With all the pages of posts on the other thread, I thought we should start a new 2019 thread.
How’s your planning coming? Has Star Wars opening in August affected your plans?
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Here’s our itinerary for December (we arrive the day before this and will just stay by the pool). As much as it pains me to do it, we are going to skip Hollywood Studios entirely. I can’t deal with level 10 crowds.
We’ll leave MK at 6 on Sunday and go to dinner at Cape May Cafe, then spend some time in the pool. We are paying for the extra tickets to Mickeys Christmas Party on Tuesday and Thursday (so it’ll close at midnight). MK days are going to be go-go-go, so I’m looking forward to the more relaxed pace at Epcot (we may even sleep in). We leave on Friday, so we’ll stay at MK until 6, get dinner outside the park, and then make the 8 hour drive home.
We aren’t doing AK this time because we have an awesome zoo at home, and there didn’t seem to be a ton to do there last time we went (when our kids are older that might change).
I am still on the fence about whether my older daughter will need a stroller. She will be one month shy of six. My thinking is that I’ll bring our City Mini for the two year old and rent the hard plastic strollers they offer in the park if my older DD gets tired. That way, we won’t have to carry two strollers everywhere. I’m hoping she won’t need one at all, but maybe that’s too optimistic.
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@Hypatia: Sounds like a good plan - and so fun that you'll be there during Christmas time! I think we're going to try to go in December for our 2020 trip so we can see everything decorated.
We're also a little concerned about Star Wars but we're planning to hit HS hard in the morning and get out by midday to hopefully avoid the major crowds. We'll probably stick to Toy Story Land/shows and stay away from Star Wars.
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We'll be there 11/1-11/9 with a 3.5 year old and 5 month old (a little scared of being there with the baby but better than not going). Crowd levels are between 4-7. We're staying at the Contemporary and our tentative plan is (some of these days are half days):
11/1 - Halloween party night of arrival
11/2 - Epcot
11/3 - MK
11/4 - Rest day
11/5 - HS
11/6 - Epcot
11/7 - AK
11/8 - MKWe made our dining reservations a couple weeks ago and a few new ones I'm excited about are Storybook Dining at Artist Point and Chef Mickey's. We also booked some old favorites!
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@Hypatia: exciting ! Where are you staying ? I love Cape May... we’ve only ever done breakfast there but it’s become a must do for us. I’ve heard the week before Christmas is a great time to go.
@skinnycow: Storybooks Dining was really really good when we went in March! I loved the food and the atmosphere was so fun for kids. I’ve always wanted to do one of the holiday parties. They look like a lot of fun.
We will be heading down 2/27-3/8. Still a long ways away so no dining or anything planned yet. But we just closed on our DVC contract and our home resort is the Polynesian. We have never stayed there so I’m really excited to try it out next year. We did book our flights and got a great price on direct flights so that made me happy!
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@skinnycow: That’s so funny, we keep saying we hope we can go during the Halloween season someday! It’s just hard to do with my DH’s work schedule. Keep us posted about how Hollywood Studios goes. I heard they were opening it up everyday at 6 AM this fall to resort only guests, so it sounds like mornings might be bearable.
@charm55 My DH is obsessed with endless crab legs. I’m not really a seafood person! But it looks like they have some other good stuff. It will be our only dining experience, aside from a few snacks and maybe a quick service meal or two. We mostly plan on bringing our own food.
Oh, and we’re staying at Pop. I’m hoping they’ll have room discounts later this year that we can apply to our reservations.
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We are going Jan 25-Feb 1. First trip & coming from the west coast so I’m feeling so overwhelmed. We are staying at my in laws timeshare—-$150 for 7 nights so couldn’t pass it up even though we won’t get the benefits of staying on site. I’m hoping to do the early morning at magic kingdom that cost $69, but so far it looks like they’re not doing it this fall. Here are our rough plans. I’m open to any and all suggestions!!
Sat: travel takes all day from west coast
Sunday: half day PM at Hollywood studios (kids want to do toy story land)
Monday: Epcot
Tuesday: MK
Wednesday: rest day
Thursday: AK (and my DD birthday)
Friday: MK
Saturday: travel homeI hate taking Wednesday off since that’ll probably be a lower crowd day but I know we’ll need the rest. 6 day tickets are only a few dollars more so maybe we’ll just get those and go see fireworks or something that night.
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@Hypatia: If it were me, w/r/t the stroller, I would rent a double. It's not much wider than a single and then you only have one stroller to deal with, but you've got a seat for your bigger kid if she needs one - they're long days! I also found it really handy (our kids were 3 and 5) to have someplace for them to relax, to eat snacks when we were on the go, and to sit and watch things - the stroller seats were great for the parade. It also made life easier to be able to put the kids in the stroller and move quickly if you were trying to get to a show or a FPP or something, but your kids may be less poky than mine. We used ours a LOT.
It's funny, the previous thread was what got me to plan our trip last year, and now there's a new one, yay! We had so much fun that I immediately started planning our next visit - we'll be there at the end of February, basically the same dates as @charm55 (I'm Disney-stalking her!). We're staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge. My original plans were to skip Galaxy's Edge, and maybe all of HS, but the more I see of it the more excited about it I am so I'm hoping the crowds will have died down somewhat so we can go wander around - the theming looks amazing! I also really want to get the boys a droid, they look so cool.
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Hi! Coming over with y'all to the new thread, planning our Disney World weekend for October 2019. We will be traveling with our two daughters who will be 10 months and just shy of 7 years old at the time. We have been to Disney with LO1 4x since she was about 3 years old and have had really wonderful trips!
This will be our first time for the youngest, and we didn't really plan on taking her so early but I feel like the older LO is running up against Disney losing some of its magic already and I want to squeeze in one more trip for her at this age.We are FL residents, so our plans are for a short weekend with time spent at Disney Springs and Epcot. We'll be there for the Food and Wine festival, and our priorities are to see characters that my older LO hasn't yet met. Neither DH or I have been to Disney Springs since we were kids ourselves, and I'm excited to see how it's changed since they remodeled it from Downtown Disney.
I'm a little annoyed because our plans are getting shaken up thanks to our local univeristy football schedule changing! We based our weekned pick on when Homecoming would be since public schools have off that Friday and we wanted to take advantage of the existing 'day off' our oldest and avoid any additional time away from class. Well - this is now one week before it was expected to be and now all our existing reservations need to change!
Additionally, the trip now falls over DH's and I wedding anniversary which wasn't part of our original plans.I'm not sure we'll be able to get all our dining reservations I made on the 180-day opening date. And our hotel reservations also need to change, but I was considering moving to the Disney Springs Doubletree suites hotel vs. the All-Star Music room that I had originally booked already.
Does anyone have feedback on the Doubletree suites?
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@charm55: I love the Polynesian but have never stayed there - how awesome this is your home resort for DVC!
@Hypatia: I agree with your thoughts about AK. We went a couple years ago and it was fun, but I didn't find there was so much for our then 5yo to do since so many of the rides are geared for older kids (or at least, not for my kid who isn't into thrills just yet). My experience may have also been colored by the fact that it was SO HOT when we went in October that we were exhausted and actually left earlier than we planned to just drive home instead of stay and do more at LO's request.
And fair warning, December can actually get kind of cold here in FL so you may want to consider some alternate plans to the pool just in case there is a cold front or rain.
Also, I agree with renting a double stroller to have for your older LO. We will be bringing ours and our oldest will be almost 7. It's just SO MUCH walking for little legs and when you're hustling to make a fastpass or show time it is nice to just wheel them through the crowds. Alternatively, do you babywear your 2yo at all? You could possibly stick with the single stroller and if your older LO needs to rest or use it, wear the youngest for a short time.
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@erinbaderin: That’s a good point. I’m not sure I’ll be able to find a double stroller that will fit her, though! All the ones I’m seeing have a 44” height max and a 50 lb weight limit. She’s currently 45” and 56 lbs, and will probably grow a fair bit more over the next six months (she’s five but wears size 8-9 clothing).
@lindseykaye We had the same experience at AK! It was our last day, and it just felt super humid and crowded. Maybe it was because we couldn’t do the thrill rides, but it felt like a step down from the other Disney parks.
We live in a place where the summer highs are usually in the low 70s and we swim in really cold lakes and streams, so my thinking is that swimming in a heated pool in the low 70s (the average for the time we are going) should be fine. But like you said, it could dip down a lot lower than that, and it can just feel a lot different depending on the relative humidity. Would it be crazy to bring some wetsuits for the kids?
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@Hypatia: In that case, you may be fine and if you have them I would totally bring the wet suits! You may end up with a lot of space to roam at the pool this way
Us Floridians (at least myself) are wimps about cold water but you are probably a lot more used to it hahaDecember is so fickle. The weather tends to be nice and mild, but yes there can be cold fronts that dip down to the 40's and usually there is a good amount of rain possible... but the rain is always possible in FL. It doesn't tend to get COLD cold until late January, early February. And we have gone in late february with temps getting up in the low 80's after starting out in the 50's when we left the hotel.
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@MommySLP: that looks like a great plan! I bet they will offer Early Morning Magic next winter, they have for the last 2-3 years. For your DDs birthday, if you want you can order a Mickey cake if you happen to be eating at one of the table service restaurants. . It’s really cute and tasty and I was surprised it was only $35 (we did it for my niece this year and it was really sweet).
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@lindseykaye: I’ve always wanted to do Food and Wine. It looks so much fun. Disney Springs is amazing! It’s so much different from the days of Downtown Disney. If you’re able to go during the day time it’s much less busy.
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@charm55: This will be our third visit to Food and Wine! We try to plan our trips around it if we’re going to Epcot because it just adds so much to the visit. Being able to sample little (or big) bites of delicious food all over the park is so fun and convenient.
I look forward to when they release the menus so I can make my list of stops and drool over everything!
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How long do you guys spend on your midday break? I was thinking of leaving the park at 1:30, arrive back at the hotel at about 2, nap or swim, and then catch the bus at 4:00 back to the park. Is that too rushed? To be honest, I hate feeling like we are missing out, so I’d like the break to be as short as it can be while still providing some rest. My kids will be nearly 6 and 3, if it matters.
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@Hypatia: Are you taking the bus? I think 30 minutes is optimistic to get from leaving the park to arriving at your resort.
So we were there in March with a 5 and 3 year old, and actually only took breaks on our Epcot days, because we were at the Beach Club and could walk back to the resort. Most other days we went from open (sometimes earlier with 8am breakfast reservations) to fireworks, and the kids were ok! We thought my 3 year old might nap in the stroller but he only fell asleep once, and that was after doing a flip over a velvet rope waiting to meet Mickey and cutting open his lip - I think all the crying and terror wiped him out. But otherwise they were both champions - they basically fell asleep in the stroller/Minnie van on the way back to the resort every night, but were rating to go again the next morning.
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We’re similar to @erinbaderin: ... we only do afternoon breaks if we are staying super close to that park (ie: AK if we’re at AKL, Hs/Epcot if we’re at Beach Club).
Otherwise I just find it too much work and just stay at the park. My youngest (3) takes epic stroller naps which allows us to have some fun “big girl” park time with our oldest.
If I was doing an afternoon break I would budget at least 4 hours to make it worth my while, I think.
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@erinbaderin: @charm55 Thanks! On our Epcot days, we would ride the gondola, and on the Magic Kingdom days, we would ride a Lyft for the midday break. We would be in the parks from 9 AM to 9:30 at Epcot and 9 AM to midnight for MK. I will have to think about that. It does seem like a lot of extra work, but it sounds almost ubiquitous at online Disney forums, even with older kids. Hm.
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@Hypatia: We went in February with 3 kids - ages 6,4 and 5 months, and tried to take a midday break but it ended up being more trouble than it was worth and they gladly would have stayed at the park and survived! The day we had a break planned I had planned to leave at 12:00 and come back at 4:00 but I could NOT get my kids to leave at 12 and we were having a great time, so we ended up staying until 3 and then taking a super rushed break since we already had dinner ready at home. If its not too much trouble, I'd maybe make plans for both taking a break and not, and then see how it goes when you are there. I was SO impressed with how long my kids wanted to stay / kept themselves together, since at home they can be complete trainwrecks when we try to do something for an hour!
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@Hypatia: in that case I would take a longer break (3-4 hours) on your MK day (since it’s open for so long anyway) and either use the bus or Minnie Van. Lyft/Uber will pick up at the TTC which is an extra step and hassle.
The gondola looks really convenient and I would use that for mid day breaks at HS/Epcot for sure. I can’t wait to try it !
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@HappyBaker: That’s a good idea! We’ll play it by ear. It’s funny they put their foot down about staying.
@charm55 I’ve heard it’s a bit easier if you are dropped off at Contemporary and walk over to MK? I’ll have to look more into that. MK really is the one I’m worried about.
I’m excited about the gondola, too! It looks more efficient than the buses for sure, and maybe even the monorail.
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@Hypatia: honestly from MK I find the bus the easiest. It drops you off as close to the gate as you can get. Sure, you might have to wait 10 mins for a bus but you often have to wait that for a Minnie Van anyway (or do the walk to Contemporary). We actually had really good bus luck last trip and don’t think we waited for more than 5 mins over the course of 10 days.
If you notice an Art of Animation bus come sooner you can always hop on that and then a short walk over to pop. We do that when we stay at Beach club - if we notice a Boardwalk bus come first we’ll get on that. It doubles your bus chances !
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@charm55 I think you’re right. If we do take a break at MK, we’ll hop on a bus. The tentative plan now is to not take a break on the two MK Christmas Party days if we can help it. We might take breaks on the Epcot days, since that park is so big and the gondola is a lot quicker than waiting for a bus.
One other small update...I convinced my DH to change our plans from Cape May to Ohana, since I’m not a seafood fan. Although, he is very indignant that they don’t serve crab at a Polynesian restaurant. Ha. Anyway, I’m looking forward to watching the MK fireworks from the beach!
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We planned breaks into our touring plans because I thought we’d take them, which was good - it meant when we didn’t we had some extra time. Another option would be to just schedule in some downtime - a few hours on Tom Sawyer Island, or head to the Poly or Wilderness Lodge - then it’s a bit of a rest, more potential for stroller naps because there’s not as much going on, but you don’t have the hassle of going all the way back.
For us even on the days we took breaks it wasn’t a rest, the minute we got back to the resort it was “let’s go in the pool!!!”
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@Hypatia: Lots of the same advice as above folks re: breaks.
When we took our oldest when she was just shy of 3 and just older than 3, we did not take breaks. She took one nice long stroller nap each day at this age (MK and Epcot parks). We used that time to recharge ourselves or take turns riding the thrill rides she wasn't big enough for. At this age, we elected not to stay for fireworks and left the parks by abour 6/7 pm to return to our hotel, have dinner, and get to bed at a decent time. She didn't know what she was missing.
When we took her at 4/5 yrs we did a mid-day break that was about 4 hours long. It was nice because both times of year it was HOT and we were happy to get away from the park and into the pool at the hotel. We were at HS/MK, staying at AoA for one of these trips, and at Epcot/AK staying at All-Star Movies for another.
For these trips, we used the bus transport around 2pm and then swam in the pool and had an early dinner at the hotel before going back to the parks around 6 or 7. One day LO fell asleep on the bus on the way back to HS and then slept in her stroller for like another hour while we walked around and ate treats lol. For all of these days we stayed for fireworks shows. She usually fell asleep in her stroller on the way out of the park towards transportation back to the hotel.I like the suggestion of planning two options, break or not, and then just going with the flow of the day and how your kids are doing. The suggestion to also find some nice downtime style activities at the parks to fill this time is also a good in-between option. I think especially if you will not have a stroller for your oldest she may be more inclined to need a break, but it's so hard to tell!
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@Hypatia: Oh also, doing dinner at the Polynesian and staying for fireworks was really REALLY fun. We got there early, had drinks at Trader Sam's Tiki Terrace, had dinner at Kona Cafe, and then watched fireworks from both the second floor windows near the restaurant and then outside by the pool. I would do this again in a heartbeat!
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@Hypatia: I LOVE Ohana. As a fellow non sea food eater I think that’s a good switch. I love cape May for breakfast, but just walking by in the evenings the fish smell is overpowering so I know it wouldn’t be my thing. Ohana does have shrimp which my sea food loving daughter goes to town on each time we go !
@lindseykaye: how’s Kona Cafe ?? I’ve never been but interested since we will likely be staying at Poly next trip. I’m excited to try Trader Sam’s as well!
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@charm55: Kona Cafe was super tasty. We actually picked this over Ohana because the menu is larger and each person can order as they please. There's a big sushi menu, and there is an open kitchen/sushi station in the center of the restaurant which is entertaining.
It's right near Trader Sam's grotto which I have heard is also really fun, and when you order certain drinks there is a big to-do. We did the outside tiki bar because the weather was nice and there was more space for LO. We stopped in at the gift shop when we first arrived after exploring the hotel grounds a bit and let her buy Moana figures which she played with through our drinks and dinner and the rest of the trip at the hotel.Also, something I love about Polynesian is that you can get Dole Whip there which is my single must-have treat when we go to Disney.
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Do you guys have any Disney hacks that you’d like to share? Here are a few notes I’ve made (though nine of these are super secret or anything).
Bring a foldable lunch box if you’re bringing food into the park, but leave it empty and have all your stuff just laying in the bottom of your stroller when you enter the park. This enables you to skip the bag inspection line, as they can plainly see everything i your basket and you have nothing contained in bags. You can put everything in the lunchbox once you’re inside the park.
Bring bodyglide to keep your thighs from chafing.
Bring a water bottle with a built in water filter. It will make the Florida water taste a lot better, and you can ask for a cup of ice water at any Disney quick service restaurant to pour into your bottle.
We are bringing Mountain House camp meals that can be cooked with hot water from the k cup coffee maker, along with a camp pot. Other hot water prep foods include instant oatmeal, grits, kraft macaroni, ramen, and mashed potatoes. Those Hormel precooked beef tips, stew, meatloaf, etc. recommend using a microwave or stovetop, but you can heat them up by submerging the package (unopened) in a pot with hot water (just change out the water until it seems warm enough—the food is already cooked); these do have to be refrigerated until you use them, though.
If you don’t have a dining plan, kids’ meals provide a pretty generous amount of food. You can get an entree, fries, a cookie, and a small drink for about $7.
The refillable popcorn buckets are $10 upfront and then $1.50 for all subsequent refills.
You can check the bus arrival times with your Disney app.
Use rider swap to essentially double your fast passes if you’re bringing an infant or toddler.
Buy ultra pasteurized milk that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. You’ll find it stored on the shelves at the grocery store (not the cold section) in little boxes with straws or small bottles—sometimes you can find plain milk, but you may just have to buy chocolate milk (read the label to ensure it’s actually 2% milk and not chocolate flavored water). Having access to milk you don’t need to refrigerate and that you can easily carry into the parks is great if you have small kids. (Fun fact: I’ve read that all milk is ultra pasteurized in Europe, so it’s shelf stable and doesn’t go bad nearly as soon. I wish we did that here.)
If you are visiting in winter when the temperatures might dip down (especially at night), bring hand warmers. Kids will appreciate them while they’re waiting in line or watching a show. If you don’t need them anymore but they still have life left (I think they last around 12 hours) put them in a Ziploc bag; oxygen is what triggers the chemical reaction, so you’ll be able to take them out again for later use.
We are bringing wetsuits with us to help our kids stay warm if it’s somewhat cool but they’d still like to swim.
Buy battery operated string lights to wrap around your stroller. It will help you quickly identify your stroller among the hundred others (especially at night).
If you’re going at Halloween or Christmas, buy some thematic battery operated necklaces and wands to bring with you. They are really overpriced at the park.
You can make dinner reservations for your entire trip from the first day of your arrival minus 180 days. This means that someone else who arrived a few days before you can book some of the days you are interested in before you have access. To capitalize on the system, always start searching for ADRs that are at the end of your trip first (there is less competition) and work your way backward.
Similarly, to maximize your FastPass+ options under these sorts of circumstances, book FastPasses from the end of your trip and work forward. For example, if you know you’re going to be at the Magic Kingdom on Day 1 and Day 6 of your trip, try booking Day 6 first to ensure that you’re competing with as few people as possible. Even if there are other people that, like you, hop on at midnight Eastern to make their FastPass+ reservations, they are likely starting from their first day and working forwards, so you’ll have a few minute jump on them to make sure that you get what you want at some point during your trip. Once you have that locked in, you can always go back and change it to something else if you’re also able to get it at an acceptable time earlier in your trip.
Let’s say you have a FastPass+ in hand, but you get to the attraction and find it completely unnecessary? DON’T SCAN YOUR BAND. Instead, use the standby line, open the MDE app, and change your FastPass+ to something else. It only takes a few seconds, but could save you significant time waiting at another attraction — and worst case scenario, you’ve essentially bumped up the time to make your first extra FastPass+ reservation. You’ll have more choices available rescheduling a FP at 10:00 vs waiting for all your FP to be used to get the fourth FpP at noon or whenever.
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@Hypatia: Love it!! So many good ideas
Some we follow now and some that are new to me!My tips:
1) Buy stuff online before you go and bust it out for your kids at the park or hotel or wherever. We bought our autograph book, light-up wand, glow stick bracelets, rain ponchos, and plenty more online for MUCH cheaper before we go on our trips to cut down on the money we spend in the parks. It's always worked out wonderfully.
2) Target (and others) have PJ princess dresses that are a lot more comfortable and washable than dress-up play princess dresses. If you have a little girl who wants to wear princess garb to the parks this is our first choice. Alternatively we've brought a dress to wear to a princess breakfast and then had LO change so she's not staying all day in the heat in a big, polyester, scratchy dress.
3) Keep checking back much closer to the date of your travel for hot-ticket dining reservations. People book months in advance and then sometimes have changes of plans during their stay. I've booked Be Our Guest 2-days ahead of a visit one time, and booked the Cinderella castle breakfast the day before. Both of these were full when I was looking at the 180-day mark or around then.
4) Bring a big fat black sharpie for your autograph books. Costumed characters will be able to hold this much better than a regular pen or marker.
5) All the hotel rooms we've stayed at have TVs with open HDMI ports. We bring our Amazon fire stick, or have brought our smart Blu-Ray player and a few movies for downtime at the hotel. This is so much better than trying to navigate cable TV. I have also packed ours carefully during other travel that requires a flight, you just have to take it out if it's in your carry-on like a computer or pack it carefully in your checked baggage.
6) Bring some quarters and shiny pennies for the penny press machines! These are such cute/cheap souvenirs and my kid loves them. There are some Disney sites online where you can print out little booklet maps with a list of all the locations of the machines and what characters are there for reference. We use an old, clean, M&M mini tube which perfectly fits the coins, and I stack them in a 2 quarters/1 penny pattern so the coins we need come out in order and it's compact to carry in your bag.
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Our itinerary:
Saturday 11/2 MK
Sunday 11/3 Epcot
Monday 11/4 HS
Tuesday 11/5 AK or HS
Wednesday 11/6 Epcot
Thursday 11/7 AK
Friday 11/8 MKOur in-laws are coming so they will be able to take one or both kids back to the resort for afternoon breaks/naps while DH and I play some more in the parks.
I have booked:
-CRT breakfast
-Bon Voyage breakfast
-BBB
-Storybook Dining with Snow White
-Tony's lunch package for the Festival of Fantasy parade
-San Angel Inn Restaurante dinner -
@PawPrints: So funny - we’re there the same days and are even visiting the same parks some days!
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I'll jump in! Such great ideas here!
We recently booked a trip to Disney with my in-laws and our kids (ages 2 and 4) for the week of 11/17 - 11/23. I feel like we're waaaay behind on any planning and I'm starting to feel antsy about that as I look into making plans now. Eek!
In general, we're trying to take a pretty laid back approach with this trip since the kids are pretty young and I anticipate going back with them again in the coming years. I went to Disney a few times as a kid, but it's a first for my husband and my in-laws (and the kids). My kids say they're most excited about hugging Minnie Mouse and taking a plane there...ha. They set a low bar!!
Anyway, I've loved reading what you ladies have suggested and planned so far. It's inspired me to really get going on our trip!
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@caitcat: I think you are taking a really great approach actually! The best advice I can give about a Disney vacation for families with young kids is to try to be as laid back as you can. Try to make plans for just the handful of must-see and must-do activities on your list and let the rest of the trip be led by the needs/wants of your kids. Especially if you think you'll return.
Kids that age will find everything about it magical, and it will feel so rewarding to not rush them around or stress about timing. It's awesome you have grandparents to help too! People can switch off with kids to enjoy different rides or take kids back to the hotel.
The weather should be lovely around when you're there, and if you're visiting Epcot you'll catch the end of Food and Wine which is really fun for the grown ups
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@lindseykaye: Thanks! Yes, I'm looking forward to the Food and Wine festival - I'm hoping to make it there with my husband one afternoon while the kids hang back at the hotel with their grandparents. Epcot is one of my favorites in general, so I'm excited our timing works out to catch part of this.
And you're so right about this age finding everything magical. We're aiming to plan the bare minimum, and then just follow the kids' lead. I'm excited to see them take it all in. It's such a different trip than my last pre-kid trip to Disney, but I'm kind of enjoying the laid back approach. I know when we go when kids are older, it'll be more to put together. I love that kind of planning, but don't have it in me right now!
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@caitcat: of course it may depend on your kids and their temperments, but we last went to WDW when my girls were 2 and 4 (and they were both very newly 2 and 4) and it was an amazing trip. I didn't know what to expect about my 2 year old going in--she's always been a little more needy/difficult, and I had a friend go right before our trip who said the whole trip was a nightmare because her youngest was too afraid to ride anything at all (even the slow rides) and then if she could manage to get him on it without him screaming and crying, then he would scream and cry and tantrum when it was time to get off. And she told me she was never taking him to WDW again, haha.
SO I was like.....ah, well, lets see how this goes. But my kids handled everything so well and we had 0 tantrums from either girl, and we rode basically every single ride that they were tall enough to ride, saw everything show we were interested, did some character meets (although none of us are that into those). 4 is the perfect "magical" age---they still think the characters are real and they can remember the trip. My 2 year old (at the time) had fun and was excited for all the rides/characters, but she doesn't remember much outside the pictures of our trip.
But that's why we're going again this summer, when they will be newly 6 and 4. So now our youngest gets to be the magical age. I'm really excited to do it all again, and my oldest remembers everything and already has a list of rides she MUST do again, haha (her favorites were 7 dwarves Mine train, Kali River Rapids, Thunder Mountain, the Frozen ride, and the Safari ride at AK--oh and IT's a small world, of course, lol. She wanted to ride that over and over.)
Listen, my kids even rode the Mexico ride in Epcot about 4 times in a row and LOVED IT, and that ride is widely panned as being "boring". They were obsessed.
So bottom line is, 2 and 4 year olds are easy to entertain and impress. They like every little thing, even the "boring" rides. Like they loved the Living with the Land ride at Epcot, and I always read that kids don't like that ride. Anyway, my kids didn't find 1 show or ride they didn't like. We did save MK till the last 2 days of our trip, and I think that helped. I think someone here on HB gave me that tip. We started with the places we thought might be more "boring" for kids (NONE of them were boring!) and worked out way up to MK for the last 2 days.
I think last trip we did HS, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and then 2 days at MK. And they were happy every single day.
My only advice for you is don't tell them in advance about individual rides. I really hyped up the Frozen ride (because 2 years ago, my kids were at the height of Frozen madness) and the breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table, and I realized later I should have just kept those as a suprise in case there was a last minute illness, or a ride broke down--so they wouldn't be disappointed about missing something. They can't miss what they don't know about. SO if you don't get fastpasses for something, and you aren't sure you'll want to stand in a line to do it, then just don't mention it to the kids at all. =)
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@Anagram: You know my daugher's favorite ride of any park is Living with the Land!! It's so relaxing, and she loves going through the garden area. I love this ride too, but it's always our first/must do ride when we are at Epcot
And AWESOME advice about not hyping things up ahead of time or even mentioning it. We have also been burned by this when the Frozen ride broke while we were mid-line. We waited for a long time hopeful that it would get fixed since we were so close we could see the loading/unloading area for the boats but eventually left and got a return time for our fast pass we used. Then when we actually got to ride it she didn't like it because there is a part where you go faster and backwards away from the Marshmallow snow monster thing
Oh well!
There was also a mixup when we were at MK once because I called the Barnstormer ride the 'kiddie coaster' and she thought it was kitty coaster and got REAL MAD that when we got there it was not about cats. -
@Anagram: Thanks so much! This is so encouraging! I think a lot of those "boring" rides are going to be right up our alley. I mean, my four year old thought riding the metro was the coolest thing EVER when we went into DC the other day...so they're definitely at the easy to impress age!!
Also, that's fantastic advice about not making a big deal of anything in particular ahead of time. Thanks!
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@lindseykaye: Haha, my daughter would be so disappointed about the kiddie vs. kitty coaster too!
Us Floridians (at least myself) are wimps about cold water but you are probably a lot more used to it haha
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