Tulip Festival: Rides

After a hot afternoon parade, Ryan enjoyed a Hawaiian Ice and then we headed off to the rides. We bought a book of tickets, enough for him to go on 5 rides which we split between Friday and Saturday. First up was his "safe" favorite, the carousel. It's hard to go wrong here, and he enjoyed riding a horse and quietly saying "Yee-Haw!" and waving to his friend outside the fence.

Next up was another one of last year's favorites, the cars. This is another tame ride that simply goes round and round, but he loves using the steering wheel and take his driving pretty seriously!

Ryan had been talking about the ferris wheel ever since spotting it rising above the midway. He was eager to go on it with Adam and loved it! He thought it was really cool being high up and seeing everything from their purple car.

On Saturday night, Juliana and I took Ryan to choose his last two rides. He had been talking about the dragon roller coaster for the past 2 days, so he quickly hopped on the rollercoaster right before it was about to take off. It was my mistake to not have him watch the ride once and prep him a little about what to expect, so I got a sinking feeling when I saw his face after the first time around. He was NOT enjoying himself! The other kids were screaming in a fun way, but Ryan was screaming "Mommy! I want to stop!" He didn't break out in actual tears and as soon as it stopped, he just got out and said "I didn't like that". I think if it would have gone around one more time, we would have reached full tearful meltdown. But, I was glad he tried it and I got a better idea of what he could handle before Disney. Although, I think with a little prep and a companion, I think he'd do fine.

The face says it all.

I was glad the Dragon didn't scare him away from trying any other rides and he quickly regrouped and chose his last ride, a motorcycle called "Hog Wild". He chose to drive the Spiderman hog and we found it to be the only one that actually wnet up and down in addition to following the track in a circle. He loved this one and even had another kid join him for the ride.

Ryan did a good job leaving the rides on Saturday night and we are learning that he does much better when we remember to prep him and don't change our minds so he knows what to expect. He knew he only had enough tickets for 2 rides on Saturday night and he also knew that we weren't buying any treats on Saturday night but could have ice cream when we got home. This made for a much smoother transition (and saved from overspending).

Maybe next year we'll check out "ride night" where you can get a wristband for unlimited rides, but at this age, a few rides per day were enough and it was nice to go when there were no lines. It was a good "warm up" for Disney and I can't wait to see his face when he sees those rides!