Disaster At Disneyland

So I have been putting off this post... guess the experience was too traumatic. No, not really, but I can definitely say that I did NOT have a "magical" time at Disneyland over spring break.

Unfortunately we chose a horrible time to go. We went the Wednesday and Thursday before Easter. The lines to both parks were crazy! So much of both days was spent standing in line and trying to entertain the kiddos.

Then we had the juggling and feeding Sean, as he could go on a few rides, but not all and still had to nurse frequently. My mom came with us to help, but we quickly realized that she was not in any condition to offer a lot of help. My mother is in very poor shape and is not able to "keep up" with the rest of us. So between the wait for the rides and the snail pace from one ride to the next (battling the other pedestrians on our way), it made for a long two days.

We were happy that we had gotten a hotel for a couple nights. The second day at Disneyland we headed back to the hotel around 4pm so the kids could take a nap before going back to the park. Ira and Emma were exhausted and slept rather soundly. Mark eventually had to wake them so they could eat dinner (we ordered Chinese) and get back to the park before their Autotopia fast passes expired (good thing they had them because they still waited 20min after going through the fast pass line).

I decided to stay at the hotel with Sean because he was done with the noise of the two days and lack of good naps. I wished that my mom could have stayed (I'm sure she would have rather stayed as well), but Sean still doesn't take a bottle (not for my lack of trying these last couple months!) and is only just beginning solids.

The last ride the kids went on was Pirates of the Caribbean. Mark parked the stroller with the rest of the strollers and, uncharacteristically, left the diaper bag with it (he is usually a stickler about carrying it). My mom decided she would stake out a place for the fireworks and not ride on the ride, but didn't think to take the stroller with her. When my husband and kids finished the ride, the stroller and diaper bag were gone. That was just before the firework show at 9:30pm.

Poor Emma was wearing a pretty wet diaper, but there were no diapers. My husband spent the whole time of the firework show looking for the stroller. He spoke with security and the guy made him walk all around the area looking for it. Then he went to the Main Street office to file a claim with Lost and Found. In short, they didn't leave the park until about 11pm.

Ira had been very well behaved the whole time, but after exiting the gates and walking toward the tram to the parking lot, he threw a huge tantrum. He couldn't understand why our stroller was gone. It is so hard for children to understand why people choose to do bad things and I was so sad that he had to go through that on our vacation. Even with the huge lines, he was still having a blast (speaking of blasting, he went on the Buzz Lightyear ride 3 times).

And I was bummed that we lost our digital camera, which was in our diaper bag when it was taken. No pictures of this trip. :( It is ironic that I went out of my way to make sure that my husband took a picture with the kids and I since I often don't appear in any of our vacation pictures. Guess I tempted fate!

The next day we drove down to Mission Viejo to meet my cousin for lunch. It was great to see her and her husband! And my son was still happy he went to Disneyland. When my cousin asked what his favorite ride was, he began listing ALL the rides he had been on (which wasn't too difficult since we didn't get to ride on many :p). On the way to Mission Viejo I called Disneyland to see if our stroller turned up anywhere. I guess I called the main line. The gentleman was friendly enough and told me I would have to call the Lost and Found direct line. After getting the phone number he then added, "And have a magical day!" Uh--yeah. Then I called the Lost and Found and was put on hold for half an hour before I hung up. After lunch I called again and this time I was able to talk with a live person--but no stroller.

I think we will go to Knott's next time.