1st Disney Trip w/ 21 month old son

[JERSEYGIRLINSI]

I have a 21 month old son, and this will be his first trip to WDW, and im so excited for him. I worry about the flight, as this is his first as well. What is a must see, must experience for my little man on his first trip to WDW? Also I should tell you that I have been 20 times, last in 99, and my DH has only been once in 99. We will be there for 8 days, and want to pack as much as humanly possible into this time. What are your thoughts on packing my stroller and car seat?

 

[staci]

You will get very conflicting ideas on the stroller and car seat Ill just tell you what worked for US. We took ds23mo in October.


Did you buy him a seat on the plane? We took the car seat and used it on the plane. Worked out well. We took DME to the resort so we didnt use it then, just had to lug it to the resort with the carryons. It was worth it imho to have it on the plane for ds's comfort.

We took a smaller graco umbroller stroller. CHEAP. It was our second stroller and we didnt want to bring the large one with us. I didnt want to rent one in the parks b/c i wanted one that reclined, and we knew we would need it at the resort/in the airport. We were very happy with it. I would say bring the smallest on you have that HAS A RECLINING SEAT, A SUNSHADE, and A BASKET. Those are the necessities for us. Some people like a cup holder but we always had bottled water that went in the basket.

I would (If you have time) obtain the Disney Sing A Long Song movie that is called DISNEYLAND FUN. It is dl not dw, but they dont know the difference. DS was so excited when he saw the street performers singing one of the songs from the video, and I think it helped him become familiar with the parks and characters before arriving.

DO SOME CHARACTER DINING. This was one of ds's favorite things. We did crystal palace, crt, and chef mickeys. Chef Mickeys was the best for us.

Follow thier lead. DS LOVES donald duck so he loved philharmagic which stars him. But otherwise it may be too loud for other children. DS also loved Buzz Lightyear because of the movie. We spent a lot of time in line to meet characters around the parks. He liked the lion king show in ak, but it was a little scary, he did fine having seen the movie but if you plan on that show i would make sure it is familiar to him or that you are sitting in the rear. timon came over and held ds's hand during the part with scar and that was so sweet of him

We did all our 'nice' meals at lunchas that is when ds is more predictable. go according to his schedule. follow his lead. DONT wake him up in the morning and DONT keep him up late if he is tired. They get wore down quickly.

Overall we had a blast and I cant wait to do it again. but be prepared they will break your heart asking ot go back. all i have heard for two months is 'go to mickey's house?' every day

If you have any specific questions ask away!

 

[jennifer293]

If he loves music and dancing then you definately want to take him to see the Lion King show, and Playhouse Disney....LOTS of music and dancing. DD was 13 months when we went and she LOVED them both.

She would only let one character look at her or touch and her and that one character was STITCH....I would have thought he would ahve been too scary for her but she LOVED him. He acted like he was eating her feet at Typhoon Lagoon and she busted out laughing.

You are gonna have a ball...BRING lots of cameras!!!!

 

[JERSEYGIRLINSI]

If he loves music and dancing then you definately want to take him to see the Lion King show, and Playhouse Disney....LOTS of music and dancing. DD was 13 months when we went and she LOVED them both.

She would only let one character look at her or touch and her and that one character was STITCH....I would have thought he would ahve been too scary for her but she LOVED him. He acted like he was eating her feet at Typhoon Lagoon and she busted out laughing.

You are gonna have a ball...BRING lots of cameras!!!!

I will surely make a note of those locations and shows, my son is totally into shaking it up to ANY music! I know my ds is excited when im excited, so it should be more fun then Sesame Place. Where he loved every last character on Sesame Street there. Thanks

 

[JERSEYGIRLINSI]

Hey thanks for all of your help, once you get the question out of your head and written down-it makes logical sense when someone else bounces off the same thoughts you had! I do have a smaller "trunk stroller"(you know, the umbrella one that you keep in the trunk just for a quick mall, or shopping trip)we use the Jeep umbrella stroller. While it doesn't have a storeage underneath, we use it in conjunction with a bag we attach across the handles. The graco is ideal (storage,recline,cup holder,and its ours!), but not practical. I didn't purchase our seats yet, I'm hoping that JetBlue will have a fare drop between now and the end of Feb.-but I wasn't going to get him a seat. Should I? Between me and you, he's so clingy-I doubt he will want to stay seated anyway. Did you find it better with your ds in his own seat? Anyway, I totally appreciate your thoughts on the subject..thanks

 

[staci]

Jerseygirl,

you will get opinions both ways on the seat thing. We were all set to hold him if we could not find decent plane flights, but our flights from home were running about 350 per person. So we flew out of chicago for only about 140 round trip. For that price, I decided to get the seat. We did it for his security (he likes riding in the car and i knew the seat would be a familiar comfort for him in an unfamiliar plane), for my sanity (he likes to run and I thought if he were in my lap it would be harder to keep him from running down the isle), and to please his grandma (who was flying with us and very concerned about him). I also found it to be nice to have him as a paying customer, because we ended up with quite a few carryons between the adults (4 of us) so we never had to worry about that as we could pawn one or two off as his.

On the way down, he stayed in his seat until the decent. He was sleeping and woke up to the ear pressure and was bawling. So we pulling him out and held him for the last 15 minutes or so.

On the flight back home, he had a good flight (which is crazy because it was so rough I thought I was going to throw up ). But after a week of riding around on buses with no car seat, he didnt like the seat belt. So for awhile we had him sitting in his seat but not fully strapped (kept the top of the 5 pt harness open, but the lower parts secured for turbulance since we were not holding him on our lap.)

Our flight was about 2 1/2 hours. That was about as long as I would have wanted to be on a plane with him But he did a very good job. I had nightmares about what it was going to be like but it went great.

 

[JERSEYGIRLINSI]

Staci,
The fare is about 175 rt right now, and that is why we are really thinking why not get him a seat. And we intend on bringing his car seat anyway for the rental car (the cost for renting theirs is nuts), so we might as well get a seat & use it on the plane. I find that with Conner, all things new have been positive(knock on wood). But im not foolish enough to think that the impossible isn't possible. I hope and pray that in 81 short days our trip will go off without a hitch, and if not-so what. That's what the best memories are made from...right! I will make sure to have all of his favorites (cheerios, watermelon, graham crackers, books), and I think we'll be ok. He's also so into Jay-Jay the Jet plane, we've been talking about getting on the plane. And there was just a great episode on PBS Kids Sprout's Caillou, when his family travels on a plane. So, little by little, more and more exposure.
By the way, what were your days like? Start, duration, end of the day?
Thanks

 

[staci]

Jersey girl,

we really followed ds's cues for the daily schedule. DS sleeps very well in the stroller we brought, and I knew he would not do good to go all the way back to the hotel for a nap, even though he needed down time.

Generally speaking, we left the hotel as soon as he woke up (close to park opening). First thing in the parks we did what we really thought he would enjoy. Then, after about 2-3 hours, he would really just start looking tired and over-stimulated. This was always about lunchtime, so we would get a good lunch (whether it be ps or cs) and feed him. Then the guys (dh, my brother and my dad) would split off and go ride the 'adult' rides that make me sick. Mom and I would put ds in the stroller and start to wander around in 'less traveled' areas. DS would conk out almost immediately, and he would usually get a good hour nap(not as long as at home, but enough for him to get rested). We would meet back up with the guys then, maybe do 1 more thing for ds on the way out, but we would head back to the hotel. Then we could lay around the room, ds could play with his toys, and watch some cartoons, and enjoy some down time for an hour or so. THen we would go back out for dinner, whether it be back to the parks, dtd, chef mickey's, etc.

DS loved the night parade at MK and I would try to see that if you could. It started pouring 1/2way through it for us so we only saw 1/2 of it, but he really loved it. This was the only night we stayed in the parks late (about 9). One day we were at dtd until about 8:30, but the other nights we were back to the hotel by around 7:30. DS was always tired, but walking by the goofy fountains at POP made him want to swim, so we usually let him do that for 15-20 minutes before bed as it relaxed him and us (it was still warm then).

I have heard conflicting stories about the quality/condition of the car seats available through the rental agencies in orlando. I would bring my own even if you decide against the seat on the plane.

Also, I have heard alot of people saying that drinking really helps their ears on the take off/landing. so we brought some juiceboxes , as we didnt want to rely on the finding a stewardess if he got fussy. The juiceboxes worked good in the parks too, just to have something in the diaper bag. I would prefer milk, but the juice was great because it didnt require refridgeration. I would warn you to bring extra diapers if your ds isnt use to juice, ds gets very little at home and we found that things were moving pretty quickly through him with a juicebox a day

Hope that helps! We had a great time, but it was TOTALLY different than any trip without him. We have entered a whole new era in disney trips for awhile

 

[JERSEYGIRLINSI]

Staci,
Yeah I hear you-I totally know its not going to be the full days that I am so used to at WDW and all the other parks. But that's okay, it's what I signed up for when we decided on having my angel. My Ds is up at 8-8:30 everyday, and does not nap at all (can you imagine) He is a live wire, literally! But I did find that when we went to Sesame Place this summer, he was out for 1 to 2 hours each of the 3 days we were there. So, with that said-I'm gonna take your advice and try to get his thing in first thing, lunch, nap, parade, another activity for him. I have 4 late nights planned, (gotta get all the fireworks, and parades in)but easy mornings. I think we'll do ok. Thanks

 

[brymolmom]

Hi- Went in Sept with 3.5 year old ds and 23 month old dd.

It's great that you have so many days. I would recommend you take it slowly.

My dd didn't really get into too many of the characters (won't go near any - even Santa Claus), or the rides (really only loved carousel, dumbo and the little tots play area in toontown). So you might want to look into more of what you and dh want to do for a few of the days and just utilize 'baby swap' a lot.

DD did enjoy Spectomagic and you might want to try Donald's boat in MK. Oh yeah and we stayed at Pop Century and she absolutely loved Goofy's water jets (sprinkler type things that shoot up from holes in the ground periodically).

I was a little disappointed as I thought she would get more into more things so try to play it by ear and not get too disappointed.

Have fun!