Photo by: pearlies of wisdom

This is day 6 of our family vacation in Orlando. As much as I love Disney World, I do have a complaint.

Before there was Disney, amusement rides were generic affairs. A kiddie ride was just a kiddie ride. Disney turned the ride into a themed whole with the architecture, landscaping, and even the food supporting a specific movie and set of characters. More often than not the ride exits into a store selling the themed products.

It is here in the Disney theme stores that I find the Disney imagination has failed: there are no man chairs.

For example, we file out of the Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride and exit into a store selling pirate hats, swords, place mats, trinkets, muskets, and all things rated argh. While my wife, my daughter-in-law, and my grand-daughters are browsing the aisles, I scout around for a comfortable man chair.

If you don't know, a man chair is a place for a guy to rest his weary bones while the womenfolk shop. Usually I have to exit the air-conditioned shop and park my butt on some rock outside in the heat. Even the retail shops that line main street and are not attached to a specific ride lack man chairs. This is a big mistake. Nothing discourages shopping like a man telling his wife to hurry up because he's tired of standing there.

Although I am a very obnoxious person in that I speak my mind - I never rush my wife. However, she knows I am suffering outside in the heat and so does not shop as long and as much as she'd like to. If there were man chairs for me to fall asleep in, my wife would spend a few thousand dollars more.

Most malls understand this and provide man benches as well, see photo above.