By: Kyle Froman, Off to Neverland Travel®
Sitting in the corner of our sectional couch is one small pillow that reads ‘Never Grow Up’.
This small pillow’s journey started at Walt Disney World® Resort, in Magic Kingdom® Park to be exact. On our most recent visit to Walt Disney World® Resort we passed this small pillow countless times in just as many souvenir stores scattered around the parks and resorts. Every time we saw it we would smile, then go on our way. Finally, on one of our last evenings at Magic Kingdom® Park we succumbed to this small pillow’s beck and call and brought him home with us (after paying of course)!
The lure of the phrase embroidered on this small pillow is found in the feeling that overcomes you as you walk through Magic Kingdom® Park, or really any area of Walt Disney World® Resort’s property.
To me, it is a journey back to a time and place when I was a child and this world of fantasy was fully reality. The smell of the popcorn, bakery and ice cream parlor on Main Street U.S.A.® Area put me in the shoes of an young boy who was experiencing it all for the first time. The sights and the sounds send the memories flooding through my mind, as fresh as the day they happened. Watching my boys’ take it all in is like looking at it all through the eyes of my young self. It is truly magical.
It is as if I never grew up.
What makes it all truly magical is that you don’t have to have childhood memories of Walt Disney World® Resort to embrace this feeling. I have watched adults experiencing Magic Kingdom® Park for the first time become overwhelmed as they, too, are transported back to their childhood. Experiencing the attractions and reveling in the ambiance it is as if their youth is restored… if only for a few days while they are there.
It is as if they never grew up.
Let’s face it, we all experience ‘life’ on a daily basis. We have bills to pay and bosses to please. We have families to chauffeur and yards/homes to upkeep. We have to be adults, it is part of life. But every time my eyes catch our small pillow in our living room I am immediately transported to the middle of Main Street U.S.A.® Area and I can almost smell the bakery and taste the popcorn.
Sometimes you just feel ‘old’. After all, growing old is required…but growing up is optional. To me, that’s the beauty of a trip to Walt Disney World® Resort, I never have to grow up. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been there 100 times, or if you are hoping to go for the first time, you will feel like a kid again. It certainly isn’t a fountain of youth, but it is a journey back to being a child…when fantasy was reality and the world is at your fingertips.
I invite you, too, to experience your childhood again by contacting your Magic Maker® today to plan your next trip to Walt Disney World® Resort. It will be as if you never grew up.
LOVE this! Why I love Disney so much!