Wasted Trip to Disney World

MORNING OF MAY 15, 2010

Several friends and I went to Disney World together. I specifically remember Courtney and Brandon and Eric being there. There was one other strange, skinny nerdy guy who came with Courtney (he was a fictional dream character). In real life, some combination of friends and I have gone to Disney World the past two years, and would be open to doing so again, so I guess that's where this dream comes from.

This was a very detailed dream and it seemed very long. It was even one of those rare dreams that continued after I briefly woke from it and went back to sleep. Still, I can only remember parts of it clearly enough to put here. We were supposedly at the Animal Kingdom park, and they had totally revamped the Dinosaur section (not just the ride but that entire area) to be much bigger and more elaborate--almost like touring Jurassic Park or something.

We were walking through one of the buildings when a commotion broke out and people we running to and fro in panic. It was mass confusion. We all hid in one of the gift shops while we waited to get word as to what was going on. Eventually we got the report that Somalian pirates were trying to take over Disney World and were in this park right now wreaking havoc (it was all real and not a staged thing by the park). I recall spending some degree of time in this gift store while we waited for the danger to pass. We were watching video and reports of the situation on the news.

In real life I started a collection of "Disney Pins" the last time I was there. In the dream, while trapped in the store, I remember looking at a huge selection of the pins. One of them was a giant, nearly foot tall Ariel which had an actual clock in the middle. I didn't see how this one played in with the usual, tiny pin size.

After a while, they told us the situation had passed and were clear to go back out into the parks, which we did. By now we were hungry, so we went to a cafeteria that sold pizza. We each ordered a single-but-very-large slice of pepperoni. While we ate, I floated the idea of taking one day of our vacation to go to the Harry Potter park at Universal (which we really did in our last real-life Disney vacation). It seemed no one liked my suggestion in the dream.

There are vague memories of going on another ride and walking around the park a little, but my next clear memory is that Eric and Brandon went back for another pizza slice, because the one hadn't been enough for them. I decided I wanted to do the same. As we stood in line, I watched them making different types of pizza. One of them featured huge, thick strips of what looked like roast beef covering every inch of the pizza and stacked high before it was covered by cheese. For some reason this looked delicious, so we got it. I don't remember actually eating or tasting it.

At some point there was more commotion by Somali pirates. We hid in a different room and were plotting ways to escape the park. I remember at one point there was a bucket of old action figures on the floor. I began looking through them while we talked. I specifically remember seeing a Joker from Batman in the pile.

At another point, Brandon almost got in a fight with the fictional nerdy guy. I can't remember the exact cause, but I know the fictional guy was very abrasive and annoying in the dream, so I didn't blame him, though nothing actually ended up happening anyway.

Then I remember being in a parking lot next to our car. It wasn't even dark yet on our first day, and we were just going to call it quits and go home. I felt so sad. I remember I felt that if we'd only waited until the fall to take our trip, like we did in real life the past couple of years, things would have gone better. It seemed such a waste!