On my very first trip to Disney World, I had a lot of thoughts go through my head. It wasn't only Disney World, but also Florida that was completely new to me. The only ever time I had been to any place remotely tropical was California, and that was a trip spent mostly in the mountains. So this new place had many new thoughts spinning through my head.
First off was the trees. The trees, at first, weren't much different than the ones back home, and I was disappointed. "I was expecting more palm trees."
I found out that I had allergies in Florida. They have some kind of mold pollen that Michigan doesn't. So my next thoughts were a little more on the bitter side. As in, "What could be making me sneeze so much?" Or, "This is a great way to start my vacation." My sister told me I just had too much magic up my nose because we were getting so close to Disney World now.
On actually getting into Disney property, I was thinking more about how big they really were. "I am this far onto Disney property... Where is the castle?" You have to drive quite a bit farther before you can find any of the parks. It's very impressive.
On actually entering the parks I began to think about all the things I wanted to do. Hollywood Studios was our first park. Before we could do anything we had to park and then get out of the parking lot. "These are the largest parking lots I have ever seen." We had to take trams to the entrance of the parks. "I like trams. This is a fun little ride."
Going through the gates of the park I looked around to see what made a theme park so much different than the amusement parks that I'm used to. As I entered Hollywood Studios, I saw all the buildings along the streets and thought, "It's like they have their own city in here!" However I was nagged by the thought of "Where are the roller coasters?" I was about to find out that theme parks have a whole lot more to offer than just roller coasters.
I didn't see any of the characters like Micky and Mini at first. This made me a little apprehensive, and I wondered "When are they going to jump out at me? When is one of them going to pop up behind me or something?" This never happened of course, but there were less character than I had imagined there would be.
I will leave off of all the first impression thoughts I received from Hollywood Studios.Throughout all four of the parks, I had a lot of repeating thoughts. While each of Disney's parks are very different, they also share similarities. Here are the thoughts that came to mind on seeing a few of these similarities.
On seeing crying children, or exasperated parents I couldn't help but think, "Disney World: the happiest place on Earth!" There were a lot of tired, angry, or confused crying children, and even more exasperated adults.
On going through many of the queues that led to a ride or show I had to think, "Disney has amazing attention to detail!" As a theme park, naturally everything is themed, and no detail was lost. Going through the queues was sometimes just as fun as going on the ride, or seeing the show it led to.
After each fun thing we did, I was always left with the thought, "What next?!" There was always so much to do, and then so much more on top of that.
There were a lot of events and activities that made me think to myself, "I am a child again." And I was completely okay with it every time.
One such time that I reverted to being a child again was when I first saw the iconic castle in Magic Kingdom. On seeing it's white walls and blue caps, I relived every time I saw the silver light fly in an arch over that castle before a movie I love started. And I thought, "This is what Disney is, and it is wonderful."
Even now, thinking back to my magical trip to Disney, I have so many thoughts and memories going through my head. The loudest being, "I want to go back." It was the same thought I had as we were driving away, leaving the parks behind us.
But my trip to Florida didn't end with Disney. I spent two days in Treasure Island with my sister so that she could show my why she loves Florida so much. So I will give you a few of the thought I had in Florida as well, because it was all as new to me as Disney was.
The thought I want to start with was one that occurred to me a lot in those two days, though now I know it is a bit skewed. While cruising around this little piece of Florida, I kept thinking, "Why can't this be my life?" But it would never be my life, only my vacation. Because life never has you going parasailing and dolphin cruising everyday, as we did on our little mini vacation on Treasure Island.
With that out of the way, I'll look at a few of the thought I had about the everyday things of Florida. Seeing the ocean on Treasure Island was only the second time I have ever seen it. The first time was in California. So when first stepping onto the beach I had to think, "This is the softest sand I've ever walked on." The sand in Michigan is okay, but it's a little grainy, and gets very hot. The sand in California was very coarse, as I remember it. This sand, in Florida, was softened by all the crushed sea shells it contained. It was also very white. "I've never seen such a white beach before!" This was my second thought.
This was also my second time swimming in the ocean. Stepping into the water I was thinking, "This water is so warm!" Later, getting splashed in the face with a wave, I was thinking, "I forgot how strong the saltiness of sea water is." Other than that, while in the water I was mostly thinking, "This is so nice." Until, while walking through the water, I was warned by one of the people we were staying with, my sister's best friends, that I had to be careful where I stepped because there might be Sting Rays that will whip their tails up if you step on them. After that I was thinking more along the lines of, "This is kinda freaky." And anytime I saw something move, "What was that?! Is it alive?!" Which, we did find a lot of live things in the water that day. I saw my first live conch, and I actually found a live sand dollar, which was very hairy.
Moving on from the beach to the food—I have never had much exposure to sea food, so I decided to try some while I was so close to the ocean. I tried crap legs and lobster for the first time, as well as sushi. When trying crab, I cracked everything myself, which is more than my sister can say. I was thinking, "I am ripping this poor animal apart, but this is so good!" At least it was just the legs. When trying sushi, I was thinking more, "I have no idea what I am putting in my mouth, but it is pretty good!" I didn't really want to ask what was in the rolls we were eating, so I just went with it.
I had many more thoughts besides these, but I'm not sure that they're interesting enough to continue to ramble about. So I will end with a show of gratitude to all those who made my trip to Disney and Florida possible. My parents, for going through with the family trip to Disney. My sister, for showing me Florida. Her two awesome friends that we stayed with in Treasure Island, where they live. Another thanks to them for being our guides through out all the Disney parks, because they knew them better than we did. We would have literally been lost without them.
To all of you mentioned above, a huge "thank you."
And to you the reader, for being interested in my thoughts, "thank you."
