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Our Trip to Lancaster: Dutch Wonderland

Dutch Wonderland is an amusement park with younger children in mind. Adults can ride every ride, and kids Caleb's size can ride almost everything. It's not that older kids would hate it, but it is definitely geared toward the younger ones. I, for one, am thankful for this. DW is soooo incredibly kid-friendly, from the healthy food to the shady areas everywhere to the child-sized toilets to the games that let every kid win something. Everything is extremely clean and the staff members are all very friendly and professional. It's just a really nice park.

One of my favorite things about DW is that when you buy a ticket, you are allowed to come in the evening before for the last three hours before the park closes. This enables you to get three hours of fun in before bedtime so that you are fresh the next day for more fun. We did three hours of rides so that the next morning we could start with the water park. The water park was much less crowded, plus we didn't feel as bad leaving at 3:00 when Caleb was exhausted and fell asleep in his stroller! It's just a nice way to get more time in without completely wearing the kids out.






Caleb absolutely LOVED every minute of Dutch Wonderland. There wasn't a single ride that he was scared of (that he was allowed to ride on, anyway), and he was much more brave about riding on his own than I thought he would be. Some of his favorite rides were the sky tram, train, the monster cars, and these zooming cars that take you around the circle and zip you really fast now and then. He rode that one three times!







One of the shows that was being performed there was a Thomas the Tank Engine show. Caleb thoroughly enjoyed it--especially singing all of the familiar songs like "I'll Be Working on the Railroad!" Afterwards, he got his picture taken with Thomas.







The only ride that I regretted taking him on was the flume. There was nowhere that I could put my feet on to brace myself. Although I was holding him tightly, I slid forward when we went down the hill and he fell into the barrier. It didn't seem to bother him at all and he laughed all of the way down, but I questioned whether a kid his size should really be allowed on it afterall. I figured that if they said he could ride it, then he would be okay. I am not sure I would take him on it again.


Other than that, we had a great time...and one very tired boy!

Comments

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Keba said…
I can't believe how big Caleb has gotten! He's a little boy! I'll be home for Christmas this year so I hope I can see you guys when I'm in town. Your trip looked like good quality family time. I haven't been to an amusement park in ages.

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