Whatever you wish for, you keep

We all have bucket lists, the unfinished business and adventures we wish we could accomplish before we reach the last of our days. Sometimes these contain emotional journeys and sometimes we have something on our list that is there for the pure fun of it. We jot these lists in a notebook, make promises to ourselves while staring at a travel brochure, and tuck ideas away safely inside our own minds. The truth is sometimes life gets in the way, sometimes we get busy making new plans, and sometimes we get to see our dreams come true.

In the case of the Disney identity, anyone who has ever watched a Disney film or planned a trip to a Disney locale has made some sort of bucket list of what they want to do given the chance. From animating a villain to staying in a ridiculous villa overlooking the Seven Seas Lagoon, everyone tucks a wish away somewhere, myself included. This lists get longer and longer the more you are exposed to the Disney culture. As for me, well, here’s my bucket list, or at least a sampling of the parts of it that are semi-based in reality (unlike the one-man project to rebuild Horizons).

Spend an entire night, whether awake and wandering with permission or asleep in something like the Cinderella Castle Suite, in a Walt Disney World theme park.

Be in attendance at the Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day and Fourth of July.

Own a piece, however small, from the Adventurers Club.

Ride in the front of the Walt Disney World Railroad.

Spend some time in the sponsor lounges in Spaceship Earth, Test Track, The Land, and The Seas.

Complete Goofy’s Challenge and the Coast-to-Coast Challenge in the same year.

Ride aboard Ear Force One.

Visit Walt’s Apartment above the Fire Station in Disneyland, Walt’s Barn and Marceline, MO.

Have dinner at Club 33.

Spend some time talking with or, more to the point, listening to George McGinnis, Joe Rohde, Marty Sklar and Dave Smith.

Stand with my child, if I ever get around to having one, my wife, and my parents on Main Street U.S.A. on October 1, 2021.

Voice a character for a Disney animated feature.
There are, of course, the preposterous dreams which include, but are not limited to, such favorites as playing the role of Indiana Jones for a single performance of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, standing atop Spaceship Earth, and have a cameo as a reporter in the long rumored Dick Tracy remake/sequel.

Then there are, of course, the professional aspirations everyone clings to. Mine are simple on paper, to write for Disney and someday earn the title of Imagineer, but are oh, so much larger in the real world. However, if that day never comes, then I am proud and humble, and always overwhelmed by your never-ending support, to continue writing for each and every one of you out there for as long as you’ll have me.

Thinking of each of you out there makes me wonder, what dreams constitute your Disney bucket lists?