Orlando with a 2-year-old

[mjf]

We're heading to Disney with our 2-year-old son around Christmas and I'm looking for some advice. I'm wondering, for other people who have travelled to Orlando with a 2-year old:

- What was your 2-year old's single favorite experience in any of the Disney theme parks?

- What was your 2-year old's single favorite experience outside of the Disney theme parks (could be at another theme park, could be at your resort, could be at the mall!).


I'm just trying to come up with ideas and make sure I don't miss things that he might really enjoy doing.

My son really likes animals, fish, etc. so I'm wondering if maybe we should take him to Sea World or Gatorland or something like that.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[raysnkaysmom]

The first time I took my youngest daughter she was 2...but very close to 3.
Magic Kingdom just blew her away! Just take him on as many rides as you can in Fantasy Land.. but...I doubt with all there is to see and do in Orlando he'll be bored or miss anything!!!

 

[raysnkaysmom]

oh..and of course, swimming at the hotel pool is always a winner!

 

[LadyShea]

He can get plenty of animals and fish at Epcot and Animal Kingdom, though Sea World is worth a visit if you've never been.

 

[Not so Dumbo]

I'm wondering the samething. We took our son when he just turned 3 and he was great the entire trip, but DD will be a year younger.

 

[djcandyrocker]

We took our baby back in march and he was 20 mos...he is about 2 1/2 now and we are going back in a few weeks in Dec too

We bought some 'sing a long songs...Disney' with the actual characters on it for him to watch beforehand...that way he was not as afraid of the characters when he met them. Of course, he had his ears covered (how he showed he was afraid) but he didn't get upset, and warmed up to them eventually. His current fave show is the Travel Channel WDW show... he keeps talking about riding the elephants and seeing buzz and woody. I think he is gonna love it so much more at 2. He remembers so much too from when he was 20 months..I cannot imagine now!

A fun note...take pictures of his reactions to things...esp parades. These moments were precious.

We made sure back in March that we had naptime... Naps are few nowadays...so we are gonna make sure we have downtime with him so he can really enjoy everything without being overly tired... Of course, you prob already know that tidbit. It worked really well in March. We kinda let him set the pace.

I made a little character book for him this trip to look at on the way down of him posing with the characters...he LOVES looking at himself. Maybe get some pictures of characters and other ones of your boy and put them in a little album to get him ready.

A character meal? Great photo ops too without the lines..haha

I hope this helps!

Have an absolutely wonderful time!!!

 

[Drewsmommybear]

We took our son when he was 2 and a half. Like your son, he loves fish (especially Nemo) so the Finding Nemo the Musical and the Finding Nemo ride at Epcots were big hits for him. DH and I also liked the musical. The ride is a bit silly but small kids like it. Also, Dumbo and the flying dinosaur at AK made him laugh like crazy.

The first thing we took him on was the Winnie the Pooh ride b/c he loves all the characters. He was scared at first but then asked to ride it again. I think we did it four times that day.

Another thing that I would suggest is a character meal. We weren't sure what he would think of them (and your son may be afraid) but he was instantly in love with all of them. The best part was that when we were at Chef Mickey's, we told him that Mickey would not see him unless he was eating. He put away more food than I have ever seen him eat before!

The one thing that he liked the most, though, was when we would go back to the hotel. We stayed at POR and we would take walks around to look at the chipmunks and ducks. One day, we found a huge pinecone and that was what he talked about for the rest of the trip. Who knew!