So, what is the answer?!

A while back, one Saturday morning in synagogue, the Rabbi got up to the podium and began his sermon discussing the Walt Disney World monorail. Obviously, I sat up in my chair and my ears perked up. This was one sermon I wasn’t going to doze off in.

He tells us about how a friend came up to him and asked him about an issue he had with an upcoming family vacation. He was going to be staying at one of the WDW hotels (he didn’t say which one, to my dismay), and he wanted to know if he was allowed to board and ride the monorail on Shabbat (Sabbath).

I thought that was an interesting question. There was no fare to pay, no combustion engine to turn on and off, no motion sensors in the doors. However, there was a driver (which meant it wasn’t automatic, like a Shabbat elevator). I was so curious to see where this Shabbat morning sermon was going.

However, the sermon then too a different turn. He went on to discuss how we see Shabbat in our lives, what Shabbat means to us as individuals and as a community, blah blah blah…

What is the answer?! You cannot expect me to stick with the rest of this speech without delving into the aspects of the Walt Disney World monorail and Shabbat. Now, I’m spending the rest of the sermon with my mind wandering throughout the WDW resort property, trying to find other interesting halachic questions and challenges that may arise. I’m also daydreaming about staying at one of the Monorail resorts and spending my Shabbat afternoon hotel hopping between the Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian…

Of course, if I am allowed to.

I can always just ask my Rabbi to find the answer, but this is not going to turn into a Jewish legal essay on the pros and cons of the Monorail as melacha. I guess, if (or when) the time comes for me to spend Shabbat at one of these three resorts, I’ll begin my search for the answer. For now, since the plans are not in my immediate future, I’ll let the enigma remain an enigma.

Because I plan to spend my first Shabbat on Walt Disney World property at the Boardwalk Resort… Want to join me for dinner?

What is a Jew to do during the “Very Merry” months at the Disney Parks?

Okay, so it has been a year since I’ve been here. It sure is tough keeping blogs moving. I apologize for being MIA, but I knew I needed to be back right now because of the changing of the seasons. “Now, hang on to them hats and glasses…”

Since Halloween is over, you know what that means in the Disney Parks? Yup, it’s Christmas time. Even though the World Series was still going on, it’s time to get the parties in the Magic Kingdom set up for all those flocking to see the decorations, hear the jingles of “Jingle Bells” down Main Street, and smell the gingerbread concoctions made by the Disney chefs. However, while most of the die hard fans are planning their Candlelight Processional plans, the Jewish Disney parks fan is stuck in the ultimate dilemma.

How does the Jew handle the intense “Christmasification” of the Disney parks?

Halloween doesn’t present as much of a quandary. In Orlando, most of it is focused in the Magic Kingdom, with the full brunt of the holiday coming at you during the hard ticket event – Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It’s easy to overlook it and still get that typical Disney feel you can get the rest of the year. In Anaheim, you have a similar situation, except for the changing over of the Haunted Mansion into the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. Aside from those HM traditionalists, it really ain’t that bad.

But Christmas time (which starts right now) is a full fledged onslaught of yuletide cheer and joy to the world. The traditional music of Main Street changes from “Flitterin'” to “It’s a Holly Jolly Christmas.” The characters at meet & greets wear their Santa caps. “it’s a small world” in Disneyland gets its annual “holiday” face lift. Disney Hollywood Studios get overrun by the masses yearning for that best spot for the Osbourne lights. The resorts become pilgrimage sites for Christmas decoration tourists.

It’s everywhere. And as the “Wandering Jew in the Parks,” none of this is meant for you.

Oh, sure. Point out the menorah in the Osbourne lights, the Jewish mother-type Chanukah storyteller in World Showcase, and the brief “I had a Little Dreidel” token ditty in the Candlelight Processional. That is clearly a token for us, but it might as well be scrapped from the holiday menu in the parks. (You’d be better off cutting costs by cutting this, rather than the Lights of Winter in Epcot.)

It is Christmas time here and we all know it. Jews included.

So, what is the Son of Israel to do?

Do we protest Disney’s clear favoring of one religious group over all others? I say – absolutely not. There are too many people out there that need this to make Disneyland/WDW that much more magical and pleasant during this time of year. Plus, it’s a big time money maker for them. Welcome to America. Christmas time is Christmas time – just like it is in any mall or, like my home town, the streets of New York City. It is what it is. It’s here and it’s staying, and I got no beef with it whatsoever.

What does that leave us with? I see three options:

1. Go visit the parks and move along pretending none of the Christmas stuff is happening around you.

2. Embrace the “Christmas-ness” as a thing a beauty, even though it doesn’t have that particular connection to your soul.

3. Avoid visiting the parks from November 1 through the first weekend in January at all costs.

To each his or her own. For me, as a fairly hard core Disney parks traditionalist, I need to pick #3. I need Main Street U.S.A. to have that atmosphere I know and love. I need my picture with Pluto without a Santa cap on. I want to go on “it’s a small world” and hear only one incredibly repetitive (borderline irritating) song – not two.

I want my Disneyland and Walt Disney World. I can’t have it any other way, including a Christmas overlay.

And I am fine with that.

In the meantime, during this “holiday season” of Disney, I hope to reach out to the other Disraelites out there in the interweb so we have something to keep us inspired and entertained as the rest of the Disney fan world is on the phone with Disney dining stressing over which location to book for the Candlelight Processional dinner package. And when the time comes, look up at the windows in the resorts and see if you can find the solitary lights of a menorah.