Disney with 14 month old and 3year old

jackets9

Earning My Ears
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Apr 22, 2009
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We will be traveling to Disney August 8-15. It will be me, DH, DS (11), DD (3) and DS (14 months). The last time we were there my oldest was 5, so it has been a while. I know there will be times when my DH and oldest DS will go off to do "bigger" rides which will leave me with the younger two. Are there rides the three of us will be able to go on? What are some fun things that I can do with the two younger ones at the parks?

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
WDW has done a great job of placing play areas near the big rides! We go to DL a lot and that's one major difference I noticed with WDW. The pooh play area at MK is really cute for example and there's a little play area near thunder mountain/splash moutain.

There are definitely things you'll be able to do with both like at MK small world, winnie the pooh, tea cups, pirates, dumbo, etc. At Epcot, Nemo, living with the land, etc. MOST rides will probably have enough room to fit the 3 of you in a seat. If you use FP so that waits aren't too long, I found that it while others are off riding the big rides it's really a good time to change diapers, use the potty, get snacks and just take a rest in the shade though!

Don't forget to use the childswap option so that you can ride some of the big rides too and your older child will get to ride twice!!!

Alison
 
I agree with PP, while you may certainly find it easier to split up at times, you may not need to as much as you think. The only park we ever felt it totally necessary to completely split up was at DHS and that was only for the 1st hour.
When it was time for the "big kids" to go on a ride, we always used FP and baby swap completely cutting down on the wait and allowing each parent a chance to ride as well. Many of the big rides will have something nearby that you can do while you wait; if not we would check out the gift shop, change diapers, have a snack etc...
As a family of 5, I can tell you that almost every ride you can fit 3 across. I can't think of anything that you could take a baby on that doesn't fit 3 although on the Toy Story/ Buzz rides there aren't 3 controllers.
HTH
 
That's the best thing about Disney it is so family oriented. It is the only theme park that I've been too that has so many opportunities for you to sit as a family. Even a family of 5.
The first thing that came to mind is TTA in MK but that will be closed during your visit. I enjoyed riding that with my boys on our last trip while my dd and dh were on Space mountain(which also will be closed:))
As pp said we have used it as a time to take it a little slower with the younger ones. Walk a bit slower, take notice of all the little things that you may not have noticed. You can also let the little ones run around in some of the playgrounds, like the Pooh one and Donald's ship in MK.
It would also be a good time to see some of the Princesses that your older son may not want to wait for. My boys loved the Princesses when they were babies because they paid so much attention and spoke to them.
Enjoy!
 

I'm so interested too what people say. We are taking my 3 year old DD and 13 month DS in Sept. Glad I'm not the only one taking little ones.
 
Thanks for all the information so far! This is really helpful.

Any other suggestions?
 
We took our two oldest the first time when they were 16 months and 29 months.

I was active on another forum site - not disney related- but journaled the trip there. Here's some of what I wrote. Mary was the older one. Shannon the younger. Maybe I'll put the whole thing in trip reports here, but it was quite a while ago now as those two are now 5 & 6.

Mostly this is about Mary as Shannon just went with the flow, but some of it might help.

Mary's reactions to the rides- in alphabetical order (if isn't on the list, we didn't do it):

Magic Kingdom
Astro Orbiter - Mary loved it. I don't think she realized we were as high us as we were so she wasn't scared. It did go faster than Dumbo but not too fast.
The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm - If I had to pick one favorite ride of Mary's, it would be a toss between this one and "It's a Small World." We went on this about 10 times and she giggled throughout all of them. She did just reach the minimum height requirement and I had to keep my arm around her to help steady her. I will never forget her saying "Again!" when the ride ended.
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin - Mary was scared by the dark entrance line area (after being scared on a previous dark ride) and we gave up waiting in line.
Carousel of Progress - Both Mary and Shannon LOVED it. If we knew how much they were going to like it, we would have done it much earlier in our trip. I think they liked the dog especially. It also helped that the theatre was empty.
Cinderella's Golden Carousel - Both Mary and Shannon like it. The nice thing about this carousel is that on the inside are smaller horses and larger horses on the outside. Mary and I first rode together on a large horse. The second time we went together, I let her ride on her own smallest horse on the inside. She thought it was great.
Country Bear Jamboree - The girls weren't really all that into it. They watched it, but didn't really get what was going on.
Donald's Boat - She's a water girl so she had fun playing in here. I wouldn't have spent time here if it hadn't been hot.
Dumbo the Flying Elephant - Another favorite of both Mary and Shannon's. By the end of our trip, Shannon was saying “dumbo” when we would see it.
Enchanted Tiki Room - There were some parts where Mary was scared when it got dark and there was thunder and lightening. Another little girl a little bit older to Mary was dancing to the songs and that was cute.
The Haunted Mansion - I expected Mary to be more scared of this ride, but she wasn't. She did look a little scared when the room stretched, but once we got on the ride portion of it, she was fine.
It's a Small World - Loved, loved, loved it. I'm sure we went on it 10 times. She knew exactly where we were about the 3rd time we were getting in line for it.
Jungle Cruise - Mary got scared when the boat when into the Chinese ruins and it was dark, but aside from that, they liked seeing the "animals."
Mad Tea Party - They both loved this ride. Mary loved spinning the cups and kept saying "Turn it, turn it!" while spinning the disk.
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin - Another Dumbo-ish ride. They both liked it.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Mary really liked it. The first time we went, she did get a little scared through the storm, but was fine afterwards. She kept pointing out Pooh.
Mickey's Philharmagic - We loved it. I had never seen it before- either it wasn't around when we were there last time 4 years ago, or we skipped it, but it was really cute. The glasses did not stay on Mary well at all, I had to hold her on my lap and then hold the glasses on her, but she really enjoyed it. The effects were really cool. And it was neat to see Mary trying to touch the things that came out of the screen.
Minnie's Country House - We skipped Mickey's house and just went to Minnie's house. If the girls had been a little older, this would have been more fun for them. Mary did like that she could run around and touch things. She also copied some older kids in the kitchen and that was fun for her.
Peter Pan's Flight - Brian said she seemed to enjoy taking everything in, until she saw me in the "boat" ahead of them and then she said "Hi Mommy!" each time I was in view.
Pirates of the Caribbean - She didn't get as scared as we expected. The first time we went on it, I was able to tell her it was ok and talk her through it. Singing the Pirate song with the music helped a lot- she saw us having fun and relaxed.
Snow Whites Scary Adventures - Went fine. I don't remember her getting as scared as I thought she would from other reviews. I think in this case, age did help a bit because she doesn't know the story and doesn't realize that witches are scary.
Tomorrowland Speedway - I personally didn't care for this ride. It might have been better if I didn't have one hand on Shannon trying to keep her from tipping over while driving. I felt the car was really jerky and the steering wheel was hard to control.
Tomorrowland Transit Authority - Oh boy, what a mistake. This ride scared the bejeebus out of Mary. It is "sold" as a nice, quiet, boring ride and we thought it would be good for some downtime. There were extended dark periods and while going threw Space Mountain, you could hear people screaming. It was not good for her at all.
Toontown Hall of Fame - This was perfect for character greetings. We rarely waited outside in line for the main characters because we met them here- inside and in air conditioning.

Epcot
Future Word- Innoventions - Boring for me, but it was a good place to let Mary run around and touch some things. It wasn't geared towards kids her age, but she had fun.
World Showcase
"El Rio del Tiempo" - She had fun. By the time we did the rides at Epcot, she was past her darkness fright. I think she did like looking at the colors.
Maelstrom- Another ride where she was much better than we thought she'd be. She seemed to even like the drop.

Disney-MGM
Muppet Vision 3D- I think she really liked it. At first she didn't know what to think of it as we haven't been to see a movie or a theatre. A few times she got scared but that was because it does get a little loud at times.
Playhouse Disney-Live on Stage! - This was such a cute show. I wish they had real characters other than just Bear, but it was still fun. Both Mary and Shannon liked it.

Animal Kingdom
Kilimanjaro Safari- Mary had fun in the jeep. I held her on my lap so she could see better. It was a little annoying because the people behind us were talking so much we couldn't hear anything about the animals, but of course, that didn't bother the girls. I wish the elephants had been out as they are one of Mary's favorites.
Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends - Absolutely adorable. The live animals and singing captivated their attention.


Random advice I read and did:

Disposable placements for Shannon to eat off of - Excellent idea. Mary didn't need them as she keeps food on her plate.
Aerosol deodorant- This is going to sound disgusting, but I read on disboards that if you spray your feet with aerosol deodorant, you wont get blisters. I usually get blisters after walking a while so I tried it. No blisters!
Moleskin- Brian brought some for his potential blisters. He didn't want to try the deodorant and he did use the moleskin.
Baby Care Centers- We used them at Epcot and the Animal Kingdom- they were nice, cool and had toys and books for the kids. They also had adult restrooms which was nice. A lot of time we used the normal public restrooms to change diapers, but if we were around these, we used them.
Disposable raincoats at Wal-Mart- We didn’t need as many as I brought, but they were cheap and didn’t take up much space in packing.

Catching up reading that journal, I also found a slideshow I had made after the trip for fun. It is at http://slideroll.com/show.php?s=wv0v4h8e#commentlist and you can see Shannon really enjoy the characters she met.

Hope some of that helps.
 
Kids of all ages enjoy the parades. The character meet-n-greet locations are good for younger children too (as long as they are not afraid of the characters)!
 

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