David went to Disneyland once when he was 8 years old (October 1992). I couldn't find any Disneyland pictures of David, but this picture of their white van was taken in 1993. The San Diego picture was taken in 1989, but it's one of my favorites of little David and his family.
I went to Disneyland when I was about 14 (2002). I was a part of a dance company (Girls Club Elite) and we had the opportunity to travel to Disneyland and dance on one of the stages there. In a gift that I didn't fully appreciate at the time but am almost overwhelmed by now, my parents agreed to fund my dance trip to Disneyland and they also decided to take our family to Disneyland two weeks before so that all of the family would have the experience first. I didn't learn until later that this was possible because of a generous gift from my Grandma and Grandpa Walker. When my Grandma and Grandpa Great (Kimba Rollins and Ellis Colvin Walker) passed away in 2001, my grandparents took $10,000 out of their inheritance to give to each of their children. There were no strings attached and they were able to use that money to pay for us to go to Disneyland as a family. This was such a neat experience for our family and now as an adult, I appreciate the trip even more.
Fast forward to August 2023 when my Grandpa Walker (Ellis Ramon Walker) passed away. My grandma (Verla Tingey) had passed away in 2016. A few months later, my parents reached out to us to tell us that they wanted to do the same thing for us that had been done for them: share $10,000 out of their inheritance with each of their children because they knew it was what Grandpa wanted (and they are kind and generous people). It is such a generous gift and we are so grateful for them and my grandparents. We talked about many things we could do with that money, and ultimately decided that we wanted to use half of it to take our family to Disneyland.
We have never really been big Disney people. Lydia wasn't particularly interested in princesses and I didn't want to push them on her. Of course, we watched many Disney movies but we never really got into them. When people would ask us when we were taking the kids to Disneyland we would respond that it wasn't high on our priority list. There are so many places to visit and so many cool things to see. Our kids wouldn't even really recognize the characters AND they were so young that it didn't feel like a good use of our time/resources. However, this past year Lucy has fallen in love with princesses and wears a princess dress as her day's outfit more often than not.
Lucy had been asking me things like "Where do all the princess live in real life?" and "Can we go to princess-world?" I don't even think she knew was Disneyland was - but it just felt like this was the perfect age to go. Lucy was old enough (and just barelllllly tall enough) for almost all of the rides but Lydia was still young enough to experience Disneyland as a child not a teenage. The kids love amusement parks and I knew they would love this.
Additionally, it felt really nostalgic to me to use the money from my grandparents the same way that my parents did. That may seem silly, because there are a lot of things that we could have used the money for - but for whatever reason this just felt like it was the right thing to do.
We wouldn't have gone on this trip without that money and we would have missed the perfect window to take our kids to Disneyland. It really was perfect timing for our family for more reasons than one and I'm so grateful for the trip!
FINAL THOUGHTS
-We purchased Disneyland tickets in December because there was a $50 kid ticket sale (usually more than $100 per day). We weren't able to use the tickets until the very last week of the available dates, which we must have had in common with everyone else because the place was PACKED. Before we left, people told me to prepare myself because Disneyland was busy. While I was there I definitely agreed with them, but didn't think more than "Wow, Disneyland IS busy." But when we got home we saw a bunch of Disneyland pros talking about how the days we were there were by far the business days since 2019 (precovid). It was even more busy than normal because it was the last week of the kid tickets and the first week of the DCA Food and Wine Festival that they hold in March. Even so, because we had the DAS pass for Lucy, we were able to ride every single thing we wanted to ride and we had plenty of time for food and shows and all the things.
-We budgeted $4,000 for 3 days at Disneyland, 1 beach day, and 3 travel days. We spent $3962 and the kids spent an additional $236 of money they had saved from their Family Economy. I felt so good about ending up so close to out budget. Disneyland is an expensive vacation, but I felt like we did it well and got our money's worth out of the things we chose to do. (More details in "The Business of Disney" post.)
-I mentioned before, but the DAS pass made a huge difference to us. It allowed us to ride significantly more rides than we would have been able to otherwise. It made the whole thing less stressful for so many reasons. I don't feel guilty for using the DAS pass because I was completely honest when applying and the cast member cheerfully gave us the pass. However, sometimes I did feel like it was a gift that was more than expected and I did feel a little awkward sometimes. It was a boon to us for many reasons: Lucy didn't have to wait in the sun, we could plan our schedule without running all over the park, we could spend our time more efficiently (scheduling a ride with a 90 minute wait time, then going on a bunch of smaller rides while we waited or eating lunch in the shade, etc..), we didn't have to navigate lightning lanes. We could only use the DAS for rides that Lucy could go on, so we didn't do it with Indiana Jones or the Matterhorn and even though Lucy rode Smugglers Run the first time (earning a prize from her big ride bag) she hated it so much that when Caleb wanted to go again they waited through the whole line. It was fine, but it made me so incredibly grateful that we didn't have to wait for ALL of our rides. Only a few weeks after we got home they changed the DAS requirements and I'm pretty sure Lucy won't qualify anymore. Thats okay though, because we had it for the days that made a difference to us and we are grateful!
-I asked David what he would add and he said "Just to add how much I enjoyed being with the kids and how much fun we had. We really loved this trip."
