Finding thankfulness in the worst year ever

Disney friends, do you find yourself feeling somewhat less than thankful this year?

With Disneyland still not even close to open, COVID-19 messing with our lives, and restrictions on how many people we can see for the holidays, it’s hard to see the silver lining here. And I can’t be alone in sometimes pondering the question, “What’s the point of Thanksgiving when there’s little to be thankful for?”

You see, it’s so easy right now to start thinking about what we don’t have. What we can’t have. What we wish we had. So much so that we can completely forget about what we do have.

We seem to be silently skipping over Thanksgiving and making it smaller than it’s ever been, at a time when that’s what we need the most. 

To be thankful. 

So, in the spirit of thankfulness, today I’m choosing to look at three Disney experiences that I am truly thankful for (and some fun reasons why)!

1. Riding the Monorail around the Seven Seas Lagoon

If we’re honest, something about the monorail makes us all feel a little whimsical. It somehow manages to be both futuristic and nostalgic, all at the same time. There’s nothing quite like enjoying the view of the lagoon as you whisk your way around the resort loop, all the while rocking to and fro with the sway of the monorail car.

And when the Magic Kingdom peeks through the windows at you, beckoning you closer, the peace is palpable.

The Seven Seas Lagoon itself is a man-made wonder. They relocated over seven million cubic yards of earth to dig the lagoon and used it to cover the utilidoors (the Cast Member-only lower-level of Walt Disney World). It got its name because the originally planned resorts around the lagoon were supposed to be from places located near the seven seas… among them an Asian, Venetian, and Persian Resort. While all three were eventually scrapped, the Venetian, pictured below, never got off the ground mainly because the swampland where it was to be built was too soggy, and every test piling Imagineers sent into the ground disappeared entirely.

2. The Enchanted Tiki Room birds

Visiting the Enchanted Tiki Room with a Dole whip in hand is one of my favorite Disney vacation moments, one I hope to repeat frequently once the mask mandate is forever exiled from our beloved Disney parks.

Something about the taste of pineapple ice cream and the delightfully innocent singing birds transports me to a simpler time. A room full of adults and kids singing like the birdies sing brings me joy I can’t quite explain. Because it’s innocent. And real. And honest.

The most fascinating part of the Tiki Room is how Walt and the Imagineers developed a highly sophisticated audio-animatronic experience just to make this show come to life. Originally slated to be a dining experience, the Enchanted Tiki Room used the same magnetic tape data technology that NASA used to send astronauts to the moon to control the movements of the 220 audio-animatronic figures.

Here is a quick 5 minute video showing you the operating room (with Walt himself!) and the original show:

3. The Jungle Cruise: A famous airplane, a dark waterway, and the backside of water

I LOVE the horribly cheesy Jungle Cruise humor. And I think it was the most brilliant decision ever to change the original script from a realistic tour by adding the joke-laden skipper presentation in 1962. But mostly, I just love the backside of water.

One of my favorite things to see on the cruise is the Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior airplane in the Magic Kingdom. If you’ve ever wondered where the front half ended up, wonder no more! Disney split the plane in half and used the front half in the Casablanca scene in the now-retired Great Movie Ride at Hollywood Studios.

Imagineers did some research of the serial number of this plane and found it was owned by Warner during the time Casablanca was filmed. Though the famous actors in that iconic scene were filmed on a soundstage because of wartime restrictions (one that was too small for a full-sized aircraft and therefore had a fake one), there are shots in the movie of an actual Lockheed aircraft taking off in this same model that could very likely be this exact plane.

Traveling over to Disneyland, the five-foot deep water of the Jungle Cruise is part of the park’s “dark” waterway. This current circulates south from the Rivers of America, through Fantasyland and the Storybook Land Canal Boats, around Sleeping Beauty Castle, and then past the Frontierland entrance and alongside the Tiki Room before entering the Jungle Cruise rivers. Then the water returns to the Rivers of America via a 37″ underground pipeline near Tarzan’s Treehouse.

Also, side note, if your small child accidentally drops their Hei Hei doll in this river, you’re probably not going to want to keep him afterward. ?

There are so many more Disney experiences I am thankful for, but I I have to say that it’s the moments with my favorite people in the parks that give me the most gratitude. Holding my 14-month-old son and singing “Baby Mine” to him as he slept on my chest. Watching my middle daughter twirl with Elsa in matching dresses. Laughing with friends as we spin wildly on the teacups. Talking with my husband reflecting on our years together as we wander around the Food and Wine Festival. And seeing my youngest princess dance with her Papa on Main Street USA.

There are countless memories that I am thankful to dust off and place on the shelf in a prominent place in my mind during these difficult times. And I bet you have a houseful of your own, just waiting for you to rediscover them.

Truth be told, 2020 hasn’t been an easy year. But it has changed us, and if we are honest, not all the changes have been bad. We may not have all that we want this year. Maybe even far from it. But we have all that we need. 

So here’s my challenge… take out a piece of paper, and just start listing all the Disney things (or regular every-day things) you’re thankful for until you can’t think of any more. Then text a friend and ask them to tell you three things they are thankful for, because they may need the reminder that they have everything they need too. 

What are you thankful for at Disney? I’d love to hear from you in the comments! ?

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