Toddlers in Walt Disney World: A Parent’s Survival GuideWritten by Leslie Clevenstine
It was one of most anticipated vacations ever. I had spent over 8 months researching and planning our Disney World vacaction down to last detail. My 3-year old daughter had already given up napping, was potty trained, extremely adventurous, and was used to spending occassional night away from home. All we needed was good weather and we were going to have a great time exploring Disney parks together…not!She spent first 3 days of trip clinging to my leg and whining non-stop. She was afraid of many of tame attractions. And what did she want to do more than anything? Swim. We had flown 1,000 miles to swim! After speaking to a lot of other parents, my story’s not unusual. So, what’s moral here? Well, it’s not “don’t take your toddler to Disney World.” Because despite a rocky start, we had a great time. And you can too, with a few helpful strageies: Leave your expectations at home. Every child is going to react differently to a Disney World vacation. If your child has not traveled much, being away from their familiar surroundings is completely overwhelming, even in a child-friendly place like Disney World. Your hope of spending long days in parks hitting all rides won’t work with a child who is tired, hot, and out of sorts. Having a “go with flow” attitude will serve everyone in your group much better. Move at a more leisurely pace. Disney World is one of those vacations where you can come home feeling more tired than when you left. You’re up early to go parks, walking all day, rushing to get to dinner reservations on time… This type of pace is more than most toddlers who are away from home can bear. Plan a morning or two to sleep in. And don’t try to see everything—choose top five attractions you’d like to see at each park and see them first. Anything else you get to experience in addition is gravy.
| | It's Finally Here! Written by Doug Bower
It has begun. The Central Mexican yearly ritual has finally arrived, a month late I might add, and life as we know it has changed and will be different for next 10-12 weeks.The rainy season is here. I wrote about it two months ago. I told of my not-so-excited-anticipation of this yearly and, unless you want to leave and go to desert for 12 weeks, unavoidable act of God. The rainy season changes EVERYTHING. 1. When it is dry season, you can leave house on a moment's notice with nary a thought in your head about it. I mean, you can be impulsive. "Oh, Honey let's run out and get some ice cream." "Let's do, sweetheart and while we're out, let's go to a movie!" "Super! Let's go!" This little scene is on hold now for next 12 weeks. 2. You cannot leave house together—ever. Someone has to stay home, at all times, keeping vigil over leaking windows. You see, Mexican homebuilders, for reasons known surely only to Almighty, build windows to leak. Now follow me carefully here. Central Mexico has had, since God created heavens and earth, a rainy season. Central Mexican homebuilders know this. They teach this in catechism. Nevertheless, they build windows that leak like Niagara Falls. The pre-rainy season activity, which is sometime in middle of April, is to lay in a supply of new terrycloth towels and waterproof tape. You must have towels to stuff around windowsills and tape to plug new holes that miraculously appear each rainy season. 3. We have birds. Oh, dear God, we have birds in outside aviaries in back of our house. We have to be on alert, day and night, for tornado-strength winds, hurricane-force rain, and lighting bolts that could incinerate a bus so we can risk life and limb to keep them safe.
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