Hey, man, you're on vacation!' came the shout across Main Street USA as a burly guy in shorts and flip-flops strolled through the gates, jabbering away on his mobile phone. The jibe was made half in jest, but carried a note of censure: the mobile phone goes against the vision of what the late Walt Disney had in mind for his theme parks.
More so than the other Disneylands around the world, Florida's Walt Disney World is a place that is easy to feel safely cocooned in, a place where the real world is rarely allowed to intrude.
Call it the 51st state of the United States of America if you will, but there is no doubt that Walt Disney World, at Lake Buena Vista 32 kilometres southwest of Orlando, is a 12,200-hectare autonomous kingdom which covers an area of 122 square kilometres.
Everything in Disney World spells E-A-S-E, from your room-key-and-charge-card-in-one to less queuing time with the new FastPass which allows guests to get an allotted time for rides. There is no pollution, no traffic jams, no nosy neighbours, and a low crime rate. The eerie feeling only sets in when one realises that this could almost be a scene from Pleasantville: a perfect world that does not exist. Opponents of Disney plans in Hong Kong might well be forgiven for their fears of 'an SAR within an SAR' being created here.
Streets are patrolled by 'Disney police', another term for their security, although Florida state troopers have been known to intervene in more major cases.
Two hundred buses and two monorails sporting the Disney logo carry 'residents' around the four theme parks, three water parks and 27 resorts spread through the state. Television channels in the hotels carry a Disney radio channel and several Disney channels harping on the main attractions in the area. There is no escaping the Mouse.