Magical Moments

I get asked the question frequently, What makes Disney so special? Why does everyone love going there, do not want to leave and never stop talking about when to go back? I could write volumes in answers to those questions, but one of the main reasons I believe is THE MAGIC!

When you are visiting Disney, the rest of the world melts away, everything inside a Disney park or resort is clean, smells good, looks beautiful and makes you feel comfortable, safe and excited at the same time.

You are always wondering what will happen next? Will a character appear from nowhere to visit with? Will a show or a parade start around you? Will you start smelling the intoxicating smell of fresh popcorn being popped as one of the food cart stands is being opened? Those are all magical moments in themselves aside from the regular stresses of life.

Disney is unique in a special way because they create MAGICAL MOMENTS for guests everyday, everywhere on the grounds. You never know when one might happen or how or why you are selected for one, but when you are the recipient of a MAGICAL MOMENT, it creates a memory, an experience that will last your family a lifetime.

I was recently in Disney for our family vacation and we received several magical moments, but my favorite moment took my breath away. We were in the Magic Kingdom and it was about 9:45am and we had just finished riding, Snow White, Dumbo, Peter Pan, It's a Small World and Pooh when we started heading toward the Teacups. My Son, age 8 who I will refer to as code name Hook was in fact dressed as Captain Hook and beginning his campaign for the daily Itzakadoozie dose. If you do not know what an Itzakadoozie is, do not worry, I will blog on that treat later. My oldest daughter age 6 whom I will refer to as Tink was in fact dressed as Tinkerbell that day and my daughter age 4 whom I will refer to as Cinder, was in fact dressed as Cinderella and then there is our one year old daughter whom I will refer to as Beast because if you know her, you know why.

Anyhow, the kids were looking festive and myself as always was strewn with pin necklaces, a camera and autograph books, juggling the stroller and navigating toward our next ride. I think you should be able to get a good visual from that. As I was mustering up the defense to the itzakadoozie tango, we see Alice in Wonderland appear from nowhere as the characters always have a knack of doing. She was beautiful with her long blond hair, perfect black headband, and neatly pressed blue dress with white apron. We expected her to be whisked away by her bodyguard to start signing autographs, but she appeared to have other ideas. She looked at us and began walking straight towards us, smiling. The kids froze.

Anyone who has been to Disney must know about the character bodyguards. They are usually no more than one step away and will dictate the line control. They will tell you if you are able to jump into the line or not and where you should stand and how you should hold your pen and your book and are some of most active pin traders in the parks. To see a character without their wrangler as I like to call them is a rare occasion. Part of me wanted to tell her "Run Alice, you are free, I don't see any of them around you!" OK, that was just my inner monologue for a brief moment. Back to the story.

Alice starts walking toward us, when she gets to the children she kneels down and greets them, they are all too shocked to speak. She tells them that she wants to ride the teacups, but has no one to ride with and wonders if they would come ride with her. MommyMouse is temporarily rescued from Itzakaddozie tango! The kids nod and I nudge trying to wake them from their catatonic states. My husband code name Charming heads with them because at this point, being the emotional, mushy Disney addicted person I am, tears are already flowing from my eyes at an alarming rate as I realize how Magical and special this moment is and how my children will remember this and be talking about this moment in time for years.

I am fumbling to grab the new handy flip camera recorder and my camera and begin trying to record and snap pictures at the same time. I can see out of the corner of my eyes the crowd starting to point and gather and stare at Alice and my brood wondering what is happening.

Alice holds Tink and Cinders hands and walks them all pass the line and straight into the ride where she politely asks them to choose a teacup. They all rode and Hook, Cinder and Tink report afterwards that Alice spun the teacup! After the ride, Alice marched them to a sunny spot by the trees and signed their autograph books and posed for pictures.

This was a Magical Moment and one of the countless reasons why Disney is so special.