Planning WDW with 2 young children...

[golden1]

I am planning on a trip to Disney perhaps this fall with a then 4.5 and 2.5 year old. I have been lots of times before but never with children so I am pretty clueless.

What are your best tips?

I am thinking of going late Oct/early Nov and staying either at Caribbean Beach or AKL.

I am on a bit of a budget here so I am curious if it is worth getting a non-Savannah room at the AKL. Can you still see the animals from other places in the hotel.

Is the Dining plan worth it? I noticed that there is no plan for my 2.5 year old. Does he eat free or do I have to buy regular kids meals for him?

I assume that I'll be spending most of the time at AK and MK with a little MGM thrown in. Should I just skip Epcot altogether? Maybe we could plan a half day there.

I'm guessing kids this young won't be able to spend too much time walking around without getting tired. This is my feeling:
Spend 8am -12 pm in the parks
Return to hotel for lunch/rest/swim 12-3
Back to parks from 3-7
One adult babysits while kids sleep while the other hits the parks.

Is that a reasonable plan?

One last question: How much is in-room babysitting? Is it available at all the resorts?

Thats it for now! TIA!

 

[jennifer293]

I am planning on a trip to Disney perhaps this fall with a then 4.5 and 2.5 year old. I have been lots of times before but never with children so I am pretty clueless.

What are your best tips?

I am thinking of going late Oct/early Nov and staying either at Caribbean Beach or AKL.

I am on a bit of a budget here so I am curious if it is worth getting a non-Savannah room at the AKL. Can you still see the animals from other places in the hotel.

Is the Dining plan worth it? I noticed that there is no plan for my 2.5 year old. Does he eat free or do I have to buy regular kids meals for him?

I assume that I'll be spending most of the time at AK and MK with a little MGM thrown in. Should I just skip Epcot altogether? Maybe we could plan a half day there.

I'm guessing kids this young won't be able to spend too much time walking around without getting tired. This is my feeling:
Spend 8am -12 pm in the parks
Return to hotel for lunch/rest/swim 12-3
Back to parks from 3-7
One adult babysits while kids sleep while the other hits the parks.

Is that a reasonable plan?

One last question: How much is in-room babysitting? Is it available at all the resorts?

Thats it for now! TIA!

Our first trip ever was with DD4 and DD13months....We did have the diningplan and it was WONDERFUL...No your 2.5 year old does not have a dining plan option but you can buy them food out of pocket or share off of your plates. Which is what we did. There was so much food between appetizer, entree, and snack there was plenty for her to choose from. She ate very well at DISNEY we all gained weight.LOL

As far as the schedule,,,that was about the same schedule we intended on following but DD's slept so well in the stroller and on the rides that we made it through just fine. We left our room at about 9 am and didn't get back tot he room till about 10 pm or later and they were fine. Plus once they got baths they were so tired they didn't pitch a fit going to sleep for the night.

We stay in the value resorts as I cannot make myself spend the extra money on a place we will only use for bathing and sleeping. They are small but plenty of room for the 4 of us for the little time we spent there.

Also about Epcot..My girls really like Epcot. I don't think we will spend a whole say there this time around but we have to go see Figment for sure!!!

We were not crazy about AK so we will go there for to ride the new cosater and to eat at Flame Tree BBQ and then find something else to do..

I have never used the in-room sitters but it seems like I saw mention of them being 10.00 hr, and they were available at all the resorts. Don't hold me to that though!!!!

Have a great trip!!! Also bring plenty of juice, water and snacks to the parks for the kiddies!!!

 

[Minnie824]

We just returned in nov with our 4 and 1.5 yr old daughters. We did basically what you said for your schedule. DH & I did take turns at Epcot one day while the girls napped (we stayed at BC and just walked over) and I walked around at the shops at night. We were up at parks opening each day, had lunch out, back to the resort for a nap, and left by 4 each day. One thing was, 1.5 yr old didn't want to sit much for transportation or dinner after her nap. Once we let her walk more it improved. They made it til about 9:30 at the latest, but we never stayed til park closing either. The time of year you're going is good too. we spent 1/2 day am at AK, 1/2 day am at MGM, 1/2 day pm at Epcot and the rest at MK. Our next trip we're actually skipping MGM. There were a few shows, but our DDs liked actually 'doing' stuff, rides, etc, instead of waiting for the shows. PM me if you have any other questions too.

 

[Pooh Pal]

AKL is an amazing resort. There are a lot of places around the resort where you can see animals. Disney doesn't do a lot of upgrades, but I have heard that they do sometimes do upgrades to savannah view at AKL. If you can get a savannah view, it is amazing. Even if you can't, it is one of my favorite resorts. The only downside is that the rooms are on the small side for a deluxe resort. I'm not sure if they are smaller than the CB. We've stayed there too. It's nice, just nothing amazing like AKL.


Our trip in March will be our first trip with children. We will be taking our one year old, so it will be a whole new experience for us.

 

[Pooh Pal]

Just thinking....Another thing that we have done is stayed a few nights savannah view and then moved to a moderate to save money.