More than half of British tourists visit the same destination each year. I like to call them “monogamous travelers” as opposed to “an adventurer” like me, who never goes to the same place twice. My friend’s husband is the former. He visits Disneyland (or anything Disney-related) every single year for his vacation. I’d rather die than spend time in an overpriced and overcrowded theme park, but that’s just me.
Before I get carried away on my rant against amusement parks, let me point out that Disney has some “culture” at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Located in two historic buildings of a now-decommissioned West Coast military base, this isn’t just a “little ol’ cartoon museum” but an elaborate multimedia display covering the entire history of everything Disney. Founded by Walt’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller, the galleries cover Walt’s early drawings and mementos from his childhood and early years in Chicago and Missouri to the beginnings of the Disney Bros. and Walt Disney Studios in Hollywood. In the museum lobby, many awards are on display, including the Oscar awards that Disney won for Snow White, one regular sized statue and seven mini-statuettes representing each of the seven dwarfs. Besides the experiments with animation, like “The Band Concert” and “The Flying Mouse”, visitors can also see actual equipment and storyboards used in their films as well as a mini-Disneyland model, that is a mix of Walt’s ideas as well as past and current attractions.
Although the museum is an interactive walk through Walt Disney’s life that includes an art studio for kids, some children may get bored. There are no rides with two-hour lines and that sounds okay to me.
