I'm Too Excited to Sleep!

I have to say that I'm still in love with the TV commercial where the kids are talking about what their upcoming visit to Walt Disney World will be like and mom comes in to tell them that it is time to go to bed. The little boy's reaction is perfect: "We're too excited to sleep!"

I understand this feeling perfectly. This was me as a youngster. How can anyone sleep soundly through the night when visions of 999 happy haunts, flying elephants and abominable snowmen filled your head? Knowing that a trip to Disneyland was eminent made my stomach do flip-flops and I'd always throw up in excitement the night before.

Although the prospect of vomiting is generally not a pleasant one, I loved the feeling of anticipation of going to Disneyland. I was never much of a morning person but I made sure that I was up at the crack of dawn, dressed and loaded into the car for our two- to three-hour drive. We'd look for all the landmarks established off the freeway that would clue us in on how much farther it was -- the old Citadel building, the Coppertone billboard, the Nabisco factory. "Who sees the Matterhorn first?" was always a game to be played and hopefully won. But even losing was a winning proposition, as it meant that we were exiting the I-5 and pulling into Disneyland's parking lot.

We'd be there at opening and stayed there until closing. In the years when money was tight, we'd take a break from our commando assault on Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom to eat sandwiches from a cooler on the tailgate of our car. Then it was right back to the action.

I remember proudly displaying my Magic Kingdom Club ticket that was pinned to my shirt, allowing unlimited entry into all of the park's attractions, while others had to pull precious coupons from their ticket books. I remember calling out ahead that no one should jump out and surprise me from the secret corners of Injun Joe's Cave on Tom Sawyer's Island. I remember feeling for the bottom of my feet to see if I really was getting smaller after going through the microscope at Adventure Thru Inner Space. Too excited, indeed!

As I've gotten older, I don't nearly address a day at Disneyland with the same zeal as I did in my youth. The stomach is pretty much kept settled. I usually sleep just fine the night before. I question how we were ever able to attack Disneyland from opening to closing. (Or how my mom was ever able to do the same and additionally drive the extra hours to and from the park?) Is it a by-product of growing up that the "too excited" nerves have dissipated? Is it familiarity breeding contempt as the remembrances of visits past have built upon one another? Is it the fact that with an annual pass I can go whenever the mood hits me rather than it being a yearly adventure that was saved and planned for?

Disneyland will always be my happy place. I may not show my excitement for it in rainbow-colored spewings anymore but it is still a place of fixation for me. I miss it when I'm not able to visit. I think about families that are there right now having fun without me. I read trip reports to get second-hand highs from those who've recently been. I'll look at pictures I've taken through the years and revisit the happy times I've spent there.

How lucky Walt Disney must have been to spend the night in his apartment on Main Street and to have taken the fire engine for a ride down Main Street USA in the early morning hours before the park opened!

And, yet, I too feel lucky for having the opportunity to visit the park that Walt built. Lucky for stomach-dancing excitement all those years that kept me from sleeping. I can't wait for my next visit!