I’m Going to Disney World!

“Go about your business. Fly. Go to Disney World!” advised President Bush. I took the president up on this last week, just as I had put all my spare change into American stocks on Sept. 17 when the market reopened.

Something about checking a large, red suitcase when you are named Smith set off Delta’s antenna. My bag was thoroughly gone through, both ways. But I didn’t care; they could have strip-searched me. I was happy to see them so alert.

In U.S. News & World Report, there’s a big photo of a deserted entrance to Disney World. In Orlando, I picked up the local newspaper, which read “Disney Hanging on During Wild Economic Ride.” But none of that was my personal experience.

There were masses of people at Disney World. And they, too, lined up, having bags checked before entrance.

If business is bad at Disney World, you could have fooled me. I waited in lines to eat, ride and see everything. And during the three parades--two in the Magic Kingdom and one in the Animal Kingdom--you had to fight for space to stand on the sidewalk.

Instead of flying off to Africa on safari, give yourself a break and go to the Animal Kingdom Hotel. In this luxurious inn and theme park, which is the least commercial of all the Disney playgrounds, wild animals from Africa look in your window or can be seen from your tour bus or from the little train that takes you behind the scenes.

We saw, up close, without being aware of any fences, the following: grown elephants and a new baby, a pride of lions resting under an upside-down tree, a cheetah with attitude, rhinos, hippos, crocodiles, gorillas, giraffes, antelope of all kinds and dozens of birds, including flamingos, ostriches and ibises.

The 3-year-old I had in tow was thrilled to the marrow by these beautiful creatures in a natural habitat, where they live better than any animal on the veldt.

My Disney keeper, Laurie Sintay, showed me around and said that on the morning of Sept. 11, Disney quietly closed all its theme parks, including the ones in Paris and Tokyo, within 45 minutes.

With no panic whatsoever, Disney employees escorted visitors out, giving them return tickets. Then, in an unprecedented move, they installed their red-white-and-blue banners reserved for July 4. “We had never done this before or used them, except on a holiday,” Sintay said.

It might be smart to make fun of the over-commercialization of the Disney enterprises, but during this long weekend, it seemed to me that the president’s advice was well intended and taken. I spent lots of money in Disney World, trying to enjoy myself and help the economy. I paid my own way and found it all valuable and reasonable. Hundreds of other people were doing the same thing.