A little advice from other parents with young kids? Please

[NicholeB630]

Do you have a zoo or other theme park near your house? I'd suggest picking a really hot day and spending all day in the park and then going out to dinner. See how they do that day and the next day how tired they are. I have done that several times with my DS (just turned 2 late Feb.). He sleeps in his stroller great and since we eat out a lot, I have no reservations about bringing him in Sept. when he'll be 2 yr almost 7 mo. We find a quiet, cool spot for his nap time and don't worry about leaving the park.

When you do your trial run, make sure you do everything you would for Disney. Bring water, snacks, sunscreen, plan time to rest, etc.

One thing, we are not over-planning our Disney trip. We have one table service reservation for most days, but not every day. We are planning a down day of playing at the hotel for the MNSSHP day and we plan on sleeping in and doing Downtown Disney the day after the party. We don't want to try to cram everything in because we'd rather have a flexible schedule if something needs to be changed because of tiredness, sickness, or other last minute happenings.

Well we actually just went to Busch Gardens back in April and he did pretty well. He loved the rides and when we did let him walk he didn't run off to many times. Was it exhausting? Yes but I am guessing it always will be till your kids are self sufficient for everything lol. It was pretty warm then too not horribly hot but warm. Luckily were going in Dec, crossing fingers for nice weather so it wont be HOT like it is in the summer which I think will def help. I can see how the heat makes a big difference on what kids can tolerate. I am very excited and really am hoping its a great trip. I know to take it at the kids speed and not expect to much. I only did one dinning reservation per day, arrival day dinner at EP, MK breakfast, HS lunch, EP dinner, MK dinner and then no reservations for AK day and the day we are taking a break from parks I did do breakfast at Chef Mickeys not terribly early and then a 2pm ADR at TREX downtown because that was the latest left but since that day will be low key hang out and explore it will be no issue eating some where twice. We are doing one half day at Ep, Two full days at MK, one full day at HS and then one full day at AK with Wednesday being the break day after MVMCP on Tuesday, I figured having the day off after the latest night was a good idea and mid week

 

[amym2]

We've never done MVMCP, but we did do MNSSHP and we were glad we waited until the kids were older and could stay up late (I think they were 9 and 7). If I were you, unless you think you'll never be back around Christmas, I'd wait to do the party. It was great that it was an added thing we'd never done on any of our previous Disney trips. There's so much to do (as you know) without anything additional, that I'd focus on everything else. Make the BBB your special event this time.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

My kids have been better behaved at two than at three. . . . .

Omg... YES! Three was the worst!!!!!!!

 

[Lupeix]

This is my take...
there is something magical about going when they still think that a lot of this stuff is for real. It is just amazing to see all that awe. That won't happen after they are 5 or 6. So savor that stage.

Take it easy, go back for nap/afternoon break, or just don't do a full day in the park. Plan to do a small number of rides a day, and anything else will just be extra fun that may or may not happen. You may not make it to fireworks, and that's fine

Little ones love what they are familiar with, so get them to watch some classic Disney movies. Ditto for Disney Junior shows. Get the free Disney planning DVD and let them watch it over and over before you go. We did this before we went last year wiht my then 2 1/2 year old, by the time we got there he was asking by some of the rides in the DVD by name. We still watch that DVD occasionally at my son's request. He was so pumped up about going, when we got in he kept repeating "Cinderella's castle, it's the Cinderella's castle!" for about 1/2 an hour. We could not convince him to go to any ride, he was just happy to be next to the castle. We only did 1/2 days in the park and never a firework.

Figure out which character your kids like most and book a character meal accordingly early on your vacation. You are going to be there for the Xmass decorations and parade! I am so jealous! what could be more magical for a LO than Xmass and Disney together?

And if you toddler has a meltdown, take him to the baby center to calm down. They usually have a room where they are showing a movie. This worked like a charm for us (it also worked on DH, who was beyond cranky form the july heat, LOL)

have fun!

 

[rachael95]

Well we actually just went to Busch Gardens back in April and he did pretty well. He loved the rides and when we did let him walk he didn't run off to many times. Was it exhausting? Yes but I am guessing it always will be till your kids are self sufficient for everything lol. It was pretty warm then too not horribly hot but warm. Luckily were going in Dec, crossing fingers for nice weather so it wont be HOT like it is in the summer which I think will def help. I can see how the heat makes a big difference on what kids can tolerate. I am very excited and really am hoping its a great trip. I know to take it at the kids speed and not expect to much. I only did one dinning reservation per day, arrival day dinner at EP, MK breakfast, HS lunch, EP dinner, MK dinner and then no reservations for AK day and the day we are taking a break from parks I did do breakfast at Chef Mickeys not terribly early and then a 2pm ADR at TREX downtown because that was the latest left but since that day will be low key hang out and explore it will be no issue eating some where twice. We are doing one half day at Ep, Two full days at MK, one full day at HS and then one full day at AK with Wednesday being the break day after MVMCP on Tuesday, I figured having the day off after the latest night was a good idea and mid week

Sounds like you have a good plan. One of the reasons (aside from just enjoying it) that I like going to the zoo with DS is that it also trains me as to what to bring, what works, what not to bother with. I'd rather do that experimentation for someplace where we're members and if we have a rough day or only want to spend a few hours, we don't feel like we wasted money. And it gets him used to the idea of napping in a crowded place.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

i was nervous too about taking DD2, but once we went it was amazing. the most wonderful trip ever and i could only describe her as 'beaming rainbows' the whole time -except for the last day, she was a bit cranky. the rest of the time she was up super early, excited and ready to go, so happy, the happiest kid on the planet. she liked not being in her stroller the best. giving her time to just walk around and explore (with a harness/lease which was a MUST) made her so happy. She loved the characters. She loved the baby rides. We had FP+ for them all so we never waited but a few minutes. I remember thinking, that with the FP+ the up to 10 minutes was long enough of a wait, i could not imagine trying to do the stand-by lines! She was happy, just squirely and hard to keep her happy in a small amount of space. We split up the FP's so that i went with her on my 3 choices and used DH's 3 choices to have their ride time together, that is how we did 6 things, but also could use the legacy FP's at that time so we did even more rides, and then did the large capacity rides together if they had low times, which they did in November. She remembers every detail. We went in Nov, she was 2 years 4 months. Now she is going to be 3 next month and she is SO excited seeing anything with the disney logo saying "I WENT THERE!" "I stayed at Ariel's house!" and she talks about hugging Mickey and meeting the princesses, detailed responses about rides like "i rode the tea cups with daddy, go round and round and round, i got dizzy." It is price less and i'm SO glad i took her. I can't wait to go again and the next time will be with our new baby. One thing we did though, since she is not a good napper, is we did a late character meal as our TS every morning, which she was up SO early, like 5am instead of her normal 8am, that i didn't need to book the latest adr, so we'd go to the park and then ride over to the resorts or where ever to the breakfast. Then we did an early dinner, and got her back at the resort and asleep by 7:30-8pm. Not fun for us too much missing fireworks, but she was ready to go to sleep by then. Her favorite was meeting talking mickey at MK, we did that everytime we went there, so she got to see him quite a few times. It was adorable. Go for it! Get a harness for sure!!!

 

[asmit4]

Took our son at 22 months. I had it all planned. It was going to be magical

It ended up being really hard. Meltdowns, meltdowns, tantrums....but in between those- it was AWESOME!

Seriously- I do not regret going at all. IT was REALLY hard at times but we are going again with him in October- about 33 months old.

We don't talk about Disney- but HE does. He seriously discusses the rides ALL the time. I cannot believe he remembers! He even asks my husband to play IASW on the piano for him regularly!

It might be hard. You might have 1/2 a day, every day, that is horrid but I promise you wont regret it! GO! There will be moments though that are truly amazing and worth all the meltdowns.