I talked Ryan into taking the family to Florida. We had flyer miles to get all of us there
ALMOST for free. Before we left, I
thought a lot about doing a park.
Orlando is Park Central. We
couldn’t go without doing SOMETHING. But
which one? I felt like my kids were too
young to really appreciate Harry Potter Land (or whatever it’s called). Busch Gardens has big rides that Dylan is not
quite tall enough for, and that would kill him to watch Kylee go on all the big
rides when he couldn’t. We’d done Magic
Kingdom before I remember not liking it much.
I thought about Legoland, my kids all like Legos, especially Dylan. But they LOVE rides and I heard Legoland
rides are geared towards really young kids.
Maybe Sea World? The kids would
probably like the shows. But Ryan has
been there a few times already and would prefer to go somewhere else. Animal Kingdom? From what I read, it sounded like the animals
were a big part of the attraction, and Dylan and Kylee have both made it clear
they aren’t really into zoo stuff anymore.
Ugh.
Eventually I somehow got drawn into the idea of Disney and
how it’s “magical” and Ryan was like, “you can’t go wrong with Disney World.” And I thought, even though Kylee was never
into princesses all that much, Sadie really likes princesses, and she used to
be obsessed with Mickey Mouse and still likes the show and all her Minnie
toys. It seemed like she would enjoy
it. We researched a lot and finally purchased
the tickets and got some Fast Passes and I even got a trip-planner to map out our
day with what rides we want to hit up and routes to get there. The app showed the wait times for the rides
(the Disney app does that too, I know).
So we had it all planned out.
From what I read, people usually make it a week-long thing, hitting up
all four parks and planning out these great restaurants (that have to be booked
like 6 months in advance). There’s all sorts
of ways to spend money. Dining with
princesses, make-overs at the bibbity bobbity boo-tique. These are not things Ryan and I want to waste
our money on. So I realize we didn’t get
the whole Disney “experience” because of this.
I decided we should get the Disney day out of the way before
the kids got tired with lack of sleep building up day after day. We wanted to see Sara, and my mom had to work
the first couple of days. So we stayed
in Orlando the first night and headed to Magic Kingdom the first day. I knew we wouldn’t get there early. We were on Idaho time still, and we were up
late getting our rental car and getting settled at the hotel. So we got up and got breakfast at the hotel
and then packed up to go. It had been
really rainy and was supposed to rain every day we were there, so I had tried
to plan for that a little. I had some
ponchos in our bag, and some flip-flops in case our shoes got soaked. And I had snacks and diapers and waters, etc,
etc. I did not bring my big camera to
Disney. I didn’t want to carry that or
deal with it getting stolen. But we
still had a big bag.
By the time we parked and got into the park it was like
11. Not very early. But I planned on staying late so I figured
that was okay.
Funny story. We
parked underneath the track for the monorail.
The kids saw it pass once or twice.
They seemed to think it was cool.
So we headed towards the train stop to get on and Sadie goes, “what is
this?” The train to take us to Disney
World. “Is it the thing that was above
our car?” (Thinking she would think
trains are cool…) Yep. “I’m not going on
that!!!!” Cue full-on breakdown, kicking
and screaming, feet planted, trying to run the other direction. It was great.
She was terrified. We couldn’t
convince her that it wasn’t a scary ride.
She thought we were trying to trick her into going on some scary roller
coaster. When we finally got on, with
her almost kicking people in the head while Ryan carried her on his shoulder, and
after I released her death grip from the rail and got on to the train, she
realized it wasn’t what she was worried about and she was fine. But in the meantime, we had lots and lots of
strangers staring wondering what we were doing taking a monster to Disney who
was acting like this before we even got to the park. Oh Sadie Bug.
I love your spunk.
We were immediately dripping with sweat. I sunscreened the baby, but the rest of us
are tan enough I didn’t worry about it.
Plus, it was overcast mostly. But
90 degrees with lots of humidity.
We headed for the new ride, Seven Dwarves Mine or
something. Ryan got in line with the
older kids for that (like 75 minute wait) and Sadie, Kaden and I went to find
something else to do. We settled on the
Winnie the Pooh ride. The line was long
too, probably 45 minute wait, I can’t remember.
It was long. But there were
things for her to play with along the way.
But it was HOT and I was carrying that heavy bag I mentioned, along with
the baby. I was dripping sweat.
The ride is cute and all, but even Sadie was
like, “this is it?” After waiting in
line for that long, you kind of expect something amazing. I decided to use this time to let Sadie do
whatever she wanted so we headed towards the princesses but that was like 100
minute wait- and they didn’t even have Aurora or Tiana, which are the two Sadie
requested to see. So we went on the
carousel, even though we can do that at Lagoon easily. Sadie loves it. It was crowded and I stood by Sadie holding
Kaden, there were no other seats around.
The guy told me I couldn’t hold the baby on the ride. But Sadie could ride together with him. Seriously?
You’d rather him ride with a 4-year-old than have m hold him? That made me nervous, but I stayed right by
them. And he liked it.
We took a couple water/bathroom breaks. We had a snack. Sadie told me multiple times that she wanted
to go to the hotel. My mom thought this
was funny/ironic because that’s what I did when we went to Disneyland when I
was a kid. I just wanted to swim at the
hotel. Why does anyone do
Disney???? Kids are happy with a simple
hotel swimming pool. Okay, not all
kids. Whatever.
We eventually met up with Ryan and the other kids. But we split again when they had a Fast Pass
for Space Mountain.
Sadie and I went to
Storytime with Belle, which was really cute!
The animated characters are really real looking! But the wait is insane!! I was sweating yet again.
I mean, my clothes were wet, sweat dripping down my back and
into my eyes. Kaden’s little cheeks were
red, but he was a happy, happy boy.
As we were in line, I was looking around at the people
waiting by us. I got to know the look of
these people quite well waiting with them for 40 minutes or more. But I couldn’t get past the groups of adults,
no kids with them, waiting in line for 40 minutes to see Belle. I don’t understand it. There’s no way I would ever do that for my
own enjoyment. I get a lot of enjoyment
watching my kids do these things, but waiting in the heat for that long is just
not worth the little show. Paying for
Disney at all is not worth it if you don’t have kids, in my opinion
anyway. I just shook my head and tried
to rack my brain around why people would do that. I should add they were dressed in Mickey
gear. There were other adults, Asian
folks, with little buttons saying it was their first visit to the park (some
buttons said things like, “it’s my birthday!” Or “celebrating graduating” or whatever. I can kind of understand why Asian tourists
would come to Disney. But the other
adults, I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Anyway, it was a cute show.
I think they keep the lighting really crappy in these rooms
so you want to buy their photos instead of using your own.
This was really cute, but Sadie didn’t get as excited as I
had hoped. Guess there’s not as much “magic”
as people say.
We had a late lunch, hoping the fast food restaurant would
be less crowded- it wasn’t. It was
insane. I nursed Kaden, who luckily didn’t
mind the crowd. Now-a-days he gets
distracted pretty easily if it’s not quiet and calm when I nurse him.
We went in and saw Mickey’s Philharmagic, which is 3D and
really cute. We all liked it.
I took the kids on Dumbo, which had this play area in the
middle of the line. It was fun.
They wouldn't let Sadie ride with Kylee because she was too small so I had to trade and Kylee and Dylan rode together.
The kids cooled off in this little splash pad area.
There were little European boys running around in their underwear. No shame. It was funny. Our kids were a little more reserved.
Then we went to Buzz Lightyear. The line was long, but we remembered it being
fun so we waited. Ryan pushed Kaden
around in the stroller while we were in line.
And he eventually fell asleep.
It FINALLY started raining.
We were so hot we were begging for a little rain to cool us off. We had to hustle to get to Thunder Mountain
in time for our Fast-Pass, but we made it.
It’s an okay roller coaster, but after going to Lagoon, I
guess we kind of expect more. My kids
love thrill rides, which I guess is my mistake in bringing them to Disney. Because Disney is more about the “experience”
with the shows and the food, etc, etc.
Or so I’ve been told. Since I got
back and complained on social media…
I had convinced Sadie to go on Splash Mountain by telling
her it was really mellow. It is! I’m not
a liar. I mean sure, there’s the one
thrilling part, but it only lasts 5 seconds and I figured she would forgive
me. We had a Fast Pass and everything,
but she fell asleep. And I figured she
could use the sleep so I sat there with her and Kaden and she slept and Kaden and
I snacked and Ryan took the kids on the best ride.
Once we used all three Fast Passes, we were able to get
more. So I got one for It’s a Small
World because I thought Sadie would like it.
When we got on Dylan was obsessed with all the money in the water. And we started going and it was showing the
little characters and Dylan goes, “is the whole ride just this??” When I said yes, he went back to staring at
the money in the water for the rest of the ride. Then afterwards he went up to the worker and
said, “you guys should clean out all that money!” She told him they do periodically and they
donate it. Dylan is not afraid of
voicing his opinion or talking to strangers, even people in authority. I love that about him, but it’s also hard to
teach him respect because he has little fear.
Respect and fear go together a little, don’t you think?
We got a Fast Pass for Ariel’s Grotto, which I thought would
include meeting Ariel like Belle’s did.
But no. Although the characters
were cool, it was still a ride that was like a commercial for the movie. Whatever, the kids liked it okay.
We stuck around for the night parade, which was a little
stressful being so crowded in the dark with so many kids. It was cool, but again not sure it was worth
the crowd or the waiting.
We made our
way towards the exit, along with all the other cattle. And we caught a bit of the castle show as we
were headed out. We hadn’t paid
attention to any markers when we parked, but luckily I have a great sense of
direction and led us right to our rental van.
We stopped at a gas station for some water that was not so
overpriced, and some dinner items for Ryan and the kids (I think they got pizza
slices, I can’t remember) and then we headed towards our hotel in Tampa. It did rain pretty hard while we were driving
a little bit. But we had only got
sprinkled on at the Park. And that was
the most we got rained on the whole trip, even though the forecast showed rain
every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment