Just back from 12-day visit with 2yo and 4yo. Any questions?

[ceburto2]

Hey,

My wife and I just returned from a fun, but tiring, 12 day trip to WDW with our two sons age 2 and 4. We stayed off-site in a 3 bedroom condo located in the Windsor Hills subdivision. We were in park for 7 days with the rest of the time being days off (I was at a conference) and travel. We flew from North Carolina via Miami.

My wife's sister came with for 6 days of the trip. This allowed my wife and I to enjoy two "date nights". We have also used "Kid's Night Out", if you have any questions about them.

We ate breakfast in the condo everyday, except for two character breakfasts: Ohana's and Cape May's. All other meals were in the parks.

If you have any questions about travel, gear, restaurants, or anything feel free to PM or ask. We had a great, but not ideal, trip. Epcot is particularly challenging with 2 boys of such differing abilities.

-ceburto2

 

[olympiamom]

Hi
We are going in January with our inlaws and 2,6,8 kids....we already know we will probably split up...can a 2 yr old go on many rides with a parent such as haunted house..captain hook or dumbo even?
thanks,
Molly

 

[ONdisney]

Hello,

We are going next april with 2 DD aged 1 1/2 and 3 1/2. How much can you realistically get done in a morning we little ones(we plan to go back to POP for a nap in the afternoon)? TIA

 

[ceburto2]

To Olympiamom:

The Magic Kingdom was built with Walt Disney's guiding theme park ethos of fun that the whole family could enjoy together. Any ride in the park that does not have a height restriction can be enjoyed by the whole family together. We took our 2 year old on everything we rode. The Magic Kingdom is especially easy, because the rides are brief and lack the long preshows of things like MuppetVision or Ellen's Energy Adventure. Also, since the two year old does not have a ticket, they do not need their own FastPass for things like Winnie the Pooh. You only need one for the adult and the toddler gets right on the ride too.

To ONDisney: We usually found that the witching hour for our 2 guys was around 1:30pm. That was their limit and was the time we shot for to be leaving the park, with the goal of being back at the condo for a 2 hour break. 30 minutes is plenty of time to get from most parks back to the room, but budget 45 minutes of travel time from the Magic Kingdom due to Monorail/Ferry travel.

Arriving 30 min prior to opening gave us the most bang for our buck for the number of rides we could get done. A couple of tips for dealing with little ones expectations. We showed our children the vacation planning DVD many times. I also prepped the older child for dark rides like the huanterd mansion by showing him ride-thru videos on YouTube. A lot of his fear was removed by taking away the unknown. We also, made sure that the 4yo understood that he was going to see a lot of cool stuff, and would get to do everything, but we would be walking past stuff and catch it later. A concept that we had to correct was that every ride was in every park. He almost had a fit becuase he thought he could ride Buzz Lightyear Astro-Blaster in Animal Kingdom, Epcot, etc.

Magic Kindgom was easy to get all of FantasyLand, The age-appropriate parts of Tomorrowland, ToonTown, and highlights of Adventureland (pirates and jungle cruise) done by 1:30.

Epcot very difficult due to the distance between the pavilions and the ages of the kids. One can't ride Soarin, Mission Space, Test Track, and won't sit still for the 45min Ellen's energy Adventure.

Animal Kingdom is nice but requires a bit of back and forth to minimize lines. and The Hollywood Studios was not hard to get a bit done before afternoon break.

It helped that we were in the parks for 7 days. That way we didn't feel the need to slam everything in at once. Having date nights for me and the wife gave us on evening in Magic Kingdom without the kids so we hit all the Rides that the kids couldn't/wouldn't ride.

Sorry so long. If you want specifics of my touring plans just PM me.