Disney's Flower and Garden Festival - Natural Reflections by Donna Hoyack

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Do you ever get that feeling as an adult that makes you want to skip? Not town, but like a kid? Or the fullness in your lungs where you’re almost holding your breath in anticipation? Remember the commercials after the Super Bowl when the MVP of the winning team is celebrating and shouts, “I‘m going to Disney World (or Land)!?” I totally relate to this because when I travel, after months or years of planning, that same feeling of excitement and joy arises regardless of the location. What gives you an adrenaline rush? What lights you up? What refreshes and brings joy?

As you set out to determine your own unique, and personal values, these are some questions to ask yourself. For me, it started as a child, on family vacations in the station wagon – the first suburbans! These were the days when we didn’t have to be in car seats or wear seat belts, and we would lay the seats flat and make a huge sleeping pallet in the back, pile the luggage on the top of the car and hit the road. My parents drove us all over the US, including Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. Today, I still experience the “Disney World Joy” whenever I go on a Beautiful Adventure.

So my sister is a Disneyfile. She owns all the movies on DVD, reads the blogs, gets newsletters, has a Disney Visa for discounts and has the Fast Pass and dining reservation system d-o-w-n. A couple of years ago, she asked me if I wanted to go to the International Food and Wine Festival which takes place in the Fall at Epcot. Well, of course I did! This would be my first time back without children. Not only did we really enjoy the food and wine festival, which was the BOMB, but experiencing the parks as adults (did I say without children??) was total joy! Needless to say, last Fall when my sister asked if I wanted to go to the International Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot this Spring, I jumped at the chance. I love flowers, she had already been several times, and this was on my “must do” list.

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Memories

When we were young, only the Magic Kingdom existed. We were raised on the classic Disney fairytales like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Peter Pan where princes rescued princesses, and evil queens, stepmothers, and pirates got what was coming to them. Thankfully, not much has changed. Disney has remained true and only expanded and updated new stories and characters over the years. We saw the same things as when we took our own girls to Disney plus a lot more.

All over the park, little girls were dressed like princesses, boys like pirates and Donald Duck; Little girls, bouncing up and down, with their hands over their mouth, so excited to meet a Princess and Winnie the Pooh. :o) And children with lop-sided mouse ears, hot, hungry and crying, haggard parents dragging them to the next 70-minute wait line, bribing them with a Mickey Mouse ice cream pop, while pushing a stroller and wearing a backpack. And moody, self-absorbed teenagers texting and taking selfies – eww.

Even in the land of magic and fairytales, there are a few scary rides: The Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom, at Hollywood Studios, the Tower of Terror and The Rocking Roller Coaster, and at Animal Kingdom, Dinosaur and Expedition Everest, Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. My sister and I each have 2 daughters and both of our youngest girls were a bit fearful. To our shame, we both remembered making our little scaredy cats ride along on most of these. If they didn’t, someone would have to wait with them and wouldn’t get to ride!! And even back then, the lines were too long to waste all that time standing in them twice! Poor babies. Not much has changed there either…we saw scared, crying kids and frustrated parents going through the same thing! Yeah, did I say how much fun it was without children?

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Never Grow Up

Periodic festivals at Epcot include specialty food booths for each country around the “world” with scrumptious tastes of the country’s cuisine and beverages. This festival covered the grounds, topiaries, and waters with bright, beautiful flowers and gardens of herbs, fruits, and vegetables that were featured in the booth’s cuisines. Small passbooks with stickers and details of the cuisine from each country are made plentiful to track one’s adventures in tasting.

Even though Disney is working to bring more kid-craving experiences to Epcot as with the Frozen ride in Norway, the festivals are geared more towards adults and foodies. This was evidenced by the myriad of t-shirts referencing “Drinking Around the World” and my favorite, “Cinco de Drinko” as we were there May 5, Cinco de Mayo. However many imbibers in these t-shirts, with small 3 ounce tastes, it takes mucho dinero to get drunko and we didn’t witness it very often.

Being an adult is definitely overrated. For those of you that think WDW is just for kids? You are mistaken! Where else can you re-live your youth in fantasy and stories, scream on roller coasters, the Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain; soak up the past and explore the future; ride ships and rockets and dance in the streets? Each ride tells a story and the new Pandora section at Animal Kingdom is incredible – you get your own Avatar and soar on the back of a prehistoric-looking dragon-bird! Disney Imagineers have outdone themselves.

The day before we left for WDW, I got a bright yellow cast on my arm after having a stupid gardening accident requiring surgery on my thumb. Since it’s traditional to have your cast signed, I decided to have Disney characters sign my new arm cast! It was silly but fun – especially seeing the great lengths the cast members go to to be the character. Aladdin talked too much, making the line move at a snail’s pace and Cinderella noticed my painted nails and said very sweetly, she liked my sparkly fingernails and “Fairy Godmother says her favorite colors are blue and sparkles!” Haha! There’s definitely a reason it’s called “the happiest place on earth.”

Memories

Never Grow Up

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