The Den

A couple things about the Magic Kingdom, one up, one down: On the upside: even though its clear that there's subtle marketing going on everywhere, and things are arranged to help you spend more money, I never found that aspect to be overwhelming and annoying. Yes, I saw it, but it wasn't glaring or obnoxious, and it was easy to ignore it. The shops and the street vendors all blended into the surroundings pretty smoothly. All this was another reason why the whole week was much better than I'd feared.  

On the other hand, one thing I did find obnoxious after a while was the non-stop soundtrack. Everywhere you go in the theme parks there are speakers. The speakers are usually worked into the environment so that you either can't see them at all, or if you can, they don't look out of place. But coming out of these speakers is music that I can only describe as a movie soundtrack. At first it had the intended effect - it made being there seem.. more than real. The same way the music in a movie can help to manipulate your emotions to enhance the action on screen, this soundtrack made being there seem more than what it was, it took you away from day to day existance. It made being there kinda like being altered on some drugs.

That concept in itself isn't so bad, but what I found bad about it was that it was too loud and you couldn't escape it. Yes in particular times and places it was really appropriate, but in the long run, it was a big part of the burnout that we all experienced.

I first noticed that aspect of it on Thursday in Tomorrowland. Of course the original concept of Tomorrowland  (like Epcot) is now kinda dated. The cartoonishly futuristic ideas of the 21st century from the 60s and 70s are now either reality, or generally thought to be unrealistic but enjoyable fantasies. But the feel of Tomorrowland now seems to celebrate not some wierd 'future', but rather the firmly entertainment-based sci-fi of today. Many of the rides now feature "alien" or "outer-space" characters from Disney & Pixar movies, rather than abstract ideas of the future.

The one we enjoyed the most was the Buzz Lightyear ride. It's basically a moving shoot-em-up, 3D, full-immersion video game. You get in a little vehicle that moves alone a track. You  and your partner have little laser guns on the console in front of you, and a joystick that can make the seats swivel a full 360. As you go into the ride, you go through these rooms full of day-glo painted scenes with 3-eyed aliens and Emporer Zurg, and lots of little targets all over everything. Shoot the targets with your laser pointer and you get points. Of course there's lots of sound and darkness to enhance the experience - its actually way more fun than a video game.  If you've got time to download it, I've got a video of it.

I love my niece dearly and wish I could spend time with her every day, but I also figured that ANY 5yo would start to have frequent meltdowns and tantrums after so many days on adrenaline in a place like that. But, Bethany was a true princess, in more ways than one (in not in any of the bad ways). She was SO well behaved - and believe me I saw plenty of ill-behaved kids all around. Only once, towards the end of the week, did she get a little bit pissy when we said should couldn't have some plush toy she wanted (she'd already gotten 2). Even then, she was only grumpy about it for about 5 min. Oh if only all children were so pleasant!

Oh, yes, princesses..  Being a 5yo girl, she's totally in the depths of the 'pink & princesses' stage of her life. Even her bedroom is pink, with Disney princesses all over the walls. She has a couple princess dresses & costumes, as you'll see if you look at the photos. So there was a definite princess theme to the week, and even that wasn't as eye-rollingly tacky as I'd feared! The two main princess events were the Thurs evening 'Dinner with the Princesses' at the Grand Floridian resort, and the Saturday night 'Pirates & Princess Party' at the Magic Kingdom (more on that later).

The Princess-on-duty at the Grand Floridian that night was Cinderella, which means that she and her entourage wander from table to table, chatting with the children and families, posing for photos, and signing autograph books. Oh yeah, the autograph books... more on those in a sec. Anyway, Cinderella's entourage included Prince Charming, her evil step-mother (Lady Tremaine), and her mean step-sisters (Anastasia and Drizella) - didn't know they had names, did ya?  The actors who played these characters were pretty amazing. They stayed in character throughout, as they interacted with the diners and each other. The step-folks were actualy pretty fun, since they were supposed to be "mean" - they were humourously sarcastic, making snide remarks about everything and everyone. Some of the jokes they cracked we clearly meant for the adults present. The nature of the characters allowed them more freedom to comment in such a multi-leveled way. Of course Bethany loved every moment of it and there are photos of her with all of them. And no - Prince Charming doesn't do it for me.

Yeah, the autograph books. Every little kid there has to get one of these, it seems.  There are actors dressed as Disney Characters all over the place, but alas they don't just wander around and interact with people. If they did, they'd constantly be mobbed, and in some of those costumes with limited visibilit and awkward gloves and masks, it would be a problem. So, they have specific places where they show up at certain times, and they're never alone, they always have one or two 'handlers' and a photographer with them. The handlers interact with the public, getting them to line up for a turn to approach the character, and often speaking for them since the characters with large masks (like Micky, Goofy, Donald, and any non-human characters)  can't acutally speak because the mouths can't move.

When its your turn to go see the character,  usually they pose for photos with the kids, and they sign the kids' autograph books. Every shop and store in the place, and most street vendors sell these little books, which have a slot for a photo on each page left-hand page, and blank on the right-hand page for the signature. What kinda caught my eye about all this is that the actors all learn how to sign the character's name in a given style - and while often wearing odd gloves that must make writing difficult. For example, Jiminy Cricket makes the J look like an open umbrella, and Stitch signs in a blocky angular font.

Anyway This is turning into much more text than I'd anticpated, and much more detail than probably anyone wants to read. I guess one reason I don't blog as much as I'd like is that when I start writing down what's in my head, it turns into SO much text and it takes SO long to get it in writing  - I've here for 3 hours so far, and I've only gotten through Thursday of the week at Disney. Thats also why I'm so bad at staying in touch with people who I don't see all the time. But I guess that's part of what this blog thing is for - so I can write to all of you at once. Oh well. I'll make no more promises about when I'll post the rest of the week, but I'll get it there eventually.

Until then, Be Well.