As Delia had never been to Disney but had always wanted to go, one of the first suggestions for pacing break was Florida. We booked the flights and the motel and made it happen! We could only afford one day at Disney, so after a short deliberation we both agreed that we had to go to Magic Kingdom. At over $100 per ticket, we also knew that we had to make the absolute most of the day, so we did what any sane adult would do and bought cheap matching tshirts at the discount Disney store next to our motel and put all of our energy into the thirteen hours we spent at the park. As neither of us had a particular affinity for Mickey Mouse, we chose to go for Tinkerbell, and found tshirts subtle enough that we could easily wear them outside of Florida!
Despite a fake ticket dealer attempting to convince us that there wasn't enough to do in Magic Kingdom for a day, we knew as soon as we saw the insane queues that we would need every opening minute if we wanted to see everything we wanted to, and we had just the right amount of time! Any more and we would have keeled over with exhaustion and any less and I would have been really stressed out by the queue times.
We stuck with our trusty Dollar Tree purchases to stop us from giving into the inviting but extortionate food sold on site. It was soooo hard not to buy proper food, particularly when we were so sick of plain tortilla chips, salted peanuts and red vines, but some how we managed it! And FYI, red vines taste like soap, so don't for one minute believe my smile.
When I came to America, going to Disney wasn't exactly on my list. And I definitely had second thoughts last week as we booked our motel and worked out how much one day at Disney was really going to cost, but once we had organised it and paid for the flights, I knew that I had to fully commit to the Disney experience and accept that it was going to be expensive.
So was it worth it?
Yes. Ultimately going to Florida and spending a weekend in the sun with my amazing friend Delia was worth the money we spent to get there. It was, after all, a really good weekend.
And Disney itself was great for the day, it was fun to run around and reminisce the films from our childhood. The attractions were impressive, Delia fell in love with the Ariel ride and I was in awe of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and there was so much to see and do. The park is beautiful, so carefully designed and thought out, and I, embarrassingly, almost cried at the firework display. I loved the log flume and the nostalgic songs that floated around the park and through the exhibits. It really was an experience.
But, and it is a big but, I wouldn't spend the money to go again in a hurry. It was a great "american" experience, but there are a lot of cheaper american experiences that could have been equally good. I don't think I needed to go to Disney world to have an amazing weekend with Delia, it was her company and our talks and jokes that made the weekend what it was, and I feel like that would have been the case wherever we were.
We chose to go to Disney and I am happy with that decision. We saw the castle, we grinned at each other every time we saw a character or a tiny detail from the films of our childhood, and had a pretty much perfect day in the sunshine, and for that I am more than happy to pay the almost four hundred dollars for this weekend.
Delia was the best company, and I am so ridiculously happy to have shared this experience with her! She will forever be my Tink buddy and I will never forget trying to wedge two fully grown adults into one tiny astro orbiter pod and laughing the whole squashed flight at the two empty pods in front of us. And hopefully, whether it is in ten or twenty years, when we have children old enough to appreciate the magic of Disney, we will return to Florida and pay the extortionate fee and have another amazing weekend. Because one thing that I'm learning as I travel this year is how important it is to share these experiences with people. I always thought I wanted to travel on my own, but it turns out that I just needed to travel with the right people. People like Delia (and Adam!) who give you the space to do what you want to do and who push you to go to places that you wouldn't normally, places like Disney, and make you love them. I wouldn't have chosen this trip on my own, but neither would I have enjoyed it on my own.
There is no one else that I would have wanted to spend this pacing break with, and I am so happy to have found such a wonderful person to share my year with, I love you, Delia!
