It’s still HOT here in central Florida… very hot indeed. We’ve been here permanently about a month now, and while it’s hot having lived in South Carolina before here helped get us acquainted to what long hot summers can be.
Most of the month the lines have been pretty long, August still being a pretty busy month around the World. The usual mix of people trying to squeeze in a late summer vacation before school starts along with a wide array of foreign friends (many Europeans spend more than a couple weeks in America for their holidays) makes the whole area both interesting and sometimes frustrating. Long lines and high heat make for a strange mix of emotions in both young and old. This time of year also brings a lot of pop up thunderstorms and spotty rain. Disney puts on some of the best fireworks around, but Mother Nature routinely steps in with these fantastic lightening shows to remind who owns the sky.
Now that schools are starting back in session, the line lengths around the parks seem to slip by the day. Thursday night in Epcot it was quite busy. Friday we took off and just bummed around Animal Kingdom Lodge for views of the animals and to have some Zebra Cakes. Yesterday we spent much of the morning at Animal Kingdom, where the lines were generally short in the morning (we walked on the flying dinosaur ride twice in a row much to the delight of our 3 year old, and I rode Exp. Everest in single rider twice in about 15 minutes or so).
Today’s morning was spent in the Magic Kingdom starting off just about 5 minutes or so after rope drop (we’d have been there early had it not been for Daddy’s stop at Starbucks). The crowds were almost non-existent. I stopped to get my hair cut at the Main Street Barbershop (thanks to Michal, Rex and Norma for the usual great service, and the fun of watching more than a few get their hair cut for the first time) while Mommy and munchkin went off to ride Dumbo, Peter Pan, the Merry-Go-Round and a couple of potty stops all in the first hour with little to no line. By about lunch time lines had started to build slightly, but when we left at about 1 o’clock they hadn’t even filled the first section of the parking lot, if you can believe that.
It’s interesting to watch regions of the country (and the world for that matter) cycle in and out of the area as schools start or life picks up and returns to some more structured routine. As I mentioned earlier, a few weeks back in was a virtual potpourri of ethnicity, citizenship and regions. This weekend has been noticeably slanted towards the New England region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York City) where school appears to not routinely start until around the 1st of September or even after Labor Day. Or maybe you folks up there are just used to taking your vacations later than all the rest?
Living here so far hasn’t changed our view of the parks, but it has allowed us to slow down and do more what we call random sampling. You don’t feel rushed to see things and make time to stop and see little things or listen to other shows you might otherwise have skipped.
For instance, today we stopped and listened to the brass section from the Disney World Band play in Liberty Square along with accompanying percussion. They played some Dixie Land jazz and some patriotic numbers, including ‘When We’re Human’ from ‘The Princess and the Frog’. Many people hurried by, taking pictures on the fly or avoiding the area entirely. We had time to stand in the shade, let the little one dance and wave a flag given out by the guy who is probably the first chair trumpet player, and enjoy the fact that life, for a moment, was not in a hurry to get to the next FastPass line.
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