Month: January 2016
Location: Orlando
Bittersweet
and strange
Finding
you can change
Learning
you were wrong
-
‘Beauty & The Beast’
I slept in a little longer than the previous day and the rest
did seem to help, along with ‘Advil’ of course. After some coffee, I took a cab to ‘Disneyworld – Magic Kingdom’. As I stood in the long line to buy some
really expensive tickets, I wondered how important this experience is for a
family of 6 or even 4, because it does cost a lot to come here and they better
get what they were hoping. I bought an
even more expensive ticket that would grant me access to any 2 of Disney’s
parks and I chose ‘Hollywood Studio’s’
beside the ‘Magic Kingdom’. Just as iconic as the Sphere of ‘Epcot’, the most dominant landmark
which is visible as you approach the park is a full sized “Princess Castle” – similar to the one in ‘Disney’s’ movie logo. I
entered the park and as expected, it was full of visitors. They were lining up along the sidewalks for
what seemed like a parade down the main street, but I had a lot to see and so
kept moving.
 |
| The 'Princess Castle' |
The “Princess Castle”
isn’t exactly a castle. I mean it is
shaped as one, but it’s just a prop, like in a movie set. But it does set the tone for rest of the park,
which with its “Princess” theme, is
mostly geared towards little girls. There
are restaurants which have that theme and good luck getting into one unless you
either have a reservation or a lot of patience.
I had neither, so picked up some food to go, which I ate standing up and
then started walking around the park. As
with other parks, there are various zones and themes and soon I came upon the
one which seemed like a village in France. Sure enough, it was ‘Beauty & The Beast’.
 |
| Inside 'Belle's' house |
Now, I am an unabashed fan of all things
‘Beauty & The Beast’, the movie, the
musical, the music, the story, everything.
So obviously I was interested and visited the gift shop which has
several things that I could have bought, but decided not to. I was continuing on, when I passed a charming
cottage and saw a line outside it. I
asked the lady attendant and she said that inside the cottage a scene from the
film would be staged, with audience participation. She asked me if I liked
Beauty & The Beast’ and when I said that I did, she said that I
absolutely needed to go inside. The wait
didn’t seem that long and so I stood in the line with several kids and their
parents. We were first shown to a room
that was meant to resemble
‘Belle’s’
cottage, and were then taken to other rooms which were the
‘Beast’s’ castle – complete with the
“living props”. Some of the
kids – and their parents – were selected to be a part of a skit named
“Belle’s Birthday”, which also included
an actress dressed as
‘Belle’. It was all good and upon leaving the show, I
went back to the store and ended up buying some of the things which I had
passed on earlier – including a vinyl record of the
‘Soundtrack’. I chatted with
the girl at the checkout, who was working here for the summer and to whom I
professed my love for this story and the entire experience. It was evident that my mood had definitely
improved since the morning.
 |
| Indeed! |
The lines for each ride seemed like they were a mile long,
though one ride caught my eye – the renowned
“It’s A Small World”. To be
honest, I had no clue what this was about and the reason I had stopped was
because I had read the tagline,
“The
happiest cruise that ever sailed”.
Well then, I had to be on it. The
lines were indeed long and it took a long time to get to my
“boat”.
Like some of the other rides that I had been on over the last few days,
this was also a moving conveyor of transportation mediums – this time shaped
like a boat and moving on rails in water – and I jumped in one of those, being
the only person in my vehicle. I really
did not know what to expect and soon it became clear. The ride, for those who don’t know, is a
journey through various parts of the world where puppets in the form of
children, serenade you with the song,
“It’s
A Small World After All”, in different languages. All throughout, the tune – composed by the
legendary Sherman Brothers – stays the same and I will be darned if one is not
humming it even after leaving the ride.
It was the most festive…the most joyous thing that I have done in a long
time and I don’t know precisely when I started smiling, but that smile stayed
with me for the rest of the evening.
Finally, I understood what
‘Disneyworld’
means to everyone.
 |
| "It's A Small World" ride |
I could have gone back on the ride several times, but the
lines were getting to be ridiculous.
This did not stop me from another wait to go on a ride through the
“Haunted House”, which proved to be fun
as well. Since I had tickets to go to
another park, I had to skip some of the other attractions like
“Pirates of the Caribbean” and as much
as I wanted to wait and see a performance by
“Mickey & Minnie” on the steps of the castle, I had to leave. There are shuttles that take visitors from
park-to-park and depending on which park one wants to go, there are different
pick-up stations. Well, apparently
everyone had decided to go to
‘Disney
Hollywood Studio’, since I encountered a huge line. We waited for a bit and thankfully 2 buses
arrived to take everyone to our next stop.
As with everything related to the
“Disney
experience”, the bus ride was a lot of fun, with the driver keeping us
entertained with trivia and fun facts.
Those made the 15-20 minute commute go by without a hassle.
 |
| Gene singing in the rain |
Dusk had set in when I entered the park and my first stop
was at the
‘Great Movie Ride’, one of
the premier attractions of the park.
Thankfully the line was moving fast and as usual, there were carriages
on a conveyor belt to take the visitors on a ride through the decades of
legendary movies. There were sets and
moving props which recreated some of the scenes – such as the airport scene
from
‘Casablanca’ and Gene Kelly hanging off a lamppost. Our tour guides participated in the scenes as
well and it was a lot of fun. I emerged
from this and rushed to catch a demonstration of an
‘Indiana Jones’ stunt scene, complete with explosions and even an
incorporation of an aircraft for one of the scenes. It was thrilling to see and as close to a
movie set as I would get. The park had
come alive when I came out and it was now packed with people. Since
‘Disney’
now owns the
‘Star Wars’ franchise,
they were marketing the heck out of it and based on the line for
“make your own lightsabers”, they are
making all of their money back.
 |
| Fantastic scenes at 'Disney Hollywood Studios' |
I saw an area which had the maximum concentration of people and
as I walked there, I saw that they had covered 2 entire
“city blocks” with holiday lights.
It was fantastic and no wonder the crowds had come out to see it. I did not want to enter that sea of humanity
and so went around that area and found a small theater which was showing a
short film on how Walt Disney had built his empire.
As I watched him grow through his humble beginnings, all the way to the
establishment of the studio and the parks, a couple of things became
apparent. The first was how Walt never
forgot how this had all started and the documentary ends with his famous
statement,
“In the end we must never
forget, that it all started with a mouse”.
But more importantly, Walt never lost track of why he was doing all of
this. One of the great
“Vision Statements” for any company was
developed by Walt Disney. Admired by
thousands for its simplicity and directness, it is probably the most apt thing
that he could have said about his own organization. It simply states –
“To make people happy”.
Based on personal experience today, I couldn't disagree.
It was now time to depart and it took me quite some time to
walk out of the park and find the taxi stand.
After a few wrong directions and turn, I got a cab and went straight to
my dinner appointment at ‘Cuba Libre’. The dinner was fantastic and as much as I
wanted to stay for the conversion of the restaurant to a nightclub, I was tired
and went back to my room. The next day
was for departures – both for me and the ‘Michigan’
fans. I had booked the same driver who had picked me at the airport a few
days ago. Has it really been less than 3
days? I had been so wrong about some
things. Yes, I had come here a bit
jaded, a bit bitter. But I was leaving
with a different mindset; a more upbeat outlook towards life, more optimism
towards the New Year and a promise to make the right choices. Yes, Walt Disney was right about their vision. At the end of the day, the thing I will
remember the most, the thing that I am most proud of having done during these
travels and the thing that I will always mention when people ask what I did in
Florida will be - “I went to Disneyworld”.
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