For fun... Plan our WDW Christmas trip with 1 year old!

[justme0729]

I would love to see how others would approach planning our trip with a 13 month old and/or must do's. We are staying at The Grand Floridian for Christmas from Dec 21-26. We're in a resort studio at The Grand Floridian and my parents and adult brother are in a 2 bedroom Grand Floridian Villa. We go often enough that I don't want us to feel stressed trying to do too many things but I also want to do plenty to make the trip feel special. We took our daughter when she was 5 months but she was so little I feel like this is going to be her first real trip where she's paying attention If anyone loves doing itineraries for each day, I would love to see how you would plan it or just give some of your favorites especially related to Christmas at Disney with a little one.

Thanks for any ideas/ plans!

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

I'd suggest one day taking the boat to Fort Wilderness to see the horses and play on the playground. My kiddos loved doing that as toddlers.

 

[CraigInPA]

Christmas week with a one year old?!

I'd follow @Wendysofftoneverland suggestion and stay far away from the Magic Kingdom!

 

[justme0729]

Christmas week with a one year old?!

I'd follow @Wendysofftoneverland suggestion and stay far away from the Magic Kingdom!

Yes! We plan on doing parks in morning only mostly and maybe evening… we have been before at this time so we know there will be crowds

 

[Genie+]

The Friday of your trip has a rare Hollywood Studios Extended Evening Hours. Maybe plan with your folks to watch the baby so you can go.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Wish I could say Ride the MK train .
That would be fun .

 

[Shellyred8]

Is she walking yet? Will you have a car for the trip? Or will you be relying on Disney transportation?
GF has a great splash pad area, so I would plan lots of time there (as long as she likes that kind of thing!).

AK would be fun, as long as she isn't afraid of the animals. I always love looking at the unique decorations that AK has. While you are there, you might want to take a quick bus ride over to AKL and see the lobby decorations there. They are usually quite good! You can also walk around some of the viewing areas and look at the animals. We also enjoy visiting with the CM's there, whether it be some of the animal keepers or the international CM's (not sure if many of these are back yet though).

You might want to take some time to go see the Deluxe resort lobbies all decorated for Christmas. If you are relying on Disney transportation, you can take a bus to HS and then take the Friendship boat to the Swan/Dolphin and the other EP area resorts. There are dining options over there to, so you might want to grab a meal while you are there. Or ice cream!
I'm not sure how well she would sit for them, but one of the things we really like to do is go listen to all of the Storytellers at EP.

I would plan to do things in the MK area on the 24th and 25th. Those will likely be the two busiest days while you are there and that will clog up the surrounding roads. So, save yourself from having to worry about the traffic mess and just stick to the Monorail and boat transportation (or walking) to the places around MK on those two days.

Have a great trip!

 

[Philsfan77]

- Take a day/night to do the resorts for decorations (monorail loop and boat over to Wilderness Lodge).
- We saw Santa last year behind ye olde christmas store in Magic Kingdom and it was a nice little meet and greet spot with pictures.
- We also did the Christmas tree trail (now a stroll) in Disney Springs and saw Santa there as well (their Santa setup was more detailed and they had a virtual queue) we got there about a half hour after DS opened and it was about a 3 hour wait in the virtual queue, we walked around Disney Springs and grabbed some foot and got the text to return.
- It's new this year, but Maria and Enzo's is doing breakfast with Santa. No experience with it, but that could be a good reservation to try and get. Running the 21st-24th on the dates you are there.

In terms of rides - our little one (was 15 months old when we went last December) and any ride he could ride on, we tried and he loved them all. His top 3 in terms of reactions were definitely The Carousel, Toy Story Mania and It's a Small World. We also did Space Ranger Spin, Dumbo, Under the Sea, Peter Pan, Pooh, Magic Carpets, Runaway Railway, Kilamanjaro Safari, Triceratop Spin and Navi River Journey. Enjoyed them all, and enjoyed the couple of shows we did (country bear jamboree, tiki room, Disney Jr. Play and Dance and Frozen Sing Along.