Our little Haven loves Disney. She watches Disney movies and listens to Disney songs all day. She doesn’t speak frequently, but the majority of you communication is through scripting, or quoting movies and tv. Most of this scripting is Disney movies. To her all the Disney Characters are as real as you and me. Both my little girls love Disney.

In December we decided to take a family vacation to Disney World. We had been trying to plan a trip to Disney for a little while, but with the pandemic we were not sure how a mask mandate would affect Haven’s ability to enjoy it. We had taken to her to Disneyland when she was younger and she loved it. She was in her element and even spoke more while we were there. Disneyland was very magical for Haven.

We planned out little family vacation and the first obstacle was the flight. We tried to get Haven a mask exemption which wasn’t approved when we left. We had talked with Everly several times about how we were going to Disney World to see Mickey. We often forget how Haven picks up on these conversations. She did well on the plane, because she knew where we were going. We did have to pull her mask up several times, and at the end she was more than ready to get off the plane.

Haven and her old friend Mickey Mouse:

Oh Mickey Mouse! Haven loves Mickey Mouse. Haven also doesn’t love wearing face masks. This is another picture from Disney World. I tried taking Haven to see Mickey the first night were were in the Magic Kingdom. They had a mask mandate for anything indoors. We walked in and I put Haven’s mask up. We got in line and she dropped it down.

A worker told me “masks are required”. I put it back up and Haven dropped it back down. The worker told us “If she wants to see Mickey she has to wear a mask”. Haven looked him dead in the eye and waived while saying “bye” and walked out of the building as I gave chase.

Our second day in the Magic Kingdom I wanted to make sure haven got to see Mickey. There was no line at the beginning of our day. We got all the way to the end where she could see him. She was so excited. Jumping up and down. Her mask fell off. We tried anxiously to put it back on because it was hers and Everlys turn.

This time the worker saw us struggling and we informed him she has Autism and is excited to see Mickey. This worker looked at us and said. “Don’t worry about the mask”. Haven was so excited that these where the best pictures we could get of her seeing Mickey.

Dad doesn’t always know what’s best:

We were at Hollywood Studios one day. I was trying to walk Haven to Toy Story Land. Toy Story has always been her favorite. She wouldn’t go toward Toy Story Land and keep want to walk to what looked like an empty area to me.

I tried pulling her the way I thought she would want to go with no luck. Finally I gave up and decided to follow her. She walked right to a line to see Pluto. I have no idea how she even saw him there. She was so excited and didn’t really let us get a picture of her with him.

We ended up with these pictures of her stimming in front of Pluto while saying “Good Boy” over and over. Everly posed for a picture though.

Haven did amazing at Disney World and it was awesome to watch her there. I realize she let us into her world a little bit. This is very much her happy place. Haven had to buy a Monsters University hat the first day we were there. She doesn’t usually wear hats, she normally makes me wear them. She wore that hat every day we were at the parks and hasn’t worn it since. One day a security guard saw this and said. “Show me your roar”. Haven doesn’t do things on demand for unfamiliar adults… usually… but this was her happy place. She put her arms up and roared. I got her to do it again at lunch and got a picture.