I hesitated making the effort to take La Jolla Girl to Disney World when the chances of her remembering it are slim. Would she appreciate it? Would she patiently wait in the lines? Would it be worth the $$$?
At first, I thought a week in Orlando would be too much. I was wrong. It actually allowed us to move at a slower pace which is what you need to do with a 2 year old. She naps in the afternoons religiously and never in her stroller. That meant we had to be back at the hotel for several hours every day. Which reminds me, I’ll post about the hotel this week too.
La Jolla Girl has been to Hong Kong Disneyland and is used to bouncing from character to character and ride to ride with no wait. Disney World lines took an unpleasant while for her to get used to. I had to physically restrain her from running to the front of the lines at first. Ok it was only one day for her to adjust, but it felt like forever.
On the first day, we took her to Fantasyland and basically just had her lead us to wherever she wanted to go. We didn’t think there was a point trying to rush her from place to place when she was the entire reason we were there. There was never any line at the carousel, but Dumbo was 30 minutes minimum. I overheard a resident say that’s always the case.
Her main interest was meeting the characters. There is Mickey’s Toontown Fair area for young kids. In there, you can wait in line to visit 3 Princesses or Fairies. We saw the Princesses twice. Toddlers love this area and there were a bunch in line. I regret not buying her an autograph book, however. She was so star struck by the characters that I thought she’d never be able to juggle the book too. I also regret not making reservations well in advance to eat at Cinderella’s Table. We tried but they were fully booked. Anyway, if we spent the entire week in line taking pictures with Goofy, etc. she would have been totally fine with that.
La Jolla Dad really wanted to go in the Haunted House. I was a teeny bit nervous about that because I remember it scaring me when I was a kid. We did it, she was fine but the ride stopped right when we were in front of the mirrors that show a fake ghost riding in your black pod. She went totally bug eyed, but didn’t cry. I could tell she didn’t know what to make of the ride. I would not recommend this ride for a 2 year old. We immediately went to It’s a Small World to try to erase the memory of the Haunted House!
La Jolla Dad was surprised by how much she enjoyed Disney World which made the experience worth it to him. He is not an amusement park kind of guy but slogged through it all with mininmal fuss. I personally had a great time. So it was worth the hassle and the money, in the end, even though she’s so little. Here’s my posts about Sea World Orlando and the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, in case you missed them.
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Twitter: blessedsoandso
November 17, 2009 at 9:28 am
Sounds like a great time! I would have expected a lot more disasters with a toddler!!
Twitter: 2ToddlersandMe
November 18, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Glad you had a great trip. We just took our two toddler to Disney World last February. My oldest loved it, my youngest – not so much. He was overwhelmed by the crowds and the characters. In truth, their favorite part was swimming at the hotel pool!
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