#101. Disney World (Monday, August 25, 2003)
What was your best day…of traveling for vacation as a kid?
Vacation time with the family! Now before getting into anything else, I will say that this took place shortly after I had started finding girls attractive, and as such I was – at twelve years old – astounded by just how many attractive girls I noticed in those seven days. And so, that was the best part of the trip. Full stop.
Besides that, just experiencing the sheer grandness of the whole Walt Disney World Resort across a full week is the type of thing that changes a kid’s perspective of the world forever. Like, thinking back, it feels like you literally spent seven days living in an alternate dimension – one filled with scary roller-coasters and larger-than-life animatronic puppets.
And so, if I had to pick one common theme (besides attractive girls) to tie the whole trip together, it would have to be the rides. More specifically, chickening out of the rides. That’s what happens when you’ve got a twelve-year-old and his five-year old brother going to Disneyworld for the first time:
- It all started on Day 1 at the World Showcase – that section of Epcot with all those cultural exhibits from countries across the word. While all the other exhibits consisted of cute scenery movies and choreographed dances, Norway decided that stapling in a legit roller coaster (Maelstrom) between IMAX movies was the way to go.
- There was one point in Maelstrom where we were riding backwards, approaching this cliff, then the car stops right when we get to the edge with sadistic laughter echoing over the intercom. After that little incident, my brother refused to go on any more rides during our trip.
- Including the very next one, this peaceful boat ride for the Mexico exhibit: basically “It’s a Small World” with singing Mexican puppets instead. And so, for the longest time after, I would tease my brother mercilessly for “chickening out of the Mexican boat ride”.
- The next morning we went to the Future World section of Epcot, and our first stop was Spaceship Earth inside the giant golf ball. And my brother, still traumatized from yesterday, refused to go on. Well, my mom was desperately trying to persuade him to go, and this struggle went on until we were getting on the ride. And since Spaceship Earth was one of those continuous-entry rides – i.e. the pods slide by and you just hop in – this ended with her pulling him in at the literal last second before the safety harnesses clamped down and we disappeared into the darkness. Definitely not safe.
- While all of this was happening, I was having the time of my life not chickening out of all the big rides: Test Track, Mission: SPACE, Space Mountain1, Tower of Terror. The last one of which I was so irrationally proud about riding twice, that I seriously considered buying one of those “I survived the Tower of Terror” T-shirts at the gift shop, taking a permanent marker, and adding “Twice!” to the end of it.
- But then, shortly after that, I chickened out of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith after I saw a section where you go upside-down. Thankfully, this was before I lined up, so I was able to keep this fact secret from my parents and, especially, my brother.