We went to Disney World for a week with Dan's family. Here are some pictures, taken by my brother-in-law with his enviable camera, to tell the tale:
Sadie and Sydney's bed:
Benny and Jack's bed:
Riding Kraken at Sea World. Front Row: Terri, Benny, Ashley, Andy. Second Row: Dan, Lydia. Yes, I rode Kraken.
Sadie in the play area:
How did Benny get so wet?:
Hollywood Studios. Benny battles Darth Vader:
Sydney and Sadie:
Belle and the children:
Aladdin's Carpets:
Sadie and Mom, going to Magic Kingdom on the ferry:
Expedition Everest. Front row: Benny, Ashley. Middle row: Dan, Andy. Back row: Terri, Lydia.
Did I take pictures? I *think* I did. They were just so violently inferior to Kevin's that I despair. But here's a link to my Flickr set for the Disney trip. There are many amusing photos there.
In all Disney movies and in many rides and buildings at Disney theme parks, deviously clever animators have hidden "secret" occurences of the shape of Mickey Mouse's head in silhouette -- either the three circles of head and ears, or a profile. Sometimes these little secrets are very very subtle, like a tiny knothole on one of the trees at the entrance to the Peter Pan ride, or a miniscule mousey embellishment on Madame Leota's cart outside the Haunted Mansion. Some are more obvious, like the mouse-head-shaped constellation in the movie "Lion King 1 1/2" or the Mickey shaped leaves on a vine in Small World.
People get obsessed about hidden Mickeys. People argue about whether something is or is not a real hidden Mickey. Is it a hidden Mickey if it's just part of the decor? Is it a hidden Mickey if it's an accidental grouping of three bubbles in a scene with a million bubbles? Obviously, the animator or set designer had to be doing it on purpose, for it to "count," and usually you can tell if something is intentionally hidden or not. Sometimes not though. Difficult to decipher. Plenty of people on the internet are trying though. Google "Hidden Mickey" and you'll find lots of people claiming to have seen Mickey in the clouds, or in a lemon they just cut in half, or in Cinderella's pupils, and more people telling them they're just experiencing wishful thinking.
I like the idea. The Disney people leave lots of little portals open into their secret magic world, which is really not secret, and not magical. It's fun to pretend it is though, and little breezes from open portals make it more enticing and mysterious. Finding hidden Mickeys gives you an insider feeling, a way to identify yourself as "in the know" and separate from the sweaty masses around you. It's another way that you can embrace the manipulation that Disney lays out for you -- enjoy it, examine it, and think about it -- but don't think too hard.
Last year, Benny collected a few hidden Mickey pins, but he didn't really get the whole mystery and intrigue of it all. This year he got it, BAD. On the way down, the kids were watching Lion King 1 1/2 and Benny found seven hidden Mickeys, almost accidentally. He found the first one without knowing what he was looking for, and then after I explained to him what they were, he found six more. He was hooked. Dan bought him a book called "Hidden Mickeys," which gives hints to finding the little suckers, and he found many. Many in the book, many not in the book, many that I privately thought were just naturally occurring shapes, and many that I was amazed he had noticed.
It was fun, it provided a whole other layer to his experience, and it was interesting for the adults in the family too. I highly recommend turning your little acutely "noticing" child onto the search for Hidden Mickeys. You can start with the DVDs you already have. For example... did you know that in the concert scene at the beginning of "The Little Mermaid," Goofy and Mickey and Donald can be seen in the audience of merpeople? Go on -- look. You know you want to!
Today was our last day in the parks. For the first hour, we had the place practically to ourselves, but then it became incredibly crowded, and we were so glad we'd jumped around to all the rides we really wanted, while it was still lonely and fast. Also, we used a lot of fast passes and rider switch passes. Benny was on an urgent hunt for Hidden Mickeys, assisted by his guidebook:
Here he is finding on in the Snow White ride's entrance:
The Haunted Mansion line was longer than we've ever seen it. Here's Benny pretending to be afraid of the line:
As for Sadie, she was just happy to be on the carousel:
The coming week is going to be huge here. I'm glad we're on our way home today. We're going to stop at the Lego Imagination Center in Downtown Disney and also the Build Your Own My Little Pony kiosk in the big toy store there. Both of those experiences were highly recommended to me during the last week by other parents. After that we're on our way home. Not a moment too soon -- I think we all need a week to recuperate.
Benny at Woody's cowboy camp:
It was a fun week, but an exhausting experience being led around by two adorable children with boundless energy and a wealth of interesting ideas for what to do next.
I can't remember the song from the parade, but I do recall the word "Christmas" being used once or twice. Or forty times. It was a cute parade. Benny stood right in the front and waved vigorously at every dancer, every character, every vehicle driver -- everything that could potentially have waved back. Then he'd come vaulting over to us and say, "I will now list the names of people who have paid attention to me from the parade: Alice from Wonderland" and then he'd vault back to his spot.
He and Sadie dressed like Woody and Jessie:
They were so cute it was making me faint:
The lines were so short! We rode Goofy's Barnstormer a dozen times *without getting off the ride* because there weren't enough people waiting to warrant them evacuating the whole train. Benny and Sadie sat together in the front car, and she screamed enthusiastically all the way around, every time. It was hilarious, and I also cried because there they were, sitting together in the front car, just like real people.
Here are Sadie and Dan pulling into the docking thingy from the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway:
Here's Benny driving his car:
We also rode Small World, Peter Pan, Snow White, Haunted Mansion, and more -- whatever Sadie wanted. We saw the fireworks. We saw the parade. And when Sadie fell asleep, Dan and Benny rode Space Mountain until the park shut down at midnight.
On his way out of the ride on his last trip, Benny actually fell asleep on the moving walkway. He said he was going to take a rest and put his head down on the moving handrail, and then the people he had been talking to were suddenly getting no response. They told Dan he had fallen asleep, and sure enough, Dan had to wake him up. He loves Space Mountain.
The party was a good party. Hot chocolate and cookies, real fake snow falling all down Main Street USA, all the characters dressed up for winter, and Sadie actually interacted with a character (Goofy) for the very first time. And survived. Here she is on the spinning teacups:
I thought when we went to Epcot that we might have "been there, done that" last year, and that we could get quickly through Futureworld and arrive in the World Lagoon before sundown, for once. I was wrong.
Benny waiting for Test Track:
Cinderella and Dan at The Living Seas:
Benny and Dr. Nigel Channing:
Benny and Minnie:
Benny takes a great deal of joy in meeting the characters. He gets SO excited, it's almost mystifying. I haven't figured this out yet. The lady who was taking his picture here for the PhotoPass said, "That's the smile of a boy who's having the time of his life." Yes.
Cinderella operating a musical robot:
Dan and the kids playing a 3D "surgical training" game where you had to pick up and place organs and bones correctly on an operating table. Very cool.
Innoventions was fantastic -- much better than I remembered it. Here's Benny decorating some paper that he made at a little paper-making station:
Sadie building a robot:
After you build the robot, you run and jump on footpads to drive your robot through an obstacle course. Here are Sadie and Benny doing that:
By the time we got to the World Lagoon, it was dark already. It seems I didn't take any pictures there -- but the fireworks were fantastic, and we found a very good place to watch them this year. Hooray!
This morning I walked out of the condo and left my phone sitting on the counter. Therefore, the only pictures I have are on my real, actual camera which cannot be downloaded until we get home. I do have this to report: Benny rode the Everest Expedition seven times. Yes, seven times. All in the front row. He also rode the Kali River Rapids three times, and we did a whole bunch of other stuff that we hadn't done last year, as well as repeating our favorites. The lines were INCREDIBLY short. We walked straight on to Kilimanjaro Safari. Virtually no waiting on Expedition Everest for the last hour the park was open (that's when he went through twice). I love November in Disney World and I love homeschooling.
Examining the Swiss Family Robinson's Tree House for examples of simple machines:
Aladdin's Carpetty Goodness:
Jungle Cruise:
Hello, Mary Poppins:
The lines today were fantastically short. Marvelous weather. Excellent time. Benny rode Space Mountain 5 times before 10:00AM. So, by that measure, this was the best day ever in the history of earth.
Tomorrow we leave for Disney World. We went last year (here's my post about What We Learned at Disney World), and also the year before (here's the October archive from the mobile blog in 2005, scroll down for Disney posts if you desire), but we're going again and we're not feeling apologetic about it. We love Disney World, in all its ridiculous splendor. To say that the children are excited is to say that the ocean is a little damp. Benny has been counting down the days, reading his "research guide" as he calls it (Birnbaum's Walt Disney World for Kids, by Kids), and planning daily itineraries in detail. Sadie is interested in the princess pins, the costumes we're packing, and in riding all the roller coasters she's too tiny to ride. That will be a complicated dance, I realize! Benny is keen on riding every death-defying one, and she would like to be right there with him, all 36 of her inches, barely big enough to ride Goofy's Barnstormer.
So, we are off early tomorrow morning. I will try to post every day still, to keep up with NaBloPoMo, but if you're interested in where we are at any given moment, I invite you to visit the mobile blog.
I leave you with this, our dinner plates for this evening:
We studiously avoided all educational aspects of Disney World. I'm sure they were there, but we tried to ignore them. Did we learn anything, in spite of our efforts?
If you think about what you're doing, and plan ahead, and research, and prepare, and organize, you can learn a lot from Disney World. On the other hand, if you do none of those things, you can probably learn a lot too.
We did not think or prepare. We tried at every turn to avoid analyzing anything, applying ourselves, deconstructing the images with which we were presented, or allowing ourselves to expand and grow. We did not learn "Hello" in all the languages at Epcot's World Lagoon and practice speaking with the native employees. I did not prepare a scavenger hunt and teach children in advance what they would see, and therefore we did not identify the landmarks from the different countries. We bypassed all the interesting tropical ducks at Animal Kingdom and rushed straight to the biggest roller coaster, which we rode as many times as possible. We danced around like fools in the sun, rather than comparing Disney's Snow White with Grimm's version. When the ferry came close enough for us to see Cinderella's castle for the first time, we did not mention Neuschwannstein.
So, what did the kids learn from our trip, given our staunch refusal to teach them anything?
The biggest thing they both learned was that it's okay to really fully commit to earnest thrill. Because Disney World is devoid of sarcasm and smirkiness, it feels right for kids and adults to behave like giddy lunatics, to sing out loud, to gambol and cavort, and to shout "WHEE!!!" My children are naturally very unselfconscious. This place was their natural element.
They learned to volunteer. Benny volunteered to be in several different shows -- Turtle Talk with Crush, the Festival of the Lion King, Belle's Storytime, Woody's Cowboy Camp, and others. His experience with Disney World was, as a result, very interactive. He learned that jumping up and saying, "I WILL!" makes everything fun. In connection with this, he also learned some social lessons like waiting your turn, accepting the role you're handed, sitting down when your part is over, and being thankful for the fact that you're included. He did all this very gracefully. Sadie did not have the same experience -- she tended to shrink into Mom or Dad's chest cavity whenever anyone with a big giant head approached. :D
Here's a little video of Benny as Gaston in Belle's story show:
They learned to be brave on rollercoasters. This was one that Benny had already mastered (lunatic that he is) but that Sadie was able to experience this year, on her first roller coaster ever, which she rode four times in immediate succession, and never wanted to leave. The bravery of these children astonished us over and over during this trip -- they are truly going to be wonderfully bold adults if this kind of behavior continues! With the obvious exception of meeting people with giant fake heads, which Sadie needs more time to master.
Here's a picture of me and Benny riding Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom:
They learned time management, as we discussed and decided what to do so that everyone got to do what they liked (Sadie liked Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, and Benny liked anything that went fast around corners and down terrible drops) and we minimized our line time and had food when we needed it. This was also a good lesson in sharing resources (time mainly) and enjoying other people's happiness. Yes, we rode the carousel about 16 more times than Benny probably would have chosen to ride it, and Sadie spent a lot of time waiting for Benny to ride roller coasters. But they didn't complain.
Benny learned a lot through pin trading. If you don't know, here's how it works -- Disney makes little metal and enamel pins showing a million different things. Some commemorate events, some represent characters or rides, some are special pins for holidays, etc. Kids (and adults) collect these and wear them on lanyards around their necks, then trade with other people wearing pins. If a park employee (sorry, "cast member") has pins on, they will always trade with you whatever pin you want for whatever one you want to give them. Benny loved interacting with people like this, and by the end of the trip had become an enthustiastic trader. He had never been exposed to the idea of "collecting" before, so the whole concept of one pin being more valuable or rare than another was new, the whole concept of trading was new, and this gave him the opportunity to talk to a lot of people, which he of course loves.
They learned patience in lines, although in the middle of October, especially in the mornings, the lines were nonexistent! They learned to try new foods. They bonded together as siblings in new ways. Benny met a host of new friends from all over the world. He came up with a new opening line for meeting people (his favorite pastime). On the monorail after the Halloween party he sidled up to a girl dressed as Ariel and said, "You're BEAUTIFUL." That, as it turned out, was a good opening line! He had a conversation with her and her mom all the way back to the parking lot.
We're back from Disney World, and we had a fantastic time, even me:
), and planning daily itineraries in detail. Sadie is interested in the princess pins, the costumes we're packing, and in riding all the roller coasters she's too tiny to ride. That will be a complicated dance, I realize! Benny is keen on riding every death-defying one, and she would like to be right there with him, all 36 of her inches, barely big enough to ride Goofy's Barnstormer.
