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Playing at Tom Sawyer Island

Image: DisneyQuestion: When's the last time you played in your backyard? Or any yard? When can you remember playing at all like you did when you were a kid? Imagineers recognize what you've lost, and they give it back to you at Frontierland.

When you head to Tom Sawyer Island, you’re effectively traveling back in time. You’re resetting your adult clock and becoming eight-years-old again. You’re on a giant playground owned and operated by Disney.

Here, you can wander through dark caverns and look at spooky lights. You can walk through a forest and admire streams. You can explore in a way that only children can. When you're on Tom Sawyer Island, you'll feel young again. You may even reminisce about the dread you once experienced when your parent(s) would tell you that it was time to come home. When you're in the moment here, it's just like when you played until dinner time as a kid.

Overacting in a play

Image: DisneyDid you act in plays when you were a kid? I don't mean to brag, but I sang the theme to Grease during my fifth-grade play. Then, my voice changed, and any dreams of pop stardom died a gruesome, southern accented death. But I digress.

The point is that whether you were Emily/George from Our Town or Shrubbery #3, you were likely in a play back in the day. And you relished in the process of bringing your Hollywood dreams to life, if only for a day.

At one Disney attraction, you can once again become a movie star for a while. Enchanted Tales with Belle casts members of the audience in roles from Beauty and the Beast. You’ll never thank the academy for your star turn during this attraction, but you’ll still adore putting on a show in front of your family members.

Pin Trading

Image: DisneyI’m going to let you in on a secret. Pins are cheap. You can buy your own. In fact, you can buy dozens of them. When you’re at Disney, however, the situation somehow seems different.

Suddenly, you crave these cheap little baubles. You can’t get enough of them and want more. You will do anything that can to add to your hoard. This newfound urge will drive you to ask cast members whether they’re willing to exchange pins with you. Thankfully, they are!

Disney stocks some of its cast members with tradeable pins. You may even uncover a few rare ones that aren’t supposed to be available anymore. And when you score one of these, you will get the type of high that you haven’t had since you got the perfect birthday gift as a kid.

Somehow, buying your own pins away from Disney parks isn’t the same.

 
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