, visitors to Disney nobly upheld the euphoric state of Utopia that Disney had envisioned.


If you haven’t been to Disney, it isn’t too late to plan a trip. And judging by the throngs of adoring visitors -- both young and old -- willing to brave the heat and crowd, Disney’s magic isn’t a well-kept secret.


We took time to swim with the pirates at our hotel pool. Then a toast on the last night.