When you are a Disney fan, living a little over an hour away from Walt Disney World comes with obvious perks. Being a Florida resident means you can go for tiny money compared to the visitor who spends thousands for a week’s stay. (Honestly, you can go unlimited times throughout a year for $15/month as a Florida resident! You can barely see a movie for that price!)
And, it means you also get to see and tour and experience the parks in a different way. (Line too long? Don’t get over to a specific attraction? No worries, do it next time.) Takes a lot of pressure off of your visits and allows you to enjoy the smaller touches and quieter moments. It also frees you to find little, unexpected perks.
One of those perks is access to a literal world of items. An afternoon at Epcot allows you to shop for things which would otherwise be out of reach. No trip to the Japan pavilion for example, is complete without a new and different flavor of Pocky. Or, some yummy pineapple gummies. In the UK pavilion, I discovered my great love of the Double Decker bar. There’s maple candy in Canada; handmade pastries in France; tea in England – just so many amazing things that would otherwise be hard to find or expensive to import through the web.
On our last visit (back in February for Love’s birthday), I saw a beautiful daffodil tea mug in the UK. Daffodils are my absolute favorite flower. I just love them. They don’t grow here in Florida but they used to grow wild up by the pond where I lived as a girl in PA. So when I saw this mug, I fell in love.
(The bottom says “Flowers by Emma Ball / Dunoon China / Made in England” and can be found here.)
It’s something I wouldn’t normally find in a store in Florida. Not many places are carrying china tea cups made in England around here. And, even though I’m not using it for proper tea (hard to drink hot beverage when it’s 85F/29C outside), even using it for juice or water just cheers me up. It’s so bright and pretty and makes the everyday use a little more special.
It cost me a little less than $20 (passholders at Disney get 10% off just about all merchandise as well) but that twenty bucks has brightened just about every day for the past couple weeks. Initially, I was “saving” it but then I decided just to go ahead and use it. And I’m so glad I did.
Tonight, as I was hand washing it out from this afternoon’s usage, I was inspired to write an entry about the little, unexpected perks of Disney. My beautiful little daffodil mug is the perfect embodiment of that realization.