Anyone else have a fantastic time at the egg roll this morning? Tips for next year?

[Anonymous]

I was one of the few posters who replied to the other thread saying I had a great time last year (with a one year old).

I find it so odd how many people are so oppressively negative about this event and the fun that can be had at it. I suspect that those who had a terrible time have something in common and probably have a terrible time through at least half their lives. Sad, huh? That kind of negativity can be contagious. I hope people just ignore them.

The person who is saying 9 out of 10 people had a terrible time cracks me up. I was there last year in the afternoon and we had a great time! The waits were longish, but not horrible. We had family in town and not enough tickets this year, so we gave our tickets away to our neighbors. They sent us pictures of their two kids (22 months and 5) having a great time.

[cuzimawesome]

Anonymous wrote:I was one of the few posters who replied to the other thread saying I had a great time last year (with a one year old).

I find it so odd how many people are so oppressively negative about this event and the fun that can be had at it. I suspect that those who had a terrible time have something in common and probably have a terrible time through at least half their lives. Sad, huh? That kind of negativity can be contagious. I hope people just ignore them.

The person who is saying 9 out of 10 people had a terrible time cracks me up. I was there last year in the afternoon and we had a great time! The waits were longish, but not horrible. We had family in town and not enough tickets this year, so we gave our tickets away to our neighbors. They sent us pictures of their two kids (22 months and 5) having a great time.

Dude. It's great that people had fun, but just because somebody else had a bad time, or because somebody may not want to go, doesn't mean these people are "sad through at least half their lives." People have different priorities and different ideas of fun. You have your opinion and others have theirs. Whatevs.

Comments like that irk the shit outta me.

[Anonymous]

We were at the 2:10pm slot and had a great time! My daughter was even whippin her hair to Willow Smith and she's never heard that song before. We were 5 feet away from Michelle Obama and the girls! We also got to meet and take a picture with Jacques Peppin! The kids loved the characters and hula hoops. The only negative was the kids couldn't keep the eggs from the easter egg hunt. I guess the fun was in finding the eggs? I don't know, it was a little wierd. But the fresh fruit and drinks were a nice treat and the lines weren't too long for anything - at least they moved quickly.

[Anonymous]

We were in the final slop and we had a great time! I was one of the OPs of the "miserable" threads (what to wear thread) and I'm SO glad I went. Tips for next time:

They threw out my food and our bike lock that we carry around for the stroller. That made us sad because it was $40.

We were actually glad to have had the stroller because it was REALLY hot when we got there and it gave DS some shade in the line and the Ergo would have just been too hot.

We did only the activities without lines. He danced to the music, ran around on the lawn, and made a "crown". Oh, and he LOVED the beekeeper and all the characters roaming around.

We left a bit before it was time to leave and had no line going out. That was definitely nice. DS was asleep before we got to the car!!!

[Anonymous]

I'm curious as to how you know you will get tickets next year?

[Anonymous]

We went with our one year old and are glad we went, but we were in the 4:20 group and it was really hot out there in those lines. They took our sunscreen, which irritated me because I didn't think they told me ahead of time that I couldn't bring it. But they did let me bring in an empty sippy cup which I filled with water as soon as we were through security. My advice would be to bring an umbrella for shade and don't arrive too early. It looked like the people who arrived right at 4:20 just walked through and got in about the same time as the rest of us who were there when the lines opened at 3:35.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious as to how you know you will get tickets next year?

I'm the OP and I answered this a few down on the first page. Are the people who are asking this hoping I know something about the lottery that everyone else doesn't know? I don't know that I'll get tickets again next year...I said tips for next year in the post so that others who are looking for information next year might be able to use this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went with our one year old and are glad we went, but we were in the 4:20 group and it was really hot out there in those lines. They took our sunscreen, which irritated me because I didn't think they told me ahead of time that I couldn't bring it. But they did let me bring in an empty sippy cup which I filled with water as soon as we were through security. My advice would be to bring an umbrella for shade and don't arrive too early. It looked like the people who arrived right at 4:20 just walked through and got in about the same time as the rest of us who were there when the lines opened at 3:35.

That's awful about the sunscreen! We were in the 7:30am group and they didn't make us throw out the sunscreen. Strange. As another data point, we arrived at 6:45 for our 7:30 slot and were in by 7:35. Also suggest leaving about 10 minutes before the end of your time slot to avoid the long line to get out.

[Anonymous]

I have a hunch that the earliest and latest groups are the ones where they send VIPs so the purposely make the crowds less. Only saying this bc know 2 hill chiefs of staffs and they had 7:30 slots and 4pm slots. And much like earlier posters they said nothing about the crowds. So maybe they concentrate the unwashed masses in the middle. I could be wrong but I cannot, having worked on the hill, see members of congress and other VIPs dealing with the masses we saw at the 12-2 time slot this year. Just saying. And did anyone else see the special express line just before you entered the gates. Now that's the way to roll!!

[Anonymous]

we had a good time, in the 1230 slot. it was HOT and i got sunburned, so was glad to have the stroller so my 14 mo could be somewhere in the shade. he did the egg hunt which was great - i have the best pictures from that. and we did story time with kristi yamaguchi, one of my childhood idols. an umbrella would work if you had an ergo (though we would have been too hot, all ergoed up together). i was glad we had the stroller, but i luckily didn't do too much pushing of an empty stroller around. got lucky with that one... leaving 10 mins before your allotted time is a good tip too.

[Anonymous]

9:40 group here

My wife and I took our 5 and 2.5 year olds.

Had an awesome time.

Pro's:
The lines and crowds were handled perfectly for the amount of people
The free water, juice etc was easy to get with no lines
Characters, egg roll, all the events were great
Got a lot of fantastic pictures and some great ones of the first family.

Con's:
Disconnect between what was posted as "prohibited" on the White House website and the "rules"
Examples: It said no backpacks, but there were tons. It didn't mention no drinks but those were not allowed. It didn't mention sunscreen and it wasn't allowed. Thankfully a volunteer was letting everyone know this before the checkpoint and we had more than adequate time to reapply before going in.