Robyn!: Vacations You Should Take: Disneyland!

I have been to Disneyland many times - I think about 8. It's just the place my parents took us for lots of vacations when we were kids - most prairie families either own a cabin at the lake where they spend the majority of their vacation time, or go skiing in the winter - but we went to Disneyland. And it was awesome.

The sad thing that happened whenever my family went to Disneyland, at least when I was in elementary school, is other kids would go home and say to their parents "WAH how come YOU never take ME to Disneyland, Robyn's been there 3 times!" and their parents would say "Well obviously Robyn's parents are richer than we are because we can't afford to go to Disneyland, and they're being mean by flaunting their wealth by taking Robyn to Disneyland all the time" and then the kids would come back to school and discuss how my parents were so rich and also mean for flaunting their immense wealth with Disneyland trips, and how I was such a spoiled rich kid. I feel like I've written about this before. But if not, or if it's such an old post that you haven't read it, here's the real story: my parents were a teacher and stay-at-home-mom. We were NOT rich. Those other parents could have totally afforded a Disney trip but they were too small-town-redneck to leave Saskatchewan and to make themselves feel better they made up assumptions about my parents, relayed them to their children so they didn't look bad, and then in turn I got bullied to the point where I had to lie and say we were going to visit my cousins the next time we went. Which was partially true, because my cousins did come to Disneyland with us.

But you heard right - I got BULLIED because my parents took me to Disneyland.

I'm glad that's over, because Disneyland is the most fun and being made to feel guilty about going on a fun trip sucks! In summer 2009 I introduced Brahm to Disneyland. He wasn't sure how he'd feel about it because he considered himself "not a rides person" having only been on LAME midway rides, but I was relieved when he discovered he loved it as much as me. (Too be honest, I think this is how most people end up feeling - they don't consider themselves rides people but then go to Disneyland and love it.)

We went for about a week, getting a 5-day Park Hopper pass between Disneyland and California Adventure, which is a good amount of time. We also took a "break day" in the middle of the trip because our feet got ridiculously tired from walking around and standing in lines day after day (but it's worth it). We went at the end of August, so the weather was insanely hot but the parks were pretty empty because kids had gone back to school already, so the lines for rides were all very short!

We've since tried out Disney World in Florida as well, but we both prefer Disneyland (in California) because it's smaller, easier to get around, less busy, and just seems to be overall better themed, even if there are only two parks instead of four.

Want to try out a super fun vacation that only costs around $1000/person or less for the week (including airfare and food)? Go to Disneyland! It's the best!