G-Lexington
Lex. Icon. Devil.
Random thoughts at the close of my eight-day vacation to Disney World (me, Pubert, our married friends and their fifteen-year-old daughter):
Lex
- Disney apparently has tightened the reins on the Christmas music a bit. Last time I was in Disney World in December (six years back), there was much straight-up Christmas music in evidence. I recall hearing "Silent Night" sung quite a bit, most notably (and most surrealy) during the luau at the Polynesian resort. Almost none of that this time around. They stuck with the non-denominational "holiday/winter" songs like "Winter Wonderland" and "Deck the Halls". You could still hear Christmas tunes in the resorts, but the parks found a loophole - they played instrumental versions. After all, there's nothing inherently Christian about the melody to "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing".
- While in Florida, the high temperature was never under 80. During that same timeframe in Denver, the high temperature only once managed to break 35. I think we chose a good week for it.
- Our suite was pretty much a clone of the one we stayed in the last time we stayed in Disney World with different decor. Very nice, very swank. However, I apparently still need precisely one night to get used to the bed, no matter how nice it is.
- I'm old. I no longer can "vacation" from 8am through 11pm seven days a week. Running to parks and rides and meals and activities starts taking its toll. On Tuesday, as everyone else headed to Universal Studios, I decided to bag it. I got a massage at the spa, did some sunbathing and reading at the pool, did a couple loads of laundry, and napped. That's it. Dull? You bet. A waste? I don't think so. I found myself recharged for the rest of the vacation, and had a great time without that "all tuckered out" feeling that sometimes accompanies it. I'll have to plan a "down day" in my week-long vacations from here on out.
- One thing that used to confuse me about the Disney Experience was that whole "princess" thing. Last time we were here, they had a daily coronation where Cinderella was crowned "a real live princess!" And that didn't make any sense to me. Why would anyone care? But I saw a bit more of the princess thing this time, and I think I get it now. To me, "princess" implies some rather negative things - being a figurehead, arranged marriages, and a heaping helping of entitlement. But that's not what Disney (or the little girls) have in mind. To them, a princess gets to dress pretty and has wishes come true. That's all. (Just like the current male equivalent for boys - pirates. Being a pirate doesn't mean scurvy, plundering other boats, rum, sodomy and the lash. It means wearing an eyepatch, waving a cutlass around, and saying "Arrrrg!" That's all.) Adding to this, Disney has installed two "Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutiques" (d'oh) in Disney World, where little girls can get their hair and make-up done, put on a taffeta dress (in blue, yellow, or pink) and become a little princess themselves. So Disney World is jam packed with these princesses with no lands to call their own. Silly? Perhaps, but if it gets it out of their system so they don't feel they have to wait for a "fairytale wedding", I'm actually all for it.
- No matter how many times you get to play with a dolphin, it never gets old.
- Like most nicer hotels, the TVs in our suite had DVD players and plenty of channels. But it seems such a waste in Disney World. Unless you're laid up sick, there's not much reason to sit around and watch TV there.
- I've always been of two minds about roller coasters. I don't dislike them really - I think they're fun. But my body doesn't seem to react well to them. It's like they upset my body's equilibrium, and I have a hard time getting it back. I don't just get nauseous - I do, but only a bit - but I'll start sweating, I can't stop yawning, what have you. I think I should just swear them off altogether. I'm pretty much at the age when I can do that without inviting comment.
- Disney appears not to have anything on the front burner. When we were on our last Disney Cruise, the movie Chicken Little was just about to come out. And so CL merchandise was everywhere. (Wouldn't you like a Chicken Little baseball, bat and glove set?) But the last big Disney film - Ratatouille - was hardly represented anywhere in the parks. Lots of Stitch and Pirates (of the Caribbean) things, but those are hardly new. The two characters that seem to have made a resurgence? Grumpy and Tinkerbell. They seem to be on everything now.
- One of the neat souvenirs you can get at the parks is a laminated E ticket replica from back in the day. For those younger than me - back in the day, you had to buy tickets to get on the rides inside the park. The tickets were graded from A-E. An A ticket would get you one of the lamest rides (like the old time auto on Main Street), and the E ticket would get you on the best ones. You know what used to be an E ticket? The Jungle Cruise. Seriously.
- The last time I went to Discovery Cove, a duo played outside while we ate lunch. Two middle-aged white guys - one on Casio, one on guitar - doing songs like "Margaritaville". They were, to put it mildly, wretched. This time, we got a Caribbean trio - keyboard, bass, steel drums - doing songs like "Blue Moon" and "The Girl From Ipanema". Not my cup of tea, but hundreds of times better than last time. The food was better, too.
- I absolutely loved having a huge jetted tub in our suite. I was in it about once a day.
- I didn't think much of Disney/MGM. The idea was neat, and I did really like the decor. But not much there piqued my interest. (Then again, I'm not much of a movie fan.) But one attraction made it totally worthwhile - the Lights Motors Action stunt show. Watching those little cars tear around each other like that was amazing.
- I was happy we had a small porch, and although the patio furniture was just that cheap molded plastic stuff, it was still welcome. A porch light would've been nice, though. I like sitting outside in the cool weather reading.
- Like every Disney trip, I saw a LOT of families with only really young children in tow. Why? Why bring an 18-month-old to Disney World? What are they gonna get out of it? A trip to the grocery store gives them just as much sensory overload.
- When I saw the big pool of sting rays at Discovery Cove, I recall thinking "What's the appeal?" They're actually pretty neat. They generally swim around you, but they'll get close enough that you can reach down and pet them as they go by.
- I do things differently when I'm on vacation than I do otherwise. For instance, I always read Reader's Digest on the plane, but never read it elsewhere - even in waiting rooms. I had salmon for lunch yesterday, and I almost never order fish.
- We rented a car (SUV, actually), which is a first for us. We've always relied on the busses, boats and monorails to get us where we needed to be. Having a vehicle IS certainly a boon - we got to leave the park to get groceries, there was no problem getting to Discovery Cove or Universal Stuidos, all that - but at the same time, I miss taking those barges from the hotels to the parks. (Then again, we weren't in one of the hotels what makes that easy.) These boats seems tailor-made for my kind of vacationing - taking it slow, looking at things. I'm sure the little kids who are forced on them by their parents are thinking, "Oh, come ON, already!"
- There's something a bit wrong about the whole "holiday celebration" thing at Disney World. Images of Goofy wearing a scarf and earmuffs are about as realistic as Goofy in a space suit. It's 85 degrees. No matter how many times the choir belts out "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", it ain't gonna happen.
- That said, early to mid-December may be THE time to visit Disney World. Apparently, very few people visit between Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas. Hotel rates plummet, and the crowds were neglible. A few things were still tough to get into, and there were a couple longish lines, but in general, things went really smooth.
- One morning, I woke up with the Thembryian slush festival song running through my head over and over. This is pretty weird, because not only had I not heard it recently, but I'm almost completely convinced that it doesn't exist.
- The monorail is pretty strange. I'm sure when they built it, it was cutting-edge, state-of-the-art, future-of-transportation. Well, the future is now. And now it seems less "state-of-the-art" so much as "what-we-thought-2007-would-look-like-in-1967". It's now more kitsch and/or a matter-of-fact form of transportation than anything with intrinsic appeal. The Contemporary Resort is also not quite as contemporary as when they built it. However, the monorail driving through the Contemporary Resort, for some reason, still seems future-y to me.
- I scribbled down notes of things I wanted to discuss here last night before I went to sleep. One of the last things I wrote was, "A really thick brick". I have no idea what that means.
- At the Discovery Cove park, they have one of those "Lazy River" attractions. You get in, it pushes you along at a slow rate of speed, and, after floating by a bunch of pretty flowers and what not, you end up back where you started. This particular one actually goes into an aviary (with waterfalls on either side to keep the birds from flying out) so you can look at some exotic birds as you float along. Being as we were there our last day in Florida, we all went on the thing four times. We probably could've gone a fifth. Both fun and relaxing.
- As soon as you can confidently find your way back to your hotel room from the city, it's time to go home.
Lex