Autistic in Disneyland

Many of our friends and family have wanted to know how our recent trip to Disneyland went. If you don't know, Avery was adopted at the beginning of the year, and I made Jason promise to take us to Disneyland for her Adoption Day Celebration! (It was only partially selfish on my part, it was the PERFECT reason for a Disneyland trip after all.)

I began preparing for our trip MONTHS ago. Jason thought I was a lunatic. Like, a grade-A hypochondriac. Maybe I was, that's for another blog.

Here are a few things that we took into account, which thankfully all worked in our favor. Just in case any of you guys with kiddos with special needs are planning a trip anytime soon:

- We paid extra to have our car parked as close as possible. This probably seems silly. HOWEVER, we walked 16 MILES in two days at Disneyland. That means Avery clocked in 16 miles. Thats insane. When we landed back in Portland with a Disney-ed out kid, I was VERY grateful to not have to take a tram to a lot the size of Texas to find my car in the rain.

- We paid extra for non-stop flights. SO WORTH IT. Avery had a hard time with understanding what was expected of her during our whole airport experience. "Why is mom holding me so much?" "Where is my bag going?" "Where are you taking my cup?" "Im supposed to stand still?" "Now we are walking?" "What are these moving floors?!" "You want me to sit in this chair for HOW LONG?!" "Why is this seatbelt so tight?" "Another line??" "Who's car is this?" "Who are all of these people?" The list goes on and on. You and I can rationalize easily through all of these questions, we are already in "airport mode" when we get there. That being said, we wanted as little amount of confusing transitions as possible. Spending the extra money on a flight that didn't have a layover was definitely hard on our Disney budget, but something that I would definitely do again.

- We paid extra for an on-site rental car company. Again, reducing the amount of strange, new transitions.

When it was all said and done Avery made it! Exhausted, but she was a rockstar. By the time we reached the hotel and she saw Rapunzel hanging on the wall, she was a happy camper. All of my mommy fears were saved for another day.

We utilized the "Disability Access Pass" both days and it was a GAME CHANGER. I am so thankful that they have a program like that put in place! I really don't know how many rides Avery would have made it on if she had to have waited in those lines. Not even just the fact that some lines could have taken 20-30 minutes, but they were loud and often times over-stimulating!

I have not gotten to ride Peter Pan in years, for whatever reason that is THE RIDE these days, so we found the nearest information stand and put in our pass for Peter Pan first. Whatever the wait time is for the ride, is how long we wait until returning to the fast pass entry. When we arrived for the "Magical Morning," Peter Pan already had a 25 minute wait! Starting from Main Street, it took us just about 25 minutes to make it back there, stopping on the way to look at EVERYTHING, and by the time we arrived they put us right on the ride! It was amazing.

I most definitely plan on exploiting my child's special needs for the disability pass from here on out. (Sorry not sorry)

If any of you know Avery, then you can probably take a few guesses as to which attractions were the ones that we rode 12 times in a row.

If I never ride "Finding Nemo" ever again, i'd be totally fine.

There is just something about squeezing into a tiny and ill-ventilated room with 60 other people to look out at water and fake plants that isn't SUPER attractive to me. But hey, to each their own.

Some of Avery's other favorites were; Frozen Live, Talking to Crush, that huge ferris wheel at California Adventure, the Teacups (surprisingly,) and Monsters Inc.

Sidenote: Jason made us go into the Tiki Room. Ive avoided that place for years and I couldn't remember why. About three minutes and one bite into my Dole Whip later, I was reminded. THAT PLACE IS LIKE A BAD DREAM! Sure, its air conditioned, but is it really worth it if my little autistic kid is brainwashed by singing birds, plants, and WALLS?! (Sorry if you love this place, Jason included, but it is NOT my jam.)

Despite all of the meltdowns and "the looks" from other parents with their angel children, I already want to go back! I want more corn dogs from "The Corn Dog Castle," more Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream sandwiches, more inhales from that Main Street smell that we all know and love, more meltdowns outside of the Autopia bathrooms, more evil looks from Disney workers who notice our straw-like contraband that we smuggled into the state, and more shopping to find the perfect souvenir!

So, Disneyland, if you're reading this (because i'm a big-time blogger now,) would you like to sponsor a cute little autistic kid and her Disney-loving mother? We don't need much, just free trips like, yearly. Just think about it, i'm willing to pretty much sign my soul over, let me know!