Thanks, Walt
Yes, the time has nearly come for us to leave this most magical of all places. I’m talking, of course, about Mr. Disney’s little retreat in Florida — the one that Walt dreamed up, magnificently, decades ago — and then, unfortunately, never got the chance to see and enjoy.
Disney World in Orlando is not for everyone. It is, however, “for” millions of people every year — and we’re among them. We’ve spent three weeks here this time around, and never had time to get bored. There’s too much to see — four parks, numerous resorts, and thousands of shops and rides and attractions — and way too much to do.
This place really seems to have “magic,” and not just at the Magic Kingdom, which was the first park that opened here 50 years ago and which is the much-bigger replica of Disneyland in Anaheim. But the Magic Kingdom is a great place to start. You walk down Main Street — designed to look much like Marceline, Missouri, where Mr. Disney spent several years of his childhood — and it’s as if you grew up there, as well — or wanted to.
And at the end of the street — Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Stunning. And all those different lands in the Magic Kingdom (ones with names that start with “Tomorrow” and “Frontier” and “Adventure” and, of course, “Fantasy”), along with the rides — flow off Main Street. It’s the busiest, by far, of the parks at Disney World — and it’s the most fun for kids and for the young-at-heart. The Magic Kingdom has our still-favorite attractions such as the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jungle Cruise. It also has the best ice cream place in all of Disney World. Old school? Sure. And so are we.
But our “favorite” park — if we have one — remains Epcot. We went there more than any other place during our stay here, because we enjoy walking around its lake with its World Showcase of buildings and booths that feature different foods from a variety of nations. Great barbecue and Mexican food restaurants there, as well.
Animal Kingdom has the giant Living Tree — a spectacular creation, indeed — great jungle-like places to walk, and the best churros anywhere. Seriously.
And Hollywood Studios has a wonderful old-style streetscape look from the days when Mr. Disney first went to Tinseltown. It also has the best Christmas sound-track of all the parks, coming through its many street loudspeakers. You know, traditional tunes by the guys who created our life-long images of the festive season. Bing. Andy Williams. Como. Burl Ives. Dean Martin. As you walk along those old Hollywood streets, you can’t help but sing along. Trust me.
The Disney folks make it oh-so-easy to get from park to park, with an outstanding transportation system that includes buses, ferries, the Monorail and a Skyliner. They work incredibly efficiently, and they are always on time.
Disney World is a true escape from the rest of our world. That’s what it’s designed to be. But sometimes, of course, that world creeps in. Every tourist or vacationer who is allowed to come into the resorts or parks — everyone — has been required to wear a mask indoors — including on the rides or inside the public transportation. The coronavirus, you know. And the thing is — in the three weeks we’ve been here — we never saw anyone refuse to wear a mask. No one. The deal was, you either wore that mask or you were out. So people did. It was that simple. Too bad it’s not that simple in the “outside” world.
As for the people who come here — about 20 million a year — they do not come to maintain close contact with the trials and often horrible tribulations of that real world. You cannot buy a newspaper anywhere inside the boundaries of this magical land. Of course, you can watch your room’s cable TV — which has all the local and national news channels — and because Sharon and I are life-long “newsies,” we did. Not the cable “news channels,” of course — but the big-boy networks and their excellent local-station affiliates. Orlando is, you see, a big TV market — and the local stations look big-market, indeed.
And the local station that looked best was Channel 6 — the CBS affiliate. The most important on-air person for that station is Tom Sorrells, the weatherman. Now, bear in mind, the weather here in Florida was uniformly great. Our daytimes were almost always sunny and in the mid-70’s to low-80’s — just a small bit of rain — and this was from the week before Thanksgiving through the second week of December. But weather remains here on TV — as it is in every market across the nation — the biggest and most important story because it’s the one that affects everyone. And Tom Sorrells is excellent at what he does. He’s incredibly comfortable on-camera — one of the best talents I’ve ever seen or worked with on local TV — and he’s amazingly full of interesting info even when nothing serious is going on.
When we weren’t watching Tom and the rest of the Channel 6 news team — and they looked to be the city’s best — we did, of course, spend our days enjoying the various parks and their numerous offerings — or jumping into the pool or hot tub — or both. Like I said, life here never got boring. It’s Disney World. It’s easy to be here.
So now, we’re ready to head back “home” to Central California this weekend, and we — gasp! — plan to stay there awhile, after what’s been a wild, wild year of travel. We’ve seemingly been on the road constantly, and we’ve loved every minute of it. Yes, we could have stayed home — wherever “home” was — but why? To grouse about the coronavirus? Not us.
We’ve been grateful for all our adventures, and we are so happy to have spent these last weeks at Mr. Disney’s amazing place. He truly was a brilliant creator and innovator. He’d be pleased with how Disney World has grown up — and we are oh-so-greatly pleased to have been able to experience the result of his vision. We hope we can do it again.