Making it extra special for toddlers!!!

[twins4mimi]

We are taking our twins to disney in about 5 weeks, and I wanted to do little things to make it extra special for them? Maybe treats left under pillows at night?? Gift baskets when we arrive?? Anybody have any suggestions??
Thanks!!!

 

[jagafen]

Go online to the Disney outlet.... www.disneyoutlet.com all of their swimsuits, towels, accessories, tshirts are on mega sale right now...grab what you can ASAP for gift bags before they're all gone. They have CUTE beach bags for like $6 each, if there are any left. Those make good "gift bags" to hold the goodies. www. disneystore.com is having a 20% off sale, ends tonight (code SUMMER), SHIPFOR5 if you spend $50. Some other ideas....Disney store near you? Check out their flip flops/sunglasses/clothing lines. They usually have HUGE sales on Holiday weekends (do you have plans for labor day?) Also, when there, pick up some of the small character plushes they have behind the counter. (2/$10). They may even have older ones on sale there too. Visit your local dollar store. There is generally a bunch of disney stuff that you can pick up. I've seen pooh and princes crayons, markers, Disney coloring books, flashing disney keychains (with characters faces), lollipops or other candy (if they're old enough). Also get some bubbles and stickers to keep them busy in the parks. If you don't have them already, consider autograph books...we made ours ourselves, but I've seen them on ebay too. Check out Walmart....I found Disney bath fizzies in the toy section...pop one in the tub at night, and it dissolves and a plastic character is in the middle. There's lots of stuff out there if you look for it. the folks at Crayola have a great selection of Disney Color Wonders out now....We have Pooh, Toy story, Cars, and I've seen Ariel (I have a boy....no girlie stuff for me!). Ponchos, disposable cameras, gum......PM me with your email address, I have a list complied from another board of ideas for gift bags.....!!!! I'm doing 3 for our trip (one for each of the kids going!)

 

[Jack&Ryan'smom]

We are going in 5 weeks I decided to make my own gift baskets for my boys and I will ship them down ahead of time. I wanted to be ablr to include food items in my basket that's why I decided to do my own.
This is what they'll include:

Disposable Cameras from Walgreen's...$7

Little flashlights (Lighting McQueen & Nemo) from ToysRUs...$6

Cars Ringpops from ToysRUs...$.89

Incredibles Gummy Sours form Michael's..$1.50

From Dollar Tree...Cars & Micket Tatoos, Disney Coloring Pages, Disney Stamps, Mickey Light Up Pen Lollipops, Disney Pez

From Disney Store...Little Einsteins & Buzz twistable crayons, & mickey light up fans

I also ordered 2 Disney Racer Cars from the Laughing Place.

I can't wait to see their faces when they get them from "Mickey"

 

[amyhughes]

We are going in 5 weeks I decided to make my own gift baskets for my boys and I will ship them down ahead of time. I wanted to be ablr to include food items in my basket that's why I decided to do my own.
This is what they'll include:

Disposable Cameras from Walgreen's...$7

Little flashlights (Lighting McQueen & Nemo) from ToysRUs...$6

Cars Ringpops from ToysRUs...$.89

Incredibles Gummy Sours form Michael's..$1.50

From Dollar Tree...Cars & Micket Tatoos, Disney Coloring Pages, Disney Stamps, Mickey Light Up Pen Lollipops, Disney Pez

From Disney Store...Little Einsteins & Buzz twistable crayons, & mickey light up fans

I also ordered 2 Disney Racer Cars from the Laughing Place.

I can't wait to see their faces when they get them from "Mickey"

What a sweet idea! We are planning not to tell our boys until we pull up on the hotel! Doing a treasure hunt all the way down. That is a superb idea to have those sent down in advance as a surprise from the Mouse himself!

May have to borrow this swell idea!

As far as making the trip special for your little ones my suggestions go like this:

We just got back in May with a 4 year old and a soon to be 3 year old. My suggestion is to not overbook your time, just go with the flow. I think we spent half of our evenings at the 100 acre wood in Fantasy Land!

Do a Character Meal your first night there, that way they can warm up to the idea of the character before they are right on them. Trust me it will save a screaming fit later when your child realizes just how BIG Mickey is when not on T. V. !! If you are on the DDP most of the Character Buffets are on there!

Disney has customzeable Maps available. Have them go through and highlight their favorites. Then Mickey will send them their very own maps. You can have them take turns being navigator...

Some cool restaurants that we found to not be packed and we literally walked into:
The Liberty Tree for Lunch. Was really well priced, good food and really neat atmosphere.

Caseys on Main Street. Serves All-American style food in a sports atmosphere.

Also the Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street is one of the primary haunts of the Dapper Dans, the travelling Barbershop Quartet. Really nice to sit have an Ice Cream and hear, "Back Home Again, In Indiana..." or "Lida Rose." The kids loved it when they tap danced!

Try to take a break midday. They may be past the nap stage but all that stimulation is enough to make the most venurable child meltdown. Trust me! I worked many a day where nap tme came and went and those brave souls with young children screaming all the way to the parking lot looked so worn!

Just have a good time, and don't try and see everything. This place isn't going anywhere! It's made from steel, concrete, and fiberglass & will be here for a long time. If you see a short line, jump in it. Just can't seem to see a certain attraction, ask the CM when their least busy portion of the day is.

When viewing the Fireworks at MK, maybe view from the POLY. You can walk immediately to the TTC right next door to catch a bus to your hotel (I believe, double check!) But for young kids the fireworks can be a bit overwhelming when viewed in the parks. Also, it sometimes is more beautiful to see from afar and the Poly pipes the music through the speakers on the beach.

I think that is all I can think of right now. At least that is what I learned from my first trip with my little ones!

 

[Cruz91]

...but if you have ADR's in the castle - that is the highlight for my daughter (and wife) every trip. If you don't have ADR's (and keep this between you and me and the billion other DISers), you can go up to the desk and ask if there are any last minute cancellations. Every now and then, you get lucky. Probably not this time of year 'cause of the crowds, but you never know. We lucked out around Thanksgiving last year - my MIL initially said she and FIL didn't want to go to dinner with us, but decided when we got there that they did. They let us add two onto our ADR's...

 

[WaltD4Me]

It took some planning, but when I took my six year old niece, I left her Tinkerbell gifts in the room with little notes from Tink and she just LOVED them!
(I printed out the notes ahead of time on the computer in a Tink-like font)

But I also bought a jar very fine purple glitter at a craft store (it was in the t-shirt making aisle and was very much like dust, rather then the bigger square glitter) and I sprinkled it on her at night and a little around the room or where I left the Tink present to make it look like Tink was there. I also took the jar with me to the parks and would VERY carefully (be sure you don't get caught!) sprinkle
some on her shoulder from time to time and then say "Oh look! There goes Tink!" She left some pixie dust on your shoulder!" My niece was in total awe.
She still talks about Tink landing on her shoulder and leaving pixie dust on her.

 

[Perditamarie]

Leaving out Tinkerbell gifts at night is fun, stuff like:

* sunglasses
* baseball cap
* jibbitz for crocs
* pins for trading
* chapstick/hair scrunchies/bows etc
* Cars cars or little Disney character figures

Some other fun things to do are give the kids a mini m&m tube filled w/sets of 2 quarters and 1 penny for the penny press machines. These machines are all over the park and you can watch the penny get streched and impressed w/a character or design---it is a lot of fun to look for these everywhere. You can then give the child a wallet/purse/coin book to hold their new treasures.

Make sure you check out the playgrounds at each park too -- they are great for a stroller/line break and to run around an let off steam - there is a spot in each one to get wet, so prepare accordingly! There are also interactive fountains at Epcot and DTD and Donalds Boat at MK to get wet if you need to cool off.

Do the Kidcot funstops in Epcot -- the kids color a mask and collect a charm from each country to make a neat souvenir -- they love finding out what the charm will be in each country. When completed, the CM will give them a little "prize".

Happy planning!

 

[Minnie_me]

This may sound silly, but --- to make it special for your very young kids....read their signals and call it quits when they show you that they need a break.

Our kids are 6 and 9, and we left the parks almost every day around 2:00 when the girls said they were tired. We went back to the hotel, swam, ate, showered and rested. We headed back in the evenings for more fun.

We saw too many people dragging their red-faced, sweaty, whining and crying toddlers around, determined to make them have fun.

 

[nettii]

We too leave Tinker Treasures at night. I also put pixie dust around the gifts,my DS thought if he could get it up and sprinkel it on us we'd be abel to fly. it just added to the magic.

I also buy the clear celo bags from the dollar store to make gift bags with cute tags made from stickers and scrapbooking craft tags.

I alter food packages to relate to characters well see in the park for that day with stickers and labels made on my computer. Lil fish crackers I put warning labels on saying "fish are friends not food" with nemo stickers.

The Tinker treasures usually go along with what park we will be doing.

I hope you have a great trip! Nettii

 

[Perditamarie]

I forgot to add that if you are going to character meals, it is fun to create character/theme appropriate invitations on your computer, roll them up like a scroll & tie w/bow or put in a bottle, etc and have them mysteriously "delivered" to your room while you are out or sleeping.

 

[i3utterfli82]

Does anyone have any pictures of their 'surprises'? I can't wait to do this for my daughter?

 

[nettii]

I dont have any photos but I will try to post some when I get started which will be soon. I picked up some pirate/memaid cany necklace kits at the dollar store the other day I thought they might be a good way to pass some time onthe plane.

 

[workinmomof2]

Try to take a break midday. They may be past the nap stage but all that stimulation is enough to make the most venurable child meltdown. Trust me! I worked many a day where nap tme came and went and those brave souls with young children screaming all the way to the parking lot looked so worn!

Just have a good time, and don't try and see everything. This place isn't going anywhere! It's made from steel, concrete, and fiberglass & will be here for a long time. If you see a short line, jump in it. Just can't seem to see a certain attraction, ask the CM when their least busy portion of the day is.

When viewing the Fireworks at MK, maybe view from the POLY. You can walk immediately to the TTC right next door to catch a bus to your hotel (I believe, double check!) But for young kids the fireworks can be a bit overwhelming when viewed in the parks. Also, it sometimes is more beautiful to see from afar and the Poly pipes the music through the speakers on
the beach.

Great suggestions. I am planning breaks during the afternoon. I think everyone will need it, not just the kids. The Poly sounds alot nicer to watch the fireworks. I am going to have to do more research on that.