Even the bees are cute at Disney.

I spent an afternoon at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with my daughter. We ate lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque, and we were visited by a bee.

The bee really, really wanted to dine with us, mostly with me. It was fixated on me, or more accurately, on my cupcake. I gently shooed it away several times, but it was persistent. After we finished eating we sat at our waterside table for a while to catch the (deeply weird) new kite show, and my new pet bee settled down to dine on my cupcake leftovers.

I am not a big fan of bees demanding my attention, and this one was like a stalker. It would not quit. When I shooed it from the table it settled on my bag and waited on my water bottle. At one point my daughter leaped up in alarm, but we both finally realized this was a sweet little bee, a Disney Bee, and it just REALLY, REALLY , I MEAN REALLY, wanted some buttercream frosting. At this point people at the table next to us were engaged in the bee show.

It finally got up the courage to settle down and dig in.

This bee didn’t just sample and leave, it settled down and snacked on buttercream frosting for over 15 minutes. We watched the truly bizarre new kite show (it’s awful, I can’t imagine how it got the go-ahead unless it’s just a filler for something else coming soon). When you have to build expectations of the kites crashing into the narration of the show…you’ve got a problem.

And while we watched and mocked, the bee snacked on. I swear its little bee eyes were glowing with joy. It finally got full and flew away before I had to decide how to deal with throwing away the cupcake remains, because we were ready to move on. I didn’t want to disappoint it.

I’ve been to Disney so many, many times, but this was the first time I had a cute little bee beg to share my cupcake.