Thank you to Disney for flying me to Neverland – er – Los Angeles – for this fantastic experience!
I often feel like I belong in a foregone decade. Perhaps the 50s is where I belong with their perfectly coifed hair, liquid eyeliner, and beautiful, fitted dresses. The cars of the 50s appeal to me, and the time just seems like it was magical.
Stepping into Walt Disney’s office was like going home.
I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the deals that happened in one of his (many) offices. There was an intensity there, even though it was just a replication of Walt’s office, that felt like raw energy.
Many of the items in his office are actual things from his original offices. I wish they could talk and tell the stories of Walt’s business life, stories told by third party agents who saw business deals closed and the butts of the cigarettes of a thousand men.
I couldn’t get over how many ashtrays were all over the place, relics from a time where smoking cigarettes was as common as breathing oxygen.
I’ve never been a smoker, and didn’t understand that there is a code of etiquette associated with the habit. On each corner of every table was an ashtray. This ensures nobody had to reach over someone to flick their ashes.
Can you imagine dropping your ciggy ashes on the slacks of some foreign dignitary? Mortifying.
Walt’s office is an exact replication of his offices from when he passed away. The first is a room where everyone who came to visit was received. A log of who visited is still sitting on the desk there.
The reception room is followed by formal offices where Walt received important people such as foreign dignitaries. This room contains keepsakes from different countries that were offered as gifts and purchased as souvenirs.
The birdcages in the picture above were the inspiration for The Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland.
The bookshelf is set up exactly as it was when Walt used the offices. Some books are upside down or put in backwards. The detail taken to preserve this office is amazing.
Following the formal office was a more casual office complete with a kitchen stocked with Walt’s favorite foods including canned chili.
Canned chili, you guys.
Walt was a simple dude and loved Spam with other canned foods. He traveled with these things so that he always had the comforts of home at his fingertips. It was a moment in time that cemented the idea that Walt was a simple man from humble beginnings, even in the face of immense success.
After stepping back in time, we embarked on a fun, albeit sweaty Peter Pan themed scavenger hunt across the Disney Studios lot to celebrate 55 years since Peter Pan was released.
Our team was on fire, figuratively speaking of course. Although it felt like we were on fire once we started running all over the place.
And yes, I did run. In jeans. And had kind of a repeat of my favorite New York City moment , just not to such a horrific degree.
Those jeans went into the fire when I got home.
Our teammate, Leanette from Funtastic Life attempted to stomp on the shadow of Andrew from Mommy’s Busy, Ask Daddy , and in doing so, recreated a Slip-N-Slide scene from my own childhood, but on concrete.
She was the link to our success and we were so sad to lose her, but we knew we must continue on so that her injury was not in vain.
Our team searched high and low for Peter Pan’s shadow all across the lot.
I stood on my head on hot concrete.
We ran and dribbled and took silly pictures, and sought out people wearing colors of the rainbow.
We took on feats of physicality (which we failed horribly), and feats of the mind (which we also failed horribly. We also picked up boatloads of Pixie Dust along the way and laughed and pushed one another and sweated a whole lot.
When we reunited with Leanette, we weren’t sure we had won, but we certainly hoped we had.
Spoiler alert: We had not.
We came in second place. We let our teammate down, but we had a really good time doing it.
It was the perfect, magical day before going to the SOLO: A Star Wars Story red carpet premiere .
Congratulations to the winners from the Tinkerbell team!
Peter Pan 55th Anniversary edition flies into stores on June 5, get it while you can!
[…] day I ran around Disney Studios sweating my butt off in the name of Peter Pan fun, I realized I didn’t know as much about […]