Yesterday was a very special and exhausting day. Oliver decided to start the day at 4:50am. I was not thrilled. I've decided nine hours is not enough sleep for him, particularly since his naps are drastically shorter these days. He's getting about 11 hours of total sleep a day, and I know infants are supposed to get about that much just at night (not including naps). Starting tomorrow, he is going to have to sleep at the minimum 10 hours at night, and I plan to gradually increase that to 11 hours.
By 7:00am all five of us were in the van and headed to Sesame Place, which is a little less than 3 hours away from us (very close to Philadelphia). It was a cloudy day, but aside from a little sprinkling once, it wasn't a rainy day. The recorded high was 77 degrees, which would have been perfect for a dry amusement park, but was a bit cooler than desired for one that has a lot of wet rides. Also, since it is early in the season the water temperature was downright frigid. If Paul and I had been at Dorney Park yesterday, we would have only ridden the dry rides, but because we love our children very much, we went on the water slides with them at Sesame Place yesterday.
We walked through the gates 15 minutes after the park opened, and we left 5 minutes before the park closed at 8pm. We did quite a bit during the 10 hours we spent at the park. Nadia started and ended the day with the roller coaster. Ian opted not to ride it in the morning. He chose to get his picture taken with Murray instead. However the roller coaster was the last ride he rode on our way out of the park. Because both children needed to ride with an adult, and one of us needed to stay behind with Oliver, Paul had to take each child separately. At the Magic Kingdom handheld infants can ride most of the rides, and at Knoebels there are many rides Nadia and Ian can ride without an adult. It definitely would have been better if Oliver hadn't come along or if we had a third adult with us. He was a trouper though! He spent an awful lot of time in the stroller, and he was very good. He enjoyed the parades and shows. He fussed and cried during portions of the drive to Sesame Place, but he slept almost the whole way home. Unlike our awful experience driving home from the airport a few weeks ago, all three were asleep for the last 90 minutes of our trip home yesterday.
We started the day with dry rides and then after watching a show featuring Angelina Ballerina at 12:45, we headed to the water rides. After the 3pm parade, we had an early dinner. I had packed some snacks, which had served as our light lunch. Ian was literally falling asleep sitting at the table eating his pizza. I had to keep waking him up. Others around us were amused at the sight. I thought he might take a nap after that, but he didn't have a nap yesterday, which is almost unheard of for Ian. After our meal I went on some water rides with the kids, and then thankfully Paul took over and did the rest of the water rides with them. There were four different shows playing at various times throughout the day. We went to two of them. The second show we attended was at 6pm, and it featured Abby Cadabby, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, etc. We watched the second half of the 7pm parade as well.The parades weren't as professional as Disney's, but the kids were just as enthralled. The lines weren't too long. Sometimes the wait was 5 minutes or less, but the longest wait we experienced was about 20 minutes. Unlike Disney, it is very easy to get lots of pictures with the characters. We waited at the most 5 minutes for each photo opportunity. The only ones we didn't get that the kids were hoping for was Cookie Monster (Ian) and Zoe (Nadia), but they did get their pictures taken with Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird, Abby Cadabby, Oscar the Grouch, Super Grover, and Murray.
All in all we had a fabulous day. The cold water didn't faze the kids. They kept asking to go again, and again, and again down the water slides. They adored the wave pool (water depth of one foot). None of us had been there before, but if we don't move too far away, I expect we'll be coming back again in the future. It's a great park for kids ages 2-7. They have just about everything you could think of - water slides, dry rides, playground equipment, sand areas, shows, swimming pool, splash pads, parades, Sesame Street characters, etc. The park has a lot of things in it, but it's MUCH smaller than Magic Kingdom, which makes for less walking (Yay!). Including our tickets, food, and parking we spent a little less than $150. The Magic Kingdom cost three times as much, and we did an awful lot more at Sesame Place in one day than we did at the Magic Kingdom. I would have to say though that Knoebels is probably still our favorite (at least that is the opinion of Paul and I). Part of the reason we like it so much is because it's much closer (less than an hour away) and also because it's soooo much cheaper (we've never even spent $50 as the parking is free and we only buy handstamps for Nadia and Ian). Because it's closer and much cheaper, we don't feel the need to stay there ALL day, which is easier on Mommy and Daddy. Hopefully we'll head back to Sesame Place when Oliver is older so that he can enjoy the park as much as Nadia and Ian did yesterday. I took over 100 pictures yesterday. I'm just including a few in this post. I'll share more later this week!
Yesterday was a very special and exhausting day. Oliver decided to start the day at 4:50am. I was not thrilled. I've decided nine hours is not enough sleep for him, particularly since his naps are drastically shorter these days. He's getting about 11 hours of total sleep a day, and I know infants are supposed to get about that much just at night (not including naps). Starting tomorrow, he is going to have to sleep at the minimum 10 hours at night, and I plan to gradually increase that to 11 hours. 
By 7:00am all five of us were in the van and headed to Sesame Place, which is a little less than 3 hours away from us (very close to Philadelphia). It was a cloudy day, but aside from a little sprinkling once, it wasn't a rainy day. The recorded high was 77 degrees, which would have been perfect for a dry amusement park, but was a bit cooler than desired for one that has a lot of wet rides. Also, since it is early in the season the water temperature was downright frigid. If Paul and I had been at Dorney Park yesterday, we would have only ridden the dry rides, but because we love our children very much, we went on the water slides with them at Sesame Place yesterday.
We walked through the gates 15 minutes after the park opened, and we left 5 minutes before the park closed at 8pm. We did quite a bit during the 10 hours we spent at the park. Nadia started and ended the day with the roller coaster. Ian opted not to ride it in the morning. He chose to get his picture taken with Murray instead. However the roller coaster was the last ride he rode on our way out of the park. Because both children needed to ride with an adult, and one of us needed to stay behind with Oliver, Paul had to take each child separately. At the Magic Kingdom handheld infants can ride most of the rides, and at Knoebels there are many rides Nadia and Ian can ride without an adult. It definitely would have been better if Oliver hadn't come along or if we had a third adult with us. He was a trouper though! He spent an awful lot of time in the stroller, and he was very good. He enjoyed the parades and shows. He fussed and cried during portions of the drive to Sesame Place, but he slept almost the whole way home. Unlike our awful experience driving home from the airport a few weeks ago, all three were asleep for the last 90 minutes of our trip home yesterday.
We started the day with dry rides and then after watching a show featuring Angelina Ballerina at 12:45, we headed to the water rides. After the 3pm parade, we had an early dinner. I had packed some snacks, which had served as our light lunch. Ian was literally falling asleep sitting at the table eating his pizza. I had to keep waking him up. Others around us were amused at the sight. I thought he might take a nap after that, but he didn't have a nap yesterday, which is almost unheard of for Ian. After our meal I went on some water rides with the kids, and then thankfully Paul took over and did the rest of the water rides with them. There were four different shows playing at various times throughout the day. We went to two of them. The second show we attended was at 6pm, and it featured Abby Cadabby, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, etc. We watched the second half of the 7pm parade as well.The parades weren't as professional as Disney's, but the kids were just as enthralled. The lines weren't too long. Sometimes the wait was 5 minutes or less, but the longest wait we experienced was about 20 minutes. Unlike Disney, it is very easy to get lots of pictures with the characters. We waited at the most 5 minutes for each photo opportunity. The only ones we didn't get that the kids were hoping for was Cookie Monster (Ian) and Zoe (Nadia), but they did get their pictures taken with Bert, Ernie, Elmo, Big Bird, Abby Cadabby, Oscar the Grouch, Super Grover, and Murray.
All in all we had a fabulous day. The cold water didn't faze the kids. They kept asking to go again, and again, and again down the water slides. They adored the wave pool (water depth of one foot). None of us had been there before, but if we don't move too far away, I expect we'll be coming back again in the future. It's a great park for kids ages 2-7. They have just about everything you could think of - water slides, dry rides, playground equipment, sand areas, shows, swimming pool, splash pads, parades, Sesame Street characters, etc. The park has a lot of things in it, but it's MUCH smaller than Magic Kingdom, which makes for less walking (Yay!). Including our tickets, food, and parking we spent a little less than $150. The Magic Kingdom cost three times as much, and we did an awful lot more at Sesame Place in one day than we did at the Magic Kingdom. I would have to say though that Knoebels is probably still our favorite (at least that is the opinion of Paul and I). Part of the reason we like it so much is because it's much closer (less than an hour away) and also because it's soooo much cheaper (we've never even spent $50 as the parking is free and we only buy handstamps for Nadia and Ian). Because it's closer and much cheaper, we don't feel the need to stay there ALL day, which is easier on Mommy and Daddy. Hopefully we'll head back to Sesame Place when Oliver is older so that he can enjoy the park as much as Nadia and Ian did yesterday. I took over 100 pictures yesterday. I'm just including a few in this post. I'll share more later this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment