Dutch Wonderland

Bryan and I know we are theme park snobs. We love the Mouse. We are gearing up for another year of Disney starting after Thanksgiving. But it is far and expensive (although I am appalled when I hear how much people spend on Disney vacations!) and Dutch Wonderland is just 90 minutes away in good old Lancaster, PA. And it is designed for little kids and fairly inexpensive so we got discount tickets and journeyed up 83 the Sunday after Labor Day.

Kellen loved Dutch Wonderland. He was a bit too short for a few of the biggest rides but could do almost everything and still talks about how fun it was. Noelle liked it too, although there really was just the one coaster that she was super excited about and then the rest of the rides were a bit less thrilling for her liking. Bryan and I didn't love it. The staff were all 15, I stepped on gum and the cafe was pretty dirty, lines were much longer than I expected, and in general I found the park to be less than efficient. But I know I am biased and it is unfair to hold a local, small theme park to Disney standards. It was also pretty cold the day we went so maybe that affected my opinion. Whatever our feelings on the park itself, it was fun to see the kids having so much fun and I am definitely glad we went.

I am not sure if we will be back as an entire family but I might take Kellen next year while Bryan and Noelle do something else - maybe Hershey Park would be a better fit for her thrills? Here are some pictures from our day at the Kingdom for Kids.

Sky Way - Bryan's look was pretty much this one of "I'm not impressed" throughout the day...

Kiddie Coaster

Frog Jumping. The best part of the day was watching Noelle take care of her brother. She helped him on and off of everything, made sure he was buckled, and they were holding hands constantly.

Driving the race cars

Noelle took her driving seriously. She was really bad at it so 10 years from now we'll have our work cut out for us!

Again, Bryan loves it. I continued to be amazed that this guy is as Disney obsessed as I am.

Dino Trail! Bryan might actually be smiling.

The cutest baby dino

We seriously waited like 45 minutes for the monorail. Noelle rode 6 rides during this time. Lots of the rides had really long lines which shocked me. 

 

Monster Truck Racers

We rode the flying baskets. I thought I was going to hurl after Noelle (my child that gets carsick) spun us around so many times.

At Dutch Wonderland Noelle counted as a responsible rider who could go solo with our son in this crazy flying kite contraption. That is insane. 

Goodbye, Dutch Wonderland. See you again, maybe!?