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The word is Wow! That best describes my reaction when I saw how many of you sent messages regarding our session on The Disney Zone (published March 19). Many of you discussed your own feelings about the Disney Zone and very elegantly. I just had to share your thoughts with everyone.
In this session, we join a few of those Mouseplanet readers who have experienced this concept and what it means to them. I apologize in advance for not being able to share all the mail I received, but I hope you enjoy the pieces I've selected.
The Zone as Sanctuary
Have you ever realized that Walt Disney World serves as a sanctuary to many of us? Pay attention as Carol writes:
I have just read your piece on the Disney Zone and have tears streaming down my face because I know exactly what you mean.
I have so often tried to explain to others and yet it is difficult to convey the emotion felt on visiting Disney World. I also leave all my cares at the gate and become 10 years old again.
I have spent all my life in the UK so did not have the benefit of Sunday night Disney when growing up in the '50s and '60s, I just knew when I first walked through the gates into the Magic Kingdom that I had found that very special place of sanctuary I had been looking for all my life. I can't explain it, but I just cried tears of joy and knew that I would never again be completely happy when away from it. If I see an advert on the TV I cry, I just need to be there. I bought two houses 10 minutes from Disney so that I could always be there in spirit when I could not be there in reality. I am visiting again very soon and can't wait to get to Disney and feel that joy!
A Disneyholic Conversion
Rob sent an interesting e-mail. Imagine bringing a reluctant guest to Walt Disney World for the first time and then letting the magic work. Rob tells us:
Yes, it happens to me too. When I walk under the train station and come out on Main Street, I know I'm in my favorite place on earth. The music, the sounds, the smells that flow over Main Street, U.S.A. bring back the times when my parents brought me and my sisters to Disney World.
When I married my wife seven years ago, we went to the World. She was like, I really don't want to go. We've been every year that we've been married and have been taking my 15-year-old stepson since he was 8 and our 5-year-old since he was 20 months old. We go to all four parks but the Magic Kingdom will always be my favorite. I know my wife has the Disney zone too. When we are deciding to go back or not one year from the next, she always says, We are going back, no ands, ifs or buts about it.
A Jogger's Thoughts
It was nice to hear from another jogger on the wonders of pre-dawn running in Walt Disney World. Kevin says:
My Zone experience is when, on the first day of our visit to WDW, we go to The Magic Kingdom. When I first walk into the park, stand at the top of Main Street gazing at the Castle, somehow I become part of the Magic and leave my other life back at the turnstiles. It is a family tradition that we must visit The Magic Kingdom first before any other park.
Jogging before dawn at WDW is something that I had not enjoyed until our trip in October of last year. We were staying 1 night at the Swan before moving over to The Beach Club Villa's and as usual for the first morning in WDW, just like a kid on Christmas morning, I awoke at 5:00 a.m., one hour earlier than my normal time. So I put on my running gear and ran around the lake. For the first 20 minutes of the run I was the only person outnot even a cast member! It was like I had all of WDW to myself! Amazing. Like being locked in the toy store overnight!
Your connection to early childhood Disney memories and the affinity for WDW these memories nurture in adulthood is something that I never quite made. Thanks for the insight.
A Cast Member's Perspective
It's always an honor to hear from a cast member, especially one who understands the power of Disney Magic and the Disney Zone. Enter cast member Bill, who writes:
Excellent article. I wish I had written it. That terrible feeling of having to leave WDW used to do me in. Just driving off property would bring on emotions that I had a hard time controlling. It would take getting to the Georgia line, heading back to Indiana, for me to focus on home.
What did help to get over this downer was to become a cast member after I retired. Now my wife and I work on Main Street, U.S.A. for a few weeks in the winter. After four seasonal tours we still can't believe ourselves. Just walking the tunnels after work is unbelievable. On stage we are able to experience the magic as insiders.
Even though the intense emotions are no longer a delightful high or dreadfully low the magical awe is still present. Helping sprinkle pixie dust around is too much to be believed. We are both the receiver and the deliverer of that most magical effervescence.
I appreciated your article because you went to the child in all or us and of course that is exactly what Walt talked about and how he designed his parks.
A few of his quotes:
I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us.
In my work I try to reach and speak to that innocence.
Why do we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the children's approach to life. You see them at Disneyland They are not afraid to be delighted with simple pleasures
Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world; too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it is like being 12 years old.
Walt was able to create and design the parks to bring out all those childhood memories. The theming, story, and attention to detail all play to that child.
I teach classes on visiting WDW and this subject is uppermost in my mind, for in my thinking if one misses this point they have missed what Disney is all about. I have methods and criteria that help students understand the magic they should be experiencing.
Well this ended up being more than I thought it would. I enjoy sitting down with a person like you who understands all of this.
Suzanne comes from a cast member family and had some interesting thoughts on The Disney Zone:
Your article led me into my own Disney Zone. My parents could not afford to take us to Disneyland in the '50s, so we watched it on TV as it was built, and we saw how much Walt wanted it to be the happiest place on earth. I promised myself that someday I would get there.
Then, in 1977, I traveled as a senior class chaperone to Walt Disney World. I sat at the Main Street Train Station and cried for a long time. You see, I had taken everyone else's children to the Magic Kingdom while my 2-year-old daughter stayed home with Daddy.
We scrimped and saved and three years later I led my daughter into the sunlight and magic of Main Street, U.S.A. And I cried again. Most all of our favorite memories for the last two decades have been Disney memories.
I retired from teaching three years ago. We moved to Florida. My husband and my daughter are cast members at Blizzard Beach and Animal Kingdom. They make the magic happen everyday. Me? I am a personal tour guide for my friends and relatives who come to visit. It is my pleasure to help them discover their own Disney Zone. Yes, I sometimes cry.
Walt was wrong. It may have all started with a mouse, but the dream grew because a father loved his girls and wanted all of us to smile right along with them. Thanks, Walt.
The Emotional Aspect of The Disney Zone
Happiness, joy, and tears abound in the Disney Zone. Here are some testimonials to the Zone and it's emotional impact on guests. First we hear from Dan who says:
Boy, can I identify with your Disney Zone column of March 19.
After years of planning and saving, we finally were able to take our three kids (daughters, ages 10, 7, 2) to WDW last May (third trip for wife and I; first trip with them). Our first day in the Magic Kingdom, walking Main Street, watching their saucer-wide eyes at finally being there, and listening to the Main Street Singers welcome us in songI surprised myself when my vision of the castle doubled and then trembled in a watery wash. I was crying. It was such a dream come true that my feeble, cynical, work-a-day, 21st-century brain couldn't process it all. And so sheer emotion took over. Tears of happiness dribbled down my cheek.
How many times does that happen in our rat-race world? If you're as overworked, overstressed, and overbooked, as we seem to be, it isn't many! So that's a key to Disney magic, in my estimation: the opportunity to give yourself over so totally to an experienceimmersing your very self in itthat your heart once again has the capacity for tears of happiness to flow.
Later in our vacation, we witnessed Illuminations, and the same thing happened to me. The power of the music, the heart-warming emotion of the message (that we're all citizens of the world), the grandeur of the spectacle was enough to cause my waterworks to flow again. I adored it.
I think that's the reason some people 'get' the Zone and others don't. If you're willingeager, in factto give up total control of yourself to the Disney experience, to get so into the magic that you're even able to let your emotions run away with you, you can lose yourself in the WDW experience.
If notand, hey, in this guarded, serious world we live in, I understand that kind of desired insulationthat Disney just doesn't grab you the way it does us. No criticism there, just realization.
Before we left (it was our second-to-last day), we watched Illuminations one more time, and again, my cheeks had large, fat tears crawling down them. But I looked down at my 7-year-old, just as she looked up at me. And she, too, had a trembling lip and damp eyes, moved by the emotion, yes, but saddened by the knowledge that our trip was coming to an end.
It all Started with a Walt
I received a very insightful e-mail from Kevin, who really gave some deep thought into the concept of The Disney Zone. He makes some very interesting points. Here is his message:
Thanks for the uplifting article. It's a nice reminder about why we are all into this, instead of just focusing on what management has done wrong lately.
The Disney Zone to me has a few different layers. The most striking thing to me, that I always think about is: Walt cared. We all know everything is a business, but Walt actually wanted people to have fun, to enjoy themselves & the time with their friends and families. Walt would buy a hotdog and count his footpaces, so he knew where to place a garbage can. Not because he knew it would save him maintenance costs but because it was the right thing to do & help keep you transported in the fantasy world.
I also feel eternally grateful knowing that the intent of creating Disneyland/WDW was to make a million smiles, not $$$$. What else in your life can you think of like that? Which brings me to my second pointthe community of your fellow man (or woman).
How many of us have become annoyed at your fellow guest for holding up a line or walking the wrong way down a path or just being in your way? Heck, I let it get to me more than I should. It's hot, your feet hurt and you're hungry.
That all goes away with a great fireworks show, parade or a ride on your favorite attraction. It reminds you of the inherit good in humanity and your fellow human being. You understand that they are also here, like you, to have fun and enjoy themselves. Not merely to get in your way or impede your progress.
It's easy to fall prey to the notion that humans are inherently bad (especially us as Americans) with the constant media barrage these days. But every time I see the American Adventure I well up with a sense of pride and break down (in a good way) during Golden Dreams. It is a nice reminder that, yes, the world can be a crazy place. But there are people out there who care about their fellow man. Good will triumph evil and, yes, the U.S.A. is a caring country that does things for the goodwill of humanity (contrary to the popular belief that it is all politics).
I could go on and on with countless examples that demonstrate the above. But that would still fail to accurately portray my true feelings. This was probably the toughest email I have even written. I've reread and retyped whole sections over and over, to hopefully give you a look inside my head. But I realize that nothing I say will ever be able to convey my deepest heartfelt emotions of: knowing that I am having fun because someone cared enough to go to these lengths to do it & people all over the world are here doing it with me.
The Disney Zone and Family
There is a definite connection between our childhood memories, Disney, and family. One person who has made this connection is Cathy, who writes:
I know I'm in the Disney Zone! I teared up just reading your column!
When I was younger I remember watching the opening day of Disneyland on TV. I told my dad I was going there someday. He told me going out to California was very expensive. I didn't get to Walt Disney World until my dad died and I used my inheritance money to take my family to WDW. I was 40 but I was thrilled as a child. When we walked down Main Street and I saw that castle, I started to tear up. I know they were happy tears but I thought of my dad, too. Since that first trip, I have been back many times now, and I think you are so right that Disney is connected to childhood memories.
Thanks for the memories!
Here's another piece of mail that talks about the Zone and family. It's from Susan, who writes:
I, too, enter the Disney Zone every time I went to Disneyland (lived near there for five years and went every weekend) and every time I venture to WDW (about three times per year). It never ceases to amaze me how we can leave all our cares behind and enjoy the magic that is Disney.
Yes, I believe it relates directly to childhood, as I remember three generations of my family sitting in front of the TV on Sunday nights watching the Wonderful World of Disney and I would just be so excited to see tinkerbell go across the televisionit was magic! Of course, we had to watch 60 minutes with that darn stopwatch ticking and then the Sonny and Cher Show right afterwards.
Going to Disney brings back great memories of my grandmother who watched those shows with me and passed away when I was 12 leaving a huge hole in my heart and I will forever miss herbut I know she is with me all the time and when I see tinkerbell fly from the castle before the fireworksI especially think of her and it brings tears to my eyes.
A Magical Moment in the Zone
Finally, I leave you with a very special letter from Brian, who relates a very special magical moment for him in Walt Disney World. Brian writes:
Wonderful article on the Disney Zone. I couldn't agree more.
My wife and I took our 2-year-old daughter to Disney World in February for her first trip to Mickey's House. We were fortunate enough to have my parents and my mother-in-law share in the experience. In the weeks leading up to the trip, the excitement kept building. I could not wait to introduce my daughter to such a special place. Several weeks before the trip, I began singing different Disney songs to her, including When You Wish Upon a Star.
One night while my daughter and I were in the pool together at our Disney resort, she started singing When You Wish Upon a Star to me (the first time she had ever done so). I began to get tears in my eyes. I felt that she, even at two years of age, was able to see that this was a magical place.
We have another child on the way, and we've already started planning when it will be old enough to take to Disney World. Hopefully both of our children will grow up with Disney holding a special place in their hearts, as it does for us.
These and many other letters reinforced the notion that many of us truly enter a special Disney Zone when visiting a Disney theme park. It's obviously something that keeps many of us going back for more.
My thanks to everyone who took the time to write to express their thoughts and share their memories on Disney Magic and the Disney Zone.
Next time
In our next session we'll take a look at the fascination of hidden Mickeys.
Class dismissed.
 
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