Here’s a guest post from Sandra from Albany Kid. Thanks, Sandra!
Here’s a tip for Disney World that most tour guides won’t tell you.
It was something I learned the hard way on our first family vacation at the Happiest Place on Earth. My family had gathered in Orlando, Florida to celebrate my oldest baby sister’s wedding, which wasn’t at Disney, but near enough that a day or more in the park was a given. It also meant that we would be traipsing through the crowded amusement park with our own flotilla.
Naively, I thought that traveling with a large group ensured more adults to help with keeping watch of the kids. It never occurred to me that it was the adults who needed to be watched.
Keep in mind that this was March of 2000, long before ubiquitous smartphones. I can’t recall if we even had cellphones in those days; I suspect that we were still using those walkie talkies with a ½ mile range (which tended to fail in areas with high interference – like an amusement park.)
We were on our way to redeem our FASTPASS tickets at the 3D show, It’s Tough To Be a Bug!, a show that was guaranteed to give little kids (and their moms) the willies, when we realized that one of our party was missing.
I was wearing Baby Alex on a Bjorn carrier, my girlfriend had a good grip on the 4-year-old, and even the elder folks were doing a great job of keeping up in what was, for them, steam-room conditions.
And yet, somewhere between the group shot in front of the Tree of Life in the Animal Kingdom and Bug’s Life, the father of my children disappeared.
We were worried, and for a brief moment, panic set in. Some of us were tempted to contact park officials, but this wasn’t a completely unprecedented occurrence. My husband had already failed in his brief tenure as my dive buddy, on a never-to-be-forgotten scuba diving trip, when he was distracted by fish long enough to completely lose me.
Given that history, there was no way that we were going to give up our FASTPASS tickets to It’s Tough To Be a Bug! – who knew when we would be able to see that again? (Note – Yes, the 3D show is still going strong.)
So, we watched the show, and lo-and-behold, when we walked out of the theater, we found my husband waiting at the theater exit.
Did he purposely skip the show? We’ll never know for sure, but I can tell you that he is not fond of bugs, and spiders scare the bejeebies out of him.
More importantly, we all learned an important lesson that day. Keep an eye on the adults at amusement parks, the kids will be alright.
Sandra Foyt writes about fun and education family travel on www.AlbanyKid.com. After living in some of the most popular destinations: Buenos Aires, the Virgin Islands, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Southern California; she now makes her home in upstate NY with a teen and tween, an outdoorsy husband, and an over-indulged Chocolate Lab.
