disney
(a post-mortem)
((hannah and caroline and the little kumquat and me))
(((part four)))

let's get this out of the way first.

in my opinion, walt disney world is NOT "the happiest place on earth".

there, i said it.

how could it be, really? due to the reasons i listed in last week's post, as an adult, #wdw could never even aspire to be my happiest place on earth. too many variables, all of them spelled k-i-d-s.

now, don't get me wrong. as i mentioned several times in either updates or picture captions live and in the moment(s) on facebook, i loved my family being at disney world. the rumors of the #wdw machine being well-oiled were fair and accurate. i give mad props to sarah for doing all of our pre-planning, and, because of it, we rarely, if ever, had need for a car, cash, or worries where our next meal was coming from. it was all laid out in front of us. each night, we had a table service meal planned which would frame our day (admittedly, we changed plans on the fly tuesday). each morning, day, and night, we had buses that ran, at the very least, every twenty minutes from right outside our hotel door to whatever destination we were pursuing (only one exception to this rule. wednesday, there was a hiccup on the pick-up to epcot, which put us to the park shortly after it opened. i was furious for an hour, got over it, and it totally did not ruin the day). those included any of the parks and downtown disney. we chose to drive both times we went downtown, but we didn't have to. inside the parks, the presentation, style, and service were out of control awesome. it is a known fact that each employee of #wdw is hired to play a "role". if the employee can not embrace "the role" and the vision that every experience should be and will be disney-rific, then that employee will not be long for disney. we did not get bad service in line or in restaurants even once. we hardly saw a frown. we even were subjected to conversations that we weren't looking to have with disney staff that were just looking to shoot the breeze. well-oiled, to be honest, is an understatement. i wouldn't call it magical, per se, because magical implies that the experience just happens, and sarah and i were well aware of the amount of effort that must be placed on the presentation, style, and service. we didn't take it for granted, not for a second. we constantly were marveling at all the moving parts. no, the experience wasn't magical. it was efficient, devastatingly so, in the best way possible.

i think my conclusion and opinion of the parks, though, when commenting on it not being "the happiest place on earth" boiled down to this. it was almost too intense. too busy. too "we've got to move to the next ride, the next show, the next sit down and eat, the next nap, the next park, the next parade, the next fireworks fantastical, the next ..., the next ..., the next ...." for four. straight. days. we were constantly in motion. we constantly felt late. we constantly felt like we were missing something. we must have been. because, of course, we were. we didn't make the circle of countries in epcot. we just didn't have the energy, so some things got cut. they had to. if we didn't make cuts, the experience would have felt cumbersome, and the last thing a vacation should ever feel like is a burden.

so cuts were made, and we were happy to make them. we loaded up friday and drove home completely exhausted. worn out from the work that #wdw had required of us all. it wasn't work without fulfillment, but it was work, make no mistake.

now, work doesn't mean unhappy, but work means tired means lack of relaxation means lack of reflection until all is said and done. i am incredibly happy with the status of my store and our performance in the whole of 2011, but i am rarely "happy" in the moment, because i am working. working towards a goal that will only be reached and seen in hindsight and very rarely in that or those moments of actual work.

such was disney world. it is work to make your children feel like they've died and gone to heaven even while they are throwing tantrums, calling you stupid, sitting on your shoulders, covering your eyes, and hitting you on the head. it is work to endure the same shortcomings in other people's children without kicking them in the face and then picking a fight with their super-hairy dad just because your mood is so fucking raw and vulnerable in that moment in time. it is work to take six days, six nights, 20 hours in the car, get home and feel like you barely spoke to your wife the whole trip. why? because her ass was working just as hard, if not more so, as i was.

that's not the happiest place on earth. that's ... something else.

could it have been that we were merely #wdw rookies, not seasoned enough to make the most of our time? maybe. but i don't believe that's the most of it. i believe that anytime your children are involved, it's going to be hard to see the forest for the trees, nor do i believe you should have to visit the garden of eden five times to understand its beauty.

we had a magnificent time on our vacation. we have the pictures and the stories and the memories to prove it. we want to go back. we'd do it again right now. we will do it again in a few years when the little kumquat is ready to ride daddy's shoulders around for four days.

all of this recounting does beg the question. what would be my happiest place on earth? it's a good question, one that i don't know if i have an immediate answer for. a braves or bama game would be a good place to start, but, unless someone could promise me the outcome would favor my braves or my bama or my julio, the result might leave me altogether unhappy.

i suppose i'll keep searching, keep forging ahead on my quest for my holy grail, my happiest place on earth.

i am satisfied that i can scratch disney off my list. i've been there and done that now. and i am pleased that we enjoyed it so much that we would repeat last week as soon as possible.  

what's next?