After the end of the semester last year, my boyfriend and I needed a vacation. We decided that we would go on nice, long, relaxing trip to Florida. We would spend two weeks in Orlando with a ten-day pass to Disney. Originally, we planned to spend our time seeing all the other sights, but we knew that once we were in Orlando we’d end up at Downtown Disney, and then at a theme park paying at the gate the next day. We knew we wouldn’t be able to resist the Disney magic (or the Disney propaganda).
Since my boyfriend refuses to fly anywhere he can drive (which I found out about the year before when I went to Disney with his whole family) the trip started out with me falling asleep at 2 A.M. and waking up at 3:30 A.M. to begin the 24 hour drive. The previous year, we left on December 26th , and I had not slept well the previous two nights. Because of this, I was able to sleep in the car for more than ¾ of the journey. This time I had no such luck. I was wide-awake and excited despite my lack of sleep the night before. We drove all the way to Georgia before we pulled over at the cheapest hotel we could find, which turned out to be a bad idea. Despite it being an Econolodge, the room was still dirty from the last people who had stayed there. And although it was still dirty, the AC was not still on. It was like walking into a sauna. It was the dirtiest room I had stayed in my whole life. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well again.
When we finally made it to our hotel in Orlando, we were worn out yet ready to go. We decided to spend our first night in Downtown Disney. We stayed out late, and got up early to open the Magic Kingdom in the morning. We were energetic despite our lack of sleep. It was our first travel experience being able to do what we wanted, when we wanted. Neither of us had ever been on a vacation without parents or teachers calling the shots. It was great, and because we had ten days to see Disney, we didn’t ever feel rushed or guilty about not getting up at the crack of dawn. It was up to us what park we wanted to see, what rides we wanted to go on, and if we wanted to just head out for the day to see the city.
Then, after the fifth day or so, what started out as a relaxing vacation turned into one of the most exhausting of my life. By this time, we’d already been to all the parks. We had rode each ride at least once, and our favorites about four times. Because we had so much time to spend in Disney, we started getting up later and later and going home earlier and earlier. This did nothing to curb our exhaustion- simply being in the park was draining. After the sixth day, I stopped seeing all the smiling faces around me and could only hear the whining, screaming, and crying. And I thought, Why are these kids so unhappy? You’re in Disney, damn it, shut up! Then I realized Wow, I’m just as cranky as those kids.
One night, I made my boyfriend stop at a 24 hour CVS on the way home from the parks. All I could think about was the incredibly hot bath I was going to take when we got back to the hotel. My feet were sore, my bad back was acting up, I had a headache, and all I wanted was a bottle of Mr. Bubbles so I could take a bubble bath. When I saw the empty space on the shelf where the Mr. Bubble should have been, I nearly started crying out of frustration.
By the tenth day, I was done with Disney. My friends from home pointed out that every status update I had made was a complaint- people were blocking my view of the fireworks, we couldn’t get a table at the Rainforest Café, and five year olds were cutting me in line. I knew that it was time to go when I was in line for my favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and I almost screamed at the ten-year-old boy in front of me because he kept getting too close to me.
Although I knew that as soon as I got home I would wish I was back in that line with personal-space-invader boy, all I wanted was to pack up the car and go home. It was one of my favorite vacations, but also one of the most exhausting.
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