When Long Held Beliefs Are Cast Aside

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to let it rip: we’re going to Disney World tomorrow.

I didn’t go when I was a kid. My parents were never in position to afford it when I was little. And I wasn’t ever into anything Disney. In fact, the contrarian streak in my personality could probably be traced back to my early loathing of Mickey and the rest of the Disney gang. And thus I figured there was no real reason to take my kids.

My stance has softened, though. We’ve been talking about taking this trip for about two years and the timing finally worked out right to do it now.¹ As I mentioned two months ago, we let the girls know about the trip the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. They were excited, but the anticipation of Christmas kept it in the backs of their minds. Once we got past the holidays, though, and we started putting stickers on the calendar to countdown the days until departure, things changed.

They’ve been in rare form the last 48 hours or so. If there’s a wall within their sight, odds are they’re bouncing off of it. Our patience has been tried many times, but it’s not like we can say, “If you don’t calm down, we’re not going to Disney on Tuesday.” I think even L. would see right through that. So we’re hoping they can chill just a bit and get through the next 28 hours or so until we arrive at our hotel without making us lose our minds.

We don’t have too many concrete plans. We have three days in the parks. We’ll probably spend most of that time in the Magic and Animal Kingdoms. The girls have a breakfast date with some princesses on Friday. My in-laws are joining us so we’ll have more adults than kids.

All our friends who have been keeping telling us what a great job everyone at Disney does making sure the kids have a great time. And even parents who were anti-Disney like me said they ended up having a great time. So I’m doing my best to approach with an open mind and make it a fun, memorable trip for all.

I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to update the blog or not while we’re away. If not, you know I’ll post a complete summary upon our return.

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