When You Need It Bad

Years ago, Florida's tourism commission had a great ad campaign going. The TV commercial featured all of the scenic spots in Florida while music in the background played, "When you need it bad, we got it good." Besides being grammatically incorrect, the song basically nails vacationing in Florida. In the EBG (era before Grace) we frequented the Keys a number of times. We loved the scenery, the price of accommodations, the food, and the laid back atmosphere. We were all set for one final hurrah there before Grace was born but we had problems with pre-term labor and it gave us cold feet. After doing some research, we discovered the only hospital nearby was the Fisherman's Hospital and they apparently specialized in shark bites. My husband joked that we could potentially have a pirate delivering the baby screaming "Argh, me hook!" We decided to pass. . .

We took Grace to Florida last year and stayed at our favorite "resort" (by resort I mean converted trailer charmingly decorated). But things are different when you have kids. The place seemed run down, we had problems with the power going out, Grace was crawling and there were cracks in the tile. . . .The restaurants were still great but dining out with a baby is a fiasco and we really needed a vacation after our vacation. What had suited us in the EBG, no longer seemed to work.

This year the shore is out. With a delivery date in July and limitations on lifting, it simply won't work lugging Grace and all she entails to the beach. We decided we'd give Florida another try but this time we're going to see the mouse. That's right, the big mouse. Next week we're headed to Disney World. Friends and family initially scoffed at our decision to head to Disney saying things like, "Grace won't remember it!" or "It's pretty expensive isn't it?" To which I reply, why bother doing anything with the kid if she's not going to remember it and have you seen the price of shore rentals lately?

Disney does families and it does families well. Since practically everyone there has kids, I don't have to worry about Grace having a melt down at dinner because odds are, a dozen other toddlers are doing the same. We won't have to search high and low for a restaurant that serves grilled cheese or mac and cheese. Down the shore, we were limited to Busch's and those seniors are aggressive. While they share the same dining time as a toddler, they are certainly not interested in sharing their restaurant with you.

The park, is of course, a kid's delight, complete with rides, characters, and all the stimulation Grace could hope for. The pools ALL have wading options for the little ones and our hotel even has a playground. To say we're psyched to be headed for warmer weather is an understatement. We have no great plan of what we want to see or do beyond cruise the parks, snap a picture with a character or two, and go swimming. I don't want to or like to cook on vacation (in fact I hate it) so eating is high on my agenda. Swimming is also high on my agenda because, unless you've been pregnant, you have no idea how blissful the experience of being weightless truly is.

We went to Disney as kids and I can honestly say I don't remember a ton of it until I was maybe 13 or so. But I love to look at those pictures. We have lots of pictures of us on the rides and with the characters. And when you look at my parents' smiling, no--beaming--faces in the pictures, you realize it's a great experience for you too. It's our last chance to spoil the hell out of Grace before the baby arrives. I wanted to do it up in style full well knowing she'd never remember a blessed moment of it. That's ok because we will and we'll have a blast doing it.