First time doing Disney with a toddler

[laurainsem]

So this October I am traveling to Disney with my friends and their 2 y/o daughter (none of them have ever been). I've never done Disney with children before, let alone a toddler.

We could really use your help in the way of advice/tips for doing Disney with a little one in tow. Can she do most of the kiddie rides? What is most fun about Disney for this age? What should we be watching out for or doing to make it easier?

Thanks in advance!

 

[AnnieLytical]

I just returned from taking my 3 year old for the first time.

Crucial things - stroller, sunscreen, and refillable water bottles.

She will be able to do all the kiddie rides with no height restrictions....MK: tea cups, carrousel, Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, Phillharmagic, WDW train, Buzz, The Splash pad, Country Bears, Dumbo, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Hall of Presidents, Haunted Mansion (use your own judgement - I did not take my 3 year old) Pirates (mine was slightly scared but with reassurance he was fine), Its a Small World, Jungle Cruise, Liberty Riverboat, Aladdins carpets, Winnie the Pooh, Laugh Floor, The treehouse, Tom's Island, The Peoplemover, and the Tiki Room.

The best for my son was character interactions. He loved meeting characters and we built him up at home, kind of prepping him. His favorite outside of characters was the Buzz ride, but he also loves toy story. I would kind of branch off what the little girl is into. Lots of princess things to do - like Cinderellas Royal Table and the BBB boutique.

My son had stopped napping a couple of months before the trip. Day 1 he took no nap and went from about 7 am to 9 pm. The next day he was a nightmare and needed a 4 hour midday nap to recoup. I would definitely plan midday naps.

 

[AshleeH]

She can do everything with no height requirement - which is a lot. Definitely have a stroller and definitely plan a midday break at some point. We like to go back and swim or take a nap and relax. My kids stop all naps around 2, but they nap until they're much older when we're at Disney. And I do too .

 

[laurainsem]

Thank you so much, both of you! We are definitely planning on midday naps. She still takes them most days, just usually now it is later afternoon. I have no doubt we will all want the break as I have done at least downtime every other trip in the afternoon.

I'm SO thankful she can do all the kid rides. I think we will skip taking her on the Haunted Mansion but everything else she will love. I can't wait to introduce my niece to all the things I love about Disney. I plan to do al I can to indoctrinate her, lol!

 

[ssmurphy28]

Taking toddlers is a blast! You see everything from a fresh perspective.

Our last trip was in January 2015, and our oldest was 2 years 8 months old. His favorite ride was the Barnstormer. The pure joy he got from the ride is something I will never forget. You'll be surprised at how many of the rides she can do. If she is tall enough, she may even be able to do Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (my son was nearly tall enough, but he is short for his age).

One random ride that was my sons other favorite was Living with the Land. It is funny, because as adults we would probably skip over that, or not think to much of it, but he loved it and we rode it at least three times on our trip. If we ever needed to just take a break from walking, it was a perfect relaxing ride.

So have fun watching her try new things! You never know what rides she will absolutely adore and it may change your perspective on some of the attractions that you never thought much of.

 

[Hootch]

It's best to understand that a toddler may not be in a rush to get anywhere in particular. Sometimes it is best to let them burn some energy in one of the play areas in the parks.

 

[BeckyEsq]

You might want to check out the trip report in my signature as it was our trip with a 2 (almost 3) year old a few years ago.

Basic tips: Try to stick to their schedule as much as possible. We got up early and still put her to bed early so she got a decent amount of sleep. This prevented meltdowns. The only night we stayed out late was the last night there.

Before the trip I made a snack pack for each day -- a quart sized Ziploc with various little snacks in it -- goldfish crackers, teddy grahams, lollipops, etc. Then each day I just threw that day's snack pack in my bag to take with us. Often she was quite happy just riding around in the stroller if she had a snack.

Oh and she LOVED the Haunted Mansion!

 

[Aspenmarie82]

My 2yo niece and 4yo nephew LOVED Dumbo!!! Last year was my first trip to Disney with small kids, and it was so much fun seeing the excitement on their faces. Just be ready to take it at a slower pace and know that you probably/might not be able to do all the rides that you would typically get to do.

 

[a742246]

My advice is to take things very slow. Each 2 year old is different so it is hard for me to give advice but, as an adult, now is the time to look at all the details that Disney has to offer. Every building, every walkway, every garden has so much thought into it. That's my 2 cents worth.

 

[Aliceacc]

How is she with Santa at the mall? If she's frightened, rethink character interaction. Lots of kids (yes, I speak from experience) are terrified by those "face" characters.

I would absolutely plan to build in some breaks. Aside from the pure number of hours, a full day at WDW is a LOT Of stimulation for a little one.

 

[TellTheHubbyLater]

We will be there in September with our DD16, DS9, and DD2. We have been going for 20 years. It is amazing how the MAGIC comes alive in all of the ages! My advice is to plan to have your plans changed and just enjoy every moment!! Have a great trip

 

[FiggyFan]

We took our twin grandkids (boy & girl - just under 3yo ) last Oct. It was one of the best trips we have ever made to WDW. Let the kids walk as much as possible - makes them feel grownup, and a part of the group; and it wears them out. Let them explore and show you things they find. And don't believe it, when people ask you why you took them at that age; our Hank & 'Katy K' still ask when we are taking them back to Disney; they remember most all of it.

 

[Habbott]

My son was 2.5 on our first trip. It was a blast. He loved pretty much everything we went on, including haunted mansion. Oh wait, he was not thrilled with the tea cups.

As an above poster mentioned living with the land, he totally loves that ride.

His favorite thing in animal kingdom was the dig site playground. We could definitely lose him there (but there is only one way in and out, thankfully).

 

[DizzyDis]

That will be awesome! I echo others about stick with typical schedule, the joy of being at Disney does not make them excited enough to stay away and enjoy more-trust me, tried that and failed! My kids (almost 2 and 4) are early-to bed, and I found they needed to go even earlier at Dis because of how tired they were. For that reason, TS meals at breakfast were fabulous (breakfast at CP was an absolute favorite, pre-park opening if they are early risers, too), at lunch were hit and miss, and dinners were disasters (yes, at CRT, resort restaurant and others were all horrible). So, if we do it again, will plan all character meals for breakfast or early lunch (at 11:30 am at H&V was great) and plan counter service for dinner, even if it ends up being super-early. You can always have someone stay in the room and someone else go get nice take-out for the grown-ups to have in the rooms after little one is asleep.

And, yes, tons of awesome rids, my littlest liked the Dumbo-style ones the best, so we did a lot of those over again while bigger one went on bigger rides. Also, the circus splash area is fabulous, just make sure you have a change of clothes since they get soaked!

We rented a single stroller and sometimes we left it parked, other times used it constantly and one day rented another for the 4yo. Be flexible and try to be prepared for whatever they want and ready to go with the flow. Easy to say but really hard to do! The other thing we did is each night we would look at our day plans 2 days out and adjust/cancel reservations based on how the day went. It was hard to not do everything we wanted, but happier kid means happier trip, even if you only do half the rides!

And ditto on the snacks-always have water and food available, that soothed my savage beast!

 

[Clifton Tesh]

This is a bit off topic but I figured I'd share for the laugh. I'm a bit lysdexic (that's dyslexic for you normal reading people) and on my phone your title reads with "First" being directly over "toddler".

The first 2 times I read your title it said
"First time doing Disney with a fiddler"

It wasn't until I read your post that I realised it said toddler.

I kept trying to figure out why being a fiddler was any different...