Disney with a two year old - review

[Amyhoff]

I got nervous after I read a bunch of people saying that Disney with a toddler is really fun, but also really tough.

I just wanted to put up a review of my fun and not so tough at all vacation!

My daughter is a very well behaved little girl. She is happy as long as I am not too far away! We had the same wonderful behavior at Disney. She didn't have one meltdown, temper tantrum or moment of unhappiness. The worst it got was that she said she was tired and wanted to go home.

I think the key to my success was that we did two days at the parks, then one day where we did a character breakfast and just relaxed and then another two days at the parks. That day of rest was very important to us. We also took things at her pace. I didn't force her to take a picture with Chip and Dale just because we waited on line... she didn't want to, so we just said, "ok, no problem. Wave bye bye!". I saw a bunch of parents forcing their kids into situations where they weren't comfortable and lets face it, kids won't do well with that kind of pressure at home, nevermind in a place like Disney.

I know every child is different. Maybe we just have the PERFECT child. lol : I just wanted to tell the parents out there that a wonderful vacation is available to you if you just take things as slow or fast as your child can handle!

Good luck!

 

[daisy2jae]

My DS was 2 when we went to Disneyland last June. I was freaking out b/c he is a handful. I was worried about the flight, hotel, and park. It turned out to be one of our best vacations. He still is a handful and very busy. However while we were on vacation we had time to just focus on the kids. No phones, people stopping, 12 daycare kids weren't there, ...anyways. I idea that they had our full attention for days straight was great. He was a totally different kid. When he starts his fits now we think back to Disneyland. We try to slow down or make our calls at naptime. We had a great vacation. We still had a few fights and melt downs. I was so impressed we're going to WDW this year.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

I agree. Taking a 2 year old isn't a bad thing at all, we really enjoyed it, she enjoyed it, it was awesome. However, we know that we can't bring my mom. She has meltdowns, cries, screams, doesn't want to wait in lines, storms off and gets lost in crowds, and is a very picky eater.

 

[daisy2jae]

She has meltdowns, cries, screams, doesn't want to wait in lines, storms off and gets lost in crowds, and is a very picky eater.

Wish me luck next year I'm taking my mother in law along. She is a handful at home but at WDW She hates spending money unless it's clearenced out. She'll be in for a shock at WDW. Hope she leaves her cheap ways in SD.

 

[MnMomtoboys]

Wish me luck next year I'm taking my mother in law along. She is a handful at home but at WDW She hates spending money unless it's clearenced out. She'll be in for a shock at WDW. Hope she leaves her cheap ways in SD.

My dh grew up in SD. That is ingrained!

I can't wait until we take our little guy. He loves the caracters so I think the hardest thing will be to wait.

oh and our first was the perfect child too. The rest

 

[Beavers5]

Our last trip, the only person that I had to pull aside and have a talk with was my husband. He started getting stressed about one of the kids getting messy; he was good after I reminded him that it was a vacation. My 10 year old, then 2 year old, and then 3 month old were angels. lol


Glad you had a great trip.

 

[buzznina]

I think the key to my success was that we did two days at the parks, then one day where we did a character breakfast and just relaxed and then another two days at the parks. That day of rest was very important to us. We also took things at her pace. I didn't force her to take a picture with Chip and Dale just because we waited on line... she didn't want to, so we just said, "ok, no problem. Wave bye bye!". I saw a bunch of parents forcing their kids into situations where they weren't comfortable and lets face it, kids won't do well with that kind of pressure at home, nevermind in a place like Disney.

The 2 days on, 1 day off and doing things at their pace was the key for us, too. Our DD would say she wanted to see a character and then when we were next sometimes she would get scared and say she didn't want to see them, so the first couple of times me or DW would just get a picture and then we would ask her if she wanted us to hold to take a picture and that worked. I just think parents just forget how scary/big these characters look to a small child. One time she wanted to take a picture with Jasmine and the Genie was there and she did not want to take a picture with him, so he had to go hide behind a tree and even then she would keep looking back, but the cast was great for doing that and she got her picture with Jasmine. As we were leaving Genie came out and pretended that he was crying and wiping his eyes

 

[*Seanaci*]

The other option of taking a toddler is to take a mid afternoon break for a nap or just some down time to run around the hotel room or playground. That's what we did with our 14 month old in 2008 and we had a great time.

 

[saffron1000]

So glad to hear that everyone had a good and SANE trip. We will be going on our first WDW trip in May with our almost 3 year old son. I'm so excited!!! My plan is to take it slow and take each day as it comes without to much pressure. We'll see. I'll give everyone an update when we get back.

 

[ktlm]

DD's (now 4)1st trip was when she was 2 yrs 10 months. She was not normally a well behaved child. She was an extremely high energy "spirited" child. She was a perfect angel at WDW- MUCH better than she usually was at home. I was very surprised. However, here is a little warning for those of you with the same type child who have visions of a nice afternoon break or taking a day off from the parks. The only time DD ever had a meltdown the entire time at WDW was our 1st full day there when we dragged her kicking and screaming out of the park for an "afternoon break". All I got was an angry child that refused to nap for the next 2-3 hours at WL until we finally gave up and just went back to the park where she was immediately happy and promptly climbed into her stroller and took a nap. After that, we stayed in the parks from open to close and she just took stroller naps. Before DD, we were open to close people anyway, so I don't know why I thought she would be different. I don't want to even think about what would have happened if we got up and told her we weren't going to a park that day. Most mornings she was standing with her stroller by the door wanting us to hurry up.