HELP... 1 1/2 year old at Disney??????

[!HereWeCome!]

I would really like to hear how people do Disney with a small child. Ours will be 17 months at the time of travel. I am concerned that this vacation will be a repeat of our Mall of America experience where my "boys" (DH and DS, 6) ditched me and the little girl to go ride rides for 6 hours... except that this vacation will be for 6 DAYS!!!! Please help... I really want to bring her, but would be resentful if I spent $4000 on a vacation that I spent by myself for most of the day.

 

[jenseib]

We jsut took our 2 Year old. There is alot of things you can ride as a family, so make sure to do all of those. I would make time for YOu and your Ds to do some b igger stuff, and then him and his dad do some stuff. Maybe take turns on every other day. And stand your ground! There is really alot your baby should like. We knew this trip we wouldn't be doing big stuff, but idid let DH go on Test Track in the single riders line becuase it was moving fast and he never had been on it. But for the most part we had so many other things to do, it wasn't a big disappointment to miss out on the big stuff. We had full days.

 

[Elmo888]

She will be able to ride many things. And there are lots of shows, too.

For the stuff that she can't ride, do you know about the baby swap? For the things that she can't ride, ask a CM for a baby swap pass. Your DH and DS can ride while you wait with the baby. When they are done, you take the baby swap pass and go through the fastpass line. We just did this with DD2 and DD6, and it works great. When you go with the baby swap pass, you can take your DS on the ride a second time. DD6 loved this because she rode once with DH and then once with me!

 

[mary174]

There are alot of rides a 1 1/2 y/o can do, and for those she can't Disney has a wonderful baby swap program. You just tell the cast member you want to use parent swap, and then follow directions. Generally one parent and child wait in line and ride ride while other parent and infant do other things or wait at exit or whatever. Then other parent and child ride ride, while first parent stays with infant. You don't have to wait in line twice, and your 6 y/o will get double rides. Disney makes it easier, getting your DH to let you have fun to is up to you.

 

[NU2WDW]

I would really like to hear how people do Disney with a small child. Ours will be 17 months at the time of travel. I am concerned that this vacation will be a repeat of our Mall of America experience where my "boys" (DH and DS, 6) ditched me and the little girl to go ride rides for 6 hours... except that this vacation will be for 6 DAYS!!!! Please help... I really want to bring her, but would be resentful if I spent $4000 on a vacation that I spent by myself for most of the day.

You want to bring her?? If this situation would cause you to actually leave her out...??? .... why don't you and your husband agree to a schedule ahead of time so you don't feel "ditched"? You spend the morning doing rides with DS6, then after lunch it's DH's turn. Or whatever equitably works. That way each child gets time with both of you and you don't spend the whole trip feeling resentful.

 

[Nanu57v]

We took DD last year at 18 months. There is so much she can ride, and yes, DH may take the older ones to go ride Space Mountain for a while, but there is so much you can do together. We were listening to a Disney CD today and "Its a Small World" came on and DD started doing the sign for boat. She remembers the ride! (She's done this once before a few months ago to those who remember).

 

[mamacatnv]

Many do not view this as a popular option but it really worked for us and I would do it again in a heartbeat. My kids are 9 years apart. We went to WDW when DS was 10 and DD was 16 mo.

I too didn't want to be stuck on baby duty for the entire trip. We knew our DD would not remember this trip. We were in WDW for the Turn of the Century and we knew that DS would always remember it.

I hired an in room nanny from Fairy Godmothers who came to our resort room for 8 hours every day (9-5). DD got to hang out, play, nap etc. as normal while the 3 of us became park comando's during that time. We would then return to our room and get DD just in time for dinner. We took her and her stroller back into the parks for small kid rides, fireworks, parades & some family time.

IMO this was by far the best choice for my family. It was a little expensive but we worked it into the budget with no regrets.

Good luck in whatever choice you make.