Attitude’s publisher takes on Walt Disney World, Florida, in memory of late friend Emma (EXCLUSIVE)

Darren Styles OBE’s journey to Florida begins with the story of his friend Emma, a formidable, big-hearted village pub landlady who created a chosen family around her and welcomed Darren and his partner, Tom, into a community that changed their lives. After Emma’s sudden death from a brain tumour in 2023, her spirit and generosity lived on through a pair of Virgin Atlantic Upper Class tickets she won at the Attitude Awards which she insisted should be used by her husband Jim, their sons Sterling and Tennyson, with Darren and Tom joining as honorary gay uncles. It was Sterling’s argument for Florida and Disney: “Because everyone has to, at least once”.

Now, though, to the main event – and five nights at Disney’s Polynesian Village resort, a South Pacific-themed oasis with a monorail connection to the Magic Kingdom Park. I know, it sounds like the kind of family fun hotel that discerning gays would bypass, but we’re gay uncles now, and it turns out we’re everywhere. Well, everywhere the Mai Tais are. Everything’s a trade, and besides, the next few days were all about the kids…

Surprise one: our hosts at Disney, who were as determined as we were that this would be the trip of a lifetime for Sterling and Tennyson, had gifted us a VIP Tour Guide for two days, to take us across the four parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom). What does that mean? Everything, if I’m honest: no queues, door-to-door car service, back-stage access, a tailored itinerary matched to the interests of the guests — a curated edit if you will, in the hands of our man Anthony Sorrentino. And in a world of magic, he made it real.

“Disney is not all about the kids. It’s also about the adults remembering how it was to be kids”

Surprise two: I lied. Disney is not all about the kids. It’s also about the adults remembering how it was to be kids, and reconnecting with that ability to suspend disbelief and surrender to all that unfolds. Thus equipped, the wonderful world of Disney becomes the most extraordinary escape from reality. And a bit of that, from time to time, is good for the soul.

Animal Kingdom is the first stop – a real safari park where you can see not just the Big Five, but as many as 30 species, a lot of them co-habiting as they would on the African plains. And if the thought of captive animals makes you flinch, consider that the Disney reserve covers some 110 acres, where species can roam and yet be protected.

Alongside the reality is the fantasy you’d expect, too, key among them a visit to Pandora, the world of Avatar. Here, a Flight of Passage ride allows you – on the back of a winged mountain banshee – to fly across a vast land, through wind and rain, in an experience as close to human flight as I could imagine. My default cynicism was away on the breeze, Jim and I were beaming like it was Christmas morning.

“The Haunted Mansion more giggle than ghoul, but fun nonetheless”

From there to the Magic Kingdom, the original Walt Disney World park, built around a Cinderella’s Castle centrepiece. Themed zones encircle it, and so we criss-cross to cherry-pick rides and attractions: Pirates of the Caribbean is an old animatronics favourite, Tiana’s Bayou a splashdown rollercoaster ride, the Haunted Mansion more giggle than ghoul, but fun nonetheless. But it’s lunch that turns out to be a surprise high point.

Be Our Guest, in the heart of the castle, is a Beauty and the Beast-themed restaurant grand in both scale and aspiration. Fine dining, with wines in an otherwise ‘dry’ park, is not only delivered to an absolute standard but with real style and aplomb. Honestly, amid a scene of make believe, someone in the kitchen loves what they are doing for real – it’s seriously good French-style cuisine, with everything from escargot to an au poivre steak sauce with a pepper sting. Glorious, all ways round.

“Once the adrenaline subsides, sleep, that night, comes easy”

Suitably fuelled, we spend the rest of the day wandering a series of gentle, retro-feel Disney rides before finishing beneath the now-lit neon arches of Tron, a ride inspired by the 1982 film that was the first to mix live action with computer-generated visuals and backlit animation. It’s one of the best experiences of the day. You sit astride and hunched over a motorbike-style Lightcycle and, positioned thus, every dip and twist is a thrill that feels every bit the fastest Disney ride that exists. We did it twice, just to make sure. And once the adrenaline subsides, sleep, that night, comes easy.

New day, and new adventures beckon at the Disney Hollywood Studios, and guide Anthony has a terrible idea. Nothing says you’ve breakfasted well like leaving it in a bin having been bounced around and dropped like a stone in an elevator shaft in the infamous Hollywood Tower Hotel. As poor Tom does his thing, we discuss retrospectively the merits of mealtimes vs the order of rides.

Still, no harm done, and Mickey and Minnie’s runaway railway restores order as it’s far less dramatic than it sounds while delivering a slug of cartoon magic straight into the veins. I can’t over-state the enduring, evergreen joy of time in the company of the mice that made it happen, with Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy along for the hell of it. It’s where it all began, and time has not dimmed the allure of the core characters.

“The force was strong with this one”

Talking of which, the much-anticipated Star Wars: The Rise of the Resistance is a simply gargantuan and wholly immersive attraction the like of which I’ve never seen. It’s a vast set that draws you through, authentically detailed and culminating in an automated ride that sees you aboard transport captured by a First Order Star Destroyer. It’s multi-sensory, multi-level, and from start to finish takes 20 minutes or so and is utterly absorbing. Fans of the franchise (all of us) will be obsessed.

That Chewbacca was waiting at the other end, inviting us to step aboard and fly the Millennium Falcon for a smuggling run, was the icing on an already rich cake. It’s worth the day here for this alone.

But time (and space) wait for no man, so the afternoon is to be spent at EPCOT, our final park and what’s described as “a celebration of world culture”. That manifests, first off, in a fairly twee loop of 11 examples of how the Americans see other countries, Britain included – red phone box, Twinings tea shop, London boozer and all. Hmm. I mean, fun I guess, but European travellers have seen most of this for real thanks to their proximity, and for the only time all about doesn’t seem quite real enough.

So, we retreat to fantasy, and to what may well be the current pinnacle of Disney’s rides – the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. It’s the first reverse-launch rollercoaster in any of the Disney parks, one of the largest enclosed rides in the world, and allows you to spin through 360 degrees in your own car as the ride rises and falls through half-darkness. Accompanied by a rock’n’roll musical soundtrack, it’s a combination of big, clever, funny and exciting, and a sensational way to close out the day ahead of a return to the Magic Kingdom for a firework finalé.

And it was, by any measure, the finalé of all finalés.

This is an excerpt from a feature appearing in Attitude’s January/February 2025 issue.