1st trip to Disney

[GTSurgery]

... with my family. I am married with a 2.5, turning 3 on our Disney trip, year old son. This is our first time to Disney, and hopefully not the last. We're taking our son to Disney for his birthday, and we hope he has a great time and can make this an annual thing.

This is a family vacation, but really a birthday celebration for my son. We plan on ordering cakes, etc... We have reservations at Kidani Village because my son loves animals. We also have some character breakfasts and one dinner scheduled. This is where we get worried. My son freaked out the first and only time we went to Chuck E. Cheese and he saw Chuck E. Cheese. Was a little ill before, but after seeing him, he was petrified and wanted to leave right away. We don't want this to happen at Disney world since he loves so many of the characters he knows. We're hoping that being a little older, he will do better, but we also don't want to ruin Disney for him. Is it better to forego the character meals, or will he be better by then? Also any suggestions as to good attractions for him will be greatly appreciated. I'm reading up on them on here and in various books, but there is a ton of info.

 

[Rylee]

Hi,

If you are unsure of how he'll react but want to try a character meal, book a couple at the end of your trip. While in the parks, see how he responds when you encounter a character... if he is upset, cancel the meals.

 

[Metro West]

 

[dsaville]

Welcome! We made our first trip last year and our little ones 2.5 and 8 mo. did fine. I think the little one was too young to really know any different, and the older one had seen mickey and the others on tv numerous times b/c the older kids enjoy the disney channel. We never had a meal w/mickey and friends, but on the first full day we happened to be at epcot and went in a building in which all 5 characters were and no one had a problem. I like the idea of making them after a couple days of being there. Try and let him see the characters without having to be close and see if he can get the feeling that they aren't going to get him.

 

[RNtheRN]

Warmest Greetings and Welcome Home to the DIS!!!

 

[magicaldisney]

 

[JoePa4Ever]

welcome!

 

[Party_of_5]

Hi!!

We took our twin girls two weeks before they turned three. They loved it! I wasn't sure how they would react to the characters, but they loved them. Of course, we had been talking for a few months about going to meet Mickey, Minnie, Etc. I do agree, take him to a character meet first, to see how he reacts, before taking him to a meal. Then at a meal, try to sit him away from the aisle (if possible), then if he wants to meet them, hug, have a picture, he can get up and go to the character, and if he doesn't he can just wave to them!

Have fun!

jay

 

[Disney Vegas]

I can't help with your original question, but I do have a suggestion since this is your first trip.

If you haven't signed up for the Disney Dining Plan, you MUST do it, you will save SOOO much money on food, it's no joke. Most people think the dining plan is more expensive, but, it is not.
A regular meal at the McDonalds in Disney is almost $10, Dinner, say, $15-$20 for just the main meal and a drink, no desert (depending on where you go, it could be more or a little less), and then say you get a Churro and a soda as a snack...that's roughly $7. So, in a day, you will spend (on one adult) about $30-$40 (including tips) The dining plan comes to about $20 a day per person and that includes a meal AND desert...you basically get a "quick service" meal (McDonalds etc), a "snack"( popcorn, a drink whatever) and dinner for 1/2 of what you would pay out of pocket.

I am just so opinionated about this because we get a dining plan every time and our cousin just won't and he spends SOOO much more $$ on food. Also, you can go into a restaurant that has meals that start at $20 and you're covered, where it would have cost you $35 for dinner, it probably cost you $5.....it's sooo worth it, believe me.

 

[bluebelle99]

Hi,

If you are unsure of how he'll react but want to try a character meal, book a couple at the end of your trip. While in the parks, see how he responds when you encounter a character... if he is upset, cancel the meals.

I agree with this strategy. By the way:

 

[Disneydonnam]

Welcome to the Disboards.

 

[Disney_Sarah]

Welcome x

 

[GTSurgery]

Appreciate the input and advice. We'll probably try to reschedule the character breakfasts for the end. We do have the dining plan. We have the one with the 1 QS meal, 1 snack, and 1 TS meal per day. As we have a full kitchen in our villa we figure we can eat lunch or breakfast there some days.

 

[Seriously71]

Enjoy your trip, I know your little one will just love it
welcome!

 

[BethEJo]

Welcome!
I hope everything goes to plan with the character interactions

 

[tigger51276]

I can't help with your original question, but I do have a suggestion since this is your first trip.

If you haven't signed up for the Disney Dining Plan, you MUST do it, you will save SOOO much money on food, it's no joke. Most people think the dining plan is more expensive, but, it is not.
A regular meal at the McDonalds in Disney is almost $10, Dinner, say, $15-$20 for just the main meal and a drink, no desert (depending on where you go, it could be more or a little less), and then say you get a Churro and a soda as a snack...that's roughly $7. So, in a day, you will spend (on one adult) about $30-$40 (including tips) The dining plan comes to about $20 a day per person and that includes a meal AND desert...you basically get a "quick service" meal (McDonalds etc), a "snack"( popcorn, a drink whatever) and dinner for 1/2 of what you would pay out of pocket.

I am just so opinionated about this because we get a dining plan every time and our cousin just won't and he spends SOOO much more $$ on food. Also, you can go into a restaurant that has meals that start at $20 and you're covered, where it would have cost you $35 for dinner, it probably cost you $5.....it's sooo worth it, believe me.

The dining plan is NOT $20 a day, it cost $41.99 per adult per night. And the dining plan is only good for those people who want to eat in a restaurant every day. Eating in a restaurnt everyday can take a lot of time away from playing in the parks as you can expect to forfeit around 2 hours or more a day for travel time to get to restaurant, waiting for table to be ready and then ordering and eating your meal. It is also only good for people who like to eat a LOT of food. I find there is far too much food involved in the meal plan and I'm not a dessert person right after I've eaten dinner so my dessert always goes to waste. However all that being said I have done the dining plan the last two years and will do it again this year, but I do not see it as a money saver as I find I'm getting a lot of things I don't want/need with the plan and I have to still pay out of pocket for my now 2 year old as she is too young for the meal plan.

 

[tigger51276]

AKV is a great hotel for people who love animals. I stayed there with my little ones last year and it was great to get up and go to bed watching the animals, they just loved it! Boma is also a fantastic restaurant as they offer something different from all the other places at Disney.
What I did with my youngest was to take her to a place where their were characters in costume to see how she was going to react to them. Since you've had a bad experience at Chuck E Cheese I wouldn't recommend there just in case it triggers a bad memory, but see if there isn't a place around where you could test the reaction, sometimes local restaurants will have character meals. That should pretty much tell you before you go what the reaction will be.
My little one last year was not completely afraid of the characters, she was fine if I held her next to them, but wouldn't stand with them on her own or with her big sister. Maybe it was because she was eye level to them when I was holding her or she just felt more secure, not sure. However towards the end of our trip we had a character meal at Crystal Palace where Pooh and friends are and she is a big Pooh and Tigger fan. First came Eeyore, then Piglet and she still wouldn't go near them on her own. She was out of her highchair as Tigger was getting ready to come by and she was so excited, Tigger didn't see her because she was so small and was signing autographs for the older ones at the table and she was having none of that, she went right up to him and tugged on his leg until he looked down at her and then bent to one knee and she gave him a squeal and a big hug. She then did the same thing with Pooh. So I would say to maybe try a character encounter first with your childs favorite character(s) and maybe then seeing that they don't hurt you, maybe they will be okay with other characters as well.

 

[suchthe]

Welcome!