Back from Disney.

Oh man. I'm exhausted, my shoulders are sunburned and we have mountains of laundry to sift through. But it was totally worth it. We had a great time. It was the first vacation Rusty and I have taken together since our honeymoon ten years ago.

I'm going to post some photos (including the Sapper Mouse Ears Project.) But I need to vent about some things that happened during our trip, and I want to get it overwith now so the rest of the posts and photos aren't tainted by stupidity.

The last full day we were there, Thursday, we went to the Animal Kingdom park. It's gorgeous, a lot of fun, has great attractions (the Expedition Everest ride was one of our favorites from the week.) But for some reason there were some dumb angry people out and about.

Incident #1 was at the dinosaur institute ride thing. The line waiting time was supposed to be about 40 minutes. Which was actually short compared to some we saw at the Disney MGM park. We weren't surprised - our travel agent told us flat out that Spring Break (considered mid-March through late April) is considered the second busiest time of the year.* Considering our travel agent stressed this fact, it's plastered all over the web and it's stated flat out on the Disney World planning pages I'm assuming most everyone traveling to Disney World this past month was probably aware. Makes sense.

So the line takes a bit longer and people start going nuts. The family behind us was whining enough to be mistaken for a troup of three year olds (and it was a mom, dad, a couple of ten or so year old kids and a set of grandparents!) Seriously. One of the kids was talking about the "stupid 'Fast-Passers'" and sounding awfully bitter for a kid that young. The parents? Only encouraged it. The guy working at the front of the line was named Jorge and was from Spain (every Disney worker has their hometown/country listed on their name tag.) Jorge tried to make an announcement about the wait time but was interupted. Then this stupid, cruel, stereotype of everything that's wrong with America today teenager stands up on the rail and announces to the crowd, "What he said meant to say in English was that the wait is going to be longer than they said!" A few upset people thanked the kid, some people laughed, and poor Jorge looked like he'd had it. For the first time in my life, I called someone a "Dick." I hope that kid heard me.

The next round of people went in and Rusty and I were cut off at the front to be the first to go in the next time. Poor Jorge wouldn't make eye contact with anyone and was just trying to do his job. I leaned over and asked if they paid him enough to put up with the whining and he smiled and said Disney pays him well but no one could pay enough to put up with a lot of what he hears. Once he decided Rusty and I were friendly, he totally opened up and asked our names, where we were from, how our trip had been and then thanked us for being so nice before shaking both of our hands. When he turned to check the next ride, the super annoying family behind us went into action again. The mom pushed up to Rusty and I and asked what Jorge had said. I replied and she asked again, "But what did he say?!" getting almost hysterical. Rusty and I were confused but realized later that she must have assumed that we were telling Jorge how upset we were about the wait and didn't understand we were just chatting (seriously, the wait time was only about ten minutes longer than they originially said and as I mentioned, that was way short compared to lines over an hour and a half at some of the other parks.) When it came time to move to the next room to get ready to board the ride, they asked everyone to move up to the front by the movie screen to watch the little video and the family behind us refused saying they were staying right by the door so they could be first on the ride (yes... they actually told the worker that.) Rusty and I moved as far as possible from them. Between them and the wonderfully helpful teenager mocking the accent, I was upset. Rusty said later I was so angry that I was shaking. I just don't understand why people have to go out of their way to be rude. And why you can't just realize that #1, no one forced you to wait in line, #2, you're waiting for a ride at an amusement park for fun and not water or food in Darfur or something and #3, of course there are long lines, you freaks, it's Disney World! Good heavens.

Ok, incident #2 wasn't as big a deal but made me cry at the time (remember, I'm delightfully hormonal right now.) We were watching this group of acrobats doing an open air show at an outside restaurant. I walked around the back of the crowd, making sure to duck down and not get in anyone's photo shots and checked behind me not seeing anyone there. I took some pictures then the show ended. This older guy comes up behind and says in my ear, "Thanks for coming and standing right in our way" in the most hateful tone I've ever heard in real life. I turned and said I was sorry as he walked away and said, "Sorry" to the closet people I saw who kind of looked at me funny. Turns out they weren't with him and he and his family were off to the side in the very back sitting at a table (everyone watching this show was standing in a circle around the area where the acrobats were performing.) This guy could have come up and nicely asked if I could move but instead he waited ten minutes or so then came up afterwards? And I said I was sorry three or four times to everyone in the area because I didn't know where he was sitting and he just glared and walked off. Why?! What's the point of that? It doesn't help you see the show again and just makes someone feel bad. I just don't get it. If the show was that big a deal, you'd want to see it and not just sit there fuming. Get a grip. I wandered back over toward Rusty. This was only ten minutes or so after the first incident with Jorge and I was pretty much convinced people enjoy being mean and rude and hurtful and started to sniffle. Looking back now I can say it's not that big a deal but at the time it just seemed like too much.

Our experience overall was fantastic and we can't wait to take the boys in September. Of course things weren't 100% perfect, they never are. But it was nice. And a lot of fun. We found that when people got on the crowded shuttle bus and complained, the mood suddenly changed if we offered our seat to a family with small kids. All of a sudden someone else would notice and would offer their seat to someone who needed it more and it started a chain reaction and almost a sense of relief and collective sigh of relief that things weren't worth getting upset about. That happened more than once and it was nice to see. We met some really, really nice people visiting the parks too. A special ed teacher from Jersey and her daughter who sat next to us at dinner one night and told us about their experiences there in the past, a family not from Cincinnati but with the father wearing a Graeter's Ice Cream t-shirt, the guy carrying the sleeping little girl who thanked us for letting him have our spot under an awning in the rain at the bus stop, a couple caught in the thunderstorm with us at Downtown Disney when we waited for the shuttle and laughing when we all got on the bus dripping wet. Letting a family with little kids have your seats or getting rained on so a dad carrying a sleeping three year old doesn't have to is not a big deal to us but seemed to really make a different to those people so we were happy to offer. Consider it servant-evanglism Disney style. If a few more people would not even go out of their way but just be aware of what's going on around them, I think things would be a little more laid back - not just at Disney but in life in general. Disney is just a great big dose of humanity all at once and I'm not sure I was prepared for the uglier side of that!

*Christmas/New Years is their busiest.