I have an "unauthorized" Disney guidebook for parents traveling to the parks with small children, and we have lived by its admonition that when attending with small children, you have to drastically lower your expectations. We had higher hopes for this trip than in year's past, because the Moo has proved herself capable of taking on almost anything, and the Bean has always been a trooper. This was, however, the first year we opted not to bring a stroller, the heat was unbelievable, and the Bean is in the throws of her terrible threes (for those who kids have not yet turned three, let me be the first to warn you that two has nothing on three). Nonetheless, the girls did an amazing job, we just had to scale back our thoughts of spending all day at the parks.
On average we got in a good five hours before the girls started demanding to be taken back to the hotel to go swimming. We started at the Animal Kingdom, as that has always been a family favorite and they had Extra Magic hours for Disney Resort guests that Day, allowing us to enter the park an hour before the rest of the public. We did the Safari first, which was great as always, although took longer than usual as a rhino decided to hang out in the middle of the road for a few minutes and would not let us pass. After that, we headed over to River Rapids ride, which we had never gone on before.
This is where the difference in the girls' ages really manifested itself. The Moo LOVED the water ride and wanted to go on it again. The Bean would be happy to never, ever see another Rapids ride as long as she lives. She bore the brunt of the soaking, despite the fact that all of us girls wore rain ponchos (thanks Guide Book - it worked for the Moo and me, although the Moo ended up getting soaked playing in a fountain anyway).
After the rapids fiasco it took endless pleading on Mom's part to get the Bean to even go near another ride. Luckily, the next ride was the flying Triceratops ride (pretty much the Dumbo ride with dinos) and once we coaxed her on it she loved it, and we had to go three times. Later the girls played in the "Boneyard" playground (another excellent idea when traveling with little ones: unstructured play, no lines!) and then we decided to try another ride we had never been on before and that the guidebook did not mention, since it is relatively new: Dinosaur! The girls love this movie and we knew the ride might be a little scary, but it sounded cool, and they both wanted to see Aladar.
Big, huge, GINORMOUS mistake. Never, never, never take a child under the age of 12 on this ride. The Moo will tell you that she liked it, but she is LYING -- she closed her eyes and hid in her Dad's side the entire time. It is fast, it is dark, and it is SCARY - it was scary to me. The poor Bean just sat there and shook. After we got off she said, "Mommy, no more dinosaurs, never, ever, never." I figured rides were out for the rest of the day after that, so we went and played Wak-a-Pacycephalosaurus and saw the new "Finding Nemo, the Musical" which is a fantastic puppet show. After that it was home for naps, swims, and dinner. The girls swam for about an hour everyday, which was like heaven for them. Mom and Dad got a little irritated when, after shelling out all the money for park tickets, they kept getting asked "Can we go swimming now?"
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