Family of 3 w/a 2yr old--first time family vacation

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beks27

Earning My Ears

Joined

Aug 23, 2009

• Mar 2, 2015

• #1

Hello all! I need your help! We are a family of 3-our son will be 2 1/2 when we go on our Disney Vacation in May. I know that he will be able to ride most of the rides in Fantasyland but I was wondering--do rides such as Dumbo, Flying Carpets, Peter Pan etc allow single riders? Since we are a family of 3 only one of us will be able to ride with our son--would the other parent be able ride the ride as a single rider? Since we are new to this, what is the best approach for riding rides when there are two parents and only one child? I am sorry to bombard everyone with questions but I am a rookie when it comes to this!

Thank you in advance!

 

Last edited: Mar 2, 2015

jezebel73

DIS Veteran

Joined

Mar 10, 2014

• Mar 2, 2015

• #2

Many of the rides, especially in the kiddie areas, will accommodate 2 adults and a small child all in one seat, assuming no one is Pooh sized. Some of the larger rides do as well. If the ride makes you split, the other rider will be able to go alone for sure - they will not make one person skip out (though it's clearly not as much fun if you get split up!!).

 

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Kim H

Earning My Ears

Joined

Mar 1, 2015

• Mar 3, 2015

• #3

Best to try to squish into 1 car if you can. These are "kiddie rides" but they can be loud and are in the dark so a parent on each side worked best for us when ours was young. Don't be surprised if your son does not react well.

 

merdie

Mouseketeer

Joined

Jul 19, 2013

• Mar 3, 2015

• #4

Most of those you'll be able to ride altogether with your DS in between. We took my ODD for the first time at 2.5 and she had a blast and was able to ride a ton of rides! Have a great trip

 

msmama

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jan 21, 2009

• Mar 3, 2015

• #5

When my son was young we had to split up for Dumbo and magic carpets (I assume they made us and we didn't do it on our own). But fairly sure we rode together on Peter Pan (definitely haunted mansion, and I think Pooh).

Anyway, the perk of NOT riding together is to get a elephant/carpet in FRONT of the other person and then you can have pictures of your child on the ride (just turn around safely).

 

kboo

DIS Veteran

Joined

Mar 10, 2014

• Mar 3, 2015

• #6

We squished into Dumbo and Magic Carpet with our 2 yo, and then last time when she was 3, DH rode in front and took pictures. Enjoy!

 

blackpearl77

DIS Veteran

Joined

Mar 26, 2014

• Mar 3, 2015

• #7

We are a family of 3. We went when my son was 2.5. All 3 of us fit in the same car on Dumbo, Pooh, Peter Pan no problem! And my husband is 6'3" and we still all fit in one car.

I'm an only child and growing up going to disney and I remember riding with my dad so my mom rode alone on haunted mansion, spaceship earth and eating in the cars at sci-fi dine in.

 

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Nennie

Insert funny comment here!

Joined

Oct 11, 2005

• Mar 3, 2015

• #8

I'm not skinny by any means, and we can easily fit all 4 of us onto most of the fantasyland rides, 3 is definitely not a problem!

 

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beks27

Earning My Ears

Joined

Aug 23, 2009

• Mar 6, 2015

• #9

Thank you all for the replies! I am so excited to take him to Disney!

 

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epsmith921

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jul 2, 2012

• Mar 6, 2015

• #10

beks27 said:

Thank you all for the replies! I am so excited to take him to Disney!

Click to expand...

We took our daughter at 2.5 and had so much more fun than we thought we would. One thing to do if you can is get to the parks when they open. This made life so much easier for us and then allowed is to keep our daughter's normal schedule.

We fell into the range of folks that could not ride together with our daughter on dumbo. It was her first ride and it's my favorite so we went together and my husband rode in the car in front of us. We have awesome pictures from him turning around in the car. Then since it was early, we rode at least twice more right then since there was no line and switched off riding with the kiddo.

We also used easywdw.com's prioritization maps so we could do what we wanted but keep in mind what was going to accumulate lines. We barely used any fast passes (FP+ was still in testing) and got so much done.

Hope you have a wonderful trip!!