Friday, August 19, 2011

Flashback Friday: Losing the Magic

I remember very clearly the WDW trip where I first realized that the audioanimatronics were not real.  I was 9 or 10 I think - okay that's pretty old, but I'm slow to pick up on things sometimes!  It must have been around my 6th trip to WDW ever, and I remember riding Small World and noticing - for the first time - the wires, dark grey steel bars, and other mechanical things under and behind the brightly colored singing dolls.

I was heartbroken.

More heartbroken than when I realized Santa wasn't real. 

We stood in Fantasyland, after I again had seen the mechanical apparati moving the cardboard forest in Snow White's Scary Adventure, and my parents asked me what was wrong.  Suddenly, I wasn't interested in coming to this place anymore.  I didn't hate it, but it wasn't as wonderful as I had believed for the first six trips.  The pirates weren't really chasing the wenches, the ghosts weren't really singing, Peter wasn't really flying.  But I was too young to be able to articulate this, so to my parents I was just an inexplicably depressed 9 year old in the happiest place on Earth.

We kept going for the sake of my little sister who, at 6, still believed.  But for several years thereafter, I wasn't quite as excited to go to WDW as I had been before.

Fortunately, I've found other ways to enjoy and love the magic as an adult.  :)

Sorry if I bummed you out with this post.  Need cheering up?  Then, hop on to the next stop!

5 comments:

  1. lol! awww! I was around 9 or 10 when I figured out Santa! :( I hate when I'm on it's a small world in Dlp and I can see the tiled roof :( but I just try to ignore it :P

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  2. I try not to notice those things.. I like just believing in the magic.

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  3. I wear my magic goggles to Disney so I don't see such things :)

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  4. I'm sorry that you saw things like that at that age. It sure is tough, especially, when you can't articulate it. I'm glad that you have found other reasons to love it, now!

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  5. Wow that is amazing that you remember when you realized. I'm sitting here wondering when I realized that, and I seriously can't recall. Wait a second... you mean to tell me we aren't really flying around Neverland?! :D

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