First Things First ..

My brother John & I, March 2011

First and foremost, I want to thank Lisa and Stuart SO much for asking me and allowing me to be a part of the WDW Fan Zone! I have been so excited about this site since I first heard about it and saw the first articles arrive! So needless to say, I am incredibly honored and excited to be a part of such an awesome thing! With that same excitement and honor, I have also experienced an equal level of fear and concern about myself, and what to write about. Being involved in something so awesome requires a writer who can produce something as equally or more awesome. I looked back over previous articles and the pressure continued to mount. I racked my brain over and over about what to write about and I finally decided. I have an upcoming trip in just a few days (16 as this goes up, but who is counting?!), so I wanted to write about something I’m going to attempt on my trip.

I would like to introduce myself to those of you who do not know me or haven’t had a chance to view my profile on here. My name is Mary, I’m a 25 year old college student, and I’m a makeup artist. I eat, breathe, and sleep Disney when I’m not working or doing homework. I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area and I’m constantly finding ways to get back to Disney. When I go to Disney, I travel and tour kind of nonchalantly outside of dinner reservations. I try my hardest to set early breakfast reservations in order to get up and get to the parks as close to rope drop as possible. I also stay until closing. Outside of those things, I pretty much wing it in between food.

On this upcoming trip, I am fortunate enough to get to experience 10 days and 9 nights at the World. Not only that but the opportunity to stay at my most favorite hotel, the Wilderness Lodge. I am also doing it completely solo! I have plans to meet up with some of you while I am there, but I am going to have a LOT of time on my hands. Since I will be able to be there for a good amount of time, I’m going to make sure this is a trip of firsts. I am so very lucky that I’ve been to the World many times. However, I have started to notice something in my last few trips. I am finding new things all the time at Disney! I am not sure if it’s because of my trips being a bit more frequent, me being older, and observations in general or if it’s partly due to being so much more aware of things thanks to the online Disney community.

They say you could spend an entire year at Walt Disney World and still never experience everything there is to do. Well guess what travel guides and suggestions? Before I die I am going to try my hardest to experience EVERYTHING! Before I get all ahead of myself, I’m going to take it on a little more manageable level this go round. I have recently purchased an annual pass and I have been able to go 4 times in the last year. With all that time spent, I’ve noticed SO much new stuff. I remember on my last trip this March, I was sitting on the bus on the way to Animal Kingdom one day. I was looking at wait times and realized how much I wasn’t getting done even though I felt like I was.

I then started thinking how much time I had spent in Walt Disney World in the last 8 months and how much I was missing out on. Some were rides, some were movies, some shows, and the biggest thing I was missing out on, was just enjoying the views. I am a people watcher by nature and I quite enjoy it. However, I noticed that when I was in the parks, I was not sitting back and enjoying watching my surroundings. I was missing out on looking up and seeing the windows on main street, or the intricate details of queues like Expedition Everest, and I was missing the beauty of sitting in the lobby of my hotel the Wilderness Lodge. I was rushing myself through everything just to get as much done that was humanly possible. In turn, it was that ambition that was causing me to miss out on so much. So this trip, I am going to have a ‘first’. I am going to lose the title my father has given me as “Taskmaster”, and I’m going to enjoy the often overlooked joys of the World. Now, I still have 7 and 8 am breakfast reservations every morning and I am still going to plan on what park I land at each night with dinner reservations, but this trip I promise I am going to do the things I’ve been missing out on. These are just a few things I am planning on getting done that I’ve overlooked before.

• Country Bear Jamboree
• Swiss Family Robinson Tree House
• Tom Sawyer Island
• Eating a Mickey Bar on Main Street in the middle of the day
• Standing in line at Expedition Everest to enjoy Joe Rhode’s beautiful creation
• Watching the shows over at Hollywood Studios
• Sitting in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge and winding down
• Slowing down and taking in the little things that most people overlook

So there it is. My first post that I have been scared of. I hope it sparked something in you all and inspires you to do the same thing that I am going to do my next trip. If you already are taking in the small things and enjoying the things I am missing out, please share with the readers and me how you came to the decision of “taking it slow” and how to do it! With my next post, I will have just returned, so I will be able to report on how much of this I achieved and even better, the experiences I will have while trying this new method of visiting. If you are like me, leave a comment with some things that you feel like you always overlook or miss out on when you visit (and make a promise to yourself that you will experience it!).

Tags: disney dining plan, Disney food, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Wilderness Lodge

This entry was posted on May 7, 2011 at 7:00 AM and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.