#14 - Day at disney World

I was always undecided about the Disney World experience – I knew everyone raved about it, but wasn’t sure if it was really for me.  My brother and his girlfriend started to go there each year and looking at their photos I began to think it might be fun.  Last year a work training took me to Orlando for the week and I looked into using some of my spare time to go.  But they didn’t seem to do a reduced price for only going in the evening and since I was in trainings all day I settled for enjoying Downtown Disney and riding the free Monorail around to view the different parks from above.  The Monorail turned out to be not quite as exciting as it sounded but I did enjoy some lego models, a boat ride and a few other attractions down at Downtown.

So this year when it was announced that work was sending us to Orlando again – for a major celebration conference – Disney World was added to my list.  In fact it was even part of the programme for us to take all our international volunteer teams for an afternoon at Magic Kingdom.  And so after a packed week of meetings at Sunday lunchtime we began the epic task of gathering together hundreds of volunteers into their allotted groups and heading off for an afternoon of fun.

It was with excitement that with my group we made our way through the turnstiles after we had actually arrived too early and had to wait outside for 30mins (definite anticipation builder!).  We already had our priority sorted and so we walked to one of the far ends of the park (though stopping for a few photo ops on the way) until we reached Space Mountain.  We had decided to start with this one to avoid disappointment.  While we were in the queue there was a problem with the systems which took them about 10mins to repair.  I think this definitely added to the fear experience!  I ended up in the front of my car and to the great delight of the rest of the team the photo snapped at a particularly enthusiastic scream!  I didn’t know my mouth even opened that wide!  Haha!  I enjoyed the ride but not sure I would have queued to do it again anytime soon!

Throughout the afternoon we managed to fit in a whole array of rides from Space Mountain to the incredibly tame It’s a Small World and many in between.  I think my favourite area was Frontierland with Splash Mountain just winning favourite ride over Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Both were lots of fun, and having got the hang of the Fastpass system we didn’t even have to queue long for either.

 
By the end of all that it seemed quite a challenge to then find something to eat ahead of finding a spot for the procession and fireworks.  Hunger always makes cranky (hangry as my friend Jessica has named it!), add to that big crowds and general lack of sleep for a week and I had truly had enough by this point.  Every part of me ached from being on my feet for too long and I just wanted my bed.  As a result I couldn’t muster a whole lot of oohing and ahhing at either the procession or the fireworks.  Once we had delivered our team to their bus and found our own I was desperate to find our new hotel and curl up!

It was a fun afternoon, but I think perhaps I’d like to give it another try sometime when I am not so sleep deprived at the end of a full on work conference!  But it was great to be able to have fun and celebrate with our wonderful international volunteer partners so, tiredness aside, that was a bonus to the event.