Help me calibrate my reasonableness meter

[avalon451]

People nap in the stroller as they need to.

I had this immediate image of me, crabby and hangry, conked out in a me-sized stroller somewhere on Pacific Wharf with a margarita in a sippy cup clutched in my fist.

 

[EmJ]

We took a 5 year old and a 7 year old on our first trip. We had no issues with a full day, but we did have rest break (they did not sleep), and did not do evenings, just late afternoons.Mornings tended to be structured, pms more free flow. We did not use a stroller (no self respecting 5 year old would get in one as where we are from they are at school 9-3 by that age! )

Four things I found helpful were:

1. Explaining that we would ride everything they were interested in, but we would do it with a plan. I let them know that this meant they would not have to wait too long. (one look at the first morning queue sorted that - they were ready for every early start!) That meant no issues if in the interests of planning we walked past something they wanted to go on.They understood we'd come back to it.
2. Booking a character meal. This meant they would see characters if we had to walk past them because we had a FP etc.
3. Pin trading. We bought both kids a lanyard each with some pins. They had many great interactions with CMs around the park, and whilst waiting. Also a new pin makes a good reward if you need to encourage some kind of behavior.
4. Food! For my then 5 year old, food mattered more than rest. So we had plenty of refuelling stops. But we did mix in sit down shows etc .

It worked very well for us. We had the odd melt down (one place in TLAND is permanently labelled as her gloomy spot!) but that's to be expected. Food and a break settled that. We still recall that trip fondly. One of the highlights was multiple trips on Indy, which seemed to be the family favourite. It wasn't until a couple of year later that she confessed to having kept her eyes closed every time!

This is great and sounds a lot like our plan with mornings to late afternoons, no evenings. I'm definitely thinking now to plan rides in the morning and leave the afternoons open for shows, playgrounds, and the odd character meet-and-greet should we come across some. Maybe one or two rides if I can get fastpasses for them while we are at nap. Can you tell me more about the pins? I haven't heard about those before.

 

[azdisneylover]

I had this immediate image of me, crabby and hangry, conked out in a me-sized stroller somewhere on Pacific Wharf with a margarita in a sippy cup clutched in my fist.

Ha! Ha! Sounds like this could be the updated "People Mover" ride! LOL Maybe recliners with drink/snack holders and a canapy, while it slowly moves you around the park. If you doze off, that is okay!

 

[farmfresh]

Can you tell me more about the pins? I haven't heard about those before.

Sure! Disney sells decorative pins (like badges) designed around characters or rides. They also sell lanyards that you can attach them to, and sometimes you can buy starter sets of lanyards with a few pins.As I recall they are reasonably priced. Now the deal is you can swap your pins with any Disney staff member (there are also adult pin traders but that's not a kid thing - stick with Disney staff. ) All manner of Disney staff carry around pins, and they all will stop and exchange their pins with kids at any time. Some have little black flipbooks, so the kids can look through them and choose the one they like. In the adult pin trading world there are all kinds of 'special' pins, but you'll find staff will happily swap anything. In fact one swapped what must have been a 'special' pin and told my daughter not to let anyone talk her into swapping it!
We found the interactions were always charming, and the kids really enjoyed collecting pins. They still have their lanyards even though, as adults they don't wear them now!

 

[EmJ]

Sure! Disney sells decorative pins (like badges) designed around characters or rides. They also sell lanyards that you can attach them to, and sometimes you can buy starter sets of lanyards with a few pins.As I recall they are reasonably priced. Now the deal is you can swap your pins with any Disney staff member (there are also adult pin traders but that's not a kid thing - stick with Disney staff. ) All manner of Disney staff carry around pins, and they all will stop and exchange their pins with kids at any time. Some have little black flipbooks, so the kids can look through them and choose the one they like. In the adult pin trading world there are all kinds of 'special' pins, but you'll find staff will happily swap anything. In fact one swapped what must have been a 'special' pin and told my daughter not to let anyone talk her into swapping it!
We found the interactions were always charming, and the kids really enjoyed collecting pins. They still have their lanyards even though, as adults they don't wear them now!

Thank you! This sounds fun. I wonder if the starter lanyards are available for sale outside the parks or by order? My mom is getting each of us a gift card for treats and souvenirs for Christmas, but she always likes to get my son something small to unwrap that he can understand. I'd love to find something for Disney that he can use while we're there! I'll do some searching.

 

[DisMomMT]

You can order the lanyards and pins from the Disney Store. The Easter Bunny filled some eggs with pins for my kids this year so they are super excited to start trading on our trip!

 

[VandVsmama]

I'm a Touring Plans superfan for our WDW trips. We used to go just the two of us and were fine without, but recent trips have been with anywhere from 2-3 kids under 5 plus assorted adult siblings, grandparents with various degrees of mobility and interest. Touring Plans was totally invaluable for helping me see what was "do able" for fitting in everyone's top must-dos during our trips with leaving enough time for breaks, shops, stops for playing around fountains, etc. I am the super planner, I love planning, it gets me excited about the trip and its almost like being there in my head.

I started using the Touring Plans for DL and it was shocking how many rides it thought we could fit in - that really emphasized to me that DL is a totally different animal. I found it helpful for the sort of loose planning you're trying to do (like how many days at which park to fit in all the stuff I want to do, etc. That said, I am doing a lot more blog reading and post reading to prep! But if you're really interested in tinkering with doability of things, Touring Plans will satisfy that itch.

Ride Max is very accurate at DL. Touring Plans at DL? Not so much!

 

[agamble]

4. Food! For my then 5 year old, food mattered more than rest. So we had plenty of refuelling stops. But we did mix in sit down shows etc .

LOL! My son's favorite thing at theme parks at 5 was popcorn refill buckets. We have a few from Disneyland and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.

I had this immediate image of me, crabby and hangry, conked out in a me-sized stroller somewhere on Pacific Wharf with a margarita in a sippy cup clutched in my fist.

Sorry, oversized strollers are no longer allowed.

 

[Frederic Civish]

I think there are a lot of good suggestions here. We are also 'commando' Disneyers, and we usually travel with a 4 year old and an 8 year old. I know it is hard to make yourself go to be and get up 'at the crack of dawn' to get breakfast then go to the park for rope drop, but people who haven't done that just don't know how much they are missing. The first 3 hours or so in the park are the Golden Hours. Less crowded. Less stressful. And you get more rides than the rest of the day put together. So much so that if I have a choice of rope drop to 11 AM, compared to 11 AM until 10 PM, I'll take the morning time, every time. Even if I just go back to the hotel and relax the rest of the day. If you do it right you can really feel like you have accomplished a lot

Hitting the rope drop as the park opens will allow you to get a lot of rides by 11 AM or so when it starts to fill up. Typically in a morning, from rope drop to lunch, we will hit Buzz Light Year, Peter Pan (a favorite), Haunted Mansion (a favorite), Pirates (a favorite), Jungle Cruise (a favorite) and Splash Mountain (a favorite). Then, we might add on the Carousel, Casey Jones, Pinocchio's Daring Journey and maybe Space Mountain (if people want that). At this time of year, with MaxPass, if you keep moving, you can do all of that by lunchtime. We were at Disneyland last weekend, and we did ALL of these. If you come back in the afternoon, try Small World and some of the other children's rides. I'd drop 2 to 4 of the rides you have planned, mostly in the afternoon or evening. This gives you a chance to rest up for the next day. So you can get up and start all over.

If you are talking about California Adventure, with MaxPass you should be able to do Radiator Springs Racers (a favorite), Soarin (a favorite), Guardians of the Galaxy, Incredicoaster or Toy Story Midway Mania (a favorite), and Little Mermaid by lunchtime. At Noon you can do the Frozen show. You might also be able to add in Monster's Inc, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, the Carousel, or Grizzly River Run.

Our experience with MaxPass is that it is incredible to use them, first thing in the morning. Choose a MaxPass as soon as you enter the park, then head for one of the attractions that is popular and that don't have a MaxPass, such as Peter Pan, or something that allows MaxPass but you don't want to use the MaxPass on it, because the lines are short, early. And as soon as you check in for one ride, you can choose the next ride. So you can go from one great ride to the next, over and over. By afternoon, all the good rides are booked out, into the evening, or even booked for the whole day. So that is the time to pick one or two rides, and stand in line, or just enjoy the ambience.

Do keep in mind that once you enter the park, you can choose MaxPasses for either park, one after the other, if you have a Park Hopper or Season Pass. AND, your ability to choose MaxPasses continues, even if you leave the park for lunch, or to go home and take a nap. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to keep checking. You can get a new MaxPass as soon as you use one, or make a choice every one and a half hours, all day. So, while at the hotel you might want to be choosing one of the better rides for the evening. Unfortunately, we often just blow off the MaxPasses that we choose for late afternoon or evening.

 

[EmJ]

I think there are a lot of good suggestions here. We are also 'commando' Disneyers, and we usually travel with a 4 year old and an 8 year old. I know it is hard to make yourself go to be and get up 'at the crack of dawn' to get breakfast then go to the park for rope drop, but people who haven't done that just don't know how much they are missing. The first 3 hours or so in the park are the Golden Hours. Less crowded. Less stressful. And you get more rides than the rest of the day put together. So much so that if I have a choice of rope drop to 11 AM, compared to 11 AM until 10 PM, I'll take the morning time, every time. Even if I just go back to the hotel and relax the rest of the day. If you do it right you can really feel like you have accomplished a lot

Hitting the rope drop as the park opens will allow you to get a lot of rides by 11 AM or so when it starts to fill up. Typically in a morning, from rope drop to lunch, we will hit Buzz Light Year, Peter Pan (a favorite), Haunted Mansion (a favorite), Pirates (a favorite), Jungle Cruise (a favorite) and Splash Mountain (a favorite). Then, we might add on the Carousel, Casey Jones, Pinocchio's Daring Journey and maybe Space Mountain (if people want that). At this time of year, with MaxPass, if you keep moving, you can do all of that by lunchtime. We were at Disneyland last weekend, and we did ALL of these. If you come back in the afternoon, try Small World and some of the other children's rides. I'd drop 2 to 4 of the rides you have planned, mostly in the afternoon or evening. This gives you a chance to rest up for the next day. So you can get up and start all over.

If you are talking about California Adventure, with MaxPass you should be able to do Radiator Springs Racers (a favorite), Soarin (a favorite), Guardians of the Galaxy, Incredicoaster or Toy Story Midway Mania (a favorite), and Little Mermaid by lunchtime. At Noon you can do the Frozen show. You might also be able to add in Monster's Inc, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, the Carousel, or Grizzly River Run.

Our experience with MaxPass is that it is incredible to use them, first thing in the morning. Choose a MaxPass as soon as you enter the park, then head for one of the attractions that is popular and that don't have a MaxPass, such as Peter Pan, or something that allows MaxPass but you don't want to use the MaxPass on it, because the lines are short, early. And as soon as you check in for one ride, you can choose the next ride. So you can go from one great ride to the next, over and over. By afternoon, all the good rides are booked out, into the evening, or even booked for the whole day. So that is the time to pick one or two rides, and stand in line, or just enjoy the ambience.

Do keep in mind that once you enter the park, you can choose MaxPasses for either park, one after the other, if you have a Park Hopper or Season Pass. AND, your ability to choose MaxPasses continues, even if you leave the park for lunch, or to go home and take a nap. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to keep checking. You can get a new MaxPass as soon as you use one, or make a choice every one and a half hours, all day. So, while at the hotel you might want to be choosing one of the better rides for the evening. Unfortunately, we often just blow off the MaxPasses that we choose for late afternoon or evening.

This is super, thank you!! That is a lot to get done before lunch! I am fine-tuning my plan and will post something for critique once it is closer to done. This was really helpful for me to conceptualize what a morning could look like though.

Can I ask about your four-year-old? Does she ride Pirates and Haunted Mansion with you?

 

[agamble]

This is super, thank you!! That is a lot to get done before lunch! I am fine-tuning my plan and will post something for critique once it is closer to done. This was really helpful for me to conceptualize what a morning could look like though.

Can I ask about your four-year-old? Does she ride Pirates and Haunted Mansion with you?

My kids are currently 3, 6, and 8. We've been going somewhat regularly since our oldest turned 1. All of our kids LOVE pirates. They don't find it scary at all and enjoy the "thrilling" drops. They've always ridden Haunted Mansion with us, but after our last AP year our older two expressed that they think the regular Haunted Mansion is scary. My oldest is also a huge fan of Guardians, but when it was Tower of Terror she didn't like it partly because it was creepy and she feels that way about Indiana Jones too. None of them find Snow White scary though.

 

[pahoben]

When we took our twin daughters at 4 years only two of us would agree to an afternoon nap-DW and me.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... Can I ask about your four-year-old? Does she ride Pirates and Haunted Mansion with you?

Have you watched any ride through videos (tons of these on YouTube -- just make sure you're watching DLR, not WDW) with your son? We find the videos to be very helpful for testing the waters -- enthusiasm, fear, curiosity, etc. will all show up loud and clear while watching. We used to talk our way through the "scary" things so that by the time of a trip, the issue wasn't unfamiliar any more. And if a ride was really interesting, by the time of a trip, there was even more. enthusiasm built up.

 

[cadien]

My son also went to Legoland twice (age 4 and 5) before visiting Disneyland (age 6). I felt his interests and limits were pretty similar at both places. He wanted to just pause and play more often than I had patience for (but I tried) and got impatient in lines over 20 minutes long no matter how interesting the ride looked. Naps were completely unnecessary. He had more energy all day than we did. So whatever your Legoland experience was like, Disney could be similar as well.

 

[cadien]

Have you watched any ride through videos (tons of these on YouTube -- just make sure you're watching DLR, not WDW) with your son? We find the videos to be very helpful for testing the waters -- enthusiasm, fear, curiosity, etc. will all show up loud and clear while watching. We used to talk our way through the "scary" things so that by the time of a trip, the issue wasn't unfamiliar any more. And if a ride was really interesting, by the time of a trip, there was even more. enthusiasm built up.

We just went to WDW for the first time and I guessed incorrectly about 80% of the time which ride videos he thought looked fun and which he thought looked too scary or just uninteresting. It was super helpful.

 

[Frederic Civish]

Yes she does. Though she sometimes says she likes Haunted Mansion, and sometimes not. Believe it or not, it is the same with Space Mountain (and I don't even like Space Mountain). She does like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. She is just a bit over 42 inches tall, so has no problems with those. She was NOT happy with Splash Mountain, even though we tried to convince her that the drops were not 'much' worse than the drops in Pirates, which she loves. We will need to wait another year or so before we try Splash Mountain again. She is a very outgoing and active child and isn't afraid of much. But then we also encourage her to do things with us by telling her how good she is doing.

I'm not necessarily a big fan of rides myself. Mostly I just like going with the family, but we often do a lot. On our trip last weekend, I was amazed by how much we got done. But not everyone will enjoy pushing for so many rides. Disneyland is not really about the rides. You can get rides just as good, or better, in many other places. It is the Disney Ambience and Disney Magic that makes it wonderful (and a few rides like Pirates, Radiator Springs Racers and Little Mermaid.) And if you don't just relax and smile with "It's a Small World" then you are probably in the wrong place.

With MaxPass, you should be able to get at least 4 to 6 GOOD rides in during the morning, from Rope Drop until noon, if you plan well. Use MaxPass to grab desirable rides, while you also use the early hours to hit a few more of the popular rides, by standing in line before they get too crowded.

 

[EmJ]

Yes she does. Though she sometimes says she likes Haunted Mansion, and sometimes not. Believe it or not, it is the same with Space Mountain (and I don't even like Space Mountain). She does like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. She is just a bit over 42 inches tall, so has no problems with those. She was NOT happy with Splash Mountain, even though we tried to convince her that the drops were not 'much' worse than the drops in Pirates, which she loves. We will need to wait another year or so before we try Splash Mountain again. She is a very outgoing and active child and isn't afraid of much. But then we also encourage her to do things with us by telling her how good she is doing.

I'm not necessarily a big fan of rides myself. Mostly I just like going with the family, but we often do a lot. On our trip last weekend, I was amazed by how much we got done. But not everyone will enjoy pushing for so many rides. Disneyland is not really about the rides. You can get rides just as good, or better, in many other places. It is the Disney Ambience and Disney Magic that makes it wonderful (and a few rides like Pirates, Radiator Springs Racers and Little Mermaid.) And if you don't just relax and smile with "It's a Small World" then you are probably in the wrong place.

With MaxPass, you should be able to get at least 4 to 6 GOOD rides in during the morning, from Rope Drop until noon, if you plan well. Use MaxPass to grab desirable rides, while you also use the early hours to hit a few more of the popular rides, by standing in line before they get too crowded.

Thank you!

To all who have recommended it, I will show him ride through videos to gauge his reaction. He really loves rides though and when we thought we were planning a Universal vacation, I showed him some pretty intense ride through videos, including Spiderman, Transformers, and Kong. On Kong, he was all, "I WANT TO DO THAT" and I was like, "No", lol. I just wondered what other four-year-old's thought, as I've heard mixed reviews of Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Snow White specifically, though I supposed that is to be expected. I also have my reservations about Splash Mountain, not because of the drop, but because he HATES being wet. He fell asleep and drooled one day, then woke in a panic that he had "leaked" and his face was wet. So I might have to reluctantly scratch that one off my list.

 

[EmJ]

My son also went to Legoland twice (age 4 and 5) before visiting Disneyland (age 6). I felt his interests and limits were pretty similar at both places. He wanted to just pause and play more often than I had patience for (but I tried) and got impatient in lines over 20 minutes long no matter how interesting the ride looked. Naps were completely unnecessary. He had more energy all day than we did. So whatever your Legoland experience was like, Disney could be similar as well.

Thanks! My son loooooved Legoland, and actually asked to go back next year but DH and I want to go to Disney. He was 2/3 at that time, so was still napping regularly. I don't know if he will nap at home at 5, but he is a kid that is not pleasant to be around when tired, so even if we don't nap daily, I expect he will still need downtime in the hotel.

Regarding the rides, he went on everything he was tall enough for. Everything. Coastersaurus he was baaarely tall enough for (like, it's a good thing his hair was especially fluffy that day) and loved it. He also liked the pharaoh dark ride with the blaster guns. He doesn't really like loud noise, but Legoland allowed him to wear his noise cancelling headphones, so he was good. If Disney does not allow the headphones, we are working on earplugs for him.

 

[Frederic Civish]

. . . . I also have my reservations about Splash Mountain, not because of the drop, but because he HATES being wet. He fell asleep and drooled one day, then woke in a panic that he had "leaked" and his face was wet. So I might have to reluctantly scratch that one off my list.

Go to the dollar store and get 1/2 dozen of those disposable rain ponchos. The thin plastic kind. If he wears one of those he probably won't get wet. They are just a small packet, smaller than a deck of cards, and easy to carry around.

 

[cadien]

Thanks! My son loooooved Legoland, and actually asked to go back next year but DH and I want to go to Disney. He was 2/3 at that time, so was still napping regularly. I don't know if he will nap at home at 5, but he is a kid that is not pleasant to be around when tired, so even if we don't nap daily, I expect he will still need downtime in the hotel.

Regarding the rides, he went on everything he was tall enough for. Everything. Coastersaurus he was baaarely tall enough for (like, it's a good thing his hair was especially fluffy that day) and loved it. He also liked the pharaoh dark ride with the blaster guns. He doesn't really like loud noise, but Legoland allowed him to wear his noise cancelling headphones, so he was good. If Disney does not allow the headphones, we are working on earplugs for him.

My son will go on rides of every speed and thrill too. Usually without me! But it turns out he hates the ones with spooky elements. Haunted Mansion. Even Pirates.