I haven't been to the theme park near our home in probably 15 years. However, I have been to Disney World several times, and I noticed some distinct differences between the two, that I wouldn't have thought would have been so apparent.
The first thing I noticed, was the way people dressed. I can tell you the summer styles for the Midwest, and they aren't pretty. Girls, of all ages and sizes,will be wearing SHORT shorts and cropped tops exposing plenty of their midriffs. Guys, will be wearing nipple bearing tank tops, and truly, I am not a fan of the look. I mean, they might as well not be wearing a shirt at all, as opposed to having a strip of fabric down their middle, narrow enough that both nipples peak out at you. Honestly, I never remember, in all of our trips to Disney World, people wearing such revealing clothing. It was eye opening and disturbing. The last time I went to our local theme park, I wasn't anybody's mother and probably viewed the world through different eyes, but today, seeing it through the eyes of a mom, I felt rather alarmed. Teenage boys were literally leering at the girls. like they were choice cuts of meat. I wanted to smack the suggestive grins off some of their faces, and they were YOUNG men. 15 or 16 at the most; very disheartening to see the men of tomorrow acting so disrespectfully.
The second thing I experienced during our evening of amusement was pain. We have quite a few kick-butt roller coasters at our park, and they really did kick my butt. During the first one, my ears popped, my neck was forced into an uncomfortable position, every jolt and twist, tossed me from side to side causing pain in my back, and I actually felt light-headed. I love roller coasters, I always have, but this one was slight torture. Not wanting to be the wimp in our party, I agreed to two more roller coasters. Neither of those seemed as devastating as the first, so either I had geared up, or the damage had already been done and I just didn't notice the pain as much. I did feel my back cracking several times on different rides following that first one though. Aging. Gotta love it.
After one particular ride, my ten year old whispered to me, "Mom, the guy next to me started saying swear words." Again, that is something that you just don't really hear at Disney World. I am not sure why, but it really doesn't happen, which after today, I now appreciate quite a bit. The absence of that kind of behavior isn't really noticeable until you have been in the presence of it.
On the flip side, Disney World seems to be overrun at times by extremely overweight people riding around on scooters. At our theme park, there wasn't a scooter in sight. That is possibly because there aren't many rides that accomodate extremely large people. I consider myself "average" in weight and a bit on the tall side, and I felt squished in a couple situations. Usually at Disney, the scooters are fine once you get into the parks, the real pain, is when you are sharing transportation with a scooter bound guest. Loading the bus takes an excessively long time, because the person driving the scooter, has little or no experience with maneuvering the scooter outside of Disney World. Each painful adjustment as they drive their scooters onto the buses makes even the sanest of people feel a wee bit crazy.
As we were departing from our time at the park tonight, we were accosted by a person encouraging us to "enter to win a BMW SUV or $50,000 in cash"! My husband looks at the peddler with a straight face and says, "I hate cash. Cash is gross!" She looked unamused, but myself and another family nearby thought his response was hilarious. It also left her speechless. What exactly does one say to that?
We did have a good time, hanging out as a family, and doing something new and fun together. It was just glaringly apparent that Disney World has spoiled me, and that I am not as young anymore as I would love to think I am.
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