Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Dutch Wonderland

Another part of "Kid Weekend" was a trip to Dutch Wonderland. My kids went there last summer, and Daughter spent the winter asking if it was summer yet, since we told her that we wouldn't go back to DW until next summer; she cried on June 21 when we told her it was finally summer, but that today wasn't the day for DW.

Anyway, their website says they're "Voted one of the top five best kids parks in the world", and I heartily agree. It's geared toward perhaps the 2-10 year old crowd, which gives my kids (4 and 8) another couple of years to enjoy it. But we all had fun.

The rides were great, the park was clean, the lines were short, the emplyees (teens, mostly) were fine (most looked a bit bored, but whaddya expect?). I'm trying to think of something to complain about, but high food prices are about it, and are obviously par for the course. (But we got our hands stamped and walked across the street to Lapp's for lunch, so we even beat that. Plus, walking through the parking lot, we saw numerous families eating picnics at their car, as well.) One thing I will give them credit for, food-wise, was good portions of ice cream at the one stand we stopped at.

We went on the roller coaster, flume ride and giant slide over and over again, (at least 4 times each), and had a blast. It's interesting that Daughter was more keen to go on the coaster than Son; she's the daring, adventuresome one, to be sure.

They also have a mini-water park, with a place to change into/out of street clothes, and lockers for your stuff. That was great fun for the kids, but except for a couple of bigger slides, not really adult-friendly.

We spent about 10 hours there, in all, and managed to do almost everything we wanted to. And we'll certainly be going back next year.

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