Need tips for touring w/ 2yr. old + older siblings

[Now Mom of 3]

Now that I have my ADR's taken care of, I am looking into how we might tour the parks. This is our first trip to WDW. I am expecting to encounter problems that we never had before on previous Disney trips (DL 3 times) because my youngest son was much littler then. DS 2.5 will be plenty old enough to be jealous of DD 5 and DS 9 when they go off on rides he cannot.

How have you dealt with this kind of problem? I would rather not split up for very long. We want to experience most of the parks together on our first trip. My older two still willingly go on all rides without a height requirement so that is not a problem. I am looking for specific examples like it worked well for one of us to take DS on that ride while the other took DD on this ride, or there is a little corner over there that my toddler enjoyed exporing with me while DH took older kids on the big ride. Thanks for any hints.

 

[KristiKelly]

We've never had any problems when DD couldn't ride something. I would usually get her a little snack or walk through a shop. Afterwards, we would always ride something that everyone can ride. Try to explain to him before leaving that there will be some rides that he won't be able to do. Good luck.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

We just returned from WDW, and DD is 2, DS is 7 1/2.

DS will ride the rides with out a height restriction also, so those rides we did as a family. Some he wasn't too thrilled with, like Its a Small World, but pouted through it.

The other rides, either DH or myself would take DS and the other would take DD on a ride for her. Some areas of the MK were easier than others. Like Fantasyland isn't that far from Tomorrowland, so during Space Mountain we could go to Fantasyland or ride Buzz. But in Adventureland and Frontierland there wasn't too much for her. We either walked around or stayed behind in one of the lands. Or did these areas when DD went back for her nap.

In MGM, I took DD to the playground, while DS did some attractions there.

It went OK, but kind of felt bad for DS, because DD did take alot of the trip up, because 2 year olds just take alot of your time. I do agree that when we visited last Jan, it was alot easier to get more done. Now she is more opinionated and has her own agenda.

DS and I are doing our own trip in April for his birthday. You guys will do fine. I just love to see WDW in the eyes of a 2 year old. IMOP, it is the best age. DS was also about this age, the 1st time we took him.

Have fun!

 

[THESCHULTZFIVE]

I agree with the other posters. This will be our fist time where this is an issue for us also. My oldest DD is 9, middle is 3 and youngest is 1. The 3 y/o knows the names of ALL the rides and says she wants to do them. And she's pretty daring so she probably would. I just measured her last week and she's 39 in. That cuts out alot of things for her. In fact, had she been 40 in, we wouldn't have a problem. I've explained to her that she will probably not be able to ride some of the rides. If I'm not mistaken, there is a play area in each park now right? We plan on hanging out there. I don't know when you're going, but we leave on Sat. so I'll let you know how it works for us.

 

[staci]

Well we just got back with ds 23 months. We had some big 'kids' on the trip- my 22 yr old brother, my dad and my 25 yr old dh!

I dont know if your two year old will nap in the stroller, but generally speaking, we just did want we could do together most of the day, when ds started to show signs of tiredness, we split up, they went to do the height restriction stuff, and I took ds to get a popsicle. This cooled him down, and while he ate away in the stroller, I would just wander around. He would fall asleep pretty quickly, and that gave the big 'boys' an hour or so to do their things, without ds realizing he was missing anything.

 

[mareed]

Mine 2 DS's are 3 years apart and we started going to WDW when the youngest was 2 1/2, so we have lots of experience with this. It definitely helped us that my youngest is a very easy-going personality and he never really minded being left behind. I'd often just take him in his stroller and visit the shops for a bit while DH took the older one on a ride. Sometimes I'd take him in his stroller to get our next set of fastpasses for another ride.

A couple of specific areas where we found a convenient nearby ride are:
-at MK, take little one on Tomorrowland Transit Authority while others are on Space Mountain. If you're using fastpass ono SM, the timing seemed to work out just about right.
-at Epcot, take little one on Spaceship Earth while others are on Mission Space. This also worked out about right for timing. There's also a kids play area at the end of MS that you can take a little one with tubes & slides.

 

[tmanaster]

This summer we used childswap quite a bit with our 2 and 1/2 yo twins when riding with our older 2 (6 and 7). We would get a snack or try to find something fun to look at. They were fine about it. Honestly, even some of the rides we could ride together (Pirates of the Carribean and the People Mover of all things ) scared them.

Good luck and Have fun!