Disney World 2010

¡Cuando los sueños se hacen realidad...!

On July 1, 2010, our daughter, Maria Carolina, and our grandson, Santiago Andres, arrived in Miami to stay. Understanding the trauma that the change of life must have been for Santi, and especially having to say goodbye to his father and grandmother in Venezuela, we decided to take him to Disney World, every child's dream, and for us, it was the fulfillment of our dream of knowing that all our children were safe in the United States.

The trauma increased when Santi saw our small, ramshackle "apartment" that was once the servants' quarters of a building in the poor area of Coral Gables. That first night Santi slept with his grandparents, while his mother slept on a sofa bed in what was once the living room.

Our finances were not optimal. I worked 13 hours a day as a taxi driver (Monday to Monday) and had to pay, whether I worked or not, $100 a day for the rental of my taxi. We decided to go by train with Ale, Kiko, Santi, María Carolina, Siomi and I.

On the morning of our departure for Disney, July 6, 2010, I interviewed Santi to see if he was aware of where we were going. At 5 years old, who would turn 5 in November of that year, he knew almost all of the characters created by Walt Disney and some that were "born" long after his death.

Miami - Kissimmee

For everyone, excluding myself, it would be the first time they would travel by train between one city and another and the first time for all of us that we would travel on an Amtrak train. The trip between Miami and Kissimmee would take almost 5 hours (one hour less than flying from Miami to Seattle), at a cost of $30 per person.

"Muñi-muñi," as we called Santi in those days, seemed a bit nervous and at the same time excited. We entered the modern Amtrak train that internally looked like the passenger cabin of a commercial airplane. Each two-seat row had an outlet and cell phone charger and had Wi-Fi, to everyone's delight.

The trip went off without any major setbacks other than Maria Carolina's dizziness because, according to her, the train made a lot of "chaca-chaca." Of course, Santi also claimed to be dizzy, after having listened to his mother. Possibly he didn't know what "thing" is to be dizzy.

Siomi organized the seats. Alejandro (18) (who slept for much of the trip) sat with Kiko (16). Maria Carolina (34) with Santi (5) and Siomi (56) and I (60) in another row. The train had a restaurant and a cafeteria where I bought sandwiches for everyone.

En Kissimmee

While we waited for the next bus to arrive at the train stop, Kiko gave us a concert emanating from his backpack equipped with speakers through which we heard a variety of songs, some "niche" as María Carolina called them, such as "El Osito Cariñoso" that Jorge liked, and others cool, such as "Amparito."

María Carolina criticized my handmade Mexican suitcase that I brought back from my trip to Mexico with my parents in the summer of 1969.

Our daughter changed her mind when Kiko played her "Sufre mamón, devuélveme a mi chica" by Hombres G, which became famous in 1985 when María Carolina was 9 years old.

"Sufre mamón, devuélveme a mi chica" - Hombres G

We took a great bus ride from the Amtrak station at 111 E Dakin Ave in Kissimmee to our hotel, the Holiday Inn at 5001 Calypso Cay Way, about 22 minutes away:

It was the first time Santi had ridden on a bus. According to María Carolina, I had never ridden on a bus in Caracas before. She didn't have to know that when we arrived in Venezuela, every day I would sneak through the back door of the buses that took me from my house in San Bernardino to the Los Salesianos school in Sarría: all crap and feathers!

On the bus that took us to the hotel, a service from the city of Kissimmee was advertised, giving the telephone number to call so that children could benefit from a "summer meal": the blessings of the Empire!

Uncle Ale took the opportunity to make a little paper airplane for Santi, but it wasn't very successful.

Arriving at the hotel we put on our bathing suits and went to the pool to train Santi on how to make the atomic bomb, the human arrow, the submarine, the human pyramid, the washing machine and to jump through the hoop like Flipper.

What Santi liked the most was "El Cochinito"

What Santi liked the most was "El Cochinito" ("The Little Pig")

Training Ale and Kiko in the Daktari pool

Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney is an open-air shopping center, consisting of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, located in Walt Disney World Resort, Bay Lake, near the city of Orlando, Florida. The complex was opened on March 22, 1975 with the name Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, and has been expanded and renamed several times since then: in 1977 it changed its name to Walt Disney World Village; twelve years later, in 1989, it was renamed Disney Village Marketplace and in 1997 it acquired the name Downtown Disney. After two years of major renovations to the complex, on September 29, 2015, Downtown Disney became Disney Springs. It is located at 1486 Buena Vista Dr., Lake Buena Vista, 17 minutes from our hotel

We arrived at Downtown Disney that same afternoon on July 6, 2010 and walked through it from end to end. After dinner at Bongo Café we returned to the hotel.

As soon as we entered, "Muñi-muñi" wanted to get in everywhere.

We were going to have a very busy afternoon.

One of the attractions of the place was sponsored by Lego, which is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously colored interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) that accompany an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Its pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Assembled Lego models can be taken apart, and their pieces can be reused to create new constructions.

Ale & Kiko enjoyed building with these pieces. The Lego Group began manufacturing the interlocking toy bricks in 1949. Moulding is done in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, and China. Brick decorations and packaging are done at plants in the former three countries and in the Czech Republic. Annual production of the bricks averages approximately 36 billion, or about 1140 elements per second. One of Europe's biggest companies, Lego is the largest toy manufacturer in the world by sales. As of July 2015, 600 billion Lego parts had been produced. The line maintains a large fan community based around building competitions and custom creations, and a range of films, games, and eight Legoland amusement parks have been developed under the brand.

Ale & Kiko tried to drive the remote-controlled mini-electric cars.

Ale & Kiko having fun drawing.

We entered the Harley Davidson store where Santi & Ale rode one of their great motorcycles. The Harley We

We entered the Harley Davidson store where Santi & Ale rode one of their great motorcycles. The Harley Davidson is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression along with its historical rival, Indian Motorcycles. The company has survived numerous ownership arrangements, subsidiary arrangements, periods of poor economic health and product quality, and intense global competition to become one of the world's largest motorcycle manufacturers and an iconic brand widely known for its loyal following. There are owner clubs and events worldwide, as well as a company-sponsored, brand-focused museum. Harley-Davidson is noted for a style of customization that gave rise to the chopper motorcycle style. The company traditionally marketed heavyweight, air-cooled cruiser motorcycles with engine displacements greater than 700 cc, but it has broadened its offerings to include more contemporary VRSC (2002) and middle-weight Street (2014) platforms.

Kiko also rode one of their great motorcycles. Harley-Davidson manufactures its motorcycles at factories in York, Pennsylvania; Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin; Tomahawk, Wisconsin; Manaus, Brazil; and Rayong, Thailand. The company markets its products worldwide, and also licenses and markets merchandise under the Harley-Davidson brand, among them apparel, home décor and ornaments, accessories, toys, scale models of its motorcycles, and video games based on its motorcycle line and the community.

Ale and Santi fighting.

Our daughter Maria Carolina has always loved shopping for gadgets, a taste she inherited from her mother. Here we see them both at the Harley Davidson store in Downtown Disney enjoying shopping.

Siomi and our daughter buying junk.

Since we didn't know who that bronze man was,

we told Santi that he was Walt Disney's father.

The name of this store, "Paradiso", reminded us of when María Carolina was a little girl and said she lived in "Chacado", instead of "Chacao".

Downtown Disney's Pirate Mouse

Fulton's Crab House at Downtown Disney

Speaking of "nicherías", we see the "mantequías" slippers that María Carolina bought at Downtown Disney. From Mexico to Nicaragua, Central Americans in that region do not pronounce the "ll". Consequently, they say "pandía", "mantequía" and among many other words with "ll": ¡zapatias! Maria Carolina couldn't buy uglier slippers: because she couldn't find them!

Returning from visiting "Pleasure Island" which was an area of the Downtown Disney. It officially opened on May 1, 1989. In September 2008, all of its clubs were closed, but its retail stores and restaurants remained open. The area is now called The Landing and is the central part of Disney Springs.

We were already a little hungry and sat down at Bongos Cuban Café to eat some empanadas and sandwiches to fill our stomachs. The restaurant was founded by its owners, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, but was demolished and removed from Downtown Disney in 2019.

In October 2018, to celebrate Miranda's eight birthday, we took the grandchildren to Downtown Disney and had dinner at the wonderful Bongos Cuban Café. We didn't go to the parks that time because the trip was for the grandchildren to see Orlando.

Downtown Disney in 2018

Precisely in July 2010 it was being carried out the 2010 FIFA World Cup which was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. The bidding process for hosting the tournament finals was open only to African nations. In 2004, the international football federation, FIFA, selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco to become the first African nation to host the finals.

On July 7, Uruguay faced Netherlands, with Netherlands winning 3-2 in a close match. Ale and Kiko went into a pub in Downtown Disney where the match was being broadcast live.

Highlights of the match between Uruguay and Netherlands held on July 7 of that year. The matches were played in 10 stadiums in nine host cities around the country, with the opening and final played at the Soccer City stadium in South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg. Thirty-two teams were selected for participation via a worldwide qualification tournament that began in August 2007. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These 16 teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final.

In the final, Spain, the European champions, beat third-time losing finalists the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time to win their first world title. Spain became the eighth nation to win the tournament and the first European nation to win a World Cup hosted outside its home continent: all previous World Cups held outside Europe had been won by South American nations.

They are also the first national team since 1978 to win a World Cup after losing a game in the group stage. As a result of their win, Spain represented the World in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. Host nation South Africa were eliminated in the group stage, as were both 2006 World Cup finalists, Italy and France. It was the first time that the hosts had been eliminated in the first stage. New Zealand, with their three draws, were the only undefeated team in the tournament, but they were also eliminated in the group stage.

fotos delmundial de f en espa;a

We took Santi to see the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals at Downtown Disney's T-Rex Cafe. Like any good actor, he showed us an extraordinary scare that deserved an Academy Award.

Santi turned out to be a great dancer.

Magic Kingdom

Del hotel a la entrada del Magic Kingdom hay 9 millas

The next day, July 7, we visited Magic Kingdom Park, Disney World's central park. Magic Kingdom Park is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, it opened on October 1, 1971, and is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division, the official park name has changed slightly over the years, from Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), the park was initialized by Walt Disney and designed by WED Enterprises. the park layout and attractions were based on Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and are dedicated to fairy tales and Disney characters.

Cinderella Castle

The park icon is Cinderella Castle, inspired by the fairy tale castle featured in the 1950 animated film. In 2023, the park hosted 17.72 million visitors, making it the most visited theme park in the world for the seventeenth consecutive year and the most visited theme park in North America for at least the past twenty-three years. The park has become a cultural touchstone and symbol of modern American pop culture.

The first time I visited Disney World was when I hired "Los Hijos de la Casa Grande" for the tenth anniversary of the famous park.

In 1981 with "Los Hijos de La Casa Grande"

Entering Magic Kingdom

Santi's father, Jorge, wasn't sure he wanted to come to the United States. As he entered the Magic Kingdom, Santi received his call via cell phone, but he didn't seem very enthusiastic.

Due to my severe scoliosis and Maria Carolina's pregnancy, we were forced to rent a couple of scooters with which we could travel around the huge park, otherwise we would not have been able to do it. Of course, both Ale and Kiko tried the adventure of driving them. By the way, Ale turned abruptly and almost flipped over. We would have had to take him to a hospital with a broken bone.

These scooters helped us avoid having to stand in endless lines to get into the different attractions, including all of our companions.

X-Ray of my spine.

María Carolina "rustiquiando" with her scooter.

Entering with our scooters on the Magic Kingdom monorail.

Touring Magic Kingdom - Part I

Touring Magic Kingdom - Part II

Magic Kingdom's major

The Magic Kingdom famous parade.

Ale The Pirate

One of the many curiosities we enjoyed at Magic Kingdom was this talking trash can.

Santi was simply impressed!

The Magic Kingdom rollercoaster.

At the Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor - It opened on April 2, 2007, replacing the Circle-Vision attraction The Timekeeper. The characters from the 2001 and 2013 Disney/Pixar animated films Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University that appear in the attraction are Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and Roz (Bob Peterson). By November 2006, the attraction as Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club was going through a testing phase with expect regular operation in January 2007. The attraction was nominated for the 6th Annual VES Awards - Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project in 2008, but lost to Dinosaurs - Giants of Patagonia.

Subsequent to the 2013 release of Monsters University, a new "commercial" sequence was added during the pre-show which has Monsters University student Art (Charlie Day) advertise the "Monsters University School of Laughter", replacing the "Comedy Detection Agency" sequence that Wazowski introduces.

On October 27, 2020, following Walt Disney World's reopening after its temporary closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the resort announced the layoff of several entertainment shows, including the Citizens of Hollywood at Disney's Hollywood Studios. These layoffs were the result of a dispute between the Actors' Equity Association and Walt Disney World, which also affected the cast providing live voices for Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. The attraction has since reopened.

Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor full show

Santi with the ducks.

Santi meeting Stitch, also known as Experiment 626 (pronounced "six two six"), is a fictional character from Disney's Lilo & Stitch franchise. A genetically engineered, extraterrestrial life-form resembling a blue koala, he is the more prominent of the franchise's two title protagonists, the other being his human adopter and best friend Lilo Pelekai.

Stitch was created by Lilo & Stitch co-writer and co-director Chris Sanders, who also voices him in almost all media that he appears in, primarily in Western-produced works. Ben Diskin voices the character in the English versions of the Asian-produced television spin-offs Stitch! and Stitch & Ai.

Santi meets some of the main Disney characters:

Pluto, Buzz Lightyear, Pinocchio, Mikey & Minnie.

Pluto - An American cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. He is a yellow-orange color, medium-sized, short-haired dog with black ears. Unlike most Disney characters, Pluto is not anthropomorphic beyond some characteristics such as facial expression. He is Mickey's pet. Officially a mixed-breed dog, he made his debut as a bloodhound in the Mickey Mouse cartoon The Chain Gang. Together with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, and Goofy, Pluto is one of the "Sensational Six"—the biggest stars in the Disney universe. Though all six are non-human animals, Pluto alone is not dressed as a human.

Buzz Lightyear - A fictional character in the Disney–Pixar Toy Story franchise. He is a superhero action figure from an in-universe media franchise. Buzz is recognizable by his lime green, purple, and white space suit. Originating as a one-man band toy named Tinny, he evolved into a space ranger action figure during the development of Toy Story, a decision made by director John Lasseter. He is named after American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon. Buzz Lightyear is a recurring character in all of the Toy Story franchise's animated feature films, including spin-offs. In the Toy Story films he is voiced by Tim Allen.

Pinocchio - A fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan village. He is created as a wooden puppet, but he dreams of becoming a real boy. He is known for his long nose, which grows when he lies.

Mikey Mouse - Is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white gloves. He is often depicted alongside his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, his pet dog Pluto, his friends Donald Duck and Goofy and his nemesis Pete among others (see Mickey Mouse universe).

Mickey was created as a replacement for a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The character was originally to be named "Mortimer Mouse", until Walt Disney's wife, Lillian, suggested "Mickey". Mickey first appeared in two 1928 shorts Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho (which were not picked up for distribution) before his public debut in Steamboat Willie (1928). The character went on to appear in over 130 films, mostly shorts as well as features such as Fantasia (1940). Since 1930, Mickey has been featured extensively in comic strips (including the Mickey Mouse comic strip, which ran for 45 years) and comic books (such as Mickey Mouse). The character has also been featured in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996).

Inspired by such silent film personalities as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, Mickey is traditionally characterized as a sympathetic underdog who gets by on pluck and ingenuity in the face of challenges bigger than himself. The character's depiction as a small mouse is personified through his diminutive stature and falsetto voice, the latter of which was originally provided by Walt Disney. Though originally characterized as a cheeky lovable rogue, Mickey was rebranded over time as a nice guy, usually seen as a spirited, yet impulsive hero.

Mickey also appears in media such as video games as well as merchandising and is a meetable character at the Disney parks. He is one of the world's most recognizable and universally acclaimed fictional characters. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw, won the award in 1941. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In December 2009, we went to Disney with Ale and Kiko and when Siomi met Mickey, she asked him to say hello to Santi... but since Mickey can't talk, he waved. Back then it took us more than an hour in line to get to Mickey and we were with him for less than a minute.

Minnie - Is an American cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a red or pink bow, blue (or pink or red) polka-dotted dress, white bloomers and yellow low-heeled shoes occasionally with ribbons on them. The Mickey Mouse comic strip story "The Gleam" (published January 19 – May 2, 1942) by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse, although this is seldom used.

The comic strip story "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers" (published September 22 – December 26, 1930) introduced her father Marcus Mouse and her unnamed mother, both farmers. The same story featured photographs of Minnie's uncle Milton Mouse with his family and her grandparents Marvel Mouse and Matilda Mouse. Her best-known relatives, however, remain her uncle Mortimer Mouse (Mortimer was almost the name of Mickey) and her twin nieces, Millie and Melody Mouse, though most often a single niece, Melody, appears. In many appearances, Minnie is presented as the girlfriend of Mickey Mouse, best friend of Daisy Duck and a friend to Clarabelle Cow.

In honor of her 90th anniversary, on January 22, 2018, she joined the ranks of other animated celebrities by receiving her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was the sixth Disney character to receive this honor. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Tinker Bell and Snow White have already received this distinction.

Of course, Santi still had to meet many - many! - of the Disney characters, the list of which is long. We didn't have time to meet them all.

Donald Duck - Goofy - Oswald The Lucky Rabbit - Snow White - Cinderella - Briar Rose

Tinker Bell - Evil Queen - Jiminy Cricket - Ludwig von Drake - Horace Horsecollar

Julius the Cat - Figaro - King Louie - P.J. Pete - Gopher

Br'er Fox - Br'er Bear - Fifinella - Flotsam and Jetsam - Sylvester Shyster

Hiawatha - Peter Pan - Stromboli - Claravelle - Chip & Dale

Woody - Elsa - Raspunzel - Baloo

The Beagle Boys - Winnie The Pooh - Tigger

Scrooge McDuck - Gyro Gearloose - Daisy - Cruella de Vil

Mowgli - Kaa - Thumper - Simba - Bambi - Beauty & The Beast

Pocahontas - Ariel - Anna - Captain Hook

Shere Khan - Bagheera

Santi met some of Walt Disney's villains, like the witch and the pirates, and was not afraid of any of them, which made him an extremely brave child and proud of his bravery.

What child do we know that doesn't like to play with water and get wet? Santi was no exception. He loved standing in front of the wooden totems that, through a "magic eye", sprayed water on anyone who stood in front of them. Santi not only stood in front of the totem figures, but he even danced around them. Of course, he came out soaked in water and had to borrow his uncle Kiko's t-shirt so he could return to the hotel without getting pneumonia.

We never knew why they imprisoned Santi. The truth is that we had to get him out of the cell where they locked him up. He must have done something bad with his partner Woody.