Returning from Disney World is like stepping off a spaceship that has returned you to the reality of New Orleans.
Disney World is a magical place where one feels removed from the real world and transplanted to a place where people are uniquely kind from a world where people seem to be looking for everything and anything to be angry about. The most extraordinary thing about being locked in the bubble of Disney World is that human beings act differently. Those same humans who want to argue over the slightest human mistake and treat disagreement over politics like it was a direct attack on your family name in the real world, are transformed into beings who could not be more caring and understanding.
The magical spell of Disney World seems to have the ability to remove the aggression we deal with every day in our society. For example, there are countless times, especially at night, while walking around any one of the Disney parks that someone accidentally bumps into you with a stroller or electric scooter and the instinct within the borders of Disney World is to say, “Excuse me” or “Don’t worry - no problem.” I assume that the multitude of people at Disney World on any given day are the same people road raging and arguing with retail clerks in the real world.
Is it the music that flows through the parks at Disney World? Does the uncommonly kind and happy treatment by the cast members (Disney employees) inspire a kindness in the masses that doesn’t exist in the real world? Is it the idea that being at a Disney park brings out the child in all of us? The child that wasn’t prejudiced, wasn’t angry, didn’t feel like he/she had something to prove and saw everyone as the enemy? I suggest it’s a combination of all of the above, which leads me to thought.
The joy and childlike happiness of Disney World transforms jaded people into a nonjudgmental and complacent species. I can’t say I didn’t see the occasional frustrated child or parent or the couple that couldn’t agree on where to go next, but those were conflicts that exist in any world.
The true magic of Disney World (or Disneyland) is that it suggests a mood and encourages us to see each other as part of a big world that really has accomplished amazing things. The trip through Spaceship Earth at EPCOT and the Hall of the Presidents at The Magic Kingdom remind us that we have accomplished as a group.
I loved seeing the new attractions since my last trip to Disney World: The Animal Kingdom and the wild roller coaster called Expedition Everest. This is no ordinary roller coaster! And the Tower of Terror at the Disney Hollywood Studios. Scary AF. Space Mountain and the Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster are good, but slightly tamer roller coasters.
Disney World also provides a safe space from politics and social debates. The open presence of LGBT couples reflects a society that welcomes everyone and is nonjudgmental of those who are different. And that mentality goes for color as well as religion.
I needed to take a break from the show. As much as I love being there every afternoon - there are times I need to take a mental and physical break from the show and the decision to go to Disney World was the perfect decision.
Since I deal with politics and social debates every day on the air, Disney World proved to be the perfect choice. Throughout the attractions, shows, and everything Disney, there was a common theme that we should carry with us as we step off the ship to that fantasy place called Disney World: “We are more alike than we are different.”
I felt that and I hope you do too when you visit Disney World. The sickening thing about Disney World is that Walt Dinsey apparently wanted to build Disney World in New Orleans East, but allegedly the politics of the city of New Orleans frustrated him to the point where he said forget it we are going to build in Orlando. And maybe that’s good. I wonder about the incompetence of politics in New Orleans and the greed that prevails and how this city might not have done Disney justice.
But let me close with the thought that is present throughout Disney World:
“We are more alike than we are different!”
