The Happiest Place on Earth: Part I

So as I noted in my earlier post we spent some time recently in Orlando (what I wouldn’t give for some sunshine right now. As I type this the last grip of winter is raging outside in the form of a snowstorm). I feel that it is only fair that I write about my actual experiences in Orlando with the Mud Puddle as opposed to the events I didn’t witness (maybe I will ask my parents or Scott to Guest Blog and impart their stories of the trip).

I arrived Saturday afternoon out of ATL (business trip) and it was drizzly and overcast. I don’t know if I have mentioned it before – but I HATE Orlando. I called it Whore-lando. I have traveled there SO many times from work it has become the seventh ring of hell in my world. When you are trying to work and you are surrounded by kids who are OD’ing on happiness and sugar, it can get you a little cranky.

I actually thought that this trip might restore my faith in Orlando but I really wasn’t holding out hope. I have trouble with a place you have to walk or drive long ways to get to your destination (example, van ride from the airport to the hotel? An hour) and having to wait in line for long periods of time with a four year old.
But my fears were unfounded as I soon found out.

First can I tell you that when I walked into the hotel room my instant thought was “If the Who were toddlers and were out on tour, THIS is what their hotel room would look like” The Mud Puddle is a typical four year old boy. If you want him to pick something up, clear something off or put something on you need to tell him three times. And if the tv is on you have to tell him seven times.
In a hotel room at Disney World with his grandparents? Forget it. That is not an indictment of my parents but of the level of order obtainable in DW, and the level of order really needed. Why do you have to pick up your dirty socks while you are on vaca?

So I get there and everyone is relaxing from a big day at the park. We talk for a while, I change my clothes and we decide that Scott, the Mud Puddle and I will head back over to the Magic Kingdom to do Pirates of the Caribbean (the Mud Puddle and I are both obsessed with pirates) and grab some dinner. I put on my sweatshirt with the skull and crossbones and Joshua puts on his skeleton sweatshirt, our official pirate gear (Scott left his pirate kit at home so all night Joshua kept telling him he wasn’t a pirate. Aww, poor Daddy, should have made him walk the plank ARRRGH).

Disney is one of those places where you need to be living in the moment and not worrying about the next one or else you are going to have no fun. I am an anal retentive control freak so letting go and enjoying the moment rarely happens in my world. I did manage it though. Given the time it takes to get to the park (get on a bus, get on a tram, wait 15 minutes while the tram does a ‘systems upgrade’, get your bag searched, get a stroller, etc. etc) and then into the line for the ride I think I managed to keep it together fairly well.

It was rainy and dark when we got to the park, it felt just like London! I bought the Mud Puddle a spinner skull light so he could see on the Pirates ride and then we queued up.
The wait wasn’t too bad – 15 minutes or so. And the ride was great. The Mud Puddle thought all of the animatronics pirates were real and so he kept waving to them.

Once the ride was done they conveniently exit you into the gift shop (Disney is nothing if not a shrewd business, no wonder they have taken over the world). I picked up one or two things, curious to see what outrageous prices they were charging and was pleasantly surprised to see things were the same price as you might find in the Disney store.
We bought a bit of pirate booty and headed off in search of dinner.

It took 20 minutes to find a restaurant that had a place to sit down without an hour long wait. Dinner was another pleasant surprise on the wallet – it cost about as much as the three of us having dinner at Friendly’s. We sat and ate, with the castle as our backdrop (every time it changed colors the Mud Puddle made me guess what color it was).

We walked around a little bit more and heard a marching band play down Main Street USA and then headed back to the monorail. The Mud Puddle fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. Probably the way everyday at Disney should end.

To be continued…..In our next installment: Which is geekier – 35 year olds posing with Power Rangers or my unbridled excitement over High School Musical: the street dance?