Vacation with a 5-year old is always an adventure, particularly when the destination is Disneyland.
Unless you live in Florida or California, I think there's pressure on parents because just getting to the front gates of Disney is a production. It's unfortunate that this family vacation requires some to consider a small loan to cover admission. But Disney clearly understands the power of its brand combined with the parental pull of sharing this "magic" with your kids, or just reliving it yourself.
The advice I am about to give sounds so obvious, but it is worth repeating so the vacation of your dreams doesn't turn into a nightmare -- The direct level of your enjoyment and that of your child will depend NOT on how much money you've spent on your park hopper pass. Repeat this mantra daily, hourly if need be.
If you choose to go to Disney with a younger child, it can be a bit of a gamble. Luckily, we had other family trips planned to Florida and California visiting friends and family where Disney was a one-day sideshow, not the sole purpose of the trip. We were confident that Dylan was ready to go back for three days. But you need to be prepared that your child's favorite part of the whole vacation could be the eating Fruit Loops because they don't get those at home, or being in a hotel swimming pool. In other words, don't even attempt some cost-benefit analysis of this kind of vacation.
In Dylan's case, all he really cared about was going to Toon Town and seeing Mickey and the gang. I kid you not that in three days, Dylan saw Mickey at least a dozen times and never tired of it. He also went to Playhouse Disney -- a puppet production with Mickey and the Gang, Tigger and Pooh, Handy Manny and Little Einsteins -- three times. The half-hour show was the same each time with music and dancing, and he danced as crazily the third time as he did the first.
While this might sound monotonous, we kept in mind that, at this age, this constituted a successful, memorable vacation and best of all, didn't mean waiting in monstrous lines.
We did do a few rides, truth be told, this satisfied my husband Tim and me as much as Dylan. Dylan's favorite was Dumbo the Flying Elephant, and I felt badly I cajoled him into Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which he said was too dark and scary, but I loved it. High on Tim's list (and ours) was Turtle Talk with Crush (surfer turtle from Finding Nemo) where you can have a real-time conversation with the animated turtle. We went twice and it was totally different each time. It so totally rocked... DUDE!
I'd recommend the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland to anyone considering this trip. It will give you an idea which rides are good for your child and which ones will likely raise their heart rates into the stratosphere.
Parades for us were well worth watching. We saw the Pixar parade twice -- which had great colors and dancing and fun characters from The Incredibles, Ratatouille, A Bug's Life and other flicks.
Our trip ended fittingly with the Parade of Dreams, which was truly spectacular and probably allowed me to reconnect with that "inner child" I'd like to think I still possess at age 39. It's a great mix of past and present with eight megafloats. It shows off every princess as well as well as traditional characters Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Pinocchio in addition to dancers and ornate costumes from the Lion King. Dylan was jumping up and down waving at everyone and, I have to admit, I waved right along with him and mirrored his 5-year old giddiness.
When do we go back?