Lessons From a Week at Disney World

• Trying to teach an almost 3 year old to wait in a line for 40 minutes to ride Dumbo is impossible and can stretch the limits of anyone’s patience! “Stand up!” “Keep your hands off the chains.”  “It will be our turn in a minute.” Those are just a few of the MANY things I repeated during our wait.  He throughly enjoyed it and his laughter was priceless, even if the ride only lasted 3 minutes.

Riding Dumbo with my little man

• Baby Care Stations are AMAZING.  I ran across the Baby Care Station at Magic Kingdom and I am not sure that I could have survived our trip without them!  I was able to feed and change little man and even washed bottles at the station.  

• Grammy’s are essential to a satisfying Disney experience.  They hold babies, take little boys to the potty, get bottles ready, and just enjoy watching the joy on your kids faces as much as you do.  Don’t do Disney without one. :)

Grammy with her boys

• From backscratchers to measuring spoons, if you want to bring home a Mickey Mouse souvenir, you can find it.

• You learn something new every trip you take to Disney.  This time we discovered that character breakfasts may be a little pricey but they get you in the park before the big rush.  We also discovered that you can get a Fast Pass at Magic Kingdom to see Mickey, Minnie, and a few of the princesses. Fast Passes are amazing and minimize the stress of waiting in line!

• You can understand couples arguing at Disney even in a different language.  I may not have understand the actual words but I understood the emotions!  When you have small  kids and it is hot and you have spent 6 hours at the park, it is easy to get frustrated!  We walked past a couple at the Magic Kingdom late in the afternoon who were having a heated conversation in Spanish while looking at their map.  Their children were crying in the stroller.  It was hot and late in the day.  No translation needed.

Drew was fascinated with the park maps. :)

• Trips like this are lessons in how to turn lemons into lemonade, especially for this planner personality.  I feel like I experienced a “Growth Moment” several times on this trip when our plan didn’t quite work out as we had expected.  Instead of letting it stress me out completely, I was able to adjust adjust and move on.  Wow, that is so much easier than my normal response.  I am pretty sure my hubby would say the same thing!

We really did have a great time.  I will probably have another post to do after our 12 hour car ride home with two boys who are very tired!