{"id":1921,"date":"2011-08-04T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_guest\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2022-05-05T14:04:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T18:04:19","slug":"pools-and-parades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/pools-and-parades\/","title":{"rendered":"Pools and Parades"},"content":{"rendered":"

On our first trip to Disney World, my boys were 2 and 4-years-old.\u00a0 I had read The Unofficial Guide to WDW<\/em> and felt fairly prepared for our trip.\u00a0 Touring plans in hand, we were ready for the World.\u00a0 However, I was surprised to learn that my children were just as happy, if not more so, playing in the pool or watching a parade as they were riding the rides.<\/p>\n

The guide books said to schedule in pool time for the children, and I had done that.\u00a0 Despite the good information I had read, I did not realize how much my kids would love playing in the pools.\u00a0 My adult perspective said, \u201cA pool is a pool.\u00a0 We can go to a pool back home.\u201d\u00a0 But the children saw a magical water world and would have been happy to play in the guitar and piano-shaped pools at All-Star Music all day!\u00a0 \u201cSwimming\u201d (actually paddling with water wings) out to the Three Caballeros in the center of the guitar-shaped pool was an adventure they tackled with gusto.\u00a0 Avoiding being shot by the water spray, and then trying to be shot by the water spray, was a game that could have gone on for hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We had pool time the evening we arrived at our hotel, and because of the advice in the guide books, I had schedule a day for playing in the pool and visiting Down Town Disney.\u00a0 I was so glad that we had that leisure time in the pools.\u00a0 Although it was difficult for me to \u201cstop and smell the roses\u201d (or should I say \u201cstop and smell the chlorine\u201d?) because the frugal part of me wanted to maximize our time in the parks and see as many attractions as possible, I had to recognize that the pool was an attraction in and of itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other Disney events that I might be tempted to skip as an adult, but that my children truly enjoy, are the parades.\u00a0 Our first parade was the Stars and Motor Cars Parade in MGM Studios (now called Hollywood Studios).\u00a0 My young boys were huge Power Ranger fans, and when the Power Rangers came by with their big black car roaring, my boys were in awe.\u00a0 The pictures of their faces while watching the parade are some of my favorite pictures from our trip.\u00a0 They waved at everyone, and all the characters waved back or gave a high-five.\u00a0 Although we were only four people in a crowd of hundreds, we felt like the entire production was just for us.\u00a0 Over the years, we have enjoyed many other parades.\u00a0 The Halloween parade is one of our favorites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During that first trip, I was able to internalize the advice I hadonly read about before. Spend time at the pool.\u00a0 Enjoy the parades.<\/em>\u00a0 I learned to ignore the voice in my head that wanted to cram in as many attractions as possible in one day, the voice that wonders how short the wait lines are since everyone is watching the parade.\u00a0 Instead, I paid attention to the voice that said \u201cLook at the expressions on your children\u2019s faces!\u00a0 This is magical!\u00a0 This is Disney!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On our first trip to Disney World, my boys were 2 and 4-years-old.\u00a0 I had read The Unofficial Guide to WDW and felt fairly prepared for our trip.\u00a0 Touring plans in hand, we were ready for the World.\u00a0 However, I was surprised to learn that my children were just as happy, if not more so,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walt-disney-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86638,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions\/86638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}