We finally made it back from "the happiest place on earth" and to my surprise Disney World did not live up to it's slogan, rather the 95 degree pool at the hotel became the highlight of our Florida vacation. That being said it was really fun to go back to Disney, a place I haven't been in about 25 years, and see it through the eyes of my little man. We spent two days at the Magic Kingdom (which was plenty) and each day we limited ourselves to 6 hours at the park. We went with two other couples and their little girls and I must admit the part of the trip I will remember the most was when we were boarding the tram outside of the parking lot and after packing all of the kids, strollers, bags, etc and my buddy looked over and said "We are officially our parents." At that moment it hit me yes, yes we were. Midlife crisis barely adverted we finally made our way into the park and I have to say it was pretty magical. Nothing has really changed in the last 25 years which made it pretty easy to navigate, but also made me feel a bit like we were in the movie Peter Pan, Disney will stay this age forever.
Before this trip everyone kept telling me that 4-5 was the perfect age for Disney. No one really elaborated and since we had already booked this trip to coincide with a conference that my husband was attending, I never really asked for any explanation. Once we were in the park the reason why became very, very obvious. The lines. There were lines EVERYWHERE. Lines to get tickets, lines to get on the monorail, lines to get food, lines to get on any and all rides, anywhere you looked there were lines. Line, lines, lines, lines. What does a two year old hate more than anything in the entire world? You guessed it, waiting in any kind of line. All of this line waiting led to meltdown after meltdown and if you couple that with two missed naps I often caught myself saying, "we really should be doing this when he is at least 5," or "never" as my husband would reply.
Nevertheless we had a great time once we made it through all those lines. Here are some pictures from the "happiest (crankiest) place on earth."
Riding The Monorail.
This may have been the little man's favorite "ride."
Going on Mom's favorite ride It's a Small World.
Trust me this ride is even better than you remember it as a kid.
Here we are checking out the Swissies.
Given that the little man is half Swiss we were happy to see they were included.
This was our first ride and the LM was so into it I almost had to make sure he was still breathing.
After that we rode the Carousel about 20 times.
He would have probably stayed on this all day had we let him.
This is how we all felt at the end of the day... luckily we were about to head home.
Day two we opted for the boat ride to the park.
And made it just in time for the parade.
The shows and the parades were by far the best part for all the kids.
Here the LM just got a glance of Goofy and Mickey.
The girls we were with wanted nothing more than to meet the princesses. Finally my little man got a chance to meet one of his hero's and planted a big kiss on Woody.
Mickey never looked so good... or so tired. This was the end of a very long trip.
As you can see in the end we did have a pretty great time. Would I ever take a 2 year old again? Probably not. Given that this was almost a free trip would I have listened to anyone who told me not to? Probably not. Will I be waiting until my youngest kid is at least 5 before venturing into Mickey's liar again? Absolutely!
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9 comments :
How did you survive in those flip flops?!
Haha...I wore flats on day one and my feet were killing me! The flip flops on day two were much better!
xx
I'm reminded of our one and only trip to Disney World. I believe I told Katy and Nick that we were never going back until they were big enough that I could just drive up and drop them off. Our two were 8 and 10 when we went. The lines were a still problem for Nick at that age.
We took our then 7 yr old and 4 yr old last June and left our 19mth with friends (as we felt like he would do better at home than in Disney). Never again will I take a four year old. Our baby is now 2 but he will not be going to Disney until he is at least 7-8 years old. I took a pedometer and I know we walked on average 7-8 miles a day. That was with taking three hours breaks in the afternoons before heading to dinner.
We were there in Dec. I don't think I can ever do that again! As you said - lines everywhere. My boys are 4 and 7 and it was really tough for them. At one point, as I found myself losing my patience for the 100th time - I realized that every parent around me looked and sounded as agitated as me - Happiest place on earth - I sure hope not!! We also did Animal Kingdom and that was MUCH better! Highly recommend it! They also serve beer - which may be the reason why we all had a better time!
Our kids are also little and we've skipped Disney for all reasons mentioned above. But there are other smaller-scale attractions that are little kid friendly around there. We've done "GatorWorld"...kind of hoakey, but our kids loved it. Plus, it had a small scale water park (think glorified sprinklers). We spent hrs there with minimal walking. We've also been to a couple of zoos which have water parks and exotic animal petting areas. Again, highly recommended for under 5-ers.
Ohhhh I can't wait to go to Disneyland, but I can't imagine taking Ollie at this age - I admire you for getting through it and managing to have some fun too!
i really liked the part about peter pan and really bring parents now. It must have been so surreal to be at the place you remember from chid hood, the place that makes you feel like a child, and to bring your baby there. Unbelievable.
I am terrifed of dolls. its a small word is like hell to me. I don't know what ill do when i have kids.
We're waiting till SC is about 7 or 8 for a Floriday trip. Seriously this girl has the patience of a gnat! (Cant think where she gets that from!). Am so looking forward to it though! xx (As you can see Im finally getting around to some blog catch up reading!)
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