Searching the World for Tomorrowland

My girl has the weight of the world's future on her.
Tommorowland, Hong Kong Disneyland

"There's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow

Shining at the end of everyday

There's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow

And tomorrow's just a dream away"

- Song from the Carousel of Progress Ride

Disney's new movie Tomorrowland opens this week to much anticipation. I. Cannot. Wait.

Disney is more than just a cartoon mouse and theme parks. It's a place where nothing is impossible. There's a part of it, courtesy of the vision of founder Walt Disney, that beckons people to become dreamers and explorers. To embrace global unity because "it's a small world after all" and to aim for a tomorrow that's bright, shiny and new. It challenges the imagination and immerses guests into alternate realities of the past and future. It celebrates those who have inspired us to think big and change the path of what might be.

My family has traveled around the globe, and woven in among our world travels are visits to Disney parks in 5 cities spread across three continents. We've sailed with them on the high seas, too. Even with all the sights a foreign land has to offer, we're drawn to Disney. Not because it's familiar, but because of that feeling of optimism and hope that seems to well up inside whenever we're surrounded by the fantasy Disney has created. It just plain makes us happy.

It's a Small World, so let's all just be friends
Disneyland, California

A Secret Society is Born

Sometimes, Walt couldn't let the public know what he was up to. In 1964, various corporations began buying swampland in Florida. Unbeknownst to the different real estate agents involved, they were part of a secret society working together on a project shrouded from the public eye. People began suspecting something was going on but couldn't figure out what. These dummy companies were actually parts of the Disney corporation and would eventually join all their adjacent land tracts together to create one of the world's most famous theme parks, Walt Disney World. When Walt finally confirmed the project, he highlighted his idea of creating an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, otherwise known as EPCOT. Add in the Magic Kingdom, Disney Hollywood Studios, and the Animal Kingdom to get a little bubble of fantasy where families can escape everyday life for as long as their wallets will allow.

The ginormous Bucky Ball that's the symbol of EPCOT, Florida

A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

The theme of a great big, beautiful tomorrow runs throughout many of Disney's attractions. It's so gosh darn optimistic that I can't help but love it. My daughter is fascinated with technology, and it's no wonder she is enthralled by Innoventions over in EPCOT's Future World. One day, I'm going to finally take the Behind the Seeds tour of the ultramodern greenhouses at Living with the Land to get an up-close look at the hydroponic gardens. I remember being so awed by them when I was a kid. The Carousel of Progress at the Magic Kingdom takes guests through a retrospective look at the introduction of inventions in the home. Afterwards, my family takes their time exiting through the concept home of tomorrow displays, curious at what improvements the future will bring. 

Spaceship Earth takes you through the history of communication from the creation of papyrus —much more portable than chiseled stone tablets — to the advent of computers, then it snaps a photo of each guest to show them what tomorrow might hold in store. Apparently for me, I'll spend my future lounging around an indoor fireplace in  fitted clothing — and curvy girls will give way to angular ones.

How I'll be spending my leisure days in the future according to Spaceship Earth

A Place Where You Can Change the World

Disney celebrates heroes, both the legendary icons and those whose skills are still undeveloped. In Florida's Disney Hollywood Studios, I found a guy I like to call Robo-Abe who was Walt Disney's boyhood hero. He's actually the original Audio-Animatronic Abraham Lincoln from the 1964 New York World's Fair, sans clothing. I can just imagine him battling his way through divisiveness and promoting a world of unity and peace.

Audio-Animatronic Abe Lincoln, Disney Hollywood Studios, Florida

The highlight of my son's visit to Walt Disney World was finally facing Darth Vader with a light saber in hand. A few times each day, kids go through the Jedi Training Academy, then are given the chance to battle one-on-one with the Dark Lord and join together to use the Force against him. For this moment, they are making a difference in fighting evil. These kids get to be heroes.

My young Padawan versus Darth Vader, Disney Hollywood Studios, Florida

Building What Someone Was Crazy Enough to Imagine

Disney celebrates genius, ahead-of-their-time inventors who dream big. On the rooftop of Tokyo DisneySea's Fortress Exploration, you'll find a replica of one of Leonardo Da Vinci's Flying Machines built according to his drawings.What a flight of fancy it must have seemed to Da Vinci's contemporaries. Fly like a bird? Impossible. Remember Icarus? Centuries later, the impossible has become reality. Humans take flight, jetting their way across the world to Disney parks everywhere.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Flying Machine, Tokyo DisneySea

You Wanna Go?

A Disney visit is best known for letting people immerse themselves in the land of make believe. You wanna go? To Fantasyland? To Adventureland? To Tomorrowland? You can.

Walking through Sleeping Beauty's Castle or sailing past Captain Jack Sparrow on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride transports you to the past, but the parks also celebrate the future and people's vision of it. One visionary that pops up is Jules Verne, and Disney delivers a way to enter his steampunk, retro-futuristic world of what might be.

Enter Jules Verne's Mysterious Island at Tokyo DisneySea

One of my favorite Disney rides in the world is when I make my way from the surface of Mysterious Island at Tokyo DisneySea downwards to Journey to the Center of the Earth. It's as if I'm actually deep in the bowels of the Earth, further than anyone has ever been.

And is there anything more futuristic than Space Mountain? It's the closest that I'll ever come to hurtling through space among the stars. Is it any wonder that it's a beloved ride that appears in Disney parks all over the world?

Colorful exterior of Space Mountain, Disneyland Paris

Take Me to Tomorrowland

For some people, a Disney park is about princesses and castles. For me, it's about the future. It almost seems that if I just look hard enough, I can find that place — that great big, beautiful tomorrow that's just a dream away. Disney has been leaving us clues, through the decades and around the world. Perhaps, one day, I'll find the key.

Is there a place that inspires you to dream of a better tomorrow?

This post is part of the following link ups. Check them out for more around-the-world travel inspiration.

• Travel Photo Thursday on Budget Travelers Sandbox
• Friday Postcards on Walking On Travels
• Weekend Wanderlust on A Brit and a Southerner, A Southern Gypsy, Casual Travelers, Justin plus Lauren, and Outbound Adventurer 
• Weekend Travel Inspiration on Reflections Enroute, The Crowded Planet, Contented Travellers, Albom Adventures, Bay Essence, Safari 254 and Families Go.
• Sunday Traveler on Chasing the Donkey, Pack Me To..., A Southern Gypsy, and Ice Cream & Permafrost