Page 17 - the NOISE July 2015

Disney World through the Eyes of a Non-Believer Greyhound Odyssey Part 4
STORY & PHOTOS BY CINDY COLE
After travelling for two full days on Greyhound buses from Flagstaff, Arizona to Orlando, Florida, my daughter and I were more than ready to start our summer vacation. In spite of overbooking, late buses, extra transfers, and other delays, we arrived in Orlando only 30
minutes behind schedule. It was nothing short of miraculous under the circumstances.
My mom and sister picked us up from the bus station. We were both grateful and relieved to exit our last bus and hop into my mom’s Ford Taurus. After retrieving our bags and getting in a few “it’s been too long” hugs, we were on our way. The seats in the medium-sized sedan felt
like my living room Lazy Boy after being stuck on buses for two days.
We stopped along the way for something to eat and then went to the apartment my mom
and sister share. It didn’t take long to unload our bags and begin settling in to our new living quarters. Even though we had just gotten there, I knew that our month-long stay would be over all too quickly. But I was determined to enjoy myself in the meantime and not think about the return bus trip that lay ahead.
My mom and sister moved to Orlando a few years ago. Their apartment is in a nice complex that is enough in the middle of nowhere to have a country feel to it. It’s close enough to everything they need but not right in the center of the city. We immediately availed ourselves of the amenities the property offers and hit the swimming pool. The summer heat was something we were used to back home but the Florida humidity made it all the more intense. It felt great to cool off in the tepid water.
We spent our first week mostly hanging out by the pool. My mom had taken time off from her job as a “cast member” at Disney World (don’t call them “staff” or “employees” by golly). That’s right! My mom works at the self-proclaimed “most magical place on Earth.” Specifically, she works at Epcot but it’s all the same to me. At least it was.
Now, I’m not a huge fan of all the commercialism that surrounds the Disney brand, which is practically sacrilege in my mother’s house where even the dinner plates have little mouse ear silhouettes around their borders. And I have enjoyed many a Disney movie over the course of my life. But the fact that it costs families a small fortune (nearly $100 per day per person) just to get through the front gates kind of contradicts the “magic” for me. But I also know a good thing when I see it! One of the benefits of my mom’s being a “cast member” is that she was going to be able to get my daughter and me into all of the individual parks at Disney World for free. So, I decided to keep an open mind and just have fun with it. The best part was that I knew my daughter would have a great time, simply because she’s a kid and knows how to have fun no matter what, and also that it is a place my mom and sister love that they would be sharing with us.
To make things even better, we had come to Florida in July to celebrate both my daughter’s birthday, which had passed just before we left home, and my mom’s. On my mom’s 75th birthday, we took a drive to the Florida coast and visited Cocoa Beach. Two days later, my sister’s friends, who were Disney Vacation Club members, had booked us into the Old Key West Resort. We were set to spend five days and four nights living at Disney World.
The Wednesday that my sister’s friends were scheduled to fly in from New York, we headed for Disney World early to spend the day at Animal Kingdom while we waited for them to arrive. I had only been to Disney once before, to Magic Kingdom. I saw immediately that this was my kind of park as it had a very wilderness feel to it with lots of dense foliage surrounding the walking paths. In places, it was more like a nicely done zoo than an amusement park, though it wasn’t without its full share of thrill rides and gift shops to enjoy.
One of the first things my mom, as a cast member and frequent Disney visitor, knew to do was to stop at the Guest Services station at the park’s entrance before we went in. We waited nearby wondering what she was up to. She returned to us a few minutes later with a pile of buttons in hand. She had big, round “Happy Birthday” buttons for her and my daughter with their names written in blue. There were “I’m Celebrating” buttons for the rest of us. In addition, she brought my daughter and me “First Time Visitor” buttons. We all pinned them
on and headed into the park. Everywhere we went for the next five days, cast members paid extra attention to us wishing happy birthdays and marveling at the fact that we hadn’t been there before. Those little buttons made my daughter feel extra special right from the first. The Disney “magic” had begun.
I have always been a big fan of rollercoasters and couldn’t wait to hit one of the newer ones in the Disney system -- Expedition Everest. Little did I know the years between the last time I was on a rollercoaster and that day could have affected me the way they have. I definitely ain’t as good as I once was.
The line wasn’t too bad waiting to get on Everest. My daughter opted to sit with my sister so I took the seat behind them by myself. The ride is built around and through a replica of the real Mt. Everest so it’s very impressive from the outside. I had watched a video of someone else’s Everest ride on YouTube before our trip began so I had some idea, I thought, of what was in store. Little did I know that, in this case, a picture definitely did not do justice to the full force of the real thing.
Portions of the ride were in complete darkness. At one point, after travelling backwards at high speed, the coaster car came to an abrupt stop. As we sat in the darkness, all of us giggling nervously to allay the actual fear that we felt -- well, I know it’s what I felt -- a light suddenly appeared in front of us. An animated Yeti appeared to be tearing up the tracks that lay before us, his growls and roars echoed around us. He disappeared and the car started rolling again, only to reach a dead end where, in fact, the tracks looked like they had been torn to shreds. The car went backwards again at high speed and I left my stomach up there by the broken bits of track. When we exited the ride, my hands were shaking and my legs felt like Jell-O. That’s when I knew that I wouldn’t be up for all the rollercoastering I had planned on. There was no way I was going to do that again!
We entered the area known as DinoLand and, whaddya know, we were right back on line for Primeval Whirl, a kid-themed smaller rollercoaster with cars that spin around as they travel the ride’s tracks. Great. To make matters even worse, as we made our way through the zig-zagging queue, a young man around 15 years old who was in line behind us with his younger brother of about 10, did something I had hoped I wouldn’t see, especially at a place like Disney World. But here it was. The same behavior we’ve seen more and more in the national forests around Sedona since the implementation of recreation fees. He littered.
The line’s path was marked by small walls with wide ledges on top dividing the waiting area. The young man and his brother had been sipping on frozen lemonade drinks that came in plastic cups with lids and straws. The older boy slyly put his hand on the wall beside him as he moved forward in line, leaving behind the lid and straw from his nearly empty cup. He obviously hoped that no one had seen him. My sister and I looked at each other in disbelief. The next look we exchanged was about which one of us was going to say something first. “Excuse me,” my sister said. “There are trash cans just ahead of us where you can throw that away.”
The kid looked over his shoulder as if we couldn’t possibly be talking to him. His response reminded me of the argument I have heard at home over and over again. “I paid to get in here,” he said. “It’s just a little garbage.” And there it was. That sense of entitlement. No responsibility. No consideration for the rest of the people waiting behind him in line. “Where are your parents?” I asked. He glanced over at a group of people that probably included someone who should be responsible for him. “It’s no big deal,” he said. My sister replied, “It is for all of the people behind you that have to look at your trash.”
| Cindy Cole went on a rollercoaster of a journey just to get to Walt’s rollercoaster of highjinks. cindycole@thenoise.us
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