As you may or may not have noticed, we have been a little balloon obsessed lately. Back in April, we finally caved and purchased our very first Disney balloons EVER! And it was magical. Walking around Main Street, whacking the odd stranger in the back of the head. It was great.
We have always wondered, however, how easy it actually was to go around the Parks with this floating appendage dragging along behind you. The only way to find out was to give it a go. Away we went to our first ride with them. The Haunted Mansion Fast Pass line it was and we were surprised that no one stopped us at the gate.
“Maybe at the door.” we thought.
But again, another checkpoint came and went and we were not stopped! Turns out our fears were baseless! We were able to ride without an issue!
Yeah, it’s screen shot. Way too poor to pay for a photo lol
Next up was Big Thunder Mountain. Now we knew there was no way we could ride this one with our buddies. But can we talk about how funny it would look if we could?!
Anyway, we expected to have to tie our little bit of magic to the hitching post by the entrance but to our delight we were sent on through! When we got to the head of the line, a Cast Member told us that the CM checking our seat belts would be holding our balloons. And wouldn’t you know it?! He came right up and took them out of our hands! When we were finished, he came right back up to us and waited for us to disembark and then handed them back to us! That’s some service, folks.
Last but not least was our favorite, Pirates of the Caribbean. Here, we were immediately stopped to leave our balloons by the front. We were directed to tie them up to the chains out front.
“Well, that’s the end of those,” we thought.
Some kid was definitely going to come up, go “Free Balloon!” and that would be that. But it was ok! We’d had a good run with them and took sooooo many pictures.
HOWEVER! That was not the case! When we came back out after a quick walk around the store, there they were! And they had made friends! Another balloon was parked next to them waiting for their (probably more age-appropriate) owner!
When it came to heading out, we were fully ready to hand our balloons over to some unsuspecting family who had no idea that they would be lugging them around the rest of their trip. When we went to replace Jordan’s balloon however (some air had let out and it’s policy to give new ones) and we were explaining to the CM that we just wanted to give ours back so that they could pass the magic along, the Cast Member goes,
“You don’t want to take it home with you?”
When we explained that we were heading home and couldn’t take them on the plane, she said,
“We can deflate it for you, some people like to frame them to remember the day.”
Done. While we weren’t able to make some little kids day (and some parent’s nightmare), we were able to bring our buddies home with us for a fun little souvenir.
Moral of the story is, if you want a balloon, just get it! It can turn into a travel balloon and is really not that much of an imposition to your daily Park activities!