100 Days of Wonder – #45
I think one of the things that is hard to explain is the calmness you can find at Disney World. This picture is from the sunrise over Bay Lake – the lake at the back of the Contemporary Resort. It was taken on 9th January 2023 at just before 7am. Of course Disney World is busy and I am sometimes amazed at how I cope with it. I am not great in big crowds generally. I don’t really like people. But I think Disney World taught me that you can create your now bubble in 2 ways. First you can really just create your own narrative and story and live that – it means it can feel like the only two people in the world are Kath and I doing our own thing even when there are literally thousands of others around us. Disney helps with that hugely because every interaction with a cast member makes you feel like you are the most important person in that moment. The second way is to soak up and find joy, wonder and stillness in those calm moments and places. On our last trip for me that was definitely encapsulated by the walk from our room in the Garden Wing of the Contemporary to the main Tower. At sunrise there was barely anyone else around but even during the day it was calm and quiet. A walk to get coffee became a mindset walk, a headspace stroll and time to breathe deeply and quieten any noisy unhelpful brain activity. Finding the same sort of bubbles is really powerful in our overly busy and noise lives – stay in your story and leave everyone else in theirs and soak up the stillness when you can.
100 Days of Wonder – #44
As I was writing yesterday’s post, I was thinking about tradition. In some ways I am not a big fan of tradition. Tradition is so often away to cling to a status quo that doesn’t serve anyone well, to re-enforce the patriarchy, discriminatory power structures and harmful ideals. So nope, not a big fan of tradition in the sense. However, I like traditions in a looser sense. I like how we have things we do and I like that these mesh together our nostalgia, things that bring us joy now, things that make our souls sing and allow us to pause. I also like how those traditions move with the times and adapt. The Halloween decorations are an example, as is our run up to Christmas – which I will share more about as we get to it.
At Disney World we also have our little things we do. Well actually we have them even before we go – panning is part of it. I have a spreadsheet, we make lists, we look at hotel options and then we always stay at the Contemporary, we always walk across to the Magic Kingdom on the day of arrival and just walk round soaking up the wonder and joy, we sit in the Animal Kingdom and watch the Gibbons and I hang out while Kath rides Everest. We get competitive shooting aliens with Buzz Lightyear. We eat at the Crystal Palace before we have to head back to the airport on the last day. All of these little mini traditions that have developed over the last nearly 10 years ground us and I feel like they give me that 100 Acre Wood base from which to explore and try new things. Traditions are good if they bring us joy and empower us and if we are willing to break with tradition or change them as our perspectives on what brings us joy shifts.
100 Days of Wonder – #43
As we are pretty much in the run-eat-sleep-eat-repeat phase of Dopey Challenge Training, let’s stick with the restaurant and food theme from yesterday. As I said, it was Disney Dining reservation day for us yesterday. The only restaurant we had on our list that was tricky to get was Chef Mickey’s. Chef Mickey’s a a character restaurant in the Contemporary Resort. I think it is popular for 3 main reasons: 1. It is where people can meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto – quintessential Disney. 2. It’s easy to get to and from the Magic Kingdom and 3. It is one of the few restaurants that opens really early for breakfast. Every time we have been we have had our first meal there – breakfast at Chef Mickey’s on Day 1 has become something of a tradition.
So Chef Mickey’s is where I first met characters in 2006. Remember, I wasn’t ‘fun’. It took me a minute to embrace humans in costumes as part of the magic. But I just decided I was all in. I bought an autograph book, I had fun with the photos. But anyway food. Chef Mickey’s is great because it is a buffet that has everything (probably including gadgets and gizmos a-plenty, whozits and whatzits galore…You want thingamabobs? [They’ve] got twenty!) which means yummy food, at our pace and the odd sweet treat or banana in the bag for later. Getting a cuddle with Minnie is just a bonus really.
This time though we are breaking with tradition. We were thinking about this anyway as on Day 1 it is sort of nice not to have to work with a rigid time frame and we will have to go to the Expo to pick up our running stuff. But then we couldn’t get a reservation for breakfast on Day 1 anyway nor for any of the days we had originally thought might be good. We did get a reservation – the day after marathon day which is great because we won’t have to walk far!
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