Disneyland November 2016

We went to Disneyland at what we thought would be the lowest of the low season: the first few weekdays of November between Halloween and Christmas decorations. This was a perfect opportunity to see if it is worth manipulating schedules to go to Disneyland in the slow times. The verdict? Though the crowds were low, Disney is a world leader in the art of crowd control and they shut down tracks, remove extra cars, and have less staff during the super slow times and you end up with almost the same line times in the most popular rides (read 45-60 min waits for Peter Pan during Magic Morning on a weekday). They had very few esoteric characters out for short times and had no parades or fireworks. BUT, we got to ride Gadget's Go-Coaster over 15 times with no wait because we were riding at night, and we hopped on to most of the less popular rides with little to no wait at all - I guarantee you that during the busy times that wouldn't have been possible... so tradeoffs. We had hoped to hit cooler weather so Miles wouldn't be exposed to the high heats (it reportedly lowers the seizure threshold) but each day was OVER 100 degrees! That said, it was still fun, amazing and magical because, Disney!

My mom came with us and was so helpful and fun to have around. She was the original Disneyphile in the family and Disney is just not the same without her. Plus, Miles went to sleep one night at 5pm and slept 12 hours straight and my mom made the ultimate Disney sacrifice and stayed with him in the hotel so we could play with Kai in the parks.

Kai is a thrill seeker!! But at 38" he didn't make the cutoff for the roller coasters aside from Gadet's Go-Coaster, but he didn't know what he was missing so he was pretty much on Cloud 9 the entire time. He loved every ride so much but his favorites seemed to be Casey Jr and Gadget's Go-Coaster which he could have rode repeatedly. His reported favorite was the Alice in Wonderland ride, and he still talks a lot about the Nemo submarine and talking with Crush. 

  

First time on Casey Jr and his excitement could not be contained

Though we stayed onsite, we plowed through nap time our first day because both kids seemed to be doing pretty well.  To our surprise, Miles loved all the new sights and sounds and seemed to truly enjoy the rides. He napped well in the Ergo and overall seemed to enjoy the experience. Unfortunately, by the time it got to about 7 the kids both hit their walls and though Kai was still having fun, he was past exhausted. 

Those are TIRED eyes waiting for our last ride of the day

I was quite worried about waiting in the lines with a very active toddler and I packed a duffel bag full of activities and snacks, but turns out we never needed any of it and used only a handful of my endless arsenal of tricks. Right from the start Kai was happy to wait. We played a treasure hunting game where we would toss change into the area around us in the line and he thought he was finding gold every time and kept handing me the "treasure" to hold which we would then re-toss in areas he wasn't looking and it really never got old. I had a couple of his favorite Cars toys which entertained him most of the time and occasionally we looked back at pictures we had taken over the course of the day.  Though we didn't use them this time, the last time we went to Disney we did bubbles in the line with a Buzz Lightyear bubble gun that Disney sold and it was a big hit.

Our second day was a lot harder on Miles. We weren't sure if it was the increased heat or the fact that he could go one day without naps in the land of overstimulation but two was too many, or both, but he definitely hit his wall early in the morning. It was probably about 11 in the morning and already 104 out and Miles started doing the thing that makes me think infantile spasms. I tried to change his set up but the spastic spasm-like things continued and we ended up racing back to the hotel to put Miles down for an air conditioned nap. He and Kai both took long naps and when we headed back out over four hours later (oh the sacrifices we make for our children), Miles was less than happy to be back in the park, and lasted only another hour before he went back down for the night. I think about that day often and wonder if we saw seizures there or if he was just extremely overstimulated and we will never know. It was a scary dose of reality, and I do worry about future trips to Disney or anywhere really... but it's the new normal! Our plan is to avoid the heat, try to take it a little slower, keep packing the Diastat (rescue seizure medication) and wish upon a lot of stars. 

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