First Trip to DL

[pedsnrs]

Hello...new to this board and I have been reading a lot of other posts and had a few questions. We booked at Disneyland Hotel for April 6 - 10 and now I am thinking that this is a bad time to go. I thought that I had done enough research on spring break times. Oh well...

My dh and I will be taking our ds (3yo) and dd (17months at time of travel). I have double stroller (front/back type) and wondered if that works well within the resort. I am thinking about getting two unbrella strollers, but then dd couldn't lay back to rest/nap. What have others done?

About rides...can you back out of the ride at the last minute or are you stuck? I am not quite sure how my ds will respond to the rides and I am not the type to make him ride anything that he doesn't want to. I was looking forward to It's a Small World to test the waters out with him on rides, but with it closed does any one have any other suggestions? On Dumbo, can the rider control how high up it goes?

Any other tips, tricks or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[kkheburn]

Try Winnie the Pooh. It is a dark ride but sweet. It is short too. Stay away from Snow White, Toads, Pin. Peter pan was ok but we tried it later in the day. Storybook and the little train where good. Start off slow because hit a dark ride that is to scary and they will not want to ride a thing.

 

[kkheburn]

Hey I'm from Nevada too! Las Vegas!

 

[bumbershoot]

Yes you can back out. In December we backed out of Roger Rabbit when we were about 3 away from boarding, b/c DS (3) was flipping out. I still don't know why; he loved it in September!

Dumbo you can control the height, but there is a certain amount of height you attain and can't go lower. My guy has always just wanted to push the lever and doesn't seem to be bothered by how high he is going. Me, on the other hand, am bothered! DS especially loves Astro Orbiters, though it makes me absolutely green. I'll let him do the up/down thing for about half the ride, then I calmly tell him that that's enough and we need to stay at one level to the end.

With the rental strollers, there's a bit of recline; enough that my guy has gotten sleepy in them for at least a little while on each trip he's taken (around 16 months, a year later, a year after that, and then at 3.5) and either napped or could have napped if there had been time before we got to a ride (that was when he was 16 months). But it's not plush. I did see plenty of people with doubles, but they just seemed like a huge pain to the observer (me). BUT it also depends on where you are staying; if you're going to have a walk back to a hotel (either off-site or to DLH or PP), it's those times that you'll wish you had the stroller most, b/c everyone will be tired. We've rented on one longer stay (our first two visits were one-day trips) and used our own stroller on one longer stay, and using our own wins b/c of the walk to the hotel.


When my guy was your DD's age, he wasn't really bothered by any ride, but as a 3 year old he has many opinions on things. It really is too bad that IASW is closed!

 

[pedsnrs]

Thanks a bunch for the advice. I think that we will try Winnie the Pooh first.

We are taking a laid back approach to the vacation and plan on going back to the resort (DLH) for naps in the afternoon. A stroller will come in handy when traveling back and forth. I am concerned that the double stroller will be a pain in the park. Since we will be there for 5 days it's probably worth taking it.

Thanks again!

kkheburn - Have a magical time at Disney! (I'm from Reno)

 

[DLR29]

Along with Pooh, I think Peter Pan is great starting dark ride. Nothing scary or loud (like almost all other dark rides at DL). However, you will want to hit Peter Pan first thing because of the lines it builds. Theres nothing worse than standing in a 45 minute line for Peter Pan in the middle of the day and then he decides he doesn't want to ride OR in that 45 minutes, he has second thoughts.

Other good starting rides IMO:
-Buzz Lightyear
-Alice (it's tamer than most other dark rides)
-Jungle Cruise (some animal scariness, but no darkness or anything really intense)
-Storybookland Canal Boats
-Casey Jr. Circus Train
-Nemo maybe (I would probably ride this after he is ok with all of the others because it has a couple intense and dark moments but not as many as Pinocchio, Snow White, Mr. Toad, or Roger Rabbit)

 

[Mrs. Bee]

You can always start out on the carosel...that's pretty non-scary. Otherwise the storybook boats and casey jr. are great.

Definitely avoid Mr. Toads.