How many days can a 3 yr old handle?

[ABCsoapfan]

Hi. I have a question for those of you who have taken your three year olds to Disneyworld.

I am planning to take my daughter to Disneyworld in October, when she will be one month shy of her 3rd birthday. We have never taken her anywhere for an extended period of time. How many days can a three year old reasonably spend on vacation? Do they melt down as time goes on from lack of access to their home and toys? How many toys should we pack?

I would like to do a 7 night vacation so we can slow down and relax, and spend shorter blocks of time at the parks each day, but now I am wondering if I should plan a shorter trip. Please help me! Your advice would be much appreciated.

 

[pedro2112]

Hi. I have a question for those of you who have taken your three year olds to Disneyworld.

I am planning to take my daughter to Disneyworld in October, when she will be one month shy of her 3rd birthday. We have never taken her anywhere for an extended period of time. How many days can a three year old reasonably spend on vacation? Do they melt down as time goes on from lack of access to their home and toys? How many toys should we pack?

I would like to do a 7 night vacation so we can slow down and relax, and spend shorter blocks of time at the parks each day, but now I am wondering if I should plan a shorter trip. Please help me! Your advice would be much appreciated.

Just make sure you have plenty of down time. If you are going to be there for a week, you should have plenty of time to take breaks. If you are staying onsite, you can take afternoon breaks back at the resort for naps, etc..

In addition, we always schedule a "down" day right in the middle of our vacation where we sleep in and spend time at the resort and don't go to the parks. Usually we only do about two or three days at the park before we do a down day .. the kids are better able to handle the end of the vacation that way.

 

[Vanryan]

I think the biggest factor is how well she adjusts to a change in her routine. My kids did well at 2-3, but are able to nap on the go. The down time idea from another post makes good sense. If you can keep her on a similar rest schedule she should be fine. Just remember that there is so much stimulation that breaks from the intensity of Disney are good. Tom Sawyer Island, the Boneyard, the "Ball" at Epcot and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground are musts for my family. Enjoy!!!

 

[DisneyDotty]

I think you mean to ask, how many days can YOU handle with a three-year-old?!
We've done WDW with a 3yo twice--best advice I can give you is go at their pace. I'd opt for a longer rather than shorter time there so you're not rushed, can build in lots of down time, etc. Have a great trip!

 

[DisneyPhD]

I think a 7 day trip is better then a shorter one. You can take more down time, relax more, swim in the pool and in general get used to being there.

We have always taken week long trips and it was worked our rather nicely. At WDW I always say longer is better.
(just had to use this guy for the 1st time.)

 

[ABCsoapfan]

Hi, thanks for all the replies. We are looking at an offsite condo resort, so I was thinking of only doing the parks in one 4-5 hour chunk each day, and spending the rest of our time relaxing. I guess I am nuts to wonder this, but can she have TOO MUCH downtime, and get bored? Especially if she doesnt have all of her toys? Or am I way off base, because no kid ever gets bored in WDW?

I have never been to WDW with any child, so this is all new to me!

 

[horsegirl]

Hi, thanks for all the replies. We are looking at an offsite condo resort, so I was thinking of only doing the parks in one 4-5 hour chunk each day, and spending the rest of our time relaxing. I guess I am nuts to wonder this, but can she have TOO MUCH downtime, and get bored? Especially if she doesnt have all of her toys? Or am I way off base, because no kid ever gets bored in WDW?

I have never been to WDW with any child, so this is all new to me!

Know your child and pick up on their cues as to the pacing. When we went 2 years ago to WDW, our dks were 4, 3, and 18 months. We stayed 8 days and did 5 days at the park. Our 18 month old had one melt down with grammy when we went on splash acouple of times and one night after fantasmic on the bus. Poor other passengers! That's it. No probs on planes, in airports, at the parks or the hotel. Truth be told, we didn't even need to go into the parks, as the pools and playgrounds were so great. Does your little one like the water? My DD5 was 3 then and was crazy crazy crazy for splash mountain and any other thrill rides. Every kid is different. Our friends just got back and had many meltdowns with the dks. (But they didn't have this board to help with planning! We had a blast and so did our kids. Go longer as the other posters said, as traveling always takes a little toll on everyone. Plan well, but leave lots of time for leisure and changes based on your little cuties! Have fun.

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

We took our 3.5 year old in December. I agree with the PLENTY of DOWN TIME! ( IE...SWIMMING, COLORING, JUST PLAYING, WATCHING TV, ect.) I heard this rule many times on DIS before leaving, but didn't implement it as much as we should have. If I had to do it all again, I would Do one..Relaxing Day of Parks, then a day of rest, where we just hang around the pool, do low key Disney Things, then another day of parks and so on and so on. As long as you understand that you are going to have to take things at their pace. You should be fine.
Have a GREAT time!!

 

[Living with the Land]

Remember that even a 3 year old can tell you what they would like to do. On our third day we always let DD decide what she wants to do. When she was 3 she wanted to walk the whole path at our hotel (POR). Then she wanted to ride the boat to DTD. I think that it's important to give little kids time to make some of their own choices.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

i have taken my kids when they were all under three (sometimes two under three at once) and they have been able to handle 7-10 days easily. of course they are the types who don';t mind their schedules interrupted, and we always, every single day, would go back to our room for a few hours in the middle of the day, whether they had napped in their strollers or not...i think that is the key to being able to keep going. having stuff for them to do while waiting on lines and while dining also helps. my DS could stand on a line for 30 minutes at the age of two as long as he could blow bubbles...i would bring those little bottles like you use at weddings and it would entertain him (and many kids around us to...they didn't bother anyone, and i've had several other parents thank me for it).

 

[glass slipper girl]

On their first trip my DSs were 3 1/2 and 21 months. My youngest is just about to turn 4 now and he's been 6 times. So we've made as many trips with a 3 year old since one or the other of them was beween 2 1/2 and "almost 4" on each trip. Our kids do just fine on our trips which are typically 7 - 10 days. We do the parks all but one day of our trip but we do plan one nonpark day and a couple of parks only half the day days in each trip. We take midday breaks every day. Our youngest naps in the stroller if he needs it. Even though they don't nap at home, they do (at least every other day) at WDW. We are usually at the parks for opening, tour till early lunch time, have lunch, maybe a couple of things we had fast passes for then back to the resort for a 4 hour or so break then dinner and back to the parks for evening entertainment. If we are out really late one night, we may plan for sleeping in and swimming in the morning then head to the parks around 2:00 for the rest of the evening (we don't do this often because it is usually MUCH more crowded at the parks doing it this way...if I can swing it I plan our latest night to be the night before our totally off day ).

As far as too much down time, for our kids the answer is yes. We let them bring a few toys but you can't bring a everything when you travel, right! If we only did the parks for 4 hours a day and we didn't have plan to do swimming or something during the rest of that day, they'd go nuts. They can handle a little bit of down time but not HOURS of it if we don't have something planned.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We've gone twice with our boys. The first time the oldest was 3 years, 10 months, and the second was 15 months. That trip was 9 nights/10 days at WDW, plus one night near the airport on the way down. The second time the oldest was 4 years 9 months, and the youngest was 2 years 3 months and we stayed 7 nights. That trip we drove down, 3 days to drive down, 2 to drive home.

 

[Bird-Mom]

My 3 year old has made 5 trips, and they have all been 10 days long except for her first trip which was 5 days (but she was only 6 months old). She does fine on the long trips. We bring a few toys for the room and then buy some more, so she has plenty to play with. We also go at her pace and give her a lot of say in what to do. She adores going to WDW!

 

[icecrystahl]

Last feb. My whole family went to WDW including my 3 yr old sister. We stayed for five days and she wanted more, so quite frankly I think 3 yr olds don't have much of a limit. She absolutely loved it and has been talking about going back all year!

 

[Matt]

My daughter turns 3 in January and we went on a 10 day trip over Thanksgiving. She was fine. She never had a "meltdown" like so many parents say their kids have. We didn't take naps, she enjoye it all. Once she said "I don't want to see Country Bears. I want to eat some popcorn". LOL So that's what we did.

You know your kid better than us. If they have to have a set schedule, keep one.

 

[MinnieGi]

DD is now 5 but she has been to WDW 8 times. From age 2 to 4 she went twice each year. Trips to Disney with this age group can be fantastic if you follow their lead for when they have had too much. We would usually do a park for the morning then eat lunch in the park and leave. We would spend the afternoon swimming and trying to get her to nap which she hardly seemed to need, however DH & I did!!! We then would follow her lead for the evening if she seemed up to going back to a park or if she wanted to swim more or go to Downtown Disney etc. Take it slow and pack snacks for the park and you will have a magical adventure that takes on a new perspective from you 3yo's point of view.

As far as toys - On our earlier trips I would bring a small suitcase full but I realized she rarely played with them b/c there were so many NEW things to explore right in our resort room! Usually she would get something new anyway while we were on our trip that she did want to play with. Now I bring some bed time stories for her and DS and just activities to occupy their time on the plane. Between the parks, swimming, exploring your resort etc... there is not time to be bored IMHO.

Have fun!

 

[nono]

I travel almost every month with my two year old, and I think the one thing I would suggest you do is spend a night away in advance of your Disney trip, so as to prepare her for sleeping away from home. I'd even call it practice for Disney World. That way, you can judge as to where's she's at travel-wise and what issues you may encounter.

The biggest thing, though, IMO is to communicate about how the trip will unfold. For instance, "We'll be flying in a plane, and then we'll be staying in a condo, which is a type of house, but it isn't our house. We'll visit Disney, and sleep at night in the condo. Then, we'll come home again." So, it won't be very surprising as your trip unfolds.

Once you are there, flexibility is key. I planned our first day in the park in DL last summer to be 4 hours. Eleven hours later, we were heading back to the hotel room. Daughter had a blast, took a full nap in her umbrella stroller, and ate like a champ at the House of Blues...caught us by surprise! So, if your daughter is doing well, keep up whatever is working. If she isn't, make some adjustments. You'll do great!!!!

Have fun!