Advice and Tips for WDW with 4 yr old please

[greeneyedchic75]

Ok next weekend we are heading to WDW staying at the allstar movies resort, Sunday we are going to Magical Kingdom and have Cinderella lunch at the royal table booked and then Monday we are doing epcot and have lunch with the disney princesess booked. Thats all I have planned so far. My daughter is 4 and in love with all disney princess stuff, the last time I have been to disney was when I was very little so I am hoping you guys can offer me any advice and tips on anything that we should do etc. I want to make this trip very special because when we return from Disney my husband is having to leave for Iraq for a year, so please pass on any info to me because I will really appreciate it. Thanks in advance Cara

 

[belle&beast]

My 4yo DD loved My Disney Girl's Perfectly Princess Tea Party in the Grand Floridian. It was expensive, but was a gift from her Nana. She was so excited to be treated like royalty and loves the Aurora doll she got there. It is a wonderful experience and I highly recommend it! She also loved 1900 Park Fare Mary Poppins and friends breakfast. She also loved all the princesses at the Princess Storybook Lunch at Akershus in the Norway Pavillion at Epcot. Toon Town was lots of fun- Mickey and Minnie's houses and the character meetings were great. I think she rode every ride available for her height in MK- It's a Small World was her favorite. Ariel's Grotto was freally fun for her to meet Ariel in her fin. At MGM Jojo meeting, The Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney shows were her favorites. AK: Pocahontas show and Festival of the Lion King. She liked most of Epcot but Turtle Talk with Crush is the one thing she still giggles about. We went to all of the parades and fireworks/ night shows and she loved them all. I thing it is a great age because she is old enough to remember, but they still believe the characters are real. Have a wonderful trip and a big thank you to your husband for all he is doing to keep us all safe.

 

[owensamo]

My daughter is 4 and bigtime into Princesses, but we haven't been since she was 3. She is highly anticipating our August trip, however, and this is what she's looking forward to:

Dinner with the princesses in Epcot.
Seeing Mickey at the Judge's Tent
Little Einsteins and JoJo at MGM
Goofy's Barnstormer in Toontown (her first rollercoaster)
Kali River Rapids (she's finally tall enough)
The Boneyard at Animal Kindgom (where they can dig for dinosaur bones)
The Dumbo-type spinning rides (Triceratops Spin, Flying Carpets, etc).
Haunted Mansion (she loves the Grim Grinning Ghosts ride)
The Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland (she usually just spins the car)

The things she doesn't like are:
It's Tough to be a Bug (She says it's too smelly)
The pop-up ghouls in the Haunted Mansion (though she likes the rest of the ride)

There are a couple of good books - the Official guide for kids is pretty good, and the Unofficial guide has some great ratings for people of all ages.

Have fun!
Mur and Hannah

 

[shellynn24]

I'm going to try to take my DD to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Downtown Disney. They have packages for little girls to make them into princesses. If the "big" package with the dress seems a bit too much just bring one from Walmart, that's what we'll be doing. I have also heard that if you arrive early enough to the Magic Kingdom and hurry to Tinkerbells Treasures (a shop just past the castle in Fantasyland), your DD can wake up Tinkerbell. I don't know if they still do this since my DS has no interest in that girlie stuff and DD was too young the last time we went to really get into it. Also if you don't have a MYW package and need tickets (and have your military ID cards) go to Shades of Green to get them, they are much cheaper there.

As a side note; Iraq will go much quicker then you think. The first few months will be hard and the first few times you go on post your DD is going to ask if it's time to get Daddy (really hard to explain to them!) Just keep up with your support group and keep getting out of the house to enjoy life. It'll be a year before you know it. My Dh just got back in Feb and at the time I couldn't believe it had been a whole year already. If you have already been through this then I'm sorry to tell you something you already know! Godd luck

 

[fabumouse]

My DD5 is not as princess-oriented as some, but one thing she seemed to love was the petting section at Rafiki's Planet Watch. There were even brushes they could use to brush the goats.

 

[okcruiser100]

our 4 year old loved dinner with the princesses at 1900 Park Fare and getting autographs from the characters. However, she was more excited to ride all the big 'thrill' rides. She just met the 40 inch height requirement on most - Tower of Terror, Soarin, Splash Mtn, Thunder Mtn. Was devastated that she could not go on Expedition Everest along with everyone else.

 

[Chap7]

Definitely do Story Time with Belle. We were the first ones there and were all chosen to get up on stage with Belle and act out the story. DS6 was Bell's father, DD3 was chip, DS 1 was Lumiere, and of course I was the Beast. DW got to videotape everything. Afterwards Belle stays around a little bit to chat with all the kids and take pictures. DD was so amazed by the whole thing and really hopes that we will get picked again this summer.

 

[greeneyedchic75]

I am getting some good tips thanks guys. Where is Belles story time at? I have no clue!!

 

[newtowdw1]

Just a thought, my DS was 4 last summer. There were many things that overwhelmed him. He loved Peter Pan's Flight, Winnie the Pooh, and Snow White (although I hear it scares many). Mickey's Philharmagic was a huge hit, as was POC and Jungle Cruise. However, Muppets 3D was too much for him. If she's at all sensitive to noise, get the UG and study up on the noisy things to warn her.

We spent a lot of time while he straveged about. Which was fine as it wasn't busy (middle of August) but it sure was HOT!! Make sure she drinks a lot! Try to walk on the shady side of the street. And cool off inside. Little Mermaid in MGM is great for that. It rains and is air conditioned. Heavenly!! Just take things at her pace and have a great time!
CRT was great! Both DD8 and DS4 loved the castle and the princesses, and Mary Poppins. Ask her to say 'supercalifragilisticexpialidoceous' backwards. CRT was definitely a highlight.

 

[Barbers2005]

If Dd loves princesses, take her to Cinderellabrations. My Dd4 was really into it- she would start yelling the names of the princess when they ran up on the stage. We did the breakfast at Norway, and we got Dd an Aurora dress and crown from BBB. We skipped the hair/nails/makeup part b/c there's no way my daughter would sit still that long. I brought some sparkle makeup for her cheeks and did her hair myself. Other princess activities include Voyage of the Little Mermaid and the Beauty and the Beast show. One thing that is crucial to traveling with such a little one is to remember that everything will take longer than you thought. All sorts of little things will eat up your time (potty breaks, snack breaks, chasing the ducks, meeting Mickey....every time we saw him). We found that we weren't able to do nearly as much with Dd as we had planned, so we just resigned ourselves to the fact that we would miss some stuff and come back again in a couple of years. Don't let this discourage you, just go with the flow and you'll have a great time.

 

[Sugardimples]

We went to the World with 4 year old twins in January and the best advice I can give you is to pace yourselves according to your's child's schedule. If he/she is still taking a nap, then plan a nap. If they are tired, rest. The days when we tried to push them are the days that were less than magical. We kept reminding ourselves that this trip was for THEM and we would have other trips to indulge ourselves.

That said, four is a wonderful age at WDW! We had a great time!

 

[sameyeyam]

How about dining at Ohana. It is a great family style restaurant at the Polynesian and is fun for all ages. My kids love it. They invite kids up to Limbo, have coconut races, play musical maracas (sp?), and learn the hula. It's a nice restaurant, food is awesome, served family style & all you can eat. Plus you don't have to feel like you need to be quiet. A 4 year old would fit right in!

 

[tribus121]

We will be taking our DD 4 this september . We are lucky as my DMIL is going with us and she will probbably tire out about the same time as DD When this happens we will send them back to pop and Injoy some Adult Time .

 

[hbehrman]

We are taking our DD4 twins (they will turn 4 on 9/2) to WDW for the last week in September. I have read conflicting things about Voyage of the Little Mermaid in the guides some say it is too scary. Can you tell me how your experiences were?

Thanks

Henry

 

[belle&beast]

I forgot to mention that we had an autograph book which seemed to break the ice when DD was uneasy about characters. I took pictures of her with the characters, then when we came home we combined them into a small scrapbook.

 

[Barbers2005]

Voyage of the Little Mermaid wasn't scary except for Ursula. She is huge! Dd4 hid behind the seat when Ursula was on stage, but she was ok once she went away and even asked to see it again.

 

[mikymouse]

We took our daughter a few weeks after her 4th birthday and I think it was the perfect age... so caught in the magic. She absolutely LOVED going into the Castle for dinner and meeting all the princesses in Norway. One of her favorite parts was watching the Cinderellbration(sp?) show in front of the castle with all the princesses. We missed seeing Snow White at Norway so we walked over to Germany at Epcot to see her and she was really great. Another favorite was going to Chef Mickeys for dinner to meet Minnie and Mickey, along with the all of fantasyland (Philharmonic, Dumbo, Pooh Ride and even Snow White Scary Adventure she loved). One of our family's best memories was arriving to the Magic Kingdom for the Park Opening where they play music and the characters arrive on the train to do a show and help everyone do a count down to open the Magic Kingdom. We were definately glad to have a umbrella stroller for the long walk out of the park and taking an afternoon pool break made all the difference in our level of enjoyment. Have a great time!

Also forgot to mention how very much she enjoyed the nightime parade Spectro Magic at MK with all the lights.