As an adult, living in this
‘real’ world, we are becoming increasingly skeptical about anything that has
‘magical’ in it. ‘Magical’ is an
experience, ‘Magical’ is a feeling. ‘Magical’ is unreal…
Welcome to the happiest place
on earth!! This place defines
‘Magical’. From the very first
interaction when you book your holiday to the time you check out and your child
says, please let’s stay back pleeaasssseeeeeee…it sinks in, what a truly
‘Magical’ experience means.
I guess for those who have
traveled to Disney often, it might not be such a ‘wow’. However, for us, this was our first Disney
experience and it was a truly exceptional holiday. They know how to make you special. We book the holiday and a few weeks later,
you get a personalized information booklet with your family name on it…The xyz
family’s grand adventure’. How cool is
that...You then get to personalize your magic band, they get your name embossed
on it, you get to choose your color and around this band, your holiday is
managed. Enough to impress any adult;
let alone, a child! However, what
follows, takes ‘holiday management’ to a different world.
You get baggage tags before
hand, so if you are landing in Orlando and are using the Disney Magical Express
for transport (and why wouldn’t you??), you are not burdened with getting your
bags to the hotel. They ‘magically’ get them
to your room. Your magic band ‘magically’
gets activated as your room key when you land, even though the room number was
not known till a little while back.
At the airport, we were
walking towards the Disney counters. There was a couple walking ahead of
us. One of the staff asked them, are you
booked at Disney? They answered no and
the staff politely directed them elsewhere, telling them, beyond this point, IS
ALL DISNEY.
It seemed like a simple enough
statement then, but as we get in, you truly understand what it means. It was all about ‘Mickey to Mickey’. You touch your band to where they ask you to and
you keep moving. Everyone smiles,
everyone talks well, everyone helps you…everyone…no exceptions whatsoever. You get into the bus and are driven to Disney
World…really a ‘World’. Immaculately
landscaped zones, perfect roads, clear signage; it just does not seem like
routine, you do enter into a fantasyland.
We stayed at the ‘Art of
Animation’ resort. Our son likes Cars and
that prompted us to stay here…of course, the suite was great, the resort was
awesome, there was plenty of color, plenty of good reviews; all in all, plenty
of reasons to select. The check in
quick, optional too I believe, as you get a text with the room number on it and
the band/ key is already with you. It
was a beautiful 1 bed suite with a small kitchenette; plenty of images of
characters from ‘Cars’, toiletries, linen, furniture, everything around,
inspired by Disney characters.
We had booked ourselves for 3
nights at Disney and another 3 nights at Siesta Keys beach. Day 1 was at
leisure, day 2 was for Magic Kingdom, day 3 was for Animal Kingdom and Day 4 to
6 was to chill out on the beach villa at Siesta Keys. Disney has so much to offer with its four
main parks and more. We decided to do 2
parks for this visit, as we wanted it to be a mix of activity and
leisure…purely a personal choice.
We walked around the resort
and had some retail therapy on day 1, making up for the early start we had that
day. On day 2, we started early as had
been advised by many and were at Magic Kingdom just a little while after it
opened. There were 3 things we were
concerned about…how crowded the park would be (and thus the waiting time for
rides), how big the park would be (access from one place to the other within
the park) and how hot would it get (managing over 12 hours with the little one). On all of these counts, our fears were
allayed.
The park is not terribly big,
waiting times at worst were 25 mins and it stayed at mid 80s through the
day. We had planned to do the rides in a
certain order, so as to avoid back and forth between ‘lands’. We had used out Fast Passes to our advantage
and gotten ourselves booked on to our favorite rides in advance. Rides were fun, more than what we had
expected. It was early May so I guess
that contributed to the parks not being crowded. By 4pm, we had covered enough ground and
headed back to our resort. Took a quick
nap, had a snack and were back at the park by 6:30 pm. We picked up where we left and justified the
money spent by 10pm. Fireworks…once you
see it here, you will never be impressed with anything else. Brilliant, just brilliant!! We got back by midnight and crashed out. We could not have been more satisfied with
our accomplishments for the day. Taking
a break for a couple of hours in the afternoon allowed us to enjoy till the
very last minute we were at the park. We
could not have sustained otherwise.
The big surprise was an audience with THE Mickey Mouse. I will be the first to admit that all I was expecting was the usual pic with the character, like you would in front of Toys R us at Times Square. However, here we were in a queue at the central theatre, with only a handful of people being allowed to go in at a time to meet the celebrity. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes and the excitement was building. Finally, we were ushered in. Very pleasant, courteous, hospitable…that is everyone around including Mickey. He made my son feel so special and to our pride, vice versa. Our son spoke of how much he liked Mickey and that he was his favorite TV character and for so long he has been only watching his cartoons. Mickey was floored and our son was awarded a big hug and an elephant walk with the Mouse himself. Magical…again!!
Thanks to us wanting to do
character dining, we had booked ourselves at the ‘tusker house’ restaurant for
an early lunch the next day at Animal Kingdom.
This as well is a pretty good park.
That being said, it is unique and should not be drawn in comparison to
Magic Kingdom. Each has a place of it’s
own. It is amazing how they have
recreated the feel of Africa and Asia.
Green, rustic, subtle…markedly different from the rides and magic of
Magic Kingdom. If you think you know
what ‘eye for detail’ means, visit this place and you might have to recalibrate
your understanding. From the rust on the
name board (recreated with brown paint), cooking utensils dangling from the
roof (a la desi dhaba), to the signage reading ‘Public’ toilet (with
‘Shauchalay’ written in Hindi); strips of colored cloth tied to trees, and a DJ
playing Bollywood songs in the middle of the road, everything was INDIA
(Asia)…not to forget an Auto rickshaw shell.
To name it and make it remotely look like something is routine; to
recreate every single detail is Disney.
Following lunch, we did the
Kilimanjaro safari. It was good…plenty
of animal viewing. Then there was the
walk through a ‘forest’ trail with plenty of bird viewing. Next on the agenda was Kali river rapids. Well, we had done the Splash Mountain the
previous day, so we expected this to be similar…BIG mistake! This was a ride in India, remember. Day before was America. So they have these round tube sort of a thing
with seating in it. As always, we had
our theories on which side would keep us away from getting soaked. As they say, any number of theory classes
does not prepare you for practicals…we sat, we moved, we rose, we fell…and it
SPLASHED!!!! The look on my husband’s
face…he obviously had no clue as to what hit him…completely flummoxed and
soaking soaking wet!! There should be
better reasons to buy a new wardrobe at a Disney park…not because you want to
get out of dripping clothes.
It took us some time to
figure out what was wrong with our theory.
Well…when everything is wrong with it, it does take time! I think we have nailed it and for sure the
next time we will stay dry! I believe
so…but for some reason my husband doesn’t J
We had a sit down dinner that
night at sanaa and experienced African/ Asian food. A good night’s sleep and we were ready to
head to Siesta Keys beach the next day.
Our cousin joined us and by late evening, we were at our beach villa. The next 2 days were idyllic, lazing on
probably the best beach I have been to.
White powdery sand…something I had never experienced before. It was a great way to unwind after busy 3
days at Disney parks. Holidays came to
an end and on the 7th day we were home!!
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