Best Park Schedule/Strategy with a 2 year old?

[DarthAckbarious]

Hello! My wife and I are taking our 2 year old to Disney World here in just over a month. We will be getting in on a Saturday (late morning) and leaving on a Wednesday. We have 4 day park hopper tickets. We are staying on site at the Grand Floridian.

I was thinking that our little one will have by far the most fun and most to do at Magic Kingdom, but my wife wants to hit up at least each park once for a bit. We likely will just do room service for breakfast while getting ready but may try for a character breakfast at Crystal Palace (if something opens up) or 1900 Park fare (if the restaurant opens back up by then). We also will probably will do dinner at GF one night with the babysitting service to have an "adults night" and maybe even hit up some extra magic hours at Epcot. We definitely will be doing parks on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, but I was wondering which would be better- doing a park on Saturday afternoon/evening such as Epcot or doing a park such as Animal Kingdom on Wednesday before we leave and drive home? We have about a 6-7 hour drive and will have to work Thursday, so we would probably have to bail early afternoon if we did Wednesday. Am I being overly optimistic that we can use our park hopper to start in one park some days such as Magic Kingdom and spend the late afternoon and evening in Epcot a few days? Here is a tentative schedule I was thinking about:

Saturday- arrive, check into Grand Floridian and check out the resort, maybe do Disney Springs.
Sunday- walk to Magic Kingdom in the morning, see if the kiddo naps in the stroller but if not take him back to the room to nap and do Epcot in the afternoon/evening via monorail
Monday- Hollywood Studios and again leave evening open for possibly Epcot. Would be banking on stroller nap here since it's so far and have to take the bus to HS (although we can monorail it back from Epcot)
Tuesday- walk to Magic Kingdom in AM again and Epcot possibly in evening again if there's more we want to do there
Wednesday- check out of hotel and drive to Animal Kingdom and spend morning/early afternoon there before heading home


Thoughts??

 

[Specter]

So without knowing how tall your little one is, I am going to guess that there will be virtually nothing that they can do at HS and surprisingly little they can do at AK.

We took DD at 10 months and again just before she turned 3. Now she is admittedly on the petite side, though growing fast these days, but even when we took her earlier this year there were only 3 rides she could do at HS. AK also only had 3 rides, Na'vi river, Triceratops twirl, and the safari. Epcot had Frozen, Nemo, the Land, Ratatouille, Spaceship Earth, Journey into Imagination, and Gran Fiesta tour...so surprisingly more than the other parks. MK, as you already mentioned, had far and away the most for her to do.

The other thing to keep in mind, and again it seems like you are thinking about it, is the nap situation. Even at almost 3, DD would have been a disaster without a nap, something we learned first hand on her 10 month old trip. And she even dozed in her stroller at the time, but between being outside and warm (warm in March, bear in mind), and even though she dozed there was still lots of stimulus, she just melted down the day we tried to push through at HS. That one was my fault because I am a Star Wars nerd and wanted to do everything in Galaxy's Edge.

If your goal is to do as much as possible all together as a family and not use rider swap so the adults can take turns on the bigger rides, then I would strongly advocate for ditching HS. I say that as someone who personally loves that park and the rides there, but as a parent there is just so little to see and do. At least at AK there are the animal walking trails in addition to the shows.

Also, based on when you are posting this and the general description of just over a month, it sounds like you will be arriving just after Thanksgiving. While not as busy as the week of the holiday, it will still be plenty busy which can lead to increased travel times between the parks and resort, increased lines for rides, etc. Depending on what time you anticipate arriving on Saturday, I would also advocate for using that as your 4th park day instead of Wednesday. We live far enough away that we fly when we go to Disney but if we had to drive, thinking about diaper changes and feeding schedules, I would want to buffer in time for the trip back home.

Just the opinion of one family, whatever you decide I hope you have a great trip!

 

[Aimeedyan]

I have a 3 year old and we visit every week or two (have since he was 3 weeks old). His favorite park is Epcot - it has sooo much for his age group but may be things you don't want to spend $$$ on tickets to do (playgrounds, aquarium, miniature train display, jumping water, etc).

If you want to visit HS, I'd suggest hitting it in the evening. Downside is the characters and Disney Junior show finish early, but ride lines are MUCH shorter at night so you could easily ride Runaway RR, TS Mania, and Swirling (really the only rides she can do). You could also catch Frozen, it runs later, if you wanted. It's the park we spend the least amount of time at.

When we do full days, we typically go to one park in the morning, back to hotel to swim/rest/nap (my kid has never been a stroller napper so hotel naps are our only option), back to another park in the evening. Our family cannot handle going all day without a hotel break but I know many others do.

The upside to park hopping is you don't have to decide in advance. We often check wait times and then decide based on that.

Epcot on Saturdays is never a good idea IMO but it may be worth popping into HS. Disney Springs is really crowded on Saturdays, too, so after a day of travel, I might consider doing a monorail, swimming, playground, boat ride, etc afternoon. Riding all the modes of transportation is basically the highlight of my 3 year olds visit to Disney (he thanks God for the Disney buses and monorail every night at bedtime ) Something else you could decide on the fly, thankfully.

We love AK but it's lacking in toddler stuff. Safari, train ride out to Rafikis (definitely worth it!), Navi, Triceratop Spin, couple animal trails. We spend a looooot of time at the Dino Dig but as a dad told his kid last week, "I didn't pay $130 for you to play on a playground" as he pulled his kid out of the dig site. Great for AP's but probably not for people paying $$$ for a day.

Your plan sounds great, really, and with a hopper you get a lot of flexibility. Focus your time at MK on party days and you'll find it easy to accomplish a lot

 

[Disturbia]

We’ve been taking our almost 3 year old since she was 6 months old and she has 4 trips since the park reopened. She loves the Skyliner and pool time (Nemo pool at AOA). Slow down and try to see things from her perspective. It certainly won’t be your last trip.

If you decide to go to HS, just stack rides for the evening. It’s crazy crowded and little shade (Nov is hot). AK safari ride we had to do twice (waiting for it for another 30+ mins). Never skip nap time and downtime at your resort. Our DD loved fireworks (we thought she would be scared); another time slept right through them. We carried her in a Colugo carrier for the dessert party (they don’t allow strollers in the buffet and ask you park along the back rail for plaza garden viewing (we were hoping to lean against the railing; but CMs change rules constantly). She did love running around the open space near Figment (playgrounds weren’t open). Let her out and run around whenever possible. Also, CMs require shoes for toddlers when they are outside running (we were waiting by the Pooh exit and forgot her robeez in a stroller parked far away).

Character dining is a big must do. Last year we booked the Hollywood & Vine character dinner (at 5 pm after being in the park from 9:30 am). and she loved it. Minnie was playing peek a boo from behind a pillar. All characters were dining. She now loves Goofy. Topolinos this year had great food but her chair was facing the bench so she never really got into the characters. Goofy’s kitchen at DL (Aug this year) was a blast as she got hugs from Minnie. We have great picture of her in her Cinderella tutu dress (target; had a sweater) and siblings with CRT swords pretend fighting on an almost empty Main Street.

Don’t be surprised if someone barges in for an inspection during nap time. That set us back an hour and half (she was almost asleep) once as I had to get up and open the door. They do inspections to prevent child trafficking. I was initially upset and shocked as there was little-no explanation given.

Hopefully you’re not going Dec 2-4 (it is expected to be more crowded than normal).

 

[sponica]

I've gone twice with a 20 month old.
I like your current itinerary. You'll want to rest arrival day if you've been driving 6 to 7 hours.
The MK to Epcot hops are sound.
And AK is a nice park to end with, while we can spend a full day there, the safari, the wildlife express train and the walking paths will be a nice low key way to end a trip before you leave.
Both my kids were stroller nappers, my oldest napped through lunch at Tiffins on our last park day.

 

[DarthAckbarious]

Thanks for the replies so far! I should clarify, we are staying with family nearby for a few days before Saturday, so when we drive in on Saturday it'll just be a 2 hour drive to Orlando. I do think it may be still a bit too crazy for parks that day since it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I still think I am leaning toward sticking with the original plan and doing Sun-Weds and just leave from AK to head home Weds. We are no strangers to long late drives with the little dude, and at least he'd nap a good while after leaving. While it would probably make things easier to skip either HS or AK, the little one loves Star Wars (thanks to dad) and I think would really enjoy walking around Galaxy's Edge. He's never seen the movies, but he loves "Troopers" and "Darth Bader" and their helmets. Plus the wife and I enjoy grabbing Bantha milk and cruising around. I also was able to get us a 3 PM Oga's reservation and have never been in there before (hoping to snag an even earlier one, but we shall see). He also more recently is a big Buzz Lightyear fan, and Cars is probably his #1. If it was up to me, we'd skip AK, but he does love dinos and animals, and it's the wife's favorite park.

Leaving 3 afternoons open for Epcot makes it so even if we only made it over one of those days, at least we'd get that! I could see us spending at least 2 afternoons there just to drink and eat and try and catch the few kids rides. Also, the one big ride in all the parks I want to try to hit up is GotG since I've never done that one.

As far as character dining, is Crystal Palace a good option? I was just able to snag a 9 AM reservation for breakfast one day.

 

[sponica]

As far as character dining, is Crystal Palace a good option? I was just able to snag a 9 AM reservation for breakfast one day.

I can't attest to it as I've never been, the one thing I don't like about it is that I believe it's a buffet. And I hate buffets with kids. I think the breakfast is well regarded though.
Currently my FAVE character meal is Garden Grill, it's super low key and family style.

 

[Disturbia]

Thanks for the replies so far! I should clarify, we are staying with family nearby for a few days before Saturday, so when we drive in on Saturday it'll just be a 2 hour drive to Orlando. I do think it may be still a bit too crazy for parks that day since it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I still think I am leaning toward sticking with the original plan and doing Sun-Weds and just leave from AK to head home Weds. We are no strangers to long late drives with the little dude, and at least he'd nap a good while after leaving. While it would probably make things easier to skip either HS or AK, the little one loves Star Wars (thanks to dad) and I think would really enjoy walking around Galaxy's Edge. He's never seen the movies, but he loves "Troopers" and "Darth Bader" and their helmets. Plus the wife and I enjoy grabbing Bantha milk and cruising around. I also was able to get us a 3 PM Oga's reservation and have never been in there before (hoping to snag an even earlier one, but we shall see). He also more recently is a big Buzz Lightyear fan, and Cars is probably his #1. If it was up to me, we'd skip AK, but he does love dinos and animals, and it's the wife's favorite park.

Leaving 3 afternoons open for Epcot makes it so even if we only made it over one of those days, at least we'd get that! I could see us spending at least 2 afternoons there just to drink and eat and try and catch the few kids rides. Also, the one big ride in all the parks I want to try to hit up is GotG since I've never done that one.

As far as character dining, is Crystal Palace a good option? I was just able to snag a 9 AM reservation for breakfast one day.

Our now 6 year old and his 3 year old sister went to Oga’s (at 5 & 2) and got a table facing the DJ (our skinny 5 year old fit in the high chair). It was so much better than sitting in a booth isolated and crammed. They loved the blue milk and were waving and dancing to the DJ. We didn’t mind standing as we had a long wait sitting outside. Oga’s is a must do for us.

Honestly, we are not big breakfast people. The only breakfast on property that is worth the time is Topolinos. But if your son is into bears or knows the characters, go for it. Also if it’s near lunch I would keep it as you can dip into both menus.