Disney-ish: How we embraced Disney magic without setting foot inside the park

Living in Southern California as the parent of a small child, I knew this day was inevitable.

“Mom, when can we go to Disneyland?” asked my son, Everest, then age 8.

It was true that nearly all of his friends had already visited Disneyland, some more times than they could count. But for us, Disneyland was out of reach. I’d crunched the numbers, and they added up quickly. With a recent home purchase and unexpected expenses, a Disney vacation simply wasn’t feasible. My priority was house keys, not Magic Keys.

I also considered the fact that Everest doesn’t like rides. Ever since a scary spin on the Scrambler during our local Tamale Festival, he’s been reluctant to even climb aboard a docile merry-go-round. While I think my kid will embrace amusement park rides someday, he’s not there yet — and when I imagined the Disney experience without any rides, it didn’t seem worth it.

On the other hand, I wanted to do this for him. Having lost my mom to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and my dad to cancer, I’m profoundly aware that life is fleeting and meant to be embraced. I strive to cultivate meaningful family experiences and opportunities for connection. Memories are my most valuable currency.

I wondered: Was it possible to create the Disney moment of my child’s dreams without putting my family into debt?

So I sat down with Everest, and I asked what he wanted out of a trip to Disneyland. Yes, many of his friends had visited the park, which made it appealing. But beyond that, what interested him? What did he want to do? His response was immediate: Meet his favorite character, Goofy, and watch fireworks.

That set my absurd plan into motion — we would do the things Everest wanted to do at Disneyland, but we’d do them without ever entering the park. I called it Disney-ish.

Living within driving distance of Anaheim, getting to Disneyland is easy enough. Our first stop was a character brunch at Goofy’s Kitchen, located at the Disneyland Resort. In a cartoonish kitchen scene, Chef Goofy greeted every group and posed for photos. Then, during the buffet-style meal, other characters approached us. Chip, (or maybe it was Dale?), taught Everest a few dance moves. Pluto offered enthusiastic high-fives, while Minnie Mouse had plenty of hugs for us both. At some point between peanut butter and jelly pizza and Mickey waffles, everyone in the room leaped to their feet, swinging napkins in the air while a conga line of characters weaved around the tables.

Afterward, we spent hours exploring Downtown Disney, the entertainment district open to the public. During a stop in the LEGO store, Everest was invited to construct a car to add to a display. Then we built our own lightsabers at the Star Wars Trading Post. We danced around to a live band playing pop hits, ate ice cream for dinner and rode the free tram to the parking structures and back again. We cranked out a lot of flattened souvenir pennies.

At the end of the night, our Disney-ish adventure concluded with a dazzling fireworks show, easily viewed from the esplanade between Disneyland and California Adventure. It was spectacular.

Legend has it that Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it” — and he transformed an orange grove into a world of wonder. Embracing that Disney spirit, I aimed to create something wondrous too, to be the Imagineer for my own child. Everest and I may not have gone inside the happiest place on Earth, but we discovered joy in the space beyond the happiest place on Earth. And that was more than enough.