A Whole New World

My parents took my sister and me on a trip to Disney world in summer of 2005, here’s why it was great and what a kid (like myself at the time) can learn from this kind of trip.

I love Disney, even in college when asked to come up with what my favorite brand was I decided to write down Disney. I know it’s a huge corporation and everything, but I still grew up with this stuff, and love many of the movies to this day.

Let me first acknowledge that my parents took me at a nearly perfect age. Just before I turned 10, I was old enough to enjoy many of the grown-up rides, but I also still fell in love with some of the kids’ rides and shows. I was also still young enough to qualify for kids’ pricing for just about everything.

At Disney, I learned rewarded-patience more than ever before. My parents were strategic with where and how long we waited for rides, but still spent our fair share waiting. Here’s the thing, when a Space Mountain ride is the reward for waiting 45+ minutes I think a kid should be able to handle it.

We learned about budgeting. I know, surprising. Our parents didn’t buy us everything in sight, instead, we had a meal plan we pretty much stuck to as a family, and a souvenir budget for my sister and me to buy a few items with. I also learned what kind of souvenirs I do and don’t like.

I know it sounds cheesy, but we saw our imaginations come to life. We had seen Mickey cartoons before, and we had dressed up as characters when we were even younger. We finally got to meet some of them in person.

On a really practical level, this was my first plane trip, and I understood just enough of it to get a feeling of how it worked, how I would plan for it in the future, and what I liked, and perhaps disliked about flying. Since then, I’ve been able to take 2 solo trips so far (among other trips) and I think going through the process with my whole family first made me more comfortable in the long run.

I am still so thankful for this trip. Honestly, I hope to go back to Disney World someday. That, or get back to Paris, and see that Disney park as well.

I love that these parks do their best to keep everyone in a family or group so happy, and I love that kind of awesome. That, paired with amazing attractions and beloved characters, make Disney a place I’ll probably always want to go back to.