Disney Adventure: Family Fun

Living in Southern California – I think I delayed our inevitable  first family visit to the Disneyland Theme Park for as long as possible – Lil’ Diva was 4.5 and Lil’ Dude was 3 .  We decided to make our first visit special and stay overnight, allowing us to spend 2 days at the park.

My mom & younger sister were also visiting southern California, making the timing perfect.  Mom had never taken us, needless to say, being able to go with 2 of her daughter and her grandchildren was quite a treat for her.

I knew the kids were going to have the time of their life and while we were there – I wanted to find out what green efforts were a going on at this classic California theme Park – if any.

Turns out I was able to uncover some of the parks effort without even visiting their website:

Lil Dude hasn’t quite discovered his inner speed demon – yet – so one of his favorite rides was the Disneyland Railroad Train.  We rode it a few times.  On one of our rides it stopped to get fuel  Imagine my surprise when the conductor informed us that the steam was generated with BioDiesel collected from the park restaurants. No fancy stickers or pre-recorded promotion, just a mention in passing by the conductor.  Nice.  Can they convert the Race Cars to the same fuel – those are a little stinky!

I noticed  recycling receptacles throughout the park .  These are great – sadly most  people don’t bother to use them or use them incorrectly.  Imagine my surprise when I noticed one of the park employees dumpster diving!

Having recycling receptacles (say that 5 times fast) is one thing, but I happened to walk by when “Cast Member” Verola was emptying trash and  she did something that astounded me… I caught her fishing out the recyclable bottles out of the trash and walking them across the way to the recyling receptacle.  I had to investigate further!  It turns out that Disney donates the money raised by the recyling to charity – and Verola was motivated.  She proudly informed me that it was for the dogs.

 

While we visited the park we took advantage of the fruit stalls located near Pirates of the Caribbean.  It certainly would have been more economical to pack our own fruit, but in the absence good planning it was nice to have a few healthy options to mesh in between the cotton candy and bbq we hit for dinner.

Disney has also set some strong eco milestones.  In the next 2-4 years they plan to cut their emissions by 50%, their electricity use by 10% and lastly they plan to reduce their waste by 50%.  Their long term goal is zero emission and waste.

I would love to see them taking a stronger stance on the impact of Disney products, but overall they are making inroads in many areas, and have set some lofty goals.  I can’t wait to see how close they get to achieving them and in the meantime – we ended up purchasing season’s passes – so the lil’s will be sure to experience more joy at the happiest place on earth.