A Day out with Thomas and Dutch Wonderland COMPLETED 7/26 - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Great start Holly. I completely understand the overpacking bit, especially the toys, and identical toys at that (be happy you weren't havinng to do this for twins and then your own). I completely understand and appreciate the havig to pack more diapers and wipes needed for a non-potty trained little fella. Not only the case here, but itwas the same when my brother was the same age(and man did that kiddo. Not. Want to get potty trained). Super cute picture of Evan and his cake! Great job. Evan. It looks yummy! More please Holly.
I'm beginning to wonder if he will EVER use the potty. The cake was good BTW!
Holly from what I remember with my brother, some boys just want to take longer being potty trained. I guess some little boys feel more comfortable being in diapers and pull ups. Glad the cake
was delicious!
Post date June 17, 2010
Day 1 Part 1, Saturday June 12, 2010
So to recap quickly myself, DS-Evan 3 ½, my mom-Janet and my nephew Eric 4 ½ are driving to LancasterCountyPA for a long weekend. We will be going to Dutch Wonderland a theme park geared toward children about 9 and under and then going to ride a real steam train of Thomas the Tank Engine. We did this last year so this year we are a little more organized and familiar with the area and just wiser in general about traveling with little kids.
Evan of course climbed into bed with me during the night. Honestly I try not to let him do it and return him to his bed whenever I can but half of the time I awake just enough to know he is there but not enough to get him out of my bed and back into his . So the alarm doesn’t even go off because by 6am I have a little boy’s head in my face. I fumble out of bed and go down to let the dog out.
I turn on Sprout (the best TV channel ever) and give Evan his milk cup as I get to work. My mom came over last night and we loaded the car with everything so all I have left to pack is the items I still needed (curling iron, Evan’s stuffed animals, DVD player…). This morning I’m in full-blown, clean up mode. The house was picked up and organized but hadn’t been clean so I wanted to tackle that.
I started laundry and ran the dish washer, cleaned the bathrooms, emptied the trash, vacuumed, dusted and made the beds. Evan was wonderful. He watched TV and then played in his sand box (with out getting dirty) for about 45 minutes. Every time he asked me to play with him I told him I just needed this time and that I’d spend the entire weekend with him. Honest he was as good as gold and I was so proud of him. He “helped” me empty the trash and clean up the dog poopie from the back yard.
Next I had to run Wrigley down to Best Friends for his “visit”
and then it was back home. We were all set and ready to go when mom came with Eric at 11:10 – right on time.
We headed to McDonald’s for lunch. I didn’t take any photos of food so you’ll need to use your imaginations. We only ate chicken nuggets and pizza and the likes for the whole trip and since I assume everyone know what McDonald’s chicken nuggets and french fries look like, I didn’t bother with the photos. Also being a newbie in the trip report writing business I felt a little awkward taking photos at the local Friendly’s. I suppose I will gain more confidence on later trips. However I’m not a foodie and often eat very simple, unsophisticated, unimpressive meals. Okay so were was I? Oh yes, McDonalds.
My town’s McDonalds has an indoor play ground and the boys had the standard meal – 6 count chicken nuggets, apple dippers, chocolate milk and share my fries. The toy was a watch from Shrek. My nephew loved it because he could clip it onto his belt loop.
Eric doesn’t know how to tell time yet so he would look at the watch and always tell us “it’s quarter after 7” I don’t even think he knows what that means but it was just so cute. Now Evan knows a quarter is a “piece of change” so then he would say it is “quarter after diamond” which is what he calls a dime.
The boys played in the playground while mom and I finished eating our lunches.
This was the best I could get of them looking at me
The protectice screen makes it hard to see - sorry
Don't you just love the holes in the knees?
Alright I just have to give myself a pat on the back here, being the wonderful mom that I am (lol). I let the boys pick out the table and of course they picked one of those little tiny tables with the little tiny stools. The kind you would see in day care and the kind that you can’t even bend your knees under the table because you are too tall. Yea – that kind. But I just sucked it up and sat there with a smile on my face and no blood to my lower extremities.
We had succeeded in tiring them out and were hoping to have them fall asleep for the 90 minute ride from south Jersey to Lancaster. The quickest way to get to Lancaster for us is to go through Center City Philadelphia but there were some trouble on the bridges that day and a few accidents and according to the traffic reports just seemed a mess any way around it. We ended up taking a more southern route and heading closer to Delaware and Wilmington before heading north to Lancaster. I took us a little longer distance wise and because the roads were smaller it took a little longer time wise as well. However it wasn’t too bad and we avoided the hang ups in Philly so I think we came out ahead of things in the end.
So shortly after we left the McDonalds we heard the cranky whining in the back seat. “he took my car”, “I want that one” etc. I had very specifically picked out 2 cars exactly the same yet somehow they knew which was theirs . In all fairness it was mainly Evan so I ended up laying my seat back and laid on my stomach and held his hand until he fell asleep.
With Evan asleep and Eric very tired I figured he would be asleep in a matter of minutes. 5 minutes later I look back – awake. 5 more minutes – still awake. 5 MORE minutes – still awake! Now Eric is at the age were he sometimes doesn’t take a nap or falls asleep on the couch at 4pm. We kept telling him “you better take a nap or you will be tired” and got the standard answer of “no I won’t, I won’t be cranky” (remember that). Of course my mom is trying to reason with him. Like trying to be logical with a tired 4 year old is going to work. About 45 minutes later he finally fell asleep but really only got about a half hour nap.
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Great update! How cool to see the Amish buggy crossing the intersection! I'd love to visit that area someday.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BeckiO5
Holly from what I remember with my brother, some boys just want to take longer being potty trained. I guess some little boys feel more comfortable being in diapers and pull ups. Glad the cake
was delicious!
When my DS was 3, he didn't want to be potty trained either. What finally worked was I took him outside on a nice warm day with no pants or diaper on. And I brought the potty chair outside too. When he started to "go", he noticed it because he didn't have a diaper on, and I had him go right to the potty chair. This worked great! Something clicked for him, and he was basically done with diapers after that.
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Holly what a wonderful beginning to your trip. Skyler has those Shrek watches too! The no nappers (Eric sounds like Skyler when it comes to naps, except for in the car). Great pictures both in Mc Donalds and from thr car. So sorry to hear there was a lot of traffic and it took you longer to get there. Looking foward to more please Holly.
Pam, thank you for the idea. I will have to try it for Potty Training.
Great update! How cool to see the Amish buggy crossing the intersection! I'd love to visit that area someday.
You should - it is a very nice area and tons of things to do - for all ages, not just preshcoolers. I think next year we are going to tour a pretzel making factory where you get to roll out your own dough.
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Post date June 22, 2010
Day 1 Part 2, Saturday June 12, 2010
We arrived at the hotel, Quality Inn of Lancaster around 2:45pm.
Both boys were still sleeping so I ran inside to check us in. Our room wasn’t ready and they said they couldn’t check us in until they had a room free, okay we are not in Disney. However they would have some rooms available as soon as she got word from housekeeping. They were being cleaned and should be available within 15 minutes. I went back to the car figuring we would just let the kids sleep a little longer but they were both awake. The hotel was right along busy Route 30 and directly across the street from Dutch Wonderland so we just parked the car and Evan and Eric sat and watched the monorail at DW and the traffic. Cars + Trucks + Motorcycles = Happy little boys.
I went back up in 15 minutes and our room was ready. We unloaded the car, checked out the view from our room
Right outside our door was the swimming pool
We debated for about half a second about not doing to DW and just stay at the pool. But then said – we planed on doing the water park – lets just go do it.
I’m going to pause here for a minute to comment on the hotel. It was fine, we were only there for 2 nights and the rate was about $70.00 per night so I wasn’t expecting much. It is so hard because Disney has set the bar so high so everything else pales by comparison. We had 2 double beds and free continental breakfast and there was an indoor and outdoor pool and a game room. The hotel room’s lighting was poor the whole property could use some sprucing up. For example, there were 2 plugs in our room that didn’t work and the carpet needed to be vacuumed as I saw several fuzzes on the ground (you know the kind that come out when you have a brand new pair of sweat pants). And although we were in a non smoking room, the halls smelled of smoke. On a positive note everyone was very friendly and the room was huge. We had a door that opened up to the pool and the area with the table and chairs was really big. I have a feeling this might have been a “suite” hotel in a prior incarnation as there was a ledge next to the fridge that USED to have a sink in it at one time. You could have easily put another bed or couch in the room. It was perfect for the little ones to play and run around and because we were on the bottom floor we let them as there was no one under us to disturb.
I took some pictures of the room and the grounds. The room photos are unfortunately of a messy room. When we first arrived I had the boys, and suitcases and everything else and there really wasn’t a good time to take photos as they were pretty much always in the room with me. All of you with kids know what I mean. I’m now in awe of many of you as to how you can get hotel room photos where the room is so neat and clean because that NEVER happened for us. Oh well, you get the idea messy room or not…
front desk
lobby
Game room above and below
indoor pool
indoor patio
outdoor pool
outdoor patio
Sauna
Alright, returning to day one…
We quickly got our swim suits on and headed across the street to Dutch Wonderland getting there about 3:45pm. We purchased a 2 day pass and headed in the park. Inside DW is an area with water activities called Dukes Lagoon. That was our destination for today. We walked our way through the park, giving the boys a chance to see what was to come tomorrow. Dukes Lagoon was crowded as it was a hot and humid day but we found a chair and plopped our beach towels down and took off out flip flops and went to cool off. I didn’t even bring my camera with me but took a few pictures of the lagoon the next day at closing time.
The rides here are mainly water slides and water cannons/guns and large buckets that fill and dump automatically. They had areas of the babies, toddlers and the bigger kids. Evan’s favorite thing was splashing in a puddle and getting me all wet.
The boys ran round with me and Grandmom chasing behind for a few hours.
Now will begin my ranking…
How on earth could any responsible adult take a child to a water park and then just never check on them? There were several little kids I mean LITTLE ( like 3-4 years old) just running around wild and cutting in line and I never saw an adult with them. It boggles my mind. Also you get the older kids like 8,9,10 years old whose parents don’t watch them either. They think, “I don’t need to watch my kids, they know where I am, they’ll come get me if there is a problem” Yea the problem is, your kid may be 8,9,10 but they are not mature enough to NOT trample my 3 year old. They go down the slides backwards; they climb on the outside of the equipment; they get too rough or wild. It just is really very rude and annoying not to mention dangerous.
There were a few times I was waiting at the bottom of a side for E&E to come down and some guy was there waiting for his daughter as well. And his daughter came down 3 times before my son came down once. I realize some of these places are hard when you are there by yourself. You can’t be at the top of the slide and at the bottom at the same time but if your child is pushing and cutting in line then they are not mature enough to be in that line by themselves.
My mom got so angry with one of these kids who kept butting that she became the unofficial line police. The workers are monitoring the slide entry and exit and not the line. I actually went up to 2 girls who butted in front of Evan and told them then needed to go to the back of the line and wait their turn. They looked at me like I had 3 heads but at least they did it. I mean seriously – where are theses kids parents?
OK rank over…
Eric and Evan had a ball and didn’t even notice kids cutting line so that was great.
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Great pictures of the hotel and waterpark! Sorry about the unsupervised kids!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great update!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kenny
I just found this! Great job, Holly!! Can't wait for more!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great update - the hotel looked very nice. Sad about the unsupervised kids.
Thanks everyone - this TR business is harder than I thought but I am enjoying it and hope you are too. Next installments coming soon - they are written but I'm still messing with the photos.
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! More please Holly.
Holly: 
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Pixie Dust
. So the alarm doesn’t even go off 
because by 6am I have a little boy’s head in my face. I fumble out of bed and go down to let the dog out. 
) and give Evan his milk cup as I get to work. My mom came over last night and we loaded the car with everything 
so all I have left to pack is the items I still needed (curling iron, Evan’s stuffed animals, DVD player…). This morning I’m in full-blown, clean up mode. The house was picked up and organized but hadn’t been clean so I wanted to tackle that.
. He “helped” me empty the trash and clean up the dog poopie from the back yard. 
of food so you’ll need to use your imaginations. We only ate chicken nuggets and pizza and the likes for the whole trip and since I assume everyone know what McDonald’s chicken nuggets and french fries look like, I didn’t bother with the photos. Also being a newbie in the trip report writing business I felt a little awkward taking photos at the local Friendly’s. I suppose I will gain more confidence on later trips. However I’m not a foodie and often eat very simple, unsophisticated, unimpressive meals. Okay so were was I? Oh yes, McDonalds.
but it was just so cute. Now Evan knows a quarter is a “piece of change” so then he would say it is “quarter after diamond” which is what he calls a dime.
. I let the boys pick out the table and of course they picked one of those little tiny tables with the little tiny stools. The kind you would see in day care and the kind that you can’t even bend your knees under the table because you are too tall. Yea – that kind. But I just sucked it up and sat there with a smile on my face 
and no blood to my lower extremities.
. 5 minutes later I look back – awake. 5 more minutes – still awake. 5 MORE minutes – still awake! Now Eric is at the age were he sometimes doesn’t take a nap or falls asleep on the couch at 4pm. We kept telling him “you better take a nap or you will be tired” and got the standard answer of “no I won’t, I won’t be cranky” (remember that). Of course my mom is trying to reason with him. Like trying to be logical with a tired 4 year old is going to work. About 45 minutes later 
he finally fell asleep but really only got about a half hour nap.
PassPorter Guide Author
. The hotel was right along busy Route 30 and directly across the street from Dutch Wonderland so we just parked the car and Evan and Eric sat and watched the monorail at DW and the traffic. Cars + Trucks + Motorcycles = Happy little boys.
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