The Rooneys' Disney Adventure

The Rooneys invade the Magic Kingdom.

Well, we survived our vacation to Walt Disney World. We returned Tuesday night, and everyone has been asking how our trip was. The answer: as best as it could be considering Thomas was sick for most of the trip and Nolan was terrified of most of the rides.

We left last Thursday. Traveling with Thomas is never much fun, and flying with him on the plane wasn't any better. It was late in the day by the time we finally got to our resort -- Disney's Port Orleans Riverside. It was past the kids' usual bedtime by the time we got them dinner and they were both bears. The day was pretty much hell, but that's what we expected for the travel day.

We had a system every day. We'd hit a park as soon as it opens. We'd have lunch somewhere at the park and be back at the resort by 1:30 p.m. for Thomas' nap. While he was sleeping Kris and I would take turns doing something around the resort with Nolan.

At the end of every day I'd ask Nolan what his favorite part of the day was and it was always whatever we did at the hotel. He enjoyed the paddle boat ride, going fishing, playing air hockey in the arcade, swimming, etc. Yeah, he liked the parks too, but the resort stuff was always his first answer.

On Friday we did the Magic Kingdom. Anything that was outdoors, Nolan enjoyed. He loved the Dumbo ride. He loved climbing through the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. But he did not want to do any of the indoor rides. We went on the Winnie the Pooh ride (c'mon, Winnie the Pooh, for crying out loud!) and he was a little nervous on that (Thomas, our little thrill-seeker, loved it). Even on a ride like Pooh, I think Nolan was nervous about the combination of the dark, the loud music and sound effects and the fact he couldn't see where the ride was going. He loves "Toy Story," so we tried taking him on the Buzz Lightyear ride and he flipped out. We had to get off the ride and leave. After that we knew to stick to things in the outdoors.

On Saturday we hit Animal Kingdom, which I was a little disappointed by. Kris and I were looking forward to this park since it wasn't there on our last trip to Disney World almost 10 years ago. But I found it to be very congested and hard to get around in. But the safari was cool and I went on the Dinosaur thril ride by myself, which was very cool! Nolan's favorite part of the park was a giant sand box where you can dig for dinosaur bones.

Those were the highlights of Animal Kingdom. But there was a big lowlight. We weren't inside the gates for five minutes before Thomas threw up all over himself. For the next three days he had a fever. We didn't have a change of clothes for him at the park with us. So I bought the smallest T-shirt I could find, which was still two sizes too big for him, and he wore nothing but that and a diaper for the rest of the park visit.

On Sunday we went to Dinsey/MGM Studios. Nolan wanted to go to the park, but didn't want to actually do anything once we were there. We pretty much forced him to sit through Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We also took him on the studio backlot tour, which I remembered as being fairly benign, and for the most part it was. But I forgot just how close you are to that truck that "blows up" and that the tram you're riding in starts to rock. That scared the bejeezes out of him. That said, he and Thomas did enjoy the Playhouse Disney Live show, lunch at Pizza Planet and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. However, I could not talk him into going to see Muppet Vision 3-D and I didn't feel like forcing him into anything anymore.

Monday we went to Epcot, which was quite possibly our worst park experience. Every day one of the parks opens early for resort guests. On this day, Epcot opened early, but there was nothing to do! A large section of the park was still closed off. All that was available were the indoor rides that Nolan didn't like. We tried to take him on the ride in the Land pavillion -- the one that's all about farming and vegetables and all that good stuff. What could be scary about that? Apparently, plenty. It was the Buzz Lightyear experience all over again, and again we had to get off the ride while we still could. He did enjoy the Living Seas, which has been turned into one big "Finding Nemo" display. But otherwise everyone was fairly miserable, especially Thomas who was still pretty sick.

But at least we ate pretty good. We ate in lots of different places and tried lots of different things. With one exception, we never ate in the same place twice and the food everywhere was always great.

On Tuesday we came home. Traveling with Thomas was slightly better this time than it was on our trip down.

So the vacation was a lot of hard work and definitely had its ups and downs. The big question: was it worth it? Well, that depends on who you ask. Nolan wil ltell you he had a good time, and I suppose that's all that matters. As for his parents, one us would like to go again in five years or so when the kids are a little older and one of us says it would take a lot to go anywhere near Orlando again.

We've got a couple camping trips planned for this summer, which is more our usual speed. We'll see what we decide to do for our big trip next year.