The Orlando Disney Vacation: A Small World After All?

The final project has been turned in, the last test taken, and the bell has been rendered dormant until next September.  Indeed, your kids have escaped the surly bonds of education for another school year and are primed to dive into that sacred time of the calendar known as summer vacation.  For parents all over Orange County, this sacrosanct epoch of youth signifies the need to begin crafting plans for the annual family getaway.  For some folks, the initial stage of this important strategy consists of pulling a red pen or marker from the tacky mug in the kitchen that has long doubled as a pen holder, turning the family calendar to the choicest week possible, and scrawling “Disney World” across a seven day span.  Just like they did the year before.  And the year before that.  And the previous 6 years before that.   

This concept of an OC brood annually spending thousands of dollars for the opportunity to play in a spinoff of an amusement park that rests within the county border has long fascinated me.  In fact, I must confess that for years, I used to pooh-pooh (pun intended) the idea of an Orange County family partaking in the Walt Disney World Resort experience even once.  However, my hard line stance on this has softened over the years, to the point where I can see the value of taking a Disney World trip one time or possibly even twice.  After all, there is a sense of curiosity that does shroud Magic Kingdom 2.0, one that tends to capture the imagination of those of us who have spent decades spinning teacups and gazing at happy animatronic characters:  It is bigger and bulkier; it does have three more parks to explore that that we don’t; it features concepts that Walt wanted to include in Anaheim, but couldn’t quite get it together because of time and/or space constraints.  (It also inexplicably does not have Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, but that’s a rant for another day).  And even though the twentysomething that lurks within my soul is loath to admit it, I don’t think it would be all too terrible of an excursion to make once in a lifetime, if only to satiate this curiosity that I must say seems to be more prevalent in my bones the older I get. 

Yet beyond a couple of cursory visits, it perplexes me why people in Orange County would want to go back to Orlando for thirds, fourths, or beyond, especially since a week there can easily spiral up to $3,000.00 or more when things like plane tickets, hotels, and park admission get combined.  That’s a lot of money to spend for an experience that can be similarly replicated here in Anaheim for much less.  And really, that last sentence represents the crux of my puzzlement.  As Orange County -- nay, Southern California – residents, we enjoy a most enviable access to Disneyland, the original bastion of entertainment that has appealed to both physical and inner children for over half a century.  We can enjoy frolicking within its many lands pretty much whenever we want to at a fraction of a cost for what it takes to spend a few summer days in Florida; a price tag whose intrinsic value increases through the magic of an annual pass.  What’s more, Disneyland’s connection to Walt Disney’s whimsy has always seemed to be much more intimate in the original park to me, since he was an active participant with the development of Anaheim and had passed away before his Orlando vision was realized.  This would seem to account for something, wouldn’t it? 

And yes, I am fully cognizant of the fact that the massive Walt Disney World complex crushes its California cousin in terms of size and scope, despite the relatively newish presence of Disney’s California Adventure.  It’s been that way since 1982, when EPCOT and its massive geodesic dome opened amidst terrific fanfare.  Ever since then, we have been enthralled by that giant golf ball-like sphere and everything that it represented, to the point where it still seems to be the touchstone as to why OC residents make the pilgrimage to Orlando every year despite the fact that Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios have opened up in the years since.  And like I said, the idea of going there and checking it all out has grown on me over the years (although I’m still not sold on the allure of the whole Hollywood Studios park concept, since we have the real deal and all of its resident weirdoes about an hour away from us).  However, as plans of a summer family getaway begin to germinate, if this is the reasoning behind making a default excursion to Disney World every year, please consider for a moment that in addition to EPCOT and those other parks, Orange County also does not contain the White House, or Alcatraz, or the Space Needle, or Half Dome.  While they don’t have the built in, easy allure of costumed cast members, they do contain great potential to create visceral life experiences with your family, the likes of which cannot be replicated by partial facsimiles conveniently located less than an hour from home.  And the older your children are, the more poignant this reflection becomes.   In other words, it may do you well to sit down and wonder:  What would make for a cooler, more uniquely enriching vacation for your family; taking in a tour of the Oval Office and walking through the corridors of living, breathing historical significance, or riding the Peter Pan ride in a different state for the fifth consecutive year?

Now, I am fully aware that since I have yet to make my way out to Disney’s Floridian sprawl, there are several instances in this piece where Disney World devotees would most likely be successful in accusing me of waxing eloquently from my backside.   However, I still have to feel that more than a couple of family trips to the Orlando resort a bit of overkill, considering there are not only a wealth of other great options in this country for your family to explore, but that the original Disney park is located in the heart of Orange County.  A park that, I might add, still proudly boasts Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

By Rich Manning