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The Most Wonderful Place on Earth
Before my husband and I had children, my generous mother took us on a trip to Disneyland Paris. We live near London, so it was a simple train ride on the EuroStar to Disney. We spent three days there, and our experience wasn’t exactly “magical.”
I don’t know what I was expecting, but the rides were lacklustre, the shows a bit underwhelming, and the staff a bit surly. At the time, I chalked it up to the fact that we were adults entering a child-focused world and of course we would find it a bit boring. A bit meh.
Several years on, we now have three young children of our own, and the time has come to consider a trip to Disney once again. My husband was adamantly against going back to France, so we looked to Florida for our destination. I really liked the idea of going to Florida, since I have family and several friends who live near Orlando. I began researching prices, the best time to go, how long we should go, what parks to visit, which hotels to stay at, what to eat and how far in advance I should reserve a table at the busiest restaurants.
It turns out that a simple trip to Disney World must be planned with military precision in order to eke the most fun possible from every second spent there. Considering the massive cost involved — we’re talking upwards of £5,000 — this was a lot of pressure. In fact, it didn’t seem so fun any more; it felt more like an epic gamble of time, money and parental sanity.
Imagine, if you will, the following scenario. You have spent the better part of a year saving as much money as possible in order to pay for this once-in-a-lifetime experience for your children. You and your spouse forgo birthday and anniversary gifts in an effort to save up. You feed your family on pb&j sandwiches for two meals a day. You arrange time off work and school, you obsessively plan every moment of your fun, down to where and when you will eat each day. You make list after list: packing lists, revised packing lists, lists of rides to go on, rides to avoid, shows to watch. Spending money is portioned out for every day, and if you overspend you won’t be able to eat the last two days of the trip.
You buy special toys and books for the kids. They will be a year older by the time you leave, so you hope and pray that they will be mature enough for the 9 hour plane ride.
The children are beside themselves with excitement, and have been for weeks (if you are smart, you will have told them about the trip no more than a month in advance). They don’t understand the concept of 9 hours, let alone 9 hours in one chair with no running and no noise allowed. They don’t understand why they are awake at 3am and why you are inevitably unhappy with this. Their anxious exhilaration will never, ever match the actual experience of waiting in line, walking long distances and waiting in line again.
If you have saved enough, you can spend the big bucks on a character dinner or fantastically overpriced Disney-stamped merchandise. Sugar will be everywhere. There will be no escape from the glassy-eyed sugar-crashed child that will be desperate for MORE FUN.
And if they don’t have fun? What then? You spent so much money on this trip, it works out to cost something like £500+ per day. At that kind of rate, those kids had better have FUN. More FUN! Youbetterhavefunrightnoworwe’regoinghomemissy kind of fun. Wheee!
Now, I’m sure that I am exaggerating the desperation here. I’m sure thousands of people a year who visit Disney parks all over the world have a great time. Someone once told me that comparing Disneyland Paris to Disney World is kind of like comparing a local fun fair to Cirque du Soleil. I get that.
However. I don’t think Disney is in the cards for our family any time soon. I have no problem saving money for a big trip, but at this point I’d rather save money for a deposit on a house.
It has happened. I am a boring grown-up.
maybe I was a boring kid but we went to Disney World twice and my favorite memories are from day trips Plymouth, Humpty Dumpty Land and Old Mystic Village. I think you’re right about the forced fun.
Like in most matters of parenting, I’m on the same page as you. I cannot, for the life of me, justify a Disney Vacation. Not only do I dislike Disney (and most cartoons) period, but the costs are just out of this world. We have been down to California and Florida in the past 3 years, and only briefly did we think “Oh look. Orlando. Maybe we should stop and see Disney for a few hours….” Then we laughed our asses off and dragged our kids to Miami to eat Cubano food.
When I was 16, I was in Paris, and had the option of going to Disney then. Do you know what I did? I went to a cemetery to see Jim Morrison’s grave.
Right now, the flight points and air miles are being hoarded for a 4 person trip to Turkey. I have a feeling that it will cost roughly the same amount as a Disney trip to California.
We just got back from a trip to Disney and I have to say that we all had a blast. The cost was affordable (of course, we only had a 2.5 hour plane ride and we took advantage of the special deal on the meal plan – no extra charge!). My daughter had a great time, the character dinners we did manage to book were part of the meal plan and the timing meant less than 20 minutes wait for most of the rides we cared for. We weren’t as careful with the planning as we could have been and ended up rushing a couple of times to hit the engagements we had booked, but overall it was a great experience. The cast members were all very friendly and always seemed in a great mood. We’ll probably go back when my daughter’s 10 or so (she’s 5 now and wasn’t big enough for all of the rides).
In spite of my previous comment, I am sure we will go together as a family, when we have one, someday. The truth is, I am not a Disney cynic.
Honestly, the entire experience wouldn’t scare me nearly as much if we didn’t have to fly across an entire ocean to get there. Just the thought of the flight makes me exhausted!
My fiancee wants a trip to Disneyland for her birthday. We live in L.A. so we’re not concerned about traveling but …..I’m secretly kind of dreading it.