4 toddlers

[Partyof12]

For my husband's 60th birthday we are taking all our kids (6 in their 30s) and 4 grandkids (1 year old, 1 1/2 year old, 2 year old and almost 3 year old) to MK for 2 days in March. We thought this was a great idea but now I am getting nervous about how this will work.

We have PS for Cindy's breakfast and Chef Mickey dinner on first day and Crystal Palace lunch next day. I know they have to go back to the hotel for naps each afternoon.

Should we try to stay together in the MK or is this impossible? My husband and I don't care to go on any "big" rides, just want to enjoy watching our kids and their babies enjoying themselves. But our kids will probably want to go on Space Mountain and such.

Any advice or encouragement anyone can give me would be great because right now I am wondering what I got into.

Thanks

 

[The Disney Bunch]

We went down with my dad for his 70th with our 3 kids - the girls were almost 3 & the baby was 6 months. My parents did some things with us & some things on their own. We all generally met for meals. We tried to do the major things with my parents like, meeting Mickey, seeing the castle, Small World ride. Enjoy! It will be a trip to remember!

 

[asktriplets]

we went with our 3 2 y.o.s, my parents, and my in-laws and it was a bit crazy trying to organize all of us, but really fun!

as a parent with toddlers, i can tell you that it was WONDERFUL to have our parents there to help with the kids. like you, our parents really enjoyed just watching our little ones have fun. when we weren't all together, my parents spent lots of time on the "big" rides while we were back for naps, and my in-laws watched the kids a few afternoons and 1 night while we went to do the big rides ourselves (they don't like rollercoasters).

as for the daily schedule, i had our days pretty well planned out for the first thing in the morning and first thing after naptime, when i knew i would have their attention (eg: get to park for EE, ride these 3 rides, then see this show, then follow kids' leads until lunch/nap, then back to the park to see this parade, etc...i give these details because with 4 little ones, the odds of you ALL being able to follow very detailed schedules are slim). we all stuck together while we did the things on our "schedule", but after that we often split up so we could see the things we were all interested in.

will you be making a schedule for everyone, or will you just plan on meeting up a few times a day? we split up the kids one day at epcot (each couple took one child), and my parents and inlaws enjoyed having 1-on-1 time with the one child they were watching without us parents around...just an idea!

don't know if any of this helps....however it works out, you'll have a MAGICAL time!!!

 

[Partyof12]

Thanks so much for all that information. We have PS at Cindy's for breakfast and Chef Mickey for dinner first day and Crystal Palace for lunch second day. We will only be going to MK for 2 days as I think that is enough. Do you think I should make more of a schedule? I know everyone wants to see the fireworks, Can we get back to MK in time for 8 PM fireworks with a 6:20 dinner at Chef Mickey?

 

[asktriplets]

if you are going when it will be busy (around easter), i'd make a schedule for the early morning, at least, so you can hit some of the kiddie rides without too long of a wait (this means i'd plan on getting there when the park opens)....we used the "unofficial guide" book to help plan some of the best times to hit the rides.....

we rode most of the rides in fantasyland first thing in the morning with little to no wait and it made the trip SO much nicer (although we were there in nov., so there weren't big crowds, anyway)!


chef mickey's is at contemporary, right? you'd probably make it back over if you wanted to walk back into the park, but i think there are plenty of places to see the fireworks from the contemporary....

 

[ladydancer]

We are grandparents too going with our whole gang in April. There is 11 of us. There will be 5 kids 9, 2-6 year olds one of which is autistic, a 5 year old and a 16 month old.

We had a "WDW Meeting" lol to discuss what everyone wanted to do. Then I made a plan! I am the one who has been to wdw the most. The most recent was in Oct. If you don't have some sort of plan it waste time. I have made ressie for Chef Mickey. I have 1 evening planned to watch the kids while adults go to DTD and 1 after noon while the kids are napping to let a few of the adults go swim with sharks @ TL.

I love rides and will ride everything with them except TOT. Although I got a feeling they will try and talk me into it. Dh won't be riding everything as he has had a heart attack in the past and shouldn't ride the roller coasters and jerky rides and such.

One of the places we are looking forward too is BB. That is one of our favorite places to go. We are planning a nice picnic lunch and having a great time.

I'm sure we will stay together most of the time. Meal times is probably where we might split us sometimes. We all have different taste. We'll just meet up afterwards.

Have Fun!

 

[MicheinMA]

We wetn several years ago-14 people in all. We tried the first two days to stay together as much as possible, but found it tough. The ages varied so much that the older kids didn't want to do little kid rides and obviously the little ones couldn't go on some of the other rides. We ended up meeting every couple of hours to catch up, maybe eat, swicth people around in different groups depending on where we were headed. It worked great and we had a fantastic time.