I know everything is “magical” at WDW!  But what makes it more magical for me are the little things, the things you don’t expect. Yes, when you go in you EXPECT great rides, awesome shows, fantastic fireworks. But if you take time to see past those things you will find the extra special things that no one theme park in the U.S has.

A little over two years ago, we went on a family trip to WDW. This included, total, about 10 of us.  We stayed one night to the the show at the closing in Epcot- Illuminations.  At the end, we waited for a bit to let the crowd die down. As it died down we were walking pretty slowly out of the park and got stopped because they were bringing the globe from the show into it’s area. This meant we were stopped by a drawbridge, which none of us had ever noticed before, and waited and watched as this huge globe structure passed in front of us. That in itself was pretty cool!  The park (World Showcase) was closed but we were stragglers. A security guard ended up walking parallel to us. We thought “Oh, she is going to tell us to hurry it up, and make our exit”.  No, instead the asked the kids ” Did you know there are hidden gnomes in Norway?” We were walking up on Norway.  We all answered “No”. She proceeded to walk us over to Norway-mind you World Showcase is deserted- and said “If you can find 17 hidden gnomes I’ll give you a prize”.  So, we all started to look for them and found them all over- on the roof, hidden in rafters, in the shrubs, all over.  She told us there were about 20 and to look for the rest tomorrow when we came back to the park. The kids just got a sticker.  But that little something extra was awesome.  My kids were 7 and 4 at the time and they STILL  talk about the “nice security lady” that showed us the gnomes in Norway.  It’s those little “magical moments” that make it the best place in the world!