First trip with toddler advice needed

[SwanVT2]

My husband and I are pretty laid back travelers. Wait, let me rephrase that, he is laid back and if I had my choice I would be at the parks at rope drop every morning! Anyway, in the past we have always stayed at the Swan. We love the pool area and Cabana bar as we mostly hang out at the hotel/pool with a few days at the park. This will be our first trip with our 2 year old DD. I thought it might be nice to stay in a Disney resort for her benefit, but I don't think we want anything overstimulating. We'd probably do Epcot one day with Akersush breakfast and MK another day. She is OBSESSED with Frozen. So I have been looking at WL or CBR, but was hoping I could find some tips from people on this board, too. I would hate to get there and feel like we've taken a step down from the luxury of the Swan...or should we stay with Swan? Or should we split stay? AHH!
TIA!

 

[baseballnut]

Our first visit with DD2 we stayed at ASMovies. Granted we've never stayed anywhere else but it sufficed. The pools were fun, even had a baby pool area, and they had activities throughout the day and a movie at night. Plus the playground. She loved the mousekeeping surprises too.

I would always stay at a resort, lol. The moderate and deluxes will have nicer options for you so you would have more like you're used to.

Have fun!!!

 

[kohlby]

We often stay at the Dolphin and really like it. We haven't stayed at WL or CBR but we stayed at AKL on one trip and felt like it was on-par with Dolphin as far as not being a step up or down in general. (We had horrible mousekeeping at AKL though, so that part was a step down. But seeing the animals outside our room was really cool!) Our youngest was 2.5 when we did AKL and we did feel like it was a great hotel for him.

 

[happymommy]

I would stick with the Swan! It's in a great location, and if you like it already it's nicer than you'll find probably at a value or moderate resort!

I wouldn't do a split stay - I prefer to get unpacked and settle in.

Definitely bring a good stroller from home!

 

[esquared221]

I agree with everyone else. I'd just stay at the Swan if you like it there. Your 2 year old will be plenty happy with the Disney magic that abounds all over the place so I wouldn't go out of your way stay somewhere else. I've been twice when my kids were 2 or under (and I'm about to do it again with my almost 3 year old) and in my experience the key to a successful trip with a toddler is simplicity. Keep as many things about your trip as familiar and simple as possible and save your energy for planning all that magic into your daytime

 

[cruisingtwins]

Are you looking for disney theming? CBR has none. You really can't tell if cbr is disney or motel 6 owned just by looking at it. The only thing disney there is the gift shop.

 

[Julie711]

We've stayed at both WL & CBR and like both for different reasons. WL the themeing, and close proximity to MK is great. CBR the pool area for your little one is awesome!! We also enjoy the themeing, feels like your in the Caribbean while at disney.

 

[epsmith921]

We were swan folks as well and had stayed there for our honeymoon and multiple other stays. I even had it booked for us again for September 2013 with our 2.5 year old and cancelled it and booked the boardwalk the next day. We love the Epcot area so it was between the Disney resorts there.

We changed largely due to the magical express and not having to bring a car seat and rent a car.

We did also opt to go for club level since we knew we would spend a lot of time at the resort and it was awesome.

If we had been driving I think we would have kept our swan reservation, but the club level at boardwalk has us sold on club level and the magical express and resort airline checkin were simply fantastic.

 

[SwanVT2]

Can you tell me a bit more about the club level and the benefits of it with a toddler? We love the boardwalk area. It seems like now we should stick with the swan or splurge with deluxe club level.

 

[epsmith921]

Okay so with club level we did it for the food and the beer! We planned on taking the kiddo back to the room for naps and early bedtime. So we were on hand for the food offerings with that schedule.

We would get up and go grab some breakfast from club level. This was awesome for us since we would need some food and we were rope dropping at MK every morning. This way I also didn't have to go buy any additional foods. The club level CM's would even grab us sodas for the morning since we aren't coffee drinkers.

Then around lunch we would come back and let the kiddo have some snacks.

Around dinner we might stop in and grab some cheese and crackers for the kiddo and such before heading out, usually to Epcot for dinner. Then after dinner we would come back and grab desserts. So I think in 4 nights I bought 2 sodas while out (with the exception of table service meals), zero beers out for my husband since we had extras from the lounge, and I think some milk for the kiddo since she preferred whole milk over the lower fat varieties they had in the lounge.

Check in was awesome since I had a soda, my husband had a beer, and the kiddo had space to play a bit in the lounge while I handled all the paperwork and such. I of course had to check out what the beers were before we went and my husband loves yuengling so he was thrilled it was part of the CL offerings since we can't get it where we live.

It was so much more relaxing a trip than I thought it would be. My husband is refusing to do another trip without going deluxe and without club level. If we went back with just us, we would probably go back to the swan, but with kids, the Disney resorts just worked for us.

 

[SwanVT2]

That is great to know! Thank you! My husband would be happy to know about the beer.

 

[ktlm]

We've never stayed at the Swan, but we stayed at WL when DD was 2, and she loved it there. We really liked being able to take the boat to MK. There is one that you can roll the stroller on, and the other you have to fold it. Most of the time, we were lucky enough to get the one we just rolled on. We liked the closeness to MK. At age 2, DDs favorite parks were by far MK and EPCOT. Being close to EPCOT with the Swan would be great too though. I think that the Swan's rooms are just slightly larger than WL, but since we have not stayed there, I'm not positive on that. I wouldn't split stay with a toddler- I think it is too much trouble to pack everything up to move to another hotel, but that's just me- some people are fine with it.

I will say that if you are used to adult only trips like we were, you will be surprised at how much a 2 year old slows things down. The biggest time suck will be the characters if she likes them- our DD was obsessed with them at WDW when she was 2 (still is at age 8). DH and I could spend a day in each park and feel like we had done everything we wanted pre-DD, but with DD at age 2- we needed at least 2 days at MK (really we would have liked more) and 1 day at EPCOT also turned out not to be enough. EPCOT definitely turned into a 2 day park once we had DD. The little like to stop and explore, and once they find something they like, doing it one time usually isn't enough for them. DD could have ridden the boat inside the Mexico pavillion in circles all day I think.

I will also give you another little warning- turns out those kids have opinions once they get there! Maybe your DD will be fine with hanging out at the resort and not going to the parks some days and maybe she won't. Ours wouldn't stand for a non-park day at that age. Once she was awake, she would be standing at the door of the room with her stroller telling us to hurry up so she could get to a park.

Have a great trip! I think the 2 year old trip was my favorite with DD. Everything was new and amazing to her.

 

[epsmith921]

Our car seats just weren't going to work on the plane and I wasn't checking either with the airline. It worked out to have resort airline checkin as well when we got to the airport to go home the line for checking in at our airline was NUTS!!

So I was showing my husband some pictures of club level and we got a fall discounted room at the boardwalk. So if you looked at the room rates themselves, swan was close to $500 cheaper, but then at the boardwalk we didn't have to pay parking and didn't have a rental car, and then with club level we "saved" money on food and beverage. So based on my budgeting, we spent about $120 to upgrade from swan with boardwalk view to standard view standard room club level. We did get boardwalk view at boardwalk and it was great.

We are talking about staying in the MK area for the next trip but I'm not sure since I love the boardwalk and the Epcot resort area so much. Hope you find something that works for you. We were beyond happy with our choice to switch. We like the prices at WL but I'm not sure how I'd feel about the smaller rooms and of course giving up the boardwalk area.

 

[SwanVT2]

That is great to know! Thank you! My husband would be happy to know about the beer.

 

[twinboysmom]

Our twins are now 4 but they have travelled to wdw 8 times between 18 months and 3.5. With them we have stayed all levels, done split stays. They have enjoyed all the resorts about equally from value to deluxe. We have stayed at WL and we enjoyed it. I personally hated the boat to Disney but am probably in the minority here. I thought it was slow and took too much time. I would say our boys enjoyed CBR more because of the pool. It has a great pool for younger kids. There is a gated pirate ship kids area with water features and some very short water slides. It is also height limit enforced at 48 inches. They loved that.

We have never stayed club level so I can not offer anything on that. I just know that we would never eat or drink that much of a price difference.

 

[SwanVT2]

Yikes club level is expensive!

 

[SwanVT2]

That is so funny that your daughter demanded the parks. If my daughter is like that it is two against one for rope drop. Ha ha

 

[epsmith921]

Yikes club level is expensive!

It is, and I will admit many folks wouldn't find it worth it. We did, though that's a little subjective anyway. For us, the lounge was right across the hall so it was easy to just walk right over and get whatever we wanted and bring it to our room even. We did get club level during a fall discount so it was 30% off and boardwalk standard view club level was the least expensive out of the Epcot area resorts for us but at beach and yacht clubs I was comparing to lagoon/pool view.

I truly think no matter what you pick, be it swan, a Disney resort, etc. you will probably not regret it and will enjoy your trip immensely.

Each resort has its own thread on the resorts board and that could help you choose something that's differing from swan if you decide to go that route.

Best of luck choosing and I do think you'll have a wonderful trip! We now can't imagine ever going again without our daughter and are planning to take her again next year (gotta save up for our expensive taste!!)

 

[JediBonas]

We stayed at YC with our toddlers last year and are doing BC this year. Personally, I love being able to walk to two parks with the kiddos and would either keep your reservation at Swan or go to YC/BC. Plus, you can't beat storm along bay

 

[SwanVT2]

Thanks for all of the help! I think we are going to start researching club level at WL as it is more reasonable than Epcot resorts although I do prefer that area! I think with the amount of time we spend at the resort it will pay off. Drinks in evening so we can enjoy while sitting on the balcony, snacks during nap time and of course breakfast. We love having it secured to have a balcony.