People leaving Walt Disney World on 9/11

Image from preview.redd.it and submitted by chaairs
image showing People leaving Walt Disney World on 9/11

legalizethesenuts on May 10th, 2024 at 04:44 UTC »

Did a ton of people decide to leave, or did the park close? I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure FL and NY are in the same time zone and 9/11 happened fairly early in the day. The park would’ve been opened for a couple of hours

DirtyRatLicker on May 10th, 2024 at 05:29 UTC »

Disney World would have been another very significant target

DrNomblecronch on May 10th, 2024 at 08:30 UTC »

My parents took me to Disneyland either the day after or one day removed. I was scared to go, and they made the (pretty convincing) argument that, basically, whoever had done this was not going to double-tap mere days later, and if they did they wouldn't pick Disneyland. Too big of an area, not something condensed like a tower.

They were... pragmatic, my parents. Also, at that time, in what I would call the middle stages of settling into what would end up being a truly ghastly divorce.

So we slapped a second layer of plastic smile over the first one, and went to goddamn Disneyland. I have absolutely no recollection of the trip itself aside from feeling very bad that all these people had to come in to work when they obviously didn't want to, except for exactly one woman working Pirates of the Caribbean who had clearly decided that if people were coming to Disneyland on that day, they must really need a shot of happy, and put her absolute all into a pre-show performance for maybe 8 people.

So that memory just got yanked up from the depths all at once. That's not a bad thing, just... huh. The stuff you just accept as a kid, you know?

edit; you know what I do remember about that day? Watching Muppets From Space when we got back, put on to keep me occupied while my parents went off to have what I can only imagine was a very complicated sort of conversation.

And I was there, halfway numb, like god damn, Kermit, we're really in the shit now, huh?

I did feel better by the end of it, actually. Pretty sure I would even as an adult. Kermit the Frog is an incredible balm for the injured spirit.