I Can Still Enjoy Disney World

This week the entire Nguyen clan (Pepe, Meme, Mary, Long, Alexander, Kaitlyn, Sarah, Megan, Paige and myself) returned from Florida after a one week trip visiting Disney World. Despite my previous cynicism about Disney (corporate and artificial), I ended up having a great time there. Having young children with me made me see the theme parks in new light. Simple attractions like Dumbo (a basic midway ride) or a playground were much more enjoyable than the big ticket rides. The kids loved the shows and parades too. Riding some rides or seeing the same show two or three times even made for a satisfying experience.

Under the guidance of my sister, we made a couple of wise choices that enhanced our enjoyment. We arrived early every day. If you're not staying on Disney property, it would normally take about three modes of transportation just to get to the Magic Kingdom (private vehicle, tram, monorail.) Arriving early got us a parking spot within walking distance of the monorail entrance. We avoided packing everything into a tram to/from the park which would have been a huge buzz-kill at the end of the day when we had four tired kids with strollers, coolers and all.

Secondly, we had a plan everyday. With Disney's massive lines that fluctuated in length depending on the time of day, it helped to do a little research and plan when to hit each attraction. We took full advantage of the Disney's Fastpass too, which at no extra cost was like getting a reservation to come back at a later hour and essentially walk to the front of the line.

Since all the children were four and under, we decided to hit Magic Kingdom during three of our days there (forgoing other parks like Epcot). That took a lot of pressure off. We knew that if we missed a major attraction we'd be back another day to see it. That went with this next strategy: we didn't try to do too much in one day. We often finished our plans by 11AM or noon, which left the afternoon for simply wandering around/ soaking in the atmosphere or letting the kids run around or repeat their favorite rides.

Anyway, enough of the Disney strategies. What I really wanted to share were the pictures so here they are:


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monday, april 21, 2008 addendum

New photos have been added to the set. These were from my father's camera from our days in the water parks.