First Kid Trip

[mds88]

Good afternoon everyone! I am planning a trip with my husband, parents, 2 sisters and our niece(4) and nephew(2) for the end of June. We have been to Disney collectively about 10 times and consider ourselves pretty WDW savvy, but we have never gone with young children before. What are your best tricks and tips for disney with kids?!

 

[sponica]

Be flexible. Accept that you can't see/do all the things. My then 20 month old HATED rides on her first trip, so we really didn't do any beyond the couple we had planned (we also had a non rider for our must dos).

Eat EARLIER than you normally would so you don't get hangry kids.

 

[skippytx]

My advice is to plan around the kids. You can't expect children who take naps daily, and probably have a pretty routine schedule to adjust well in the chaos that is WDW. Try to maintain their schedule as much as possible. Bring snacks. Hangry kids and tired kids are the ones that have melt downs. Snacks and Naps, Snacks and Naps. Repeat after me, Snacks and Naps (works on grumpy adults as well).

 

[dawnball]

I'm also in camp snacks and naps. This post got -way- too long, so I'm going with a bulleted list for the rest of my preferences . I'm happy to expand on why for anything that isn't clear.

• Restaurants, even quick serve can be overwhelming. Camp mobile order all the way!
• Pack predictable snacks - we did the same ones every day.
• Familiar food in the room, and more than you really think you need.
• Skyliner resorts (or monorail resorts) are a vast improvement over busses.
• Have a meltdown/boo-boo pack in the stroller. I kept 3 wrapped chocolates and a strip of stickers. This pays off if you miss the overtired signals or there's a painful tumble.
• Know where first aid and baby care are, and the fastest way to get to them from various parts of the parks. Cast members don't always know.
• Stop to watch the ducks, or look at the tree of life, or see what's down that path.
• Give space and time to process all the stimulus. That might be at a splash pad, a playground, wandering around your resort, taking a long bath or coloring in the room.
• Always have a responsible adult assigned to each kid. No team supervision. Particularly when walking between rides, or getting on transportation.
• Play a lot of red light/green light or stop/go games before the trip. When your kid takes off running, it's a lot less exhausting to yell "2-year-old, red light!" than it is to run after them. Alternately, nothing's wrong with a harness and leash as long as you're paying attention.
• Give the kids small jobs similar to their chores at home. It's slower to have a 3 year old shuttle trash to the can one plate at a time, but it feels safe and familiar.
• Decide in advance and communicate what things will be purchased. We picked a balloon, and anything else that they wanted went on a wishing list. There were no arguments and some cheerful window shopping.
• Know your kid-hooks. Walking around world showcase didn't sound good to my kid. Finding the next coloring station? Yay! Wilderness explorers at AK was also a good stop on our way to the next thing.
• Rain cover for the stroller, and a rain jacket for the kid. Maybe dry clothes in a ziplock!
• silicone straws and/or semi-disposable cups with lids.

 

[scrappinginontario]

This is a great question for the families board also as you will find a lot of great tips and tricks there.

 

[Lumpy1106]

^^ HA! These are first-time-parent tips (LOL!). You get to the third kid and the only rule is just don't leave anyone behind (not saying I've done that, but don't do that )

Honestly though, the rain cover is a great tip - the stroller stays outside and will get soaked in those FL afternoon T-storms. We found a pair of ponchos draped over the stroller worked about as well as any fancy stroller cover you could buy. The Baby Care center too - visit if for no other reason than to see DIsney at it's best! SUPER impressive. We used them to change the kids into jammies at the end of the day.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

"Let there be spaces in your togetherness" - Khalil Gibran

This is the maxim for all extended family/lots of friends trips. Plan for some things together, do not plan for everything together. Understand that people may want/need to back out of your carefully planned ADRs/FPs because some kid is having a meltdown/needs an emergency change/needs a pool break/doesn't want to ride something totally-not-scary. Understand that it's their trip too, and make it easy to separate and reform groups at a later time/date.

 

[dawnball]

Phone mis-post!

 

[dawnball]

^^ HA! These are first-time-parent tips (LOL!). You get to the third kid and the only rule is just don't leave anyone behind (not saying I've done that, but don't do that )

Yeah, the advantage of some of my kids being teenagers is that I can leave them behind. They just wake up to a text "I rebooked your fastpasses for Space Mtn to the afternoon. I forgot my wallet on the dresser, please bring it when you come."

 

[mds88]

Thank you everyone for the advice!

 

[Wild4Walt]

I'd also recommend splurging on Memory Maker. There are doing to be lots of photos you're all going to want to be in and if your family is like mine - it's way cheaper to buy the package than photo by photo.