17 months old and WDW??

[Jennia]

I just got the email about the DISNEY VISA MAGIC YOUR WAY FREE DINING PACKAGE and it really seems like too good of a deal to pass up!! Our dd did fine going to CA recently (2 hour flight) but I'm not sure how she'd handle the 6 hour flight to FL. Any thoughts on bringing a 17 month old to WDW or how kids this age do on flights that long? Also, if this is a deal that comes up every year, I'd be willing to wait, but I also wouldn't want to miss out if this ends up being a once in a lifetime type deal! Plus, I'm pretty sure my dd would have fun at WDW (she loved our recent trip, and there wasn't anything as exciting as Disney lol!).

TIA!

 

[Jennia]

Anyone??

 

[mommy-on-the-move]

We took our four kids aged 10yrs, 5yrs, 4yrs and 19months in August- we'd not ideally chosen to go at that age for the littlest but my sister was being a Disney bride and we were not missing that! :lol:

We flew in from England- we did a connecting flight (London to Washington, Washington to Orlando) and I was dreading it, 110% dreading it. None of my kids had ever flown before, DD10 was anxious about flying, DD4 is generally quite a firey, emotional type who will let the world know if she's not happy, DS5 is autistic and dyspraxic and tweaks alot and then we had the oh so independant wants to be on his feet all the time baby... I thought it would be my nightmare flight but you know, it went fine.

We took a box of lego and mini-figs, a travel game, colouring books, plain paper, stickers, toy hamsters, books and a magnetic story board.

DD10 read most of the flight, DD4 played hamsters, drew, slept, DS5 watched kungfu panda 3 times in loop (twice in spanish before he mentioned the fact ) and read the safety cards and inflight magazine (reads scarily well) and DS19m played with the little figures, looked at books, stuck stickers and foam shapes to paper (and daddy) watched the TV, fed and slept. It was no where near as bad as I'd anticipated and I'd happily fly anywhere with them now... the most hassle we had was at the airport having to get everyone out of shoes & open bags for security check (DS5 can't "do" shoes and can't walk in slip ons due to his various issues- with baby out of strolller, carry ons and 2 others to keep a track on it wasn't easy!)

DS19m fell in love with the characters the very first one we saw, character meals with him were AWESOME (tusker house and chef mickeys especially) my sister had Mickey and Donald to the wedding and we have the most awesome photos of him with them. He was able to go on so many of the rides and was entirely fascinated by it all. I'd go again tomorrow if I could (we're seriously looking at DLP for next year and want to be back to WDW within the next 3-4) It was worth every penny and all my kids adored it, so many people say he'll not remember a thing but he says donald and mickey clear as day :lol: and it doesn't matter if he doesn't remember it I remember it as his mom, my sister remembers it as a bride, my parents got to see them their as grandparents- I don't know if they'll be well enough to join our next trip but they've done it so I'm happy. It was worth it.

 

[maps]

Can't really comment on the flight since the longest at that age for us was about 3 hrs (and they did fine).

As for the age at WDW--go and have fun! We took my daughter when she was 11mths, then when she was 3 and my son was 20mths and both times we had wonderful memories.

They loved the time there, had so much fun and although they don't have memories, we have the videos to show them and they thoroughly love watching themselves on the rides, with characters, at the shows...

If you can swing, I say go and enjoy yourselves.

 

[jacksmomma]

We took our son at 17 months and we all had a great time! Our flight to WDW was only 3 hours, but we did it just fine. We got plenty of cheapy toys from the dollar tree which kept our son more than entertained. We actually had extras left over. (I got things from the dollar tree so that if they were lost it was no big deal). We took a small magna doodle and attached it to the stroller so that if he got bored he had something to do. The best part of the flight was not having to buy him a ticket! lol He rode a as a lap child just fine.

In the parks, we had no problems. He rode anything that did not have restrictions with ease (although he was looking kind of skeptical at the HM). Naturally his favorites were ISM and Dumbo. We had granparents with us, so we were able to ride the bigger rides with ease.

Go for it, you will have a great time!

 

[LadyShea]

We haven't flown that long with DS, but we've driven and found 7 hours is about the limit. We bring the portable DVD and 7 hours is about 2 movies plus a meal and a bit of a walk (you can walk him up the aisle and back) plus a nap. We also have a few of those magnetic boards where the kids move the magnets around (construction, dinosaurs)

My friend has flown with her son (now almost 3) to the UK 4 or 5 times, and he has done well at every age.

 

[Skwinkles]

DD is 17 months old now. We haven't done a flight that long, but we regularly do 4 1/2 car rides to visit the grandparents.

My first suggestion would be to buy dd a seat on the plane. Even if she sits on your lap for most of the trip, it will at least give you the entire row to yourself and a little bit of room for her to stand up and 'walk' in your seat area. I would also make sure that you have a laptop or portable dvd player and some sort of show or movie that she loves to watch. We usually save that as our last resort towards the end of the trip if we've exhausted everything else. Otherwise, I'd bring your child's favorite things. DD loves books and having us read to her, so we bring a ton of books, as well as her shape sorter, and some favorite dolls and her lovey.

DD will be 19 months when we go again in November, and I'm thinking of bringing some play dough or perhaps some 'edible' play dough that I make myself if she is still teething and biting things. It will be a novelty since she's never seen it before. Oh, and stickers. She got some stickers for the first time yesterday and she LOVES them.

 

[Jennia]

Thanks for all the input! I successfully convinced DH this morning, and, as you can guess by my ticker, we've booked a trip!

 

[Fall1]

Yeah, I'm so glad you decided to go!

We haven't been yet, but we are bringing our 17 month old twins on their 1st trip 1 month from today!! Woo hoo!!

Hope you have a great time and thanks for posting this thread!

 

[all4fun]

Hi ,
We're in Vancouver, WA. We go to WDW regularly, since we bought into DVC about 8 years ago. DS (now 5) has been to WDW 10x, so we've done that flight a lot. I would also recommend buying your LO a seat on the plane. You will all be so much more comfy and if you bring the car seat along, your LO will know she has to stay seated and can't get up and roam at inappropriate times. Plus holding a wiggly toddler for over six hours is not my idea of fun! At that age, it was difficult to hold ds for more than 10 minutes, never mind a whole flight. He slept wonderfuly in his car seat for a good part of our flights too, so that was a bonus for everyone.

We also enjoyed ds at this age at WDW because he really got into the characters at that time. If your dd likes the characters, you will have so many cute memories from the character greets! You may want to help her get used to the idea of the characters by showing her the Disney planning DVD's (order free from the Disneyworld website), and I've read that the Disney sing-along dvd's are also great for showing the scale of the characters (some kids are not expecting them to be adult size).

Hope you have a fabulous time at WDW!

 

[DreaGirl]

We took our DD when she was 17 mo. old. We had a wonderful time, but we also took things really slow. We didn't have a park hopper, took the 3rd day and last day "off" from the parks and went to the pool one day and DTD the last day.

She was up at the crack of dawn each day, so we made rope drop each day and left right after lunch to take a nap. We then went back to the park for dinner and rides.

We booked our dinners early (5ish) and the restaurants weren't full, so if she acted up there weren't many people there to witness it.

We also did two character meals, and she loved them!