Post #20: Nana does Disney
- Nana Beryl Jupiter
- Oct 13, 2019
- 10 min read
Updated: May 22, 2023
Whenever someone experiences a monumental life event in the United States and is asked what they will do next, the cliché reply is quite often, “We’re going to Disneyland!” Well, it didn’t exactly happen like that right after Stacy gave birth to Cooper (as chronicled in Blog #19) but came a lot sooner than Nana would have imagined.
Even before Cooper was born, Stacy began asking me to babysit during her travel meetings, which I was delighted to accept after waiting way-too-many years to take on the much-desired role of Nana. The first time was in Santa Barbara, California, in February, 2017, when Cooper was six months old. No, we did not go to Disney then, but there were roller coaster-like ups and downs as I had to nervously dust off my decades-old infant care skills. So eventually I will pen a separate blog about that first Nana immersion.
But this blog is indeed about the much promised, first Nana Disney foray, and it is again a longer post. But I thought I should describe the full experience in one comprehensive blog, including lots of fun photos.
So when a follow-up meeting was again planned for Santa Barbara in April, 2019, Stacy not only asked me to babysit but also suggested we take Cooper to Disneyland after the meeting. After all, we would be in southern California anyway, and Cooper would already be two years and eight months old. But that certainly surprised me, coming from the daughter who told me as a teen that she never wanted to go to Disney again. Hmm … how views change when you become a parent yourself.
Personally, I had always been a great fan of the Disney experience since my youth of growing up on Walt Disney Presents, must-see Sunday night television of my era. I was thrilled to go to Disneyland for the first time as a teenager in 1966 when my parents took our family out west. By the time I had my own children, both Disney and my parents had set up residence in Florida. In conjunction with grandparent visits and Jesse’s occasional medical meetings, we frequently took our Boston-raised children to Disney World, until teenage Stacy felt decidedly over-Mickey-ed.
But I was truly enthusiastic to return to Disney and be there when Cooper was introduced to the big-eared mouse for his very first time. But might Cooper be too young, I wondered. I knew that Cooper certainly loved the mini-arcade rides outside their local Fiji grocery store where Stacy had suggested I keep him busy while she was shopping inside. And Jesse and I had actually taken Stacy to Disney World for the first time when she was only 15 months old! I was six months pregnant then and my parents came too. But Stacy only wanted me to hold her, although my mother offered repeatedly to take her granddaughter off my hands.
When I informed my brother and sister-in-law, Disney veterans from their own three children’s youth, of our Disney plans, their combined first reaction was, “Get ready for the meltdowns!” I could not argue with their observation. I had plenty of my own experience attempting to create wonderful Disney memories while dealing with exhausted children amidst throngs of park guests in serpentine waiting lines. I still remember four year-old Stacy repeatedly whining, “My feet hurt. I can’t walk anymore.” And despite staying in the cheerfully thematic Disney Polynesian hotel, our young son exasperated us with his complaining and misbehavior. But otherwise, we all loved (except for the lines) the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Bears Jamboree and Thunder Mountain, just to name a few of the always memorable attractions. Stacy’s “red badge of courage” was riding Space Mountain when she was only five years old.
With mother Stacy suggesting two Disney days for Cooper, I would need to find a place to stay. Even though I had rented a spacious 2-bedroom, 2-bath VRBO in Santa Barbara for the five-night stay for the three of us, both Stacy and I thought we could make do with one shared hotel room for the Disney excursion. Having stayed at the original Disneyland Hotel as a teen with the exciting advantage of riding the space-age monorail into the parks, I checked the Disney property hotels first but found them rather expensive. And Cooper wasn’t even all that familiar with Disney characters that he might potentially encounter in their hotels. Meanwhile, original Disneyland (to Walt’s chagrin I had often heard) is surrounded by countless uncontrolled (and many less-expensive) hotels which have capitalized on their proximity to the famous park. Reviewing my hotel loyalty points, I found I could get one of two nights free at a Marriott Fairfield Inn conveniently located near the main Disney entry gate. Booked!
Next, what about purchasing park passes? Online in advance or at the park upon entry? Any discounts for age, two consecutive days, or any other specialty groups or reasons? Lots to consider, so I once again researched, online of course. I may be a Nana but I am reasonably computer savvy. I learned that Cooper would be free, being under 3 years old. But no senior or AAA discounts. I would need to purchase regular priced two-day adult tickets for Stacy and me. But the Fairfield Inn sold Disneyland passes directly from them for the same Disney prices, so I would buy them upon hotel arrival.
We left Santa Barbara after several successful Nana care days where I took Cooper on daily fun-filled excursions while Stacy was at her meeting, including the fish pier, the aquarium, the zoo, the beach and the marina. But it was admittedly tiring for me, especially clearing out our second-floor rental and loading the car while Stacy attended her last morning meeting. So I was glad that Stacy drove us to Anaheim that Saturday afternoon, especially when we encountered unavoidable southern California traffic. Fortunately our plans for Disney were to begin fresh on Sunday morning.
It was almost evening by the time we arrived at the Fairfield Inn which was indeed across a large boulevard from Disneyland, along a lengthy row of many other hotels filled with countless Disney enthusiasts. Our hotel was less than impressive, and our guest room, while functionally appointed, was rather claustrophobic with two queen-size beds filling most of the floor space. I was beginning to regret having only booked one room. But hopefully family togetherness would be a positive trade-off.
Of course, I made sure to purchase our Disneyland passes at the hotel shortly after arrival. And later our close proximity to the park allowed us to witness some of Disney’s nightly fireworks display, getting us excited for the big day ahead.
I carefully prepared for our first highly anticipated Disney day, considering what to wear, for the predicted weather (mostly dry but potentially wide temperature variation throughout) and a presumed long day of walking and standing. Comfortable tennis shoes were a must as well as my light-weight knee support braces, which I typically wear for tennis, skiing and dog walking to provide prophylactic scaffolding for my arthritic knees. Of course my clothes needed to be very comfortable, with layering options and reasonably photogenic for all the anticipated photo memories. A hands-free backpack would cart all the personal needs that are typically found in my oversized handbag, especially my smart phone with camera, and with enough space for water, snacks, sunblock, hat, lightweight jacket, umbrella and any other potential daylong contingency items. At least I only had to load up for me, as Stacy would be in charge of Cooper’s needs. Although the mother in me still had to mentally confirm a Cooper checklist with his mom. Never to be left behind is Cooper’s beloved, must-go-along-always Ee-ee, a soft monkey soother, so named because monkeys say,
“ee ee ooh ooh aah aah.”
Stacy is an early riser but Cooper is not, has difficulty falling asleep at night and slow to wake up, with residual jetlag playing a part. So by the time Stacy roused Cooper and we paraded to the promised land it was about 9 am. Stacy thought we’d find breakfast in the park but the rides seductively beckoned. Since Cooper loves trains, our first stop greeted us at the entrance, the Disneyland Railroad. All aboarrrrrrd!
We rode completely around Disneyland’s perimeter and stayed on to ride two-thirds around again, because we could, to Tomorrowland to Find Nemo in a submarine (obligatory for a marine biologist’s child) and to self-drive cars on a race track, every kid’s desire. The deceptive line at Autopia took just as frustratingly long as I remembered it from days gone by.
While we could push Cooper in his stroller throughout Disneyland, strollers had to be parked before entering snaking ride lines. Surprisingly, for a little boy who loves to run, run, run, Cooper refused to walk in the ride lines and demanded that his mother hold him up. I felt very bad for Stacy having to hold up her large toddler and tried to cajole Cooper to walk on his own. “Look at the other little kids,” I pointed out, “they’re all walking in the lines to the rides.” At one ride I held out pretzels, like carrots for a horse, to get Cooper to walk ahead on his own, a strategy that was only temporarily successful. I did not, however, offer to hold Cooper, because I knew Nana would not last long at all bearing a 35-pound child. I realized that densely people-packed queues must have been so overwhelming to Cooper that he was scared to mingle among them from his own two feet at ground level.
Without a normal breakfast, by late morning we were indeed getting near a first meltdown, and sought an acceptable restaurant in reasonably close proximity. But admittedly, the park was becoming more crowded and hard to negotiate rapidly. Stacy agreed to the Red Rose Tavern, took a quick look at the menu options, gave me her order and found a table to plunk down with Cooper. Our family used to joke that Disney might offer different themed restaurants but all the food came from one big underground kitchen and essentially tasted all the same. Thirty to forty years later, my culinary impression did not change that much.
When I finally arrived with our food, Cooper crabbily swiped his French fries right off the table. Meltdown took precedence over hunger and love of chips. Fortunately, live ducklings (not Donald Duck) who ambled over from a nearby pond finally offered a diversion and proved a calming influence.
Speaking of Donald Duck, we noticed when famous Disney characters appeared publicly in the park, they were accompanied by a character guide who herded the throngs of potential photo takers into an organized line for guest meet and greets with said characters. Since Cooper was not particularly familiar with any of the characters, Stacy never attempted to place him in one of the lengthy photo op lines. It didn’t seem so complicated or time-consuming years ago to get a photograph with a favorite character.
After lunch we headed to the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland where we found the line to be advantageously short. After enjoying Disney’s audio-animatronic African animals and the corny guide jokes, we exited the cruise and raced back to the entry line to cruise again, with another guide with different corny jokes. As we could see Cooper was wearying, Stacy recommended we return to our hotel for siesta, so we could return later for more rides and perhaps late fireworks viewing.
Returning to the park around 5 pm, we headed to every young kid and kid-at-heart’s favorite area, Fantasyland. As I recalled that we would have some control over the spin in the Mad Tea party ride, we jumped into the teacups because the line was short. Cooper had fun and we rode it again.
But nearby Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride beckoned and we waited longer than anticipated for a relatively short rotating circuit. Again, pretty much the same as my long-ago memories. Cooper actually had just as much fun in the stationary Dumbo seat where we took lots of cute photos, and had a hard time getting him to relinquish Dumbo for the next group of photo takers.
Fortunately, the colorful King Arthur’s Carrousel was easily accessible, and Cooper enjoyed his circular, musical horse ride, at least twice.
But hunger was imminent so we entered the closest food establishment, the Troubadour Tavern. Not soon enough, as Cooper melted down, full tantrum on the floor, as I was waiting in line for our order. I’m not sure he ate much of his kid-friendly pizza. But this time our post-dinner saving grace was a little girl playing with a very effective bubble-spraying toy, which kept Cooper very happy popping her bubbles. Who needs fancy amusement park rides?
In spite of our earlier intention to stay for fireworks, Stacy didn’t think Cooper would last that late. I wasn’t sure I would either. So we walked our way back down Main Street, doing some obligatory Disney shopping on the way out. And once again we had a reasonable view of fireworks from the Fairfield Inn. So that was Nana does Disney with Cooper, day one.
Cooper adorably began day two in his bright new orange Nemo hat. We attempted to start the day with a hearty breakfast at nearby IHOP before entering the park, but so many others had the same idea that the line was prohibitive. We regrettably ate at a nearby buffet which benefitted from the IHOP overflow but did nothing to win our culinary approval. Meals were not going to be the most positive part of this Disney trip.
We returned to Fantasyland because Cooper wanted to ride Dumbo again. For better time efficiency, I held our place in line while they went off on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which might have been a bit too wild for Cooper.
We found more appealing transportation rides for young Cooper including Peter Pan’s Flight, Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canal boats. I encouraged riding boats through It’s a Small World, a longtime favorite of mine, from its original debut at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. We visited Mickey’s Toontown, a park addition since the Disney experience of Stacy’s youth. We found lots of cartoonish vehicles and buildings to climb all over and through. Cooper spent loads of time on the fire truck, and could run haphazardly through Toontown without being funneled into lines.
Not surprisingly, at one point Stacy and I found ourselves tearing in two different directions retracing steps to locate, no, not Cooper but the elusive Ee-ee, whose absence would have created a major catastrophe in advance of their long journey home to Fiji. I found the irreplaceable monkey dangling over a railing and then had to chase across most of Tomorrowland to re-connect with Stacy and announce the incredibly fortunate discovery.
In the afternoon we rode the fairly empty Monorail repeatedly around the circuit until Cooper was just about falling asleep. Time to return to our hotel, thinking maybe we would return to the park after nap time. But we didn’t. That was enough.
So did Cooper love Disney? I can’t say that he was any happier than when he went on the mini-arcade rides in front of their Fiji market. And how did Nana do? Admittedly, it seemed a lot more exhausting and crowded than during my young adult Disney days.
But we were making memories and forging Nana-grandson emotional bonds as we spent time together. And my heart melted each time Cooper looked back with concern if I was lagging, and sweetly asked, “Nana coming?”
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