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ORLANDO, Fla. — Before visiting Disney World, I thought the place was about Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Minnie and general entertainment for kids. I expected to see Mickey Mouse and his friends performing a couple of antics.
But it turned out to be one of the most fantastic experiences of my travels.
After only a few minutes of my visit there together with my World Press Institute colleagues I was able to appreciate the ability of Americans to create a world of make believe and to understand why their movies dominate the world. Disney World turned out to be a city in its own right with hotels, train services, shops, streets and all the rest of it.
Our first stop was Peter Pan’s Flight in Fantasyland. I was overwhelmed. For those few minutes I was in the life of this folktale character.
Our next stop was a boat ride where there were dolls from around the world singing a song promoting peace among all children. The attention to detail was amazing. All the dolls were dressed according to where they were from including the African children who, of course, were playing the drum. There were the Indian dolls, Chinese dolls. Every region in the world was represented.
The day was long with the most popular attractions being the heart-stopping, adrenaline-pumping rides. It was like being a child again as we raced from one exciting ride to the other. While looking for dinosaurs and managing to successfully navigate through them, the sound effects of the dinosaurs as our car swerved precariously in the dark made it an almost real experience.
Also impressive were the theme parks representing all sorts of things, countries and culture. In particular, after visiting the Animal Kingdom I felt that Americans do not need to travel abroad because Disney World brings the whole world to their doorstep, at least in Florida.
An experience beyond words
My first stop in the Animal Kingdom was the African continent. As I entered I found myself in Nairobi, Kenya. There was a bar selling East African food and beer, the only American influence was that you still had to produce an ID card to have a drink. (They don’t do that in Kenya.) There were drum-beating African dancers. There was a hotel with a Kenyan address surrounded by African vegetation. Also very typical was a notice outside which warned hotel guests not to go out at night because there were dangerous animals. I was impressed with the environment created, the attention to detail and the research that must have been done.
After a few more rides we went to the Asian continent. I have never traveled to Asia but with the photos I took at Disney World and I could easily convince anyone that I’ve been there. We went through a home with all the furniture and ornaments you might find in a typical Indian home. It was not like a museum where everything is spic and span. It was dusty, with spider webs and all, giving a feeling of the real thing. There were photos around the living room, the smell of some sort of incense burning, even a kitchen.
Next, we settled into a boat and started the most amazing ride I have ever had in my life. The excitement was not in the actual ride but in the view and the Indian experience — an old, rundown truck parked near a waterfall, logs in the river and a bridge of burning coal with water spraying on you were most fascinating. It was as though, for those few minutes, I had left the United States and was somewhere in India. The feeling of the cold spray of water compared to the heat generated by the smoldering fire was out of this world.
Also outstanding in its ability to create a world of make believe was the space ride. After receiving formal instructions from flight attendants and dividing ourselves into teams, I “went into space” for a few minutes. The feeling was beyond words. Through your window screen you could see images of a desert and the view of space you see on television.
Guided by instructions we zoomed past several obstacles and were made to feel like we were part of a team. There were three of us, with me being the engineer, so every time the voice called for the engineer to do something, I would get praise and encouragement, just like the real thing. The sinking feeling in your stomach as you went through the ride and the dizziness afterwards made it even more real.
This trip to Disney World made me understand why the U.S. is the mecca of movie-making, where illusions can be made into reality.
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