Vacation. Part I - Why Disney

I can remember my first trip to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in February, 1976. (Coincidentally, Lisa made her first trip there in the same time frame; did we stand on line for Space Mountain together?) While I don't remember meeting Mickey Mouse or any other characters for that matter, I do have fleeting memories of walking in the middle of Main Street USA, seared impressions of terror on Space Mountain, being woken to the wonder of the Illuminations on the Lake, and the fun spookiness of the Haunted Mansion as two ghosts tried to hitchhike their way home with us. I also remember tickets, thus the term, "E-ticket ride."

It was the first and only vacation we ever took as a family.

Disney was sort of special to our family. In addition to that vacation, we'd all sit in front of the television on Sunday nights at seven o'clock to watch The Wonderful World of Disney on NBC. The Goofy cartoon shorts were always my favorite. However, whenever Walt Disney himself introduced something we all took notice. EPCOT anyone? I can't remember if the show was a half hour or longer, but I remember that in my pre-teen years we rarely missed a show.

And somewhere in all of that muddled growing up I learned to associate family to Disney.

I've been back to the Magic Kingdom four times (as well as the other parks) since 1976. Each time I look for something I've never noticed or done before. For example, after five trips, I still haven't been on the Astro-Orbiter or visited the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Sometimes its a rare character sighting - like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, with Lisa, or watching the sword in the stone ceremony, or the "snow fall" at the end of the electric parade in December, 2005.

Since 2001, its watching the magic through the eyes of my children; Samantha literally exploding with excitement upon seeing Cinderella's Castle when she was three, or watching TJ get his first "real kiss" from Snow White when he was 13 months.

I understand the Disney is a corporation whose board of directors are just as concerned about the return on their investment as they are about entertaining the world. And I don't care. For all of the money I have given Disney, I can report that they are consistently exceptional leaving no detail unnoticed.

When my mom died in 2007, she left us a little bit of money. Just enough to invest and put some aside for something special. I originally thought of taking several grand and blowing it on a top of the line stay at Walt Disney World. Mom was a huge Disney fan. She wouldn't have minded at all. Then Lisa and I spent an hour listening to the sales pitch for the Disney Vacation Club - Disney's version of timeshare property ownership - and it became crystal clear. We paid our money and again we were not disappointed.

Last week we took our first vacation to our vacation club as a family. We stayed at the Kidani Village in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. As my "seen-it-all-at-12 years-old, too-hard-to-impress" daughter turned to me and said, "This place is totally cool," I realized that I am starting a new generation of family memories. I am fortunate that I share this Disney affection with Lisa.

Yep, I get misty when I think about mom, her love for her kids and Disney and how she passed that tiny little thing on to me so that I can pass it on to Samantha and TJ. She would be so, so happy right now.

Why Disney? It's about family. It's about this family.