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https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/07/disney-world-during-pandemic-extremely-weird/614617/

 

Interesting article by a non park person

Here are a few funny excerpts

I should admit that a Disney vacation, even in pre-coronavirus conditions, sounds to me like the most elaborate way to have a miserable time yet invented by humankind.  I have enough friends who are parents to have heard the stories of long lines, staggering expense, and (for them, if not the kids) boredom. The whole park is an obstacle course of expensive treats that your children will beg you to buy. Corn dogs cost $11. I do not dislike Disney films, and I am especially fond of Pixar and the Muppets. But my desire to meet Mickey Mouse evaporated around the age of 8, when I asked my mother about this wonderful place called Disney World and she said, in effect, that she loved me very much, but that she would rather die of dysentery than take me to Florida to have her pocket picked by anthropomorphic vermin. I don’t think I asked again. The chance of being struck dead by a mysterious disease has not sweetened the appeal of the park.

 

On some rides, like Epcot’s Mission: SPACE, announcements dating from before the pandemic warn you that you should skip the ride if you dislike “enclosed dark space.” Now the fear of enclosed spaces applies to all sane people, not just claustrophobes. Epcot also warns that the ride can induce vomiting. As it whirred into motion, I considered what it might be like to puke up $11 worth of corn dog into a mask strapped to my face, and I thought: At least I didn’t have to wait in line for this.

 

Perhaps for others this illusion remains the dominant experience of Disney. I am, as I warned earlier, not the ideal Disney customer. I am nonetheless forced to admit, having observed Disney’s most fervent fans—the ones willing to court infection for one of Snow White’s royal waves—that their decision to visit at this moment is not, as it first appeared to me, made out of ignorance or stupidity. Almost all seemed to accept that the coronavirus is real, or real enough that it would be churlish to object when others ask you nicely to keep your distance. Disney just matters more to them than it does to me, because to me it is a corporation that makes children’s entertainment, and to them, it is something worth risking their life.

 

I accepted high levels of authoritarian intervention as long as the tyrant in question was wearing those ridiculous mouse ears at the time. If the penalty for obstinate refusal to wear a mask were public whipping, I would have cheered the administration of justice in Main Street, U.S.A.’s town square. If the same thing happened in the city where I live in Connecticut, I would probably donate to the ACLU and lament my city’s regression to 17th-century Puritanism.

 

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I think one of the main things many people like about Disney is that it takes them back to their childhood. In my case my mother and aunt brought me for the grand opening of the Magic Kingdom. I have ever since always seen Disney as my happy place. I have been many hundreds of times since and still get a special feeling when on drive onto Disney property. From the writers statements I would have to guess he only associates Disney memories as his mother worried about getting ripped off by a mouse..... Very sad..

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I am always happy to hear of people that don't want to  go and I quit trying to change their minds years ago, because it is just one less person I have to stand behind inline. 

And yes Disney is my happy place but I do have others. It will be interesting to see how I feel about Disney during a pandemic on our next trip though.

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