I wish I could explain why Disney World affects me as much as it does. How do you explain it to someone? It's sort of like trying to explain to someone why you love a certain person. Disney is not only my literal happy place, but it's the happy place in my head. If I have trouble going to sleep, I mentally take myself down Main St. at MK, head left, and see if I can name every attraction in every land as I walk through the whole park. If I need to relax, I think of the breeze blowing through the palm trees at Epcot while I slowly stroll along. That being said, here are my biggies - I could probably come up with 100 more.
1. Arriving at the Beach Club to check in. The Boardwalk area is my very favorite place to be on property. I think it's really Disney's 5th park.
2. Seeing the castle as it first comes into view. You know that weird puff of air that jumps right from your heart out your mouth, preventing you from even making a sound? It's rare.
3. First walking into Epcot and hearing the music. There's something about the spacious landscape of Epcot that is relaxing and mysterious - there are no flashy promises of thrill rides - everything is hidden in buildings for you to explore.
4. Getting a reservation at Le Cellier. Granted, this is sort of a pre-trip thrill, but when you pull it off, you feel like you've cracked some deep Da Vinci Code.
5. Chocolate-dipped Mickey gingerbread cookies. Random and very personal, I realize, but there's little that can beat that spicey, soft, cakey, chocolatey goodness. It's a taste of holidays and home and kindly grandmas. I look for them everywhere (the cookies, not the grandmas).
6. The World of
Disney store at DTD. There's a certain excitement that comes with the promise of that much merchandise in one place. It's a feeling of being in "the place to be."
7. The Mexico pavillion at Epcot. I don't necessarily confess to being a die-hard fan of Mexican-themed items, food, or places otherwise, but I could live in that pavillion - it's like immediately walking into a romantic nighttime getaway with the stands full of curious trinkets, the music, and the beautiful volcano landscape. It's wonderfully relaxing and thrilling at the same time.
8. Ghirardelli at DTD. Granted, I can get ice cream at home at various decent establishments, but what is it about this place? It's the only all-ice cream place I can think of at Disney, and it just beckons. My husband and I never miss it, regardless of how long or short a trip it may be. The Strike it Rich sundae is to be worshipped.
9. Pirates of the Caribbean. I think this sort of falls into the same category as the Mexico pavillion at Epcot. There's something about the smell of the water, the darkness, and the scenes with the fire that makes it sort of exotic and subterranean, but it still makes me feel like a kid. I look so forward to this when I plan a trip.
10. "Moments." This is a little more intangible. It's reserved for things that I don't even know about yet, and other things I wasn't expecting. It's about the waiter at Tony's Town Square sprinkling mickey-shaped confetti on our table (I scooped it up and kept it - I've had it since 1998). It's about the rose they gave me at the end of a meal at Victoria and Albert's. It's about my father and I being given special fastpasses while in the pre-show of Test Track as part of the Year of a Million Dreams. It's about the first time I saw the Photo Pass photos after the trip my husband and I took in 2007 and seeing the characters Disney inserted into our pictures. I could go on forever.
Anyway, when I close my eyes and try to bring that "Disney feeling" into my day, these are the things I think of.