An Amusement Park Survival Guide
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Growing up in the Los Angeles basin, I saw my fair share of amusement parks. Disneyland, the real one, was a yearly trip. Magic Mountain was a mere five or ten miles from my house. I even worked there one summer after high school. We bought passes to Universal Studios back when it was cheap and not half as popular as it is now.
Yes, sirree, I knew exactly how much money I needed to buy a waffle cone, a large, soft pretzel, and a frozen lemonade. And I knew what order to ride the best attractions. And I knew the layout of each park like the back of my hand.
My biggest concern was would the water ride muss up my hair and would I see a cute boy — and would he notice me.
But, it’s different when you’re a mom.
Yes, mussed hair is the least of my worries these days. I love an amusement park just like the next person, but I’ve realized in the two short years since I started taking kids along, that there are some items that will help you survive the day — and even smile.
Here’s my little survival guide for touring amusement parks with children:
1. Pack a backpack with incidentals.
For our family this means the travel potty seat, hand sanitizer, travel size Lysol, bandaids, and spare clothes for the girls, ages 2 and 4. And after the last few outings when more than one person has asked for Tylenol or Advil, I’m adding pain killers to my bag of tricks!
I am the one to man the backpack. The back in backpack is important here. You need to have both hands free to catch wayward children, handle a map, and hold your frozen lemonade.
2. Wear a family uniform.
Yes, I know, it looks a little nerdy. Puhlease, don’t tell my kids! But, trial and much error has proven that we need to be color coded when we go to places like Legoland or Disneyland. The shirts don’t need to be identical, but at least in the same color range.
If I lose a kid — and the chances are great when you have six — I need to conserve every brain cell possible. I can’t be wracking my brains to remember what he was wearing. All I need to do is look at the five kids I still have in my possession. Then I’ll know at least what color t-shirt he was sporting.
3. Splurge on a fun snack.
Some amusement park food is icky, icky, icky. But every park has at least one signature snack that is worth the splurge. Beignets at Disneyland, Apple Fries at Legoland, and the aforementioned waffle cones, large soft pretzels, and frozen lemonades at Magic Mountain are well worth a little coin. Buy a few choice items and split them.
Otherwise, bring food from home or leave the park for a buck-fifty Costco hotdog. You’ll find nourishment without having to take out a loan to pay for it. We’ve packed coolers into Disneyland and passed through security, so I’m under the impression that it’s quite all right.
4. Give each kid a fanny pack.
I don’t care how un-hip you may think hip pouches are. These will save your life. If you let your kids stuff them with the snacks of their choice at the beginning of the trip, you will not have to hear the whines and moans:
When are we gonna eat?
I’m hungry?
Can I have some popcorn? cotton candy? hot dog?
See how annoying that is? Instead the kid is wearing all the junk food nourishment he needs!
5. Bring a stroller even if the toddler insists on walking.
They may give up naps. They may potty train. They may insist on doing what the big kids do. But, don’t let them fool you.
Even though that toddler insists on walking at the start of the day, she will be begging you to carry her by lunchtime. Amusement parks involve a lot of walking and little feet just wear out eventually. Even if you use the stroller to carry everyone’s junk, keep it with you. Eventually she will conk out and you will have help in conveying her about the park.
A little secret? Just park your stroller in a stroller parking section of the park and come back for it later. No one will know that you’re not on that ride right next to it. There are scores of strollers about. Don’t leave valuables behind, but chances are your stroller will be fine. (I’ve heard that dirty diapers are wonderful deterrents to stroller-nabbers, though I’ve never tested the theory.) Remember where you parked it, and come back for it later.
Amusement parks can be a wonderful adventure for kids and adults alike. With a little pre-planning, you can eat good and cheap, go home with as many kids as you came with, and have a wonderful time.
Great tips, I never thought of parking our stroller somewhere until recently when someone told me that is what they do for a little while at a park.
Great tips!! We bought a bunch of TYVEK bracelets off eBay a year or so ago, and before we go anywhere with crowds or a potential to lose a child, we put the bracelets on the children. They know that if they get lost, they find an employee and show them their bracelet, which has “IF LOST CALL …” with our cell number on it. 🙂
I have 4 kids and have sworn by the “uniform rule” since my boys were very little (now they are 10,9 and 6). My daughter is 2.5 and we always take the stroller even though she prefers to walk…it gives us a place to store a small cooler and a bag of essentials, and it also has cupholders for our drinks! Plus if she gets tired enough, I can recline the stroller seat for her to nap. We try to do the tamer “family” rides early in the day, and then in the afternoon when my daughter is tired, I take her somewhere quiet so she can rest in her stroller and my husband takes the boys on the big kid rides.
We did the cell phone pics each day we were at DisneyWorld. Each adult took a pic of the kids in the morning while we waited on the bus to the park. Thankfully we never had to use them.
We took along lids from McD’s drinks to use as drip catchers for frozen treats. The lady at McD’s told me I could take some and we put the stick of the big Mickey shaped ice cream through the upside down lid and it worked great to keep most of the sticky drips off the kids and their clothes. We also brought along flip flops to wear on water rides. They are thin so don’t take up too much room in the backpack and you don’t have to walk around in wet tennis shoes and socks the rest of the day.
I went somewhere where the parents took pictures of their kids /shirts/ and shoes on their cell phone. They had friends whose child was abducted and was found by his shoes.
FYI
It would be a good idea to put a little notecard or write inside those fanny packs also with the adult names and cell ph# in case of separation.
One thing we’re doing this year is taking our older child to an amusement park and leaving the 2.5 year old with Grandma for the day. She won’t be able to ride hardly any of the rides and will be cranky by midafternoon. She’ll have fun with G’ma and we’ll have special time with our son.
@Anna J, glad you mentioned that since I forgot to! I used a sharpie to write our cell phone numbers on the fanny packs. I’ve heard of parents writing it on a kid’s arm, too. Haven’t gone that far.
Mine are older so we have different rules. With older kids you can establish a “meeting place” and you can hand them a budget to get their own snacks, drinks and mementos. The park we got passes to this year doesn’t allow food or drink other than unopened bottled water, so we pack a cooler and tailgate for snacks much of the day(I even allowed the kids to purchase a small bag of bulk candy at SuperTarget for one of their treats) and have a planned lunch and dinner (outside of the park at Wendy’s and MickeyDs since inside would cost us for one almost what outside cost us for 6).
With older kids the amusement park experience is mainly about the rides anyway.
On our first trip for mementos I let the kids smush pennies($1.53) since the cost of the tickets was a large expenditure. The second trip at the end of the evening(since there is nothing worse than having to lug around prizes while trying to ride rides) they played games($1 games) and a treat for myself was to buy one of the cheesy pictures taken while on the ride(I had to have a picture that showed 4 kids not fighting and just giggling and posing for what they knew was a camera pic).
“Wear a family uniform” totally made me laugh. I never appreciated that so much before this year. My kids each earned a free t-shirt from the library. They are BRIGHT green, pretty much fluorescent. Naturally, they adore them and wear them often.
One day at the park, I was having trouble keeping track of my middle son until I realized he was the only kid there in that particular shade of loveliness. Since then, I make sure they wear those t-shirts whenever we are going to be in large crowds. I love being able to find them so quickly!
We’re visiting Sea World next week. Any tips for taking stuff inside?
@Michelle, I haven’t been there since I was seven, so I have no clue. I would check the website and see what their policies are.
@Jessica Fisher, As I recall, Sea World is very picky. They don’t want food (and especially straws) dropped in to any of the open tanks. Even their restaurants don’t serve straws in their drinks. According to their web site, water bottles are the only thing you can bring in. They WILL confiscate juice boxes/pouches or send you back to your car with it. To save money you’ll need to plan on going back to the car to eat your picnic lunch. Or send one adult ahead to go back to the car and get it set up at the picnic tables outside the entrance, then everyone else can go and meet them and not take so much time out of the park. (You can also pay an extra $5 for a closer parking spot. More frugal than feeding a family of three or more in the park.)
Thanks for these wonderful tips! Very timely as we are headed to DLand/California Theme Park next week. I am so grateful to know that you can bring coolers in — we are DEFINITELY going to be packing our lunches now! If the burgers and fries were GOOD, I’d be fine paying the higher prices. But they’re kinda disappointing, sad to say.
I love the idea posted above about taking a picture when you arrive. That might be good for us too, with our smaller group (only two kids, one of whom will spend a good amount of time in the stroller).
We are also going to be doing something my mom did with us as kids: we’ll be leaving the park midday to go back to our hotel, perhaps cool off in the pool, and let the baby have a nap. This will recharge the batteries so we can enjoy the parade/World of Color and be there for the park closing.
Finally, we are heading to the Disney outlet store up the road from us before we go for tshirts. Unlike the Disney Store (are there any of those left?) this store has VERY inexpensive ts, onesies, and stuffed animals so the kids can get their shirts but we don’t have to pay park prices. They’ll never be the wiser. 🙂
@centsability, Reporting back after our trip! I am happy to report that we didn’t buy one lunch or breakfast. We had bagels in our hotel room plus fresh fruit, and brought sandwiches and plenty of snacks to keep everyone happy. And no questions asked whatsoever when we schlepped our food in. What a huge relief!
We made use of the Baby Care Centers (don’t know about these? FIND THEM ON YOUR NEXT TRIP — they are a heavenly little oasis amongst all the chaos and noise) for lunches both days. I fed the baby in the highchair inside and the hubs and older daughter ate outside (they could’ve eaten inside but they opted not to). Then used their changing tables. They even have private places to nurse!
On the whole a very pleasant trip. I am SO grateful for the tip about bringing food. We saved a bundle this way. Wonderful.