It’s been a year since our first Disney vacation! We had an amazing time. It was so much more fun then any of us expected, especially considering the age of our kids. They were young, but I have zero regrets about taking them on this trip. Here are a few of the things I learned about doing Disney with young children. Our kids were 21 months and four years old.
1. Planning in advance
The most common complaints I heard about Disney before our trip were; the huge crowds, long lines, heat and excess money spent on things unplanned for. Fortunately, we didn’t have trouble with any of these things.
A huge reason why our trip went so smoothly was due to the amount of planning and preparation we put into it. I found this fun because I love planning all the things but there are also many free Disney travel agents who will do it for you. Disney almost forces you to plan in advance and it’s smart, especially with young kids.
To start our planning I sat down and mapped out a general itinerary for our trip; things like what parks we wanted to see and the order of the parks we would visit. I planned this around crowd calendars that I found online. These helped me understand what parks where busiest on what days. For example I learned that Magic Kingdom, the most popular park, is often the place people choose to start their vacation, so it’s best to avoid it on a Monday.
Then I figured out what rides, experiences, character meetings and restaurants would be absolute must do’s for us. Some time was spent on the Disney website, watching YouTube videos, checking out Pinterest and I read a couple of books, one was actually for kids but I loved it, to help me with all this. I knew nothing about Disney World so I had a lot of learning to do.
By having a game plan and being on my computer and ready to go at 7 am, 180 days in advance when dining reservations hit and then again 60 days in advance when our fast pass reservations opened up it got us everything we wanted at the time we wanted. Cinderella’s castle, Be our Guest, the Frozen Ride, Seven dwarfs mine train, etc.
2. Stay at a Disney Resort if budget allows
Some perks include free transportation, such as a shuttle from the airport allowing you to not have to deal with car seats and buses that transport you around the parks and resorts. You also get things like extra magic hours and are able to make fast pass reservations 60 days in advance instead of 30 for those staying off resort. To keep the cost down try looking into renting DVC points or the budget resorts. Take caution that a lot of the hotels in the Orlando area tack on a “resort fee”, so the advertised hotel room is really not as low as the rate initially appears. Look out for this when deciding if it’s in the budget to stay at a Disney Resort. Also there is something so magical about being at Disney. The customer service is top notch. When you leave and then come back it breaks up the magic a bit.
3. Bring a stroller
Our stroller not only carted our kids around it served as a home base. It gave us a place to leave our cooler with our food, the fleeces that we shed as the weather warmed and our water bottles. It allowed for Jacob to nap in the afternoon. There were no negatives to bringing a stroller. It was easy to bring through security and there were ample designated “stroller parking” spots near the rides we went on. This is the one we used. There are some new stroller guidelines out, so check those out here in advance to make sure your stroller is acceptable.
4. Avoid waiting in lines.
We waited in two lines our whole trip, and they were minimal. If we had to wait in lines the entire trip with our children at Disney World, it would not have been a good time. We knew we were going to need to find away around the lines and we did.
5. Avoid restaurants
Our kids are hit or miss about what they will eat and eating out with them can be tricky. We also didn’t want to spend a lot of our time in restaurants. Instead we wanted to spend as much of our day before the kids were exhausted, enjoying the parks, rides and characters. We had a simple breakfast in the hotel room, packed a picnic lunch and ate dinner out. This worked well for us. The only time Anika actually asked for any food in the park was an ice cream our last day in Animal Kingdom and we delivered. It made the 5.95 per Mickey Mouse ice cream a little less painful knowing that it was a conscious decision to spend this money and make a special memory for the kids. This applied when we bought any food in the parks. Each time was a memorable, planned, special experience.
6. Pack lots of snacks
I’m not sure what it is about Disney but the kids were so hungry the whole week. I packed stuff like beef jerky, nuts, dried fruit, granola bars, peanut butter crackers, applesauce and popcorn. They went through it all.
7. Emphasize characters
Meeting characters were our young kids favorite part of Disney. We rarely saw characters walking around the park randomly meeting people. Instead the meet ups were like a ride that you had to wait in line for. It was great because you could schedule fast passes for this. You can also book character dining. This gives you a chance to eat and meet the Disney characters. This is especially great if your child wants to meet a specific character.
8. Pack costumes or themed outfits
Anika loved dressing up. She loved the attention she got when she dressed up too. So many people, not even just cast members, commented on her costumes.
9. Utilize Rider Switch
Check out the Disney Website here for all the details. It is a game changer when doing Disney with young children.
10. Schedule a rest day
We did not do this. We had five days at the park and wanted to jam every second of magic in those five days. By Thursday we were exhausted and a bit burnt out. This was our Epcot day and the only day we had a rough time with the kids in the park. Honestly, Jamie and I were both pretty irritable too. Epcot is big and there is a lot of walking without a lot of rides in between. We probably would have been happier checking out the resort Thursday morning, swimming in the pool and using the amenities.
Something to keep in mind is at some point your kids will most likely melt down and exhibit terrible behavior during your trip. Disney can be a lot; a lot of stimulation and a lot of people. Upon reflecting on things post chaos, I realized my kids would most likely have had a melt down and exhibited terrible behavior at some point in our normal day to day activities at home. At least we got to be at Disney World while we were dealing with it and not just the grocery store. There were definitely some low moments on the trip but there were sooo many more high moments and that made it all worth it.
So if you have questions about whether your kids are too young to take to Disney world and think you might be crazy for even contemplating this adventure….stop questioning yourself! Do it! It’s so magical and one of the cutest things I have seen thus far in my life was my young kids at Disney.
