Help me plan-my triplets first visit

[tripletmom1298]

I'm so excited! I'm a Disney World veteran (8 trips but the last one was almost 7 years ago). After watching everyone else's children enjoy WDW I'm now FINALLY going to get to take my own.

We are going 7/14/03 and will be staying for 5 days at Port Orleans. My triplets will be 4 1/2 when we go. I have two boys who love Peter Pan, Mickey & Friends, Toy Story and Aladdin and my daughter LOVES Snow White.

What are your recommendations? What park should we start in?
I haven't been to Animal Kingdom before.

Best place to eat? Shows? Rides?

The more info the better....I'm used to planning a Disney trip as a single women or later as with just my DH and/or two other couples....so I know I need to take a different approach and I would really appreciate your recommendations

Thanks

Gale

 

[llp479]

MK will most likely be the kids' favorite. So, there are two schools of thought. One is start there and plan on spending lots of time there, the other is save it for last so the kids will be interested in the other parks.

While there are certainly things at MGM to interest them, depending on crowds, not enough for an entire day. This makes for an easy early afternoon exit, to allow for naps, poolside activities, whatever.

AK gets extremely HOT as the day goes on. I would recommend Donald's Breakfastasaurus. Good food and character interaction. Again, there are some rides and shows here that will interest them, but not a full day's worth.

My girls, 8,8, and 5, were never been big Epcot fans, until they were tall enough to ride Test Track. They enjoy Living Seas, The Land, and Journey Into Imagination with Figment. They also enjoy eating in China.

Hope this helps get you started. PM me if you want, we've been numerous times, starting when the twins were 2.

OT - What happened to fall in Chicago???

Laura

 

[wdwnutze]

I think since you are going in the summer, when it tends to be busier and hot, you should plan at least 1 character meal. This will give your kids a chance to spend some time with the characters and you'll get some great pictures. We always go to Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. It's my kids favorit(even the 18 yo). You should plan to spend the most time in MK. Your kids will love it there. Take advantage of early entry and get to the park offering EE at opening time. With the heat and crowds you will get the most out of your time if you plan to be at parks early, take an afternoon break at your resort(take a swim or nap) and then go to parks about dinner time for some more fun. Parks are open late during July which is good for you. AK gets VERY hot in the summer. Plan to go first thing in the morning and then leave by 1pm. Bring lots of water and invest in the fans that spray water. You'll have a great time. It is so fun to see Disney through the eyes of children and you'll get to do it x3! Keep reading the boards to get lots of helpful hints. Sorry so long winded.

 

[Ratpack]

We went this past July and thought it was great. Of course it was hot, but we live in NC and it would have been hot there too. Our DD is 4 also. Definitely do Chef Mickey's for a Breakfast. We took the last PS of the day for breakfast at 11:15am (on purpose). It was great, plenty of character interaction with the kids. MK will definitely be the park of choice. AK was also nice as our DD loved seeing the animals. MGM is good for a few shows but after that, it is more geared to older kids and adults. EPCOT FW was fun, DD loves to play computer games. WS was kinda boring for her. In truth, DD would have been happy spending the whole trip going between the resort pools and MK with just a little AK thrown in. Hope that helps. Also, if you read my trip reports, there are a lot of detailed info there. You will have to scroll through the trip reports pages as it has been several months since they were posted. Just look for "The Ratpack Invade Disney".

 

[3kidsdisney]

wejust got back form our first disney trip with our 4 yr old son and 2 yr old twins. Mk was the hit- they also loved Toon town and the parades-chef mickey was great too. MGM waslots of fun too-they loved the muppets 3-D and Pizza planet. We are big toy story fans. By the end of the trip, my son wanted to swim at the pool more than go to the parks-so i would suggest doing the stuff you like the most first. We never even got to epcot- I fugured we would save that for the next trip. We also brought an umbrella stroller for our 4 yr old-he got tiredof walking . Just have fun. We did not even see half of what Disney has to offer but we loved what we saw and will save the rest for the next trip. Hope you have fun.

 

[PartyofSix]

Hi Tripmom- my partyofsix includes triplets and 10 yo all girls. (I'll take a boy off your hands.LOL) Anyways, we just did MK and US/IOA for a week during the 4th of July. It was great! The only PS i made was for CRT and that was for a LUNCH for there 2nd b-day. It was a huge hit. They put pixie dust out on the table and they got comp. desserts. The rest we just winged it. My youngest.(LOL) trip girl has downs and that was a challenge to get the stroller to our table but it was doable. We stayed off site a a wonderful large 6bedroom home and it was the key i think to our stress free vacation. We also brought our Nanny with us for an extra pair of hands. I think my kids like MK we saw the parade and all that fun stuff but US was the bomb for them. Fivials playland was a big success. We moved on site for our US/IOA part of the trip and I booked three rooms at the Portifino Bay Hotel. Two connected so the trips had there own room for naps and playtime and the nanny and 10yo shared the connecting room and me and dad were 5 doors down the hall from them. It was a great smooth vacation. We order pizza in the room and saved $$ that way. I don't think the exp. of our kids so young was worth the 200 + to get into the MK. And we did'nt have to pay for the kids this year. I can't imagine the exp it will be when we go back after there 3! We purchased US/IOA AP for 100 each so it was a lot less maybe that's why we enjoyed it more. I hope your trip is awesome!

 

[crisi]

Our son was 3 1/2 during our last trip. Our daughter 2 1/2.

We spent the better part of two days at AK. We really enjoyed this park (and because Mom and Dad had done Epcot, we skipped much of Epcot to spend more time at AK). Don't miss the safari and the Festival of the Lion King.

We didn't enjoy MGM nearly as much. Thrill rides and shows. The shows were OK, but we really didn't feel it had a lot to offer (and its the worst laid out park - you are always crisscrossing the darn thing). The kids did enjoy the parade - in fact, they loved every parade they saw (I'd never stopped for parades before).

We spent three mornings and one evening at MK. We really enjoyed Peter Pan's Flight. Dumbo, Buzz Lightyear and Pooh were also very popular. The kids LOVED to eat at Cosmic Ray's and we were there every day for lunch.

We did one character breakfast (at the Poly where they serve Family Style - a big advantage when dealing with small kids), several evenings at Epcot and one evening at the pool. Make your character breakfast PS for several days into the trip - by then you will know if you have a child for whom character breakfasts will not be enjoyable (some kids are too frightened of the characters to make character interaction any fun).

I'd recommend making a PS for every night - we didn't make nearly enough and the kids were better behaved for sit down meals than I thought they'd be (and I got sick of chicken fingers faster than I thought I would). Maybe you won't pick the same restaurants that you would have - but nearly all the Disney restaurants are kid friendly.

 

[Gupsmom]

How I tackle it with my 3 young kids (5, 4, 2)....esp in the summer. Plan for 2 mornings for MK. One morning go right for Dumbo and Fantasyland, hit buzz and be in toontown close to opening (opens 1 hr later than the park). Do Goofy's barnstormer and get autographs. Leave before it gets hot and crowded. The other morning. Do aladin's carpet, get a fastpass for a mountain. Do jungle cruise, country bears, tiki room, mountain and grab fastpass for other mountain. Leave and go to a park in the evening

My kids also love MGM. If you and Dh aren't worried about TOT or RNR...grab a fastpass for little mermaid. Do playhouse disney then little mermaid. Go get the autograph in the animation area (skip animation tour). if you are interested do Millionare. go get the toy story autographs. Get a fastpass to Muppets. Eat lunch (we like the 50's prime time) and then do the muppets. More autographs and then go swim/nap during the HOT afternoon. Go back to hit an evening event at any park.

Epcot...my kids love test track. Go early and get a fastpass

Animal Kingdom is actually our least favorite. We try to hit the safari on an evening...less crowded and then we don't have to fight the mad rush there first thing in the morning. On our morning at AK..We usually grab a fastpass for Dinosaur (we child swap this ride..it would terrify my kids). Then we do Kali and come back for the dino. Then Lion King. Some autographs. Leave

I do recommend doing the fantasmic dinner pkg. To us it is worth the money to not wait with 3 little kids. Also...we have to eat anyway. The ice cream social at EPCOT is great too. $7 and you get a sundae and Mickey, pluto, chip and dale.

Just don't push too much. Kid love the time by the pool as much as the praks and it's best to avoid the insanity in the afternoon anyway.

Good luck and have fun. BTW...my husband is a triplet.

Jess

 

[Disney Pal]

Wouldn't it be great to have a forum for parents of multiples? We have some unique needs. Who out there would be interested in doing such a thing? (and have the tech experience to actually
do it).
Interest= Yes. Tech= No.
Or am I way off base?