DVC with young children

[cad721]

we are looking to do our first trip to disney as a family, three and one. suggestions as to things to do and things to aviod would be appreciated

 

[TDERadulski]

Check out the Disney for Families board here: http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23

There is lots of into there for you to check out.

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[brandip22]

hi! I'd be happy to help, but that's a very broad question!! When ya going and where ya staying? i'll start with that!

 

[Scott]

Best advice: Take it slow. The little ones will enjoy the things we tend to rush through, such as boat rides, busses, monorail, train, etc. Character meals (though expensive) are a great way to get up close and personal with characters. Chef Mickey's for breakfast is something our kids look forward to each trip. Don't try to see everything in one day. Staying on property is a huge bonus for us (boys ages 4, 7, and 6 mo.) because we can head back to the room for some R & R after a morning in the parks. DVC villas are also wonderful for families with babies because you can put the baby down in the other room without making everybody else speak in whispers all afternoon.
Scott

 

[culli]

Best advice: Take it slow. The little ones will enjoy the things we tend to rush through, such as boat rides, busses, monorail, train, etc. Character meals (though expensive) are a great way to get up close and personal with characters. Chef Mickey's for breakfast is something our kids look forward to each trip. Don't try to see everything in one day. Staying on property is a huge bonus for us (boys ages 4, 7, and 6 mo.) because we can head back to the room for some R & R after a morning in the parks. DVC villas are also wonderful for families with babies because you can put the baby down in the other room without making everybody else speak in whispers all afternoon.
Scott

Based on your limited information.......Ahhhhhhhhh yup what Scott said!!! We have 6, 3 and 2 year old. Take it slow, get naps and don't worry about seeing a lot of things. If you try to go commando everyone will have a bad time. EMH at night worked great for us and we brought umbrella strollers, easy to get on/off busses.

 

[Scott]

Based on your limited information.......Ahhhhhhhhh yup what Scott said!!! We have 6, 3 and 2 year old. Take it slow, get naps and don't worry about seeing a lot of things. If you try to go commando everyone will have a bad time. EMH at night worked great for us and we brought umbrella strollers, easy to get on/off busses.

Your stroller comment reminded me of something very important...if possible, do not bring the 125 lb. mega stroller. We did this the first year and it was a royal pain dealing with disney transportation. Light stollers WITH drink holders are wonderful or you can rent a stroller. The last couple of years we've left our stroller in the room and rented one in the parks (brought it for the time spent in airport). Since you have a 3 year old you will get some use out of the double stroller. Even if you don't normally use a stroller for the 3 year old, you will at WDW!
Scott

 

[Laurabearz]

Your stroller comment reminded me of something very important...if possible, do not bring the 125 lb. mega stroller. We did this the first year and it was a royal pain dealing with disney transportation. Light stollers WITH drink holders are wonderful or you can rent a stroller. The last couple of years we've left our stroller in the room and rented one in the parks (brought it for the time spent in airport). Since you have a 3 year old you will get some use out of the double stroller. Even if you don't normally use a stroller for the 3 year old, you will at WDW!
Scott

See... we didnt bring "the beast" and wished we had. So I guess everyone is different. For us the pain on the bus for a few minutes in the morning and evening was worth having it for the day.

We rented baby gear from www.abbf.com like an excersaucer. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO worth having it.

My only other advice... Try and leave the parks before the meltdowns

 

[anna08]

Wow! Where to start ?? My kids are the same ages and we LOVE Disney! You will have a great time!!! Just some advice as it comes to mind, in no particular order......
take an umbrella stroller or two (you might need one for 3yo when tired). the Disney stroller rental is expensive but the double comes in handy
always do a Character breakfast!!
be at MK for rope drop, you will then easily walk on the good kiddie rides for the first hour with little wait
stay onsite
go back to resort for nap every afternoon
do silly free things like try on Nemo heads in the stores & make them laugh
use the Baby Care centers in each park!! they are wonderful for diaper changing, getting water and a brief rest
play in the pools or in the bubbling fountains in the parks
relax, go slow and be a fun-loving, patient parent - just being there and seeing their faces is SO magical - drink it in and treasure it forever. In a blink of an eye they'll be grownups...

 

[culli]

Here is a post from my June vacation (not sure when you are going) that might give some pointers. As I read it again it was fun to relive but mostly just me yada yada yada and blah blah blah but we had our (at the time) 5 and 2 year old with us and left the 1 year old at home with Grandma:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1842662

 

[logan115]

Another thing to keep in mind - you're kids may not be as gung-ho about WDW as you are (yet). We've gone each of the last two years when our DS was 3 & 4 and as much as he talked about going on this ride or that one, once we got there it was a different story (he was scared of the indoor attractions he couldn't see). So don't force them to do something they don't want to (regardless of how much you know/think they'll enjoy it).

Take it slow, and give them as much of the control of where you go as possible. It's amazing the things that they'll want to do (my son's favorite thing the last two years have been the regular parks within the parks that have slides/swings and stuff to crawl on/around. Outside of the major parks he LOVED the water parks (both BB and TL), not sure if the weather or your plans allow a trip there, but the kids/little tikes sections are great.

We couldn't believe it - all of this really fun and cool stuff, and he would've stayed in the play area by Pooh's Wild Ride all day if we let him.

Also keep in mind that they will wear out quicker than you so as PPs have said make sure you take breaks during the day.

You'll have a blast (and so will they), have a great trip,

Chris

 

[fluffykim]

What was shocking for me when I brought my 3year old...how SCARED he was walking to the turnstiles for the first time for entrance.

All the people going to the ENTRANCE gate and he freaked out and didnt want to pass through.

After that..he was fine.

We did the parks for like 2hours a day only. Swam at the pool, walked around DTD, etc

We rented the stroller at the parks and they were nice. Held our bags and were great. Stroller is necessary 100% OHHHH....and whenever you pass a bathroom...use it

Even if they say they dont need to go...try

EVERY TIME!

 

[HGD24]

We went in Oct with our 8.5 month old DD. I'll agree with the others that taking it slow is key. Pick a few things at each park that you really want to do and if you get to do other things too, consider them a bonus.

We asked for a crib after trying to get our DD to sleep in the pack 'n play. The pnp's are nice, but our DD wasn't comfortable sleeping in it. She slept much better in the crib.

We brought our Peg Pliko P3 which some people might think is a big stroller, but we felt that with an infant, we needed something comfortable for her to be in since we knew she would nap in it at least once a day - which she did end up doing. The family boards have some great advice too so definitely check those out!

 

[crisi]

Kids are not all the same. Mine wouldn't nap in the room - we'd nap riding the monorail around in circles, or the train, or Spaceship Earth.... My son was afraid of characters at 3 (and not much better at 4), my daughter has always thought they were WONDERFUL and at nine we still stand in line for autographs. Some handle sit down meals wonderfully (mine were pretty good) some shouldn't be trusted near a tablecloth. Some would rather be in the pool than anywhere else. Some three year olds ride Tower of Terror, others get freaked out on Its a Small World and never ride anything else.

My advice is to not take it slow, but to start slow. Know your kids and start with the easiest rides in each park before trying something bigger. Do NOT start with Snow White's SCARY Adventure - its scary. And, your job on your MK is to arrive at MK ten minutes before opening and get your backends on Dumbo - do NOT stop to take a picture in front of the castle, do not stop to get a bite at the bakery - come back to do those things - AFTER you ride Dumbo.

 

[Chuck S]

Since this really isn't a DVC related thread, I'm ging to move it to the Disney For Families board.

 

[brandylouwho]

So, I am not sure I have anything new to ad, but I'll post anyway.

Let the kids set the pace. If they nap for you in the stroller go ahead and stay all day in the park, if they get crabby and don't nap in the stroller--head back to the room.

Kids seem to love the busses, monorail, pool & playground just as much as the parks themselves.

Plan your day around their natural schedule...ours are early risers so we are out for rope drop and back to the room shortly after lunch. Sometimes they napped, sometimes we swam, heck we even let them just lay around and watch TV sometimes.

Crazy, specific touring plans--consider not doing this! We did kid friendly stuff and mixed a few specific rides or things the adults wanted to do. It worked pretty well. We never knew what the 5 yr old would want to do or not do at any give moment. If we had had a big plan and she kept mucking it up we would have gotten angry with her.

It looks like you will be staying DVC this trip. I am spoiled by DVC and can't live without my 1 bedroom. We just did 11 nights at AKV and there is no way we would have done that in a normal hotel room with the 2 kids. The room was nice, we didn't mind spending time in it. Having that down time was good for the kids and our sanity.

You know your kids and while you can't know for sure how they will be at WDW, I find that our kids normal personalities are amplified there. The one that fights naps downright refuses to nap there. The one that is a bit of a scaredy cat at home is a big fraidy cat at WDW, etc.

Have fun!

 

[HGD24]

...Let the kids set the pace. If they nap for you in the stroller go ahead and stay all day in the park, if they get crabby and don't nap in the stroller--head back to the room...

I totally agree!!! Our DD is a late riser so we let her sleep in and catch an early nap in the room which meant we didn't get to the parks until about 10:30-11am, but we were fine with that. Sometimes we'd go to another park after we relaxed in our room around dinner time sometimes we'd just stay at the resort that night. We went on some grown up rides and then some rides that we could take her on with us. We really let her mood and schedule set the tone for our trip.