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The First Time Back

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Twelve days ago Snow White's Scary Adventures at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World was closed forever. It seems almost surreal to think that it no longer exists, and that by now the process of gutting the building is well underway. I have yet to see anything show up on Ebay, but that can't be far away. As a matter of fact, I did leave my business card with the folks at Theme Park Connection in case they should happen to acquire any items from inside the ride. In any case, enough time had passed that we figured we should take Ben to the park and let him see with his own eyes that the ride is really gone.The weather in Central Florida has been miserable pretty much all week. It's nice enough in the morning, but by mid-afternoon the storms start sweeping through. I'm a Seattle boy, born and raised, so rain doesn't bother me much. As for Ben, I sometimes wonder if he even notices something as trivial as the weather. Thursday was the last day of school, and so I had him here at the house all day on Friday whi ...

SWSA Final Night - Epilogue

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After Ben completed his final ride on Snow White's Scary Adventures, we gave our heartfelt thanks to all of the remaining cast members, and then we were escorted out of Fantasyland so that the maintenance workers could get on with the task of erecting the construction walls. Ken thanked us for allowing him to share in the experience of those last half-dozen rides, and then he and Robert left to go back to their respective lodgings for the night. Even though it was well past eleven, Ben was still buzzing from the whole experience and didn't show any signs of winding down. We crossed under the castle and then down through the hub, merging with the last of the lingering crowd on Main street.

By the time we exited the park the monorail was already shut down for the night - we had to wait in line for a ferry boat instead. Ben was starting to agitate about Tinkerbell, so I dug out the Tink ornament that we had purchased at the start of the evening. That placated him at least for a while, but it was clear that he was on the edge of tipping over from happy to tired and cranky. I dearly hoped we would manage to get him all the way to the car before that particular time bomb detonated. Fortunately the boat came quickly. Before long we were walking through the Ticket and Transportation Center en route to the car. Ben stopped to take a photo of a Tinkerbell window decoration, which was when I thought to take a glance at his camera to see if he actually took any pictures during that last solo ride. As a matter of fact, he did capture a shot of his absolute favorite moment of the ride - Bashfull in the mine crying, "She's getting away, hurry!"

SWSA Final Night, Part 4 - The Big Ending

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The crowd was still cheering as Stacey led our group away from Snow White's Scary Adventures following the official last ride. Just like a few hours earlier, we were taken to a spot in front of The Friar's Nook in order to wait. We watched as Disney security helped guide the remaining guests out of Fantasyland, and as the park quickly emptied out we learned that Stacy had another gift for Ben - a photo CD with more than 80 pictures taken during Snow White's visit with Ben along with four prints of some of the best shots. Ben particularly liked the one from inside the ride with Snow White. I particularly liked the one showing Ben laughing and happy.


Ben describes his day in precisely 1,000 words

SWSA Final Night, Part 3 - Counting Up, Counting Down

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Having just spent fifteen solid minutes with Snow White, you might think that Benjamin would need to take a few minutes to digest what had just happened, or even that he might try to follow her to the door she disappeared through. No, Ben just let out another laugh and then led us all back for another round on Snow White's Scary Adventures. His mother and I were still reeling from how amazing the visit was, but Ben was ready to keep going full steam ahead. As he took both our hands and pulled us back to his ride, the best we could do was turn back and mouth "thank you so much!" to Stacey while being dragged away. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us, the Twittersphere was lighting up.
My Day In Disney
@24HoursInDisney

Ben is riding #SWSA with Snow White herself. pic.twitter.com/OQWnV7YO
- 7:15pm

SWSA Final Night, Part 2 - The Fairest One of All

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Earlier in the week, a few days before the final night of Snow White's Scary Adventures, I had a telephone conversation with Disney cast member Stacey Patrone. We were discussing what might be possible for creating a Magical Moment for Benjamin on the last evening, and coordinating times and such. She couldn't give me any specifics, but we did arrange that whatever happened would be at 7pm. I was very careful to stress to her that my family did not expect Disney to do anything for Ben, and that we were extremely grateful for anything that they did do. My one concern had to do with expectations - I was a little worried that whatever they did, Ben might not seem like he was enjoying it. If you don't know Ben it can be kind of hard to read him, and he can also get overwhelmed if too many people are focused on him. I warned her not to necessarily expect anything like a Kodak moment, but reassured her that whatever she put together I was sure that Ben would enjoy in his own way.

SWSA Final Night, Part 1 - The Beginning of the End

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I remember vividly the day, a couple of years ago, that the Fantasyland Expansion was announced at D23. Ben and I were in the park when the news broke, in fact we were standing in the alternate/wheelchair entrance for Snow White's Scary Adventures. I had known the announcement was coming, it was a very poorly kept secret, but the real question was what exactly the expansion would entail. I was so relieved when the detailed announcement did not include any changes to SWSA - I figured that if Disney was spending that much money in Fantasyland and not touching Ben's ride, then she would be safe for at least a decade. I remember having a conversation with the area manager for Fantasyland that afternoon, talking about the big plans and what a relief it was that SWSA was safe. You can imagine my family's distress when, several months later, the expansion plans were radically modified. The space that was going to contain a big Princess meet & greet was scrapped and replaced with the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride, and SWSA was going to be gutted and turned into a smaller scale Princess meet & greet instead. There were other changes, but that was the only one I cared about. We didn't have a closing date (and wouldn't have one for over a year), but we knew that the end was coming. Ben was losing his favorite place on Earth, the place for which our family had moved cross-country from Seattle to Orlando back in '03.

SWSA Final Night - Prelude

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Before I start telling the story of Ben's final farewell to Snow White's Scary Adventures, I have a long list of people that need to be thanked. Without the efforts of these folks, Ben's last hours with SWSA would have been mostly sad and disappointing. Instead it became one of the most remarkably joyful events that I have ever experienced.

First on the list is Disney cast member Carl Bond. I have known Carl for several years now, having sung with him in the Garden Community Choir. He is a great singer, a great father, and an all around stand-up kind of guy. He also happens to work as an area manager over at Epcot. It was Carl who got the ball rolling on making the 31st a special day for Ben. He might try to say that he didn't do much, he's that sort of person, but he was the initial spark that set things in motion. Without Carl, nothing would have happened.

Snow White's Scary Adventures - The Final Tally

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My apologies, I sort of lost track with posting the tally earlier this year. I still have the raw numbers for each day, and I will try to back-post those tallies over the weekend. In any case, Ben's final ride count at the end of the night last night was: 3,500 I swear to you, we did not plan that in advance. As recently as last weekend I thought that there was no way he would ever reach that number. As the night wore on last night, and Ben remained so absolutely joyful, it became increasingly clear that we were going to come close. We were all completely astonished that he actually finished on that milestone. It is going to take me a few days to write up a post describing the last night in detail - there is so much to say, and so many people to thank. Take the best, most perfect day of your entire life and then triple it - that is the day that Ben had yesterday.

Snow White's Scary Adventures - A Retrospective

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As I write this, Snow White's Scary Adventures (SWSA) at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World is preparing to close forever. For anyone familiar with me and my family, you will immediately understand why this is such a significant event in our lives. I will undoubtedly write a blog post this weekend specifically about my son's last visit with Snow White, but before that I wanted to write a little bit about what makes SWSA so remarkable (at least to me).

Ben and Snow White

Ben and Snow White

About Shmoolok

The word "shmoolok" is a mashup of the longtime computer handles for my wife and myself ("Shmooby" and "Lokheed", respectively).

I originally created this website to be a place for my family to connect, but it has since grown into something a little different.

As for me -- I am a father, a husband, a son, a software developer, and a writer. On any given day I am not sure how good I am at any of those particular things, but I do try my best.

Thank you for visiting my website.

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ISBN: 1-482-09330-8

Benjamin's Lullaby

Popular Entries

There has been an influx of new readers to my blog. If you wound up here looking for stories about my son's ten year romance with Snow White's Scary Adventures, here are the major blog posts you will want to read:

SW1K - The Full Story

SW1K Redux

SW2K - The Full Story

SWSA Final Night - Prelude

SWSA Final Night, Part 1 - The Beginning of the End

SWSA Final Night, Part 2 - The Fairest One of All

SWSA Final Night, Part 3 - Counting Up, Counting Down

SWSA Final Night, Part 4 - The Big Ending

SWSA Final Night - Epilogue

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