A Break From Reality

USA Trip 2013: Blog Entry #1

"Imagination is more important than knowledge".  - Albert Einstein

I’m not the first mother to decide she would like to take her child to Disney World.  Nor will I be the last.  Walt Disney has created a world where it’s still okay to be imaginative and child-like.  It’s also a place where (if you look beyond the shameless commercialism), all emphasis is on family and spending time with your loved ones.  In a world where our lives are getting busier, and our perceptions are being construed by computers and television, parents are increasingly looking for opportunities to give their families a break from reality. 

While it’s important to me as a mother to introduce Oskar to new cultures and new landscapes, I’m also not immune to being won over by clever advertising, or from being wooed by a man (possible woman) in a mouse costume. From where I was standing - watching my wide-eyed son puzzle over how Goofy had found him in a shop and had rang to wish him a ‘Happy Birthday’ – beautiful seascapes, historical buildings, and indigenous cultures could all wait.

Oskar would have been less than a year old when a plan hatched in my head that I wanted to get him to Florida.  At that stage a plan is all it was, and it was a full 5 years later before time and money aligned and allowed it to happen.

With time up my sleeve I decided to plan ... and boy, did I plan.  It was only this past Sep/Oct that Scott, Oskar and I were finally able to get to Walt Disney World, and in the interim I had managed to incur an embarrassingly large number of internet hours researching exactly what we would be doing.  In fact, I wouldn’t want to try and work out just how many hours of my life have been lost to the online world; I would probably embarrass myself.  Fortunately for me I do love to plan, and this is one holiday that really benefited from all of my research.

In total, including time wasted in transit, we spent 3 ½ weeks away.  3 nights were spent at the Universal Orlando Resort, 7 nights were spent cruising the Eastern Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy, and 11 nights were spent emerged inside a Walt Disney World bubble.  There is no part of that holiday I regret.  In fact it was, quite possibly, the single best travel experience of my life so far.  I am excited that I finally have some spare time to reminisce and blog about our experience.