Vacations Blog

Orlando Family Vacations

Orlando, Florida is well known as a family vacation destination.  However, one of the common misconceptions I hear from families is that they have to wait until the kids are “old enough to appreciate it” before they can invest in a family trip to the theme park capital of the world.

To a certain extent, I agree.  Places like Universal Studios and even Disney World are not great for kids under five.  They can’t go on roller coasters and a lot of young children are terrified of the rides that are supposed to be made for them.  My daughter was so scared of Magic Kingdom’s Snow White ride that we had to leave through one of the emergency exits.  And don’t even get me started on Universal Studio’s 3D Shrek experience.  (Note to attraction designers: small children are scared of the dark AND graveyards AND ghosts.  Duh.)

It makes sense to avoid these places until your children are old enough to appreciate the hundreds of dollars you’ll be spending in admission prices.

But what if you have one kid who is the perfect age to experience these things and another much younger child?  Can you plan an Orlando vacation that includes activities for younger children?

Absolutely.

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For those of you with small children, there aren’t always a lot of choices when it comes to amusement parks. Disneyland is great, but for us Nor Cal folks there’s the expense (and the hassle -remember, “small children”) of travel.  Upon arrival we then encounter the additional expense of lodging, eating and the park itself.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking Disneyland. Every family should experience it as many times as possible because every trip is a different adventure. But if you’re looking for a local spot for pint-sized entertainment, then look no further than Concord’s Pixieland Amusement Park.

Located in Concord, California, Pixieland has been a local institution since…well I’m not sure when because I couldn’t locate this particular nugget of information. But I’ll tell you this; I had a birthday party there around 1970, so it’s been around for at least 40 years. It’s really geared toward the three to eight year old crowd so if yours are a little older, or have already hit their teens, then Pixieland is probably not for you. But if you’ve got little ones you should definitely check it out.

Pixieland has seven rides including:

• A Train ride – “featuring Engineer Jim!”
• The Dragon Rollercoaster
• Frog Hopper
• Red Baron Airplanes
• Spinning Tea Cups
• Antique Cars
• Carousel

Parking and admission are free, but once inside plan to spend a little money. Rides require tickets and they’re not cheap. The cost is $1.50 for single tickets so you’re better off spending a little more up front and getting more bang for your buck. A book of ten tickets will run you $14, but if you buy five books you’ll get the sixth book free. On the plus side there is no expiration date on the tickets so you can save them for a future visit. All-Day wristbands are available for $25, and a season pass is $150. All rides require one ticket with the exception of the train and the roller coaster which require two.

Did I mention it’s a little pricey? OK then.

Pixieland offers a full snack bar which, in addition to the usual assortment of tooth-rotting goodies offers hand-dipped corn dogs, nachos, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, French fries ,garlic fries, and fresh cotton candy. Birthday party packages are also available.

Park hours seem to change by the day. Seriously. Check out the Pixieland Park Hours page of their website. I half expected to see a time change based on the phases of the moon. July is the only month that Pixieland is open 7-days a week.

A word of caution to parents; hemorrhaging money aide, for sanity’s sake I don’t recommend spending more than about two hours at Pixieland.  Frankly, the place is full of little kids, and really who needs more than a couple of hours of that?? There also may or may not be incessant, happy music playing over the sound system.  In short, any time spent over the recommend two hours and you may find yourself being brought up on charges for shoving some kid in front of a Red Baron airplane.

That being said, ENJOY!

All Photos by Jef Poskanzer