Proving the Critics Wrong: WDW is for Toddlers!

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Welcome to my September Report all about taking a toddler to WDW for 10 days! Please check out my Pre-trip report for background information.

Proving the Critics Wrong: Taking our 18 Month old to WDW for 10 Days!

A real quick review:
Me (25)- 4th Disney trip, 3rd onsite
DH (24)- 5th Disney Trip, 3rd onsite
DD (18 months)- 1st Disney Trip, 1st onsite

We went for a total of 10 days and 9 nights. We booked a room-only at Pop Century for Friday Sept 9th (after booking our package we added on a nite) and a package including Free Dining, upgraded to the Regular Dining Plan, and 8 Day Park Hopper Tix, also at Pop Century.

We planned a total of 9 TS meals, including 3 character meals. We also purchased OOP 2 resort refillable mugs. We purchased tickets to MNSSHP on Tuesday the 13th and added the Wishes Dessert Party on the 12th.

I want to start by doing a basic review and notes on the specific issues reguarding taking a toddler to WDW.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Check-in: Our flight was delayed in the air due to a storm, so we landed around 7 rather than 6pm. We made our way to magical express and with no line, were boarded to a bus that they grouped together with CB, Pop and AKL. We sat on ME for about 25 minutes before we left MCO. Our driver was great though, he gave us some Disney trivia to pass the time.

When we finally arrived at Pop there was only one person ahead of us in the check-in area. When it was our turn we proceeded to the desk and check-ed in. The CM checking us in, told us we had a king room in building 5, 2nd floor. I asked her if it had a tub or an accessible shower. She didn’t quite seem to understand. I tried for 2 more minutes to explain what I ment and finally she went and got the room assigner (who was standing right behind her) however the CM was nice during all this, just didn’t understand. The room assigner immediately got what I was asking, let us know it was a shower not a tub, and I explained the need for a tub and asked if we could be moved in the morning. She looked for a few minutes and told us she could move us in the AM and we would receive a text when our room was ready. She said we were moving up to the top floor, same building.

So we headed to the food court, ate dinner, and took dessert to our room.

By this time I believe it was around 9:30pm. I had asked the room assigner about having Bell services hold our luggage till the AM, when we switched rooms. She advised me not to do so, as it would be easier to have it all in one place for them to transfer to the new room. I was really concerned about what time the luggage would arrive, as I did not want them to wake DD. This however did not turn out to be a problem, as DD was still awake at about 10pm when they dropped off our luggage. (I am going to blame her being awake on that darn Tye-Dye Cheesecake! (I will review food later!)

 

[justakrazymom]

I'm in!!!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

I'm in!!!

Jambo! Thanks for joining!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Our first room was 5203, building 5 (60’s) second floor, with an accessible shower. Typical “value” accommodations (which we are more than happy with), I loved the area, just outside the kiddie pool, not a far walk from buses or food. The room had an updated hair dryer, however I forgot to take a picture of it. The room did have a fridge in it, according to the Pop FAQ thread this is because it was an accessible room. We had requested a pack n Play for DD and that was not in the room when we arrived. Since it was so late, we decided to just sleep with DD in bed with us and make sure we got one in the room the following day.

Our traditional first picture!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

We got to the front desk around 7am the following morning; there was no one else in line. We explained that we were checking out of our room only in for our package. They noted the change in rooms, asked how many bags we needed transferred to the new room, added a credit card onto our account for charging and they gave us our room keys/tickets and we were on our way. They explained we would receive a text message when our room was ready and the message would include our room number.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

It was after 1pm when we finally got our text that our room was ready. Our second room was literally 2 floors up, 5403. The pack n play was in our room when we arrived, along with our luggage. This room was a partially accessible room. It did NOT come with a fridge. It had a tub with handrails and handrails near the toilet. Our view was great, again of the kiddie pool, and some of the lake. We did hear noise from the afternoon pool activities but not loud enough to bother us. Two nights we had some noisy neighbors on the other side of the connecting door but they quieted down as we were going to sleep. Our mousekeeper was Blanca, she was WONDERFUL! She left us some towel dogs, a towel swan, mickey head and arranged DD’s animals and toys in adorable poses throughout the week. DD was thrilled! Needless to say we did tip Blanca and gave her an extra tip on our last day for being so wonderful. Everytime she saw us, she would run to DD and call her “Mi Amour” or “My love”. We could not have picked a better room! All of my requests were met. The entire staff at Pop was wonderful.

Already in room when we arrived. (The pack n play was clean, a bit worn, but I used clorox wipes and wiped the entire thing down then we used our own pack n play sheet we brought from home in it)

Our Special Treats!

Our View: (sorry I forgot to take day time pictures)

*I found it interesting and did not know until this trip, a staff member with towels came around the room and left towels and linens for the mousekeeper. We had entered our room in-between the two, after the man had left the linens and before Blanca had done her magic. I did not know this and for the record we did leave our cameras out and such in the room along with the mousekeeping enevelopes and nothing was touched by either CM.

The first night we had left a note for Blanca asking for extra towels and an extra large blanket, as DH kept throwing off the comforter and leaving just the blankets on the bed. She not only left a TON of towels but 2 extra blankets also. We continued to leave Blanca notes intermittently throughout the week saying “thank you” and letting her know how much DD enjoy her surprises.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

We only swam in the Hippy Pool near our room, but the water was perfect temp. Never too crowded and what you would expect from a hotel pool. We tried morning swims, afternoon swims and late night swims. The sign on the life guard station said the pool hours were “24 hours”. DD was not thrilled with the spraying flowers, but loved walking around the ledge they have in the water. It was just deep enough that the water went up to her belly, so she could stand or sit and walk around with some freedom. One afternoon I did walk over and get a lava lamp from the pool bar. It was “OK” but for close to $10 I will pass next time. Sorry no picture, we didn’t bring our cameras to the pool and when I got back with my drink DD wanted me to come back into the pool, so I poured my drink into my refillable mug to keep it cold. They did remove the flower petals from the sprayers while we were there, but they were doing a lot of cleaning. They had closed the kiddie pool one morning for cleaning, but it opened later that afternoon. DD did try the kiddie pool but wasn’t thrilled. She was really too little to stand over the geysers and seemed to enjoy the regular pool, standing on the ledge more.

Overall I give the pool 2 . It wasn't cold, we had 4 pool options, clean, easy access, plenty of chairs nearby and never too crowded!

 

[mickeyplanner]

We took our DD for her first trip at 20 months, and we became hooked. Just seeing her little eyes light up over Mickey and Buzz had us sold. We headed back for her 5th trip next month and it will our DS first visit at 14 months old. You are never too young or old for Disney!!! I am subscribing to learn any pointers from your experience. Especially the Halloween Party because we are doing the Christmas party.

 

[RooRach0906]

I'm in we just went 9/14-9/19 with our 16 month old DD.

 

[AWilliams]

Both our girls first trips were before they were 2. I think 2-3 was actually the most magical year for our girls, but now that DD is 6 it's so different!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

We took our DD for her first trip at 20 months, and we became hooked. Just seeing her little eyes light up over Mickey and Buzz had us sold. We headed back for her 5th trip next month and it will our DS first visit at 14 months old. You are never too young or old for Disney!!! I am subscribing to learn any pointers from your experience. Especially the Halloween Party because we are doing the Christmas party.

Welcome! Oh yes I have plenty of tips for the party!

I'm in we just went 9/14-9/19 with our 16 month old DD.

Welcome! Maybe we crossed paths

Both our girls first trips were before they were 2. I think 2-3 was actually the most magical year for our girls, but now that DD is 6 it's so different!

Can't wait to read more.

Welcome! I can't wait to take DD back, I think 5/6 would be a great age, I think they would really have a good concept of things going on, but I bet they ask a lot of questions so being prepared for the "why doesn't mickey talk?" is a must!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Buses from Pop seemed to be right in the 20 minutes or less group. The only time we had a long wait was on our way back to Pop from MK one night. They had closed the monorail (not sure why, we were in the regular operating hours for MK) and were sending the parking lot people to buses. We waited for about 1.5 hours and then our bus driver decides to stop at the ttc to make sure no one got on the wrong bus. Nobody on that bus was very happy. Other than that, we didn’t have any transportation issues. The majority of the time people gave up their seats for mom’s carrying children. Most people were very polite; there were a few not so much… And I’ll be honest I really dislike those guys who sit there and make a mom carrying a child at 10pm on the way back to the resort stand. I would never let my older son or husband sit verses a mom with a child (just my personal opinion). However at night when we boarded a busy bus, we decided between 2 options, either DH took DD and I carried the stroller (ours stands on its own so I didn’t need to hold on to it very much and could hold on for myself) or we waited for the next bus to guarantee we got a seat. I don’t think many people realize that waiting is an option and rarely did we wait longer than 10 minutes for the second bus.

Stroller on buses: We didn’t have any problems with the stroller on the bus. We folded it up when we saw a bus coming, hopped on, if it wasn’t busy we just sat with the stroller in front of us, or along side of us, if it was busy, DH would hold the stroller in the back door area. We did see a few other parents (mostly with double strollers) having a hard time. We purchased one of those mesh stroller bags that hung on the back over the handles. It was great for carrying extra items (water, diapers, wipes and disposable bibs and changing pads) made it so much easier getting through security at the parks since they could see everything clearly and we didn’t have to take it off when we folded the stroller to get on the bus. The other stroller savior we used was an attachable cup/snack tray (there’s a picture in my pre-trip) we bought at ToysrUs for $10 twisted on and DD could access her drinks/snacks whenever she wanted!

*Note since the closure of the Monorail after parks hours, we found the bus lines to be MUCH worse. But I heard recently that they extended the Monorail hours back till close after hard ticket events, so evening EMH would be the only issue.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

DD really went with the flow. If she was super tired she would fall asleep in the stroller. Most days we tried to head back for a nap and swim. That seemed to work well. But she also did fine with the stroller nap, typically followed by an early night. We did relax and enjoyed a slower pace than normal. She was always tired out by bed time, so no problems getting her to sleep, even in the pack n play.Most nights she was asleep on the bus on the way back and we carried her to the room and put her in bed.

While DD napped in the stroller, we would hit a shop and look around or do a few adult rides. We did Space Mt and Test Track this way. When DD woke up while one of us was on Space Mt. we let her play a few arcade games to keep her busy! Worked Great! It also provided air conditioner. At Test Track we browsed the cars while taking turns on the ride. The after ride stores are also great during rider-swap.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

HUMID, HUMID, HUMID, We were prepared for the heat but the humidity was awful. We swam everyday but one. It tired us out more than normal. I can honestly say we will not be visiting in Sept or the hotter months again for many years, especially with a toddler. We tried to hit an A/C location every now and then, especially when DD was sleeping. We did bring 2 mini dollar store hand fans with us, one of which was on a long string (like for around your neck) so I rigged that to hang on the stroller pointed at DD. They did have neat clip-on mickey mouse stroller fans or about $15. Other than that, it only rained our last day at Epcot, we got drenched trying to get back to the bus to get to Pop for our ME time.

 

[mickeyplanner]

I can't wait to hear all about the Party and any tips you can pass along.

 

[Raspberry Bubbles]

I can't wait to hear all about it! I'll have two toddlers with me when I go, I cannot wait to collect tips from you!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

I can't wait to hear all about the Party and any tips you can pass along.

Oh the party was a blast, lots of tips to come!

I can't wait to hear all about it! I'll have two toddlers with me when I go, I cannot wait to collect tips from you!

Ohh double trouble! I think the toddler age is great because DD was still very content to spend a good amount of time in her stroller. She did walk a lot but was fine with riding when we needed her to!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Our flight from ALB to MCO took off at 3:15pm on Friday. We had only let DD nap for about 30-40 minutes that day in the car on the way to the airport. Our flight was delayed about 10 minutes and while we waited for the flight DD ran around the waiting area with DH, getting all that energy out. We boarded with the Family boarding, the gate agent told us we could take an extra seat for DD, since the plane was about half full, and about 30 minutes into the flight DD was asleep in her seat. DH held her during takeoff and landing and she laid between us in the seats while we flew, with the seat belt around her. She woke up just before landing and we had many compliments on how well behaved DD was and that you couldn’t even tell there was a baby on board!

The flight home was scheduled for 7:25pm and we expected DD to sleep most of the way, as her usual bedtime is 8pm. This flight was a repeat of the first and went well also.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Toddler wait times: The only ride we waited for longer than 10 minutes was TSM. We couldn’t manage to get FPs for it and the wait time was 60 minutes. It took about 60 minutes on the dot, but DD did really good with the queue. I had a feeling that wasn’t going to be too bad because of all the themeing it kept her eyes busy.

Fastpass/Baby Swap: We didn’t end up using baby swap, we only used Fastpasses for Test Track.

Stroller Parking Areas: Most of the stroller parking was right near the rides, so I could relatively see the stroller. I think after the 2nd time leaving the stroller, I felt fine about it. I did see a few strollers like ours but not the same one. We did however have the stroller bag and cup holder attached, which made it easy to spot ours. We only left diapers, wipes and snacks in the stroller and took the cameras with us. But I wouldn’t worry about the stroller getting stolen.

Toddler rides like/dislike: The only rides DD wasn’t thrilled with were Pirates and Haunted mansion. We did not try the 3D shows, but DD loved the fantasyland rides and nemo and turtle talk.