Tom Sawyer Island vs Band Aids

I offer a Disney planning service, and I update it weekly with additional tips from family, friends, and other folks who contribute. I didn't have a tip last week, so I asked my sister for her very best Disney tip, as she and I have gone many times together. Her trip brought back a fond, and yet not so pleasant for everyone memory, but it also included a great tip.

My sister, niece, step-mom, and I all paid a visit last October to Disney World. It was a fabulous trip, with only one small boo boo. We had all trekked it over to Tom Sawyer Island, feverishly in search of paint brushes! We'd explored all of the caves, gone up into the fort, and were headed across the barrel bridge. I had recently had knee surgery, and the barrel bridge looked like it might be a little hazardous, so I skipped it. My niece was dying to go across, so we sat on some up right barrells and waited.

Now, this bridge is kind of precarious. Of course, everything at Disney is more or less safe, but Tom Sawyer Island is a little more rustic. It's pretty much a fancy playground for children where they run out their energy in the middle of the day. And this bridge is on water, and while you can't really fall in, it's wobbly and hard to navigate.

My niece held on to the ropes, and she made it ever so carefully across. But then, she stepped off, walked a step or two, and that darned ground, reached up and tripped her. Down she went. And of course, she scraped her knee, which proceeded to bleed.

If you know anything about eight year olds (what I know could fit in the palm of your hand), you know that a scraped knee is akin to blood spewing forth from a split in your head. And the only thing that is going to make it feel better is a band aid.

She wailed and wailed and wailed. We searched feverishly for a cast member to give us a band aid, because, as she insisted, she was going to die without one and the knee was never going to heal. But alas, no cast member was to be found. I am sure there are some hiding somewhere, but we couldn't find one.

We learned a hard lesson that day. And the lesson is--especially if you are traveling with small children to Tom Sawyer Island who can navigate treacherous bridges, but not flat cemented ground--have band aids. I can imagine they are also great for blistered feet, which you might also wind up with. Sure, you can probably find them in the parks, but save yourself the trouble and add them to the list of things you'll be putting in your fanny pack or back pack.

And please be careful getting off the barrel bridge!