A Little Magic

Candidly, as pragmatic parents, we are not above bribing our daughter to get what we want. The bribe required to motivate her to leave all of her friends and toys in Winchester and hang out 24/7 for over six months with her parents on a small boat needed to be a big one. Ultimately we promised her a trip to Disney World. Having forgotten our promise, a month before we started our trip we put a big map of the east coast up in the kitchen so that she could get excited about our many potential ports of call. Amelia responded by putting one big red sticker on the map, squarely on Orlando.

We thought that her interest might fade with exposure to so many other destinations and activities over the past few months but, the moment we crossed the Florida border, Amelia reminded us: “Now we can go to Disney World!”

So last weekend we made good on our promise, parked the boat in a marina, rented a car, and drove to Orlando. We discovered that The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS - down more than $1.00 per share since we left) is brilliant at extracting maximum dollars from its guests at every turn while still making us feel like we have been sprinkled with fairy dust. We did have a lot of fun – we checked into the Swan Hotel and enjoyed the Magic Kingdom. Amelia got her princess fix (including dinner at Cinderella’s castle), Dave had an opportunity to chill out without boat obligations and I enjoyed the opportunity to sleep in a queen-sized “heavenly” bed and swim early morning laps in the hotel pool.

Having finally made good on our promise, we are back in Saint Augustine preparing to continue South and planning a hop to the Bahamas. We hope that our newest stuffed toy passenger – Minnie Mouse – has her passport ready.