The Diva at Disney

The Diva and I are in Orlando for the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters. So our first stop when we arrived Friday evening: Disney, of course. There’s a section of the Disney Empire called Downtown Disney that is just shops and restaurants where you can walk around for free, so that’s where we headed. Fortunately, our cab driver suggested dropping us off by the Lego store — outside were tables with a bin in the middle full of legos and kids building all kinds of creations!

What I found most interesting though was how amazingly upscale everything was.

What happened to Everyman Disney?

For dinner we dropped in to the Wolfgang Puck cafe. . . and had four-cheese pizza, complete with little dollops of goat cheese. The Diva looked at me skeptically and wrinkled her nose, but she did eat it. We got a side order of the best cole slaw ever. I think I tasted horseradish in the dressing.

To top it off, we headed over for hot fudge sundaes. No Hershey’s syrup, here, no sirree. Ghirardelli’s natch.

I’m certainly not complaining. It was a lovely evening. And I was very happy to have grown-up food. But still.

And that isn’t even addressing the merchandising! What happened to cheap, overpriced Mickey ears?

Now Disney is hawking “Classic Pooh” bone china. And tastefully monogrammed golf shirts by Greg Norman. I really wanted to get the one with Grumpy breaking his golf club over his knee. . . but a quick call to your Business Blogger verified that yes, indeed, he would not wear it no matter how funny I thought it was. No fun at all.