Personal Narrative: My Family Trip To Walt Disney World

During the summer of 2012, I was going on vacation to Clearwater, Florida, where we would hang out at the beach; go on mini trips during the main trip, while staying at the Magnuson Hotel for a week.

One memory that vividly sticks out in my mind from my childhood was that special summer when my parents told me we were going on a trip to Disney World. It was in June of 2001 and I was twelve years old. My parents planned the trip six months in advance. As a child, it seemed as if the time would never come. When it finally came time to pack and leave, I felt eager and excited. The night before our departure, I could not sleep at all. My most memorable childhood experience is of going to Walt Disney World with my family and having a great time.Vacations with the family were always joyous.

The Walt Disney Company has created theme parks throughout the world for guests to undergo a specific experiences that recalls the guests’ inner child through rides, visuals, and music. Disney has proved to be more than just a theme park; it is portrayed as a “world” or “land” of acceptance and integration of all cultures into one place. The universality aspect is what draws people in from different countries to visit the parks. Ultimately, the Disney parks are based off of two key concepts: commoditization and Americanization. Since Disney is an imagined utopia, guests buy into, literally and figuratively, the commodities and experiences it offers. Through music and visuals, Disney intertwines a message of Americanization through a single world culture that the guests accept. Disney’s limited understanding of cultures became much more apparent as theme parks were erected in different countries with cultural values that differ from American norms. Disney is a utopian society that exposes a narrow interpretation of the different cultures throughout the world.

The family stops to eat at The Tower for sandwiches. Grandmother enjoy a conversation with Red Sammy, discussing how it’s hard to find a good man, the old days and The Misfit. She received more conversation with him than she had most of the trip to Florida so far.

It’s no doubt that creating a family oriented theme park based on popular, beloved cartoon characters and imagination was a good idea. From Cinderella’s castle to the famous Main Street, U.S.A, there’s something extraordinary lying around every corner. Walt Disney World, other wise known as “the happiest place on earth”, or the place “where dreams come true”, was founded by a man with a dream of creating a place where children and parents could spend time together while making amazing memories. However, this extravagant amusement park is only one of the major accomplishments of Walt Disney.

It was a hot sunny,afternoon ,my family and I were heading to Six Flags 5 long hours away from where we live which is Atwater California,but it felt like a 30 hour trip. When we got to the hotel that we were going to stay at for 4 days while we were visiting Six Flags my parents asked me if I would start walking with my little brother to the entrance where my big brother, sister ,grandma ,and aunt were waiting in the first lobby. I reached out to text my brother that we were heading over to the hotel but my phone wasn’t there! I started to freak out and I actually pinched myself just to see if it was a dream but it wasn’t I asked my little brother if he had seen it but he said that he hadn’t. All I was thinking about was what my parents would say about me losing my phone.

Other than that, each park is designed and structured towards the country’s culture. As operations exist outside the United States, Disney had to consider and accept the cultural differences between their home market of the United States and different international markets. A key theory that assisted Disney in global expansion to Shanghai, China is the understanding of Hofstede’s cultural factors which focuses on six cultural dimensions; power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term/short-term orientation, and indulgence/restraint (Steers, 2016). “Hofstede compares culture to the “software of the mind” that differentiates one group or society from another.” (Steers, 2016). Figure 1 illustrates the cultural differences between China and the United States through Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions.

My dad took me and my brother to key west over the summer. He wanted to take us in the trailer he bought, but it was cheap and often broke down, so instead we went on a plane from Des Moines to chicago, and then to Miami. When we got to key west, it was excruciatingly hot. We got off and had to wait for our bags at the bagage claim. My dad had to find a bus to take us to the car rental shop, so me and my brother waited with our bags at the front of the airport.

We went on a trip to florida for spring break of 2016 and we went to disney world when we were down there. We stayed for 7 days and we had so much fun because we went magic kingdom, animal kingdom and hollywood studios also epcot to. Today was are last day in florida and we planned nothing to do so we could sit back and relax because we are leaving tonight at 8:00 . Today we are gonna just go eat breakfast and then maybe go swimming and hang out. We have to go to a time chair place because they give some tickets for disney world.

“Are you packed yet?” These are the only words my mom say been saying to me for the last three weeks. We had been planning our trip to Disney World since Easter when my parents surprised me and my siblings with our plan tickets. That was seven months ago. There was now less than 24 hours before we would be heading to the Dubuque Airport and I was just deciding to pack. I was running through a check list in my head: shorts, tanktops, shirts, sweatshirts, jeans, shoes, hats, sunglasses, swimsuits, pajamas, underwear, and bras. Check! Now on to bath stuff: toothbrush, hairbrush, face wash, contacts, contacts solution, makeup and hair ties. Check! I hate packing because of all the dumb rules the airport has. Like the rule where you can’t have any liquids bigger than 5 oz. or whatever it is.

"Cultures are dynamic and change occurs when resistance slowly yields to acceptance so the basis for resistance becomes unimportant or forgotten"[2]. Which means that on the part of the European community we are certain to see compromise, but over a period of time. Disney too has to reconcile with the environment it has settled in. We read in the case that Disney does ultimately mend its ways. Making room for continuous change is the best way to go about ones business.

As an 8-year-old child, the worlds scary place. Everywhere you look there’s something terrifying. From people the size of giants, roaming the streets, with no care what so ever with their surroundings or just realizing that in a few years would come the most difficult and emotionally unstable time of my life. Sure, those things may be slightly exaggerated, but what I do know is the most horrendous experience I had in the land of joy that ultimately ruined my love Disney for many years.

If I had a ticket to go anywhere, I would probably try to take my family to SeaWorld. For as long as I can remember, SeaWorld always represented a place where we were free from all of our troubles at home. My parents always wanted the best for my brother and I, and to get us the things they would have wanted, they had to sacrifice time with us. SeaWorld brought out the best in us. When we get there I imagine my parents would talk about how my cousins are gonna come the next day. They would probably take us to a famous orca whale show just like when we were younger. We would then buy food because to this day my father never forgot about his favorite turkey leg from seven years ago. When we were at SeaWorld nothing else mattered except us being

I treasured it when my parents took me to Disney World. One of my favorite places I visited as a child, as well. One of the things that caught my attention with this rough draft is how you did so well with using transitional phrases. This is something I need to work on and you a really good at using these in this essay. You achieved using the right amount of words as instructed. You also did your MLA format correctly from what I see. The only thing catching my eye would be your title. Keep it the same as your body of the essay. Do not italicize your title. My spelling suggestions would be to change “in to” to “into” in the sentence starting with “My family and I just went...” This is the only thing I saw as far as spelling goes. My Grammar

Trying to find memories is like looking for treasure. You look at the surface and see something mediocre, but you dig deep and find something cool, pretty, and meaningful. It took a while to think of a fond memory, but once I thought of some, it was hard to choose a favorite. Growing up I have had many great experiences in the form of vacations. Between going to Disney World, owning a vacation home, hanging out with my grandparents in Arizona, traveling to Canada and more. They all make amazing memories that I will forever cherish. The vacation spot we go to the most, though, is Wisconsin Dells. A few times I have been allowed to invite friends to come with. When I am allowed to bring friends, it is always a ginormous amount of fun. We goof off in the hotel room, play in the arcades, and swim in the water parks.