Disney-themed Marketplace Dinner

Last week, Marketplace decided to have a dinner themed around Disney movies and characters.  That night, my friends and I went a little early so we wouldn’t catch the main dinner crowd, but were surprised to find that a long line had already started to form, and ended up having to wait about 20 minutes.  Whether the line was long because students were really eager to see what a Disney-themed dinner would be like, or they just wanted to try something different from the fairly routine Marketplace menu, I cannot be sure, but I’m guessing it was a mix of both.

At the entrance was a huge canvas with the famous Disney castle painted on it.  Right after you swiped in, there were Disney characters all dressed up in costume ready to take pictures with freshmen.  Once you entered the cafeteria, there were a variety of foods, like Nemo’s Fish Chowder, Mufasa Steamship Round of Beef, and Pooh’s Honey Glazed Spare Ribs, that kind of made my friends and I uncomfortable (after all, wasn’t one of Nemo’s struggles in the movie that he wasn’t caught and eaten?).

This dinner reminded me of just how influential Disney movies were to all of us growing up, and how a large majority of students were at least a little excited to see what would be served that night.  As much as we all think we have grown up, there are parts of our childhood that will stick with us, and Disney is a large part of many peoples childhood identity.  At some point we will also likely play Disney movies for our own children, and bring them to Disney theme parks, showing how Disney has come to unify people from multiple generations.  It’s something I can even talk about with my grand parents, as they remember watching Disney films when they were growing up.  Whether or not Duke students were actually at the dinner that night to experience Disney one more time is not as important as the fact that of all themes, Disney was chosen, and it did create quite a stir among the freshmen class.