Trifter

Walt Disney World – The place for young children to visit! Or so the travel agents would have you believe. But is that true? Think over these facts;

1)      It’s a really long flight to Orlando from the UK (8 hours)

2)      There are many rides that children cannot go on

3)      It’s a long day, with a lot of walking

Disney screams “Child Friendly” and “Magical for kids of all ages” but on closer inspection, there are only so many rides for them. Having been to Disney aged 6 and 16, I can say without any doubt that going at 16 was a lot more fun than it was when I was 6. As exciting? Not nearly. But there are so many more options for people over 5ft in height. There is the ‘Splash Mountain’ ride, ‘Thunder Mountain’, ‘Space Mountain’, ‘Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster’, ‘Test Track’ and various others that are no go areas for children. Not to mention the queues that ensue on children’s rides; a minimum of an hour’s wait on rides such as ‘Peter Pan’s Flight’, ‘Tomorrowland Speedway’, ‘It’s a Smallworld’ and others made entirely for children.

But not only are the rides aimed at people older than 5, the distances that you walk each day whilst in the parks is not for the faint hearted. With the entire resort spanning over 47 miles, roughly the size of San Francisco, it is a long day with a hell of a lot of walking. With people aiming to go in June or July, the height of the summer in Orlando, we all get irritable in the sunshine. Orlando is also known for its spur of the moment rainfall sessions, which are often accompanied by a storm. This tends to shut the rides down for the duration of the storm and people are huddled in restaurants, under shelters and running for cover in their cars. This type of weather, often appearing in the afternoon, can span from ten minutes to a few hours. During this time children will get bad-tempered, loud and ask for something to play with whilst waiting for the rain to stop.

There are a couple of restaurants aimed purely at children in Downtown Disney; McDonalds and Rainforest Cafe. There are other restaurants such as Planet Hollywood and Wonderland Cafe. But more often than not people end up in Universal Studios for their dinners out, as there is a broader range for dining. But as with queues for rides in Disney, if you don’t get there early enough, you will be queuing for dinner too! This will make hungry children touchy, drawing attention to you in the queue.

It may sound like I hate Disney, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I just believe that it is not as child friendly as it is made out to be. There is a lot of excitement to be had in the parks; rides, shows to watch, parades to see and photos to be taken. But there is no escaping the fact that Disney is a big place, with a lot of queues and a lot of walking. Pushing a pram around all day is not something that makes the trip more enjoyable. My mother says that she did enjoy herself when we went the first time. But that she enjoyed it a lot more when I was 16 because they could go on rides that they weren’t able to when I was 6.