Back, and just as salty...

The Mouse that Took Over the World.

Indeed.



Well, we're back, rested, recovered and decompressed from the trip to WDW. This year at Disney is marketed as the "Year of a Million Dreams". It could also be the "Year of a Million Stuffed Animals", or the "Year of a Million Commercials", or even the "Year of a Million Pictures of Mickey Mouse on everything from plates, cups, shirts to walls, floors, tiles, bedlinen, statues, posters and topiaries". I guess that wouldn't be quite so catchy.



This is not a trip for the faint of heart. Four Disney "parks", targeted to kids, plus two "water parks" and another park targeted at the adults with the bigger wallets. Almost all in seven days. The kids, of course, loved it. Princesses and pirates and Plutos and Goofys as far as the eye could see, with the omnipresent Mouse That Started It All always in the background. We crossed one water park and the adult park off the list, and were left with the rest.



At the end, lessons learned from Disney:



1. Getting up at 3 a.m. for the airport is going to make for a long day, no matter what else happens that day.

2. Never drink any beverages, hot cold or otherwise, around hyper children in or on an airplane. I wore two coffees myself (on the same flight) and my wife an orange juice (different flight, though) that proved this.

3. Very few things can possibly live up to the hype. By definition, not every event can be "spectacular" or "once in a lifetime". If you like roller coasters, however, Space Mountain is pretty dadgum close.

4. Oversaturation, part I: disregard the weather reports, and pack raingear. It's Florida. It's going to rain at some point. When it does, it's going to rain hard, a lot and for a long time.

5. Oversaturation, part II: there is no opportunity lost to market, advertise or attempt to sell something to someone. At any time when you are going to be standing or sitting still, or even sleeping, you will be sold to. Even the bedlinen is branded, logoed and (presumably) for sale.

6. Oversaturation, part III: I didn't think it was possible to up the advertising ante, but the folks at DisneyWorld have found a way. Certain rides and shows are "brought to you by" or "made possible by a generous grant from" . I will not propagate the ads by mentioning the companies here, nor should I have really been surprised.

7. Dripping irony is watching a video called "the Circle of Life" (remind you of anything?) in which the morale of the story is that we all have to do our part in reducing, reusing and recycling in order to protect the planet we live on. This is followed by night-time parades with fireworks and light shows that consume gigawatts of energy every day. Contradiction, anyone?

8. Motorized strollers - what to say? Everything that can be said, has been said. I've never seen so many motor-powered wheelchairs, scooters or strollers before. One shouldn't be surprised - after all when pop/soda is unlimited and ice cream is served by the half-gallon pail complete with sprinkles, candies and "whipped topping", what else can be expected? The new "low" is watching one family - husband, wife and extra-large daughter (she might have been twelve years old) take turns getting out of the scooter and walking/driving around. Episodes like this (thankfully there weren't many) make it a lot more difficult to take those who really need the service seriously.

Oh yeah, training. No cycling, no workout swimming. Got in two plus-30C runs. Very, very hot and humid. A true "rest week". Going to have to make it up this week.

Cheers.