?? for those you went with 3 year old

[Skyw]

How many days would you suggest for a 3 year old? 3/4/5? I have been to Disney 5 times as an adult so my knowledge base is for an adult not a young three year old.
How long are the lines for the young children rides? And how did you keep them entertained while in line?
Thanks

 

[suffolkprincess]

We went last fall with my DD when she had just turned 3.

We were there for 6 days, and we went to parks everyday, but didn't stay all day every day.

She loved:
the Main Street parade (the one every day at 3 PM)
the Dumbo ride (it had a LONG line, we got there very early and waited 30 minutes of pure heck...)
the Carrousel (line is not as long as it looks)
Peter Pan
Goofy's Barnstormer
Character Meals
Aladdin's carpets
Jungle Cruise
the spinner type ride in Dinoland in AK

She didn't like:
Small World
Pooh
Pirates of the Caribbean (but she wanted to go on it, afterwards she said she didn't like it)


We used fastpass and never had very long waits. It wasn't a big problem entertaining her on waits because there is always so much to see everywhere. The two most punishing waits were for Ariel's Grotto and Dumbo.
I have no advice for Ariel's Grotto except to say... go to the Akershus breakfast to see Ariel and just don't let your DD see the grotto! Avoid it! (We wasted an hour there we will never get back.)
RE: Dumbo-- get there early. I hear that has a shorter wait during parade times, but we could never try that because she LOVED the parades so much. If she heard the music, that was what she wanted to do. Also re: Dumbo-- have everyone wait together, and then let DD go ride with one adult while the other adult lets people get on the ride ahead of them. After the ride, have the first adult hand off the child to the waiting adult. Just ask the CM first. No one is being disadvantaged by this, because DH, DD, and I have to take up two Dumbos to all ride, anyway. Who cares if we go at the some time or one ride cycle apart? No one seemed to, and she loved riding twice.

Disney is not like other theme parks where we have taken DD. There are no strictly "kiddie" rides there. Everything is for the whole family. So, while it has been our experience at Wildwood and at Busch Gardens that there are "kiddie" rides with very minimal waits, that is not the way at Disney. However, the waiting is really not so bad if you make good use of FastPass and try to enjoy the theming in the waiting lines. OH-- and go off season if you can. We also noticed a HUGE difference between wait times on the first day we were there (Sunday) and the next few days (M-W.)

We took a day and did Sea World. There was little to NO waiting for anything we wanted to do at Sea World and we had an awesome TS service meal there. It was very quiet and laid back after Disney.

The biggest shock for me re: Disney were the waits to be seated for meals. I was floored to have to wait upwards of 40 minutes to be seated. We foolishly got to every ADR 15 minutes early which just made that worse. This year, I will show up 5 minutes early, TOPS. I have blocked out the memories of how we coped with those waits. It was that bad.

 

[Mcbruns]

I really think the time of year you go is more important than how long. I would recommend off peak times.
We took our 3 year old in November (the week before Thanksgiving). We stayed 6 days and could have done longer - -she did fine.

 

[LaraK]

We went when DD was three...we did Dumbo 1st...it is a brutal line. We also did Ariel when it first opened along with the Princess room on another morning. My DD is a little daredevil, so she went on everthing she was tall enough for. Her favorates:
Dumbo
Tea Cups
Buzz Lightyear
TTA (whodathunkit...must get it from mom and dad)
Splash Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Jungle Cruise
Energy ride in Epcot
Soarin
Small World
LOVED Phantasmic....made us go 3 times
Was afraid of Snow White, but made us go three times (she said she didn't want to be afraid)
POTC
Aladin
All charecter meet and greets (loved all meals as well)
And her number one thing was Cindy's for breakfast.

 

[tadamom]

We took our son for the 1st time 2 months before he turned 3 and he rode everything that he was tall enough for. He loved them all!! Some of his favorite things were Kali River Rapids, Dumbo, Buzz Lightyear and Mickey's Philharmagic (this is AWESOME!!). We did 4 days in the parks and he totally would have stayed longer. We even did the E-Ride night and were there until 2 a.m. and he was totally fine - never whined or cried and just had the best time!! We made sure that on the day of E-Ride we went back to the villa and rested for about 3 hours (he didn't sleep - too excited but he did rest and watch Disney movies).

To occupy their time in line we played I SPY and Disney WHO AM I. Also, if you have a Disney Store near you, they have some small odds & ends that you could get. I have bought the little tiny coloring books. They colors come with them and their box is attached the book. You could get those out and have them color the picture while they wait - the books are about the size of a man's wallet!

 

[MinnieGi]

DD (6) was there twice at three. We generally go to the parks everday, but not for the whole day. We usually go in the morning and head back to our resort by early afternoon. After some nap/swim time we would let her decide if she wanted to venture back into the park for go for a swim. Swimming usually prevailed. We also went during off-peak times. Even still we would get to the Dumbo line first thing before if became unvearable long.

 

[Skyw]

Thanks for the info. We intend to go the end of OCt or early November. So the lines should be smaller. ( I hope)
Next question......Those Dark rides......Which is the best to go on first to see if he gets scared? We just made it thru the car wash without getting scared.
I think we are going to stay at the cabins or villas in order to have our some of our meals there. I know for a fact he wont wait in line for long to eat. And then wont sit long to eat.

 

[PrincessV]

Thanks for the info. We intend to go the end of OCt or early November. So the lines should be smaller. ( I hope)
Next question......Those Dark rides......Which is the best to go on first to see if he gets scared? We just made it thru the car wash without getting scared.
I think we are going to stay at the cabins or villas in order to have our some of our meals there. I know for a fact he wont wait in line for long to eat. And then wont sit long to eat.

My DS4 is only just able to manage the waiting associated with most table service, so I think your plan to eat some meals in your room is right on target! The one thing I'll caution you about is how over-stimulated these little guys can get. Just having a break form the excitement helps them enjoy it all so much more. I don't think the number of days matters so much as what you do with them: make sure you have some down-time with nothing scheduled.

As for dark rides, I think I'd start with Winnie the Pooh, than graduate to Peter Pan, then Buzz Lightyear. Avoid Snow White like the plague! And my DS did not enjoy any of the 3D movies at age 3, though I hear many others do.

Have fun! Going with a 3 year old will force you to take it easy and look at things from a new perspective - it's a great time!

 

[mexican-mouseketeers]

Thanks for the info. We intend to go the end of OCt or early November. So the lines should be smaller. ( I hope)
Next question......Those Dark rides......Which is the best to go on first to see if he gets scared? We just made it thru the car wash without getting scared.
I think we are going to stay at the cabins or villas in order to have our some of our meals there. I know for a fact he wont wait in line for long to eat. And then wont sit long to eat.

Ride Dumbo first thing in the morning.

I would do Peter Pan first, I think it is less overwhelming, or maybe IASW. Winnie Pooh is a little bumpy and I know my dd (just turned 4) has never liked it.

Last month we took her on Snow White for the first time, but I explained to her that the witch would be popping from places to try to scare us, so we planned on being on the lookout for the witch and we always scared her first.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

We took 3yo in mid Feb. for 7 days.

For things DS wanted to ride, the waits were pretty easy (I know we spent 30min in line for Indy Cars without much problem - his 2nd favorite ride).

His favorite was the tea-cups, and we never waited for more than 5+ minutes at busy times of the day.

He loved Small World, but didn't like anything dark. Only exception was Peter Pan's Flight.