Family Vacations

For my recent birthday, my generous mother and stepfather gave me a trip for four to the "Happiest Place On Earth," so the husband and I put our kids in the car and drove to Disneyland for our 5 days, 4 nights vacation.  We were excited - okay, maybe not so much the husband, but the rest of us were!  We hadn't been there in years: it was our son's first visit to Mickey's place and our daughter's third though she hadn't been there in about 5 years.  I was looking forward to a nice, quiet vacation - a time to check out the Halloween decor and see the park during a non-busy month.

Why the heck did I think that? 

Apparently, Halloweentime is a pretty big deal at Disneyland.  Waits for Peter Pan's flight averaged 40 minutes, so we passed on that; Space Mountain's wait was a mighty 55 minutes, so we opted to get a fastpass, thereby cutting our wait to 10-15 minutes; and shows were packed.  I was shocked.  Where did all these people come from?  I guess the holiday season mixed with California's furlough days/weeks made the park hoppin' and a hoppin' it was.  Wow.  A lot of people sure go to this park.  I didn't expect the crowd at all.  People kept saying it wasn't that bad, but I surely didn't expect them all to be there!

I suppose this has a lot to do with the fact that I do recall going once during a non-peak time - many years ago - and it was empty.  I kid you not: empty.  My friend and I basically had free reign of the park.  We walked on all the rides with no wait.  We took photos with characters, simply because they were just walking around and no one was with them. 

I mean, look at this photo with Goofy.  Do you see anyone in the background?  Nope?  Yea, me neither.  That's because there were hardly any people there.

I had sadly thought that this would be the case this visit.

And instead, moms were pushing their strollers; children were crying; people were pushing; and lines were long.  I also met a couple families with traumatized preschoolers; their parents encouraged their frightened children to ride Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy.  One father was going to force his preschooler to get onto the Tower of Terror, but the Disneyland employee refused to force the child to get on the ride if she didn't want to.  One mom forced her toddler to go in the Haunted Mansion, even though he kept saying, "NO NO.  I don't want to go in there."  She looked annoyed at her child and walked away, leaving him with another family member.  He proceeded to be freaked out in the rooms.  Clearly, to this kid, Disneyland was not the "Happiest Place" anymore!  Sometimes, parents are insane.

While I definitely think that Disneyland has its magic, I also think that sometimes we - as in parents - get so caught up in the "you should see this" and "you gotta see that!" frenzy, that sometimes we forget they are children and they can get overwhelmed and they also get TIRED.  I had to remind myself of this a couple times.  Actually, one of the days, my daughter and I got up early to do the whole morning madness thing at 7am and my son and husband didn't meet up with us until after 10am.  Why?  Well, my son didn't awake until 9:30am and then he wanted to eat cereal and watch some TV.  Another day, my daughter wanted to leave the park to just go swim in the pool.  They definitely needed a break from the masses.

I admit this wasn't necessarily a relaxing trip.  We walked miles each day.  We rushed from one place to another.  But...it was still a great trip.  We ate with characters three times, ate at restaurants we had never tried before (Ariel's Grotto, Blue Bayou, and Big Thunder Ranch BBQ), and rode on rides - old favorites like Small World and new rides (to us) like Astroblasters and Nemo.  It was fun to see the kids enjoying their time there.  It was fun getting the chance to actually ride my favorites (My daughter was too afraid to ride anything more than Small World last time.), like Pirates of the Carribean and the roller coasters. 

It was a good trip with a lot of positives, but I think the best thing that came out of the trip was the fact that we got to spend time together as a family - a time without work or school interrupting us, a few days with just each other (not to mention thousands of strangers, I suppose. HAHA). Disneyland was great fun, but I think next vacation we'll be picking a place without so many people. Any suggestions?

with Baloo the Bear (Jungle Book) at Goofy's Kitchen