September 11th

The morning of September 11th started like any other day at the parks. We were in the Animal Kingdom for the day and had just sat down to check out the Flights of Wonder show. When the show's start was 5 minutes late, there came an announcement that the show was canceled. I recall making a joke about a sick bird and something about "the show must go on". As we filed out of the attraction exit, we glanced around and saw everyone in the entire park heading towards the exit. We immediately sensed something was wrong, as there was also a certain buzz going through the crowd. The news passed through the crowd incredibly fast. I overheard someone near me talking about the planes being downed and I was also shocked to know that one of them went down near my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

The crowd continued towards the exit, as the Disney transport buses began arriving to return visitors to their respective hotels. Near the gate, CMs were handing out free passes for the inconvenience. I quickly snatched up enough for our group as we continued towards the bus lines. Even though it was extremely hot, crowded, and with nowhere to sit, it was incredible to me how orderly the crowd was on that day. Disney did a fantastic job keeping the crowd moving. Of course, maybe that was because everyone was in shock from the news. Definitively one of the most surreal moments of my life.

When we arrived back at the hotel, we pretty much spent the rest of the day glued to the TV, watching the replays over and over again and waiting to hear all of the outcomes of the day. The following day was pretty much back to vacation, as the real impact of what had happened didn't hit us until we got home. Disney had the purse and bag checkers out the next day - it was incredible how quickly they reacted to this disaster. (Of course, I think the bag checkers are a big waste of time, but they moved quickly to install them).

Interestingly enough, on one of our next trips to WDW, Saddam Hussein was captured. Anyone want to chip in to help send me back down so that we can catch Osama :) ?