Strategy for young kids (4 and 5 yrs old)? Help please.

[mefordis]

My friend who has 5 and 4 yr old girls is going to WDW for the first time and wants my input. I have kids but they are almost grown, so of course we do WDW much different now than we did when they were that young and so much has changed.

Disney experts with little kids: would you mind looking over my suggestions before I send them off to my friend?

Mom, Dad, two girls ages 4 and 5 who love princesses.

Resort: Art of Animation, Nemo suite
Dates: First week of November (It's during Wine and Dine marathon which is Nov 1-3 weekend, so it might be busy)

Friday Nov 1 - Arrive AoA, quick service dinner, pool

Sat Nov 2 - AK - I would normally do MK but due to the marathon should I recommend AK? LL: Kilimanjaro, Navi River Journey, Kali River Rapids (if they don't mind getting wet) or Triceratop Spin
Lunch: Quick service
Dinner: Tusker House 4:30pm (they want to eat dinner early)

Sun Nov 3 - Hollywood Studios - Mickey and Minnies Runaway Rail, Toy Story Mania, Alien Swirling Saucers
Lunch: quick service
Dinner: Brown Derby? (parents like to have a couple of cocktails and a nice dinner) OR They have a park hopper so should I recommend they go to Epcot for the food and wine festival ? or will it be miserably crowded on a sunday night? Then they can see the fireworks and take the skyliner back to their resort.

Mon Nov 4 - Magic Kingdom - LL: Peter Pan's Flight, Pirate's, Tiana (is this too much for a 4 yr old?) or haunted mansion
Lunch: CS
Dinner: Be our Guest 4:30pm

Tues Nov 5 - Epcot - LL: Frozen Ever After (or Ratatouille?), The Seas with Nemo, Spaceship Earth
Lunch: Akershus 12:00pm (they want a meal with the princesses)
Dinner: Food and wine?

Thanks for your input! It's been a while since I the dumbo rope drop days!

 

[thanxfornoticin]

First of all, quality over quantity with kids that young!! I'm sure you know.

If they are into the princesses, not sure if a meal in the castle at CRT would be in the cards? I know we recently had 2 small girls there and they absolutely loved the experience. Also, would highly recommend the Frozen Singalong at HS for them. Your other choices all sound reasonable!

 

[erinch]

When my now 28 year old DD was 4 , she was a daredevil and tall. And already was a park commando. So she would have wanted a lot more rides.

If dinner is at 4:30, then they should do lunch really early. Be sure to tell them how to mobile order ahead of time to get the arrival window they want.

I agree CRT rather than BoG yields princesses.

We love Hollywood Brown Derby . I wouldn't want to haul everyone over to Epcot for Food and Wine on HS day. They could get a dining package for seats at Fantasmic.

At Epcot, if they aren't feeling the food and wine booths, they could mobile order regal eagle. We do a 7 pm dinner in the pyramid San Angel, which puts us in the vicinity for Fireworks.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

How tall are the girls, as Disney attractions are height based and not age based.

It's been a while, but my fondest Disney memory will always be chasing my then 3 year old daughter back to the entrance of Space Mountain moments before midnight with her screaming "One More Time Daddy" all the way.

 

[kdka421]

A few random tips and comments:
*Re Tianas, my daughters absolutely loved Splash at age 4. They are very petite too so odds are good an average 4/5 year old should be tall enough.
*What my one daughter didn't like at age 4 was any dark ride, even if it's not traditionally scary. That meant at that age we ended up skipping many of the more traditional kid-friendly rides like Pirates, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, etc. Just something they may want to keep in mind if their kids have any dark fears/anxiety.
*Your list is focused on LLs but a few things I wanted to mention as being big hits at that age - the Conservation Station petting zoo at AK (fun train ride to get there), The Seas aquarium exhibits, any EPCOT scavenger hunt (I think there typically is one during festival season), and agree with the previous comment about Frozen singalong!

 

[Mr. Drauer]

They have a park hopper so should I recommend they go to Epcot for the food and wine festival ? or will it be miserably crowded on a sunday night? Then they can see the fireworks and take the skyliner back to their resort.

Do not recommend this. The after party for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon is in Epcot Sunday Night, and runners can get into the park as early as 5:00, though the party doesn't start until after the fireworks and day guests are out. It will be more crowded than a normal F&W weekend.

 

[mefordis]

Thanks so much for the input!! What about the days for each park? Am I right in pushing MK and EP to the last two days to try to avoid the marathon?

 

[mefordis]

When my now 28 year old DD was 4 , she was a daredevil and tall. And already was a park commando. So she would have wanted a lot more rides.

If dinner is at 4:30, then they should do lunch really early. Be sure to tell them how to mobile order ahead of time to get the arrival window they want.

I agree CRT rather than BoG yields princesses.

We love Hollywood Brown Derby . I wouldn't want to haul everyone over to Epcot for Food and Wine on HS day. They could get a dining package for seats at Fantasmic.

At Epcot, if they aren't feeling the food and wine booths, they could mobile order regal eagle. We do a 7 pm dinner in the pyramid San Angel, which puts us in the vicinity for Fireworks.

Thanks for the idea for the Fantasmic package. Is it worth it, in your opinion? It's $83 for adults. Also, do you think it's a bit late for little ones 4 years and 5 years old? I'll definitely ask the mom and dad.

 

[Liastaob]

Thanks so much for the input!! What about the days for each park? Am I right in pushing MK and EP to the last two days to try to avoid the marathon?

I'm pretty sure Disney itself warns against going to the MK when there's a marathon; that's a pretty good call.

Random thoughts:

November is a much better time for AK; the animals may actually be out and doing their thing when it's cooler.

What time zone are they coming from? We always try to keep our schedule to approximate our Mountain time when we go, which means later breakfast and dinner, but the kids (6 and 9) get to see the fireworks

MK has several great princess meet and greets; might want to reserve a LL for one of those! My daughter is partial to Aurora, who I think you can meet in France still.

My kids at 3 and 6 absolutely hated pirates, FYI. I didn't even try Haunted Mansion after that reaction... They love it now

 

[mefordis]

I'm pretty sure Disney itself warns against going to the MK when there's a marathon; that's a pretty good call.

Random thoughts:

November is a much better time for AK; the animals may actually be out and doing their thing when it's cooler.

What time zone are they coming from? We always try to keep our schedule to approximate our Mountain time when we go, which means later breakfast and dinner, but the kids (6 and 9) get to see the fireworks

MK has several great princess meet and greets; might want to reserve a LL for one of those! My daughter is partial to Aurora, who I think you can meet in France still.

My kids at 3 and 6 absolutely hated pirates, FYI. I didn't even try Haunted Mansion after that reaction... They love it now

They are Eastern time zone. So, I'm trying to write up all of the recommendations and send them at once. (They are both busy, working parents and I don't want to go back and forth I'd rather just have them look over a full agenda and pick and choose from that, modify as they wish.) The calendar isn't out yet but their dining reservations can be made on Sept 2! That makes it hard to do the recommendations when I don't know if Fantasmic is offered early or late.

Should I just build in each day a break at the resort, or have the day end early after their 4:30pm dinner? I almost feel like they should do a sit down lunch instead of dinner if that's the case, but I know the parents enjoy a leisurely dinner with wine and that isn't really good for lunch.

On the other hand, I feel like the girls would probably enjoy the pool in the evenings more than fireworks or a crowded park. I want this to be as relaxing and chill for them as it possibly can be. It's their first time and if they have a stressful experience I'd feel so bad since I hyped it up so much.

Also, they have park hoppers so if they wanted to, being on the skyliner, they could go into Epcot any evening and view the fireworks there if they wanted, possibly after the pool.

 

[mefordis]

Parents of little ones: Thank you so much for your input!! I am thinking of using this as an outline for each day:

Breakfast at resort quick service
First 3 Lightening lanes
12pm lunch at Counter service or snacks
Attractions, more lightening lanes
Dinner: 4:30pm in the park, Table service
5:30pm - Head back to resort for swimming, down time
8:30pm - If they are up for it skyliner to see Epcot fireworks at 9pm

What do you think?

 

[DisTXMom]

We prefer tusker house and Akershus for a late 10:30 breakfast and we make it our lunch - more mainstream food at those restaurants for breakfast than other meals.

MK-personally I’d do Crystal palace late 10:30 breakfast (lunch) over be our guest.
Better kid friendly atmosphere and better value IMO.

 

[mefordis]

We prefer tusker house and Akershus for a late 10:30 breakfast and we make it our lunch - more mainstream food at those restaurants for breakfast than other meals.

MK-personally I’d do Crystal palace late 10:30 breakfast (lunch) over be our guest.
Better kid friendly atmosphere and better value IMO.

Thank you! Do you take breaks and go back to your resort in the middle of the day? That never worked for us because nobody wanted to go back to the parks later like we thought we would. With teens now we usually stay all day in the parks.

 

[Liastaob]

They are Eastern time zone. So, I'm trying to write up all of the recommendations and send them at once. (They are both busy, working parents and I don't want to go back and forth I'd rather just have them look over a full agenda and pick and choose from that, modify as they wish.) The calendar isn't out yet but their dining reservations can be made on Sept 2! That makes it hard to do the recommendations when I don't know if Fantasmic is offered early or late.

Should I just build in each day a break at the resort, or have the day end early after their 4:30pm dinner? I almost feel like they should do a sit down lunch instead of dinner if that's the case, but I know the parents enjoy a leisurely dinner with wine and that isn't really good for lunch.

On the other hand, I feel like the girls would probably enjoy the pool in the evenings more than fireworks or a crowded park. I want this to be as relaxing and chill for them as it possibly can be. It's their first time and if they have a stressful experience I'd feel so bad since I hyped it up so much.

Also, they have park hoppers so if they wanted to, being on the skyliner, they could go into Epcot any evening and view the fireworks there if they wanted, possibly after the pool.

I understand your worry. In my opinion, the stress comes at WDW when you try to fit too much into a single day. I do like heading back to the resort to hit the pool before dinner, but for them that's probably only going to work if they're at Epcot or Hollywood. For them just getting to MK will take a good chunk of time. They could consider hopping on the monorail and checking out some of the other resorts as a break.

We prefer a light lunch, or even just snacks, and a big dinner, so that'd be my recommendation. You can usually work up a big appetite with all the walking!

Akerhus is an excellent choice for princesses; my daughter loves it. Seriously if they love Pricesses they will be thrilled. They can stop in to see Anna and Elsa who are also right there. They serve food family style, which seems weird at first, but I think works really well for kids. They also have some really delicious nordic themed cocktails

One of the things I love about WDW is that even the nicer restaurants are pretty accommodating for kids, so I wouldn't hesitate to go to Brown Derby as long as their reasonably well behaved. We kind of struggle finding things to do in Hollywood in the afternoon, though.

In MK, I'm a big fan of Skipper Cantine for dinner. The cast members there were amazingly kind to my kids last trip. Crystal Palace is great for kids who like Winnie the Poo. I think Be Our Guest has gone downhill since covid, but I couldn't really tell you why. Used to be one of my favorites. Cinderella's Table is great if you can swing it. Keep in mind you pay in advance for that one.

One thing they should consider is bringing an umbrella stroller for the 4 year old, unless they want to carry her a lot. Tiny legs get real tired.

As many times as I've been to WDW, I've never actually seen Fantasmic. I've heard it's awesome. Maybe next year!

 

[DisTXMom]

Thank you! Do you take breaks and go back to your resort in the middle of the day? That never worked for us because nobody wanted to go back to the parks later like we thought we would. With teens now we usually stay all day in the parks.

When our kids were little, we took a 4 hour break from around 1-5pm every day. Came back refreshed and ready to close the parks each night and able to rope drop the next day.

 

[pks_domer]

Thank you! Do you take breaks and go back to your resort in the middle of the day? That never worked for us because nobody wanted to go back to the parks later like we thought we would. With teens now we usually stay all day in the parks.

One thing they should consider is bringing an umbrella stroller for the 4 year old, unless they want to carry her a lot. Tiny legs get real tired.

Before I had even read your original post, these were the two things that immediately popped into my head. Our kids were 6 and 3 on the last trip. The 6yo still needs stroller breaks, and the 3yo still needs naps. And if the kids needs naps, whether they are willing to nap in the stroller vs need to go back to the hotel to sleep will have pretty big implications.

Agree on Akershus for princesses. Cinderella's Royal Table is good too.

And then the last thing-- parents know their kids best... it's really hard (as others have said) to try and push and do things, especially if this is a first trip. Advance planning is super-helpful; being willing to listen to the kids and adapt is hard but so worth it. Tired/crabby? Don't push it. Take a break, get a snack, take a nap. Bathroom breaks? Everybody go. 4yo wants Dumbo for a third time in a row? Sure, why not...

 

[kdka421]

Thank you! Do you take breaks and go back to your resort in the middle of the day? That never worked for us because nobody wanted to go back to the parks later like we thought we would. With teens now we usually stay all day in the parks.

I think you (and us, lol), as someone outside of the family, are going to have a hard time making this decision for the family. As the post above said, the parents are going to know their kids the best, even if they're unfamiliar with Disney, and hopefully be able to know better what their kids will be up for schedule wise.

I will say that for us, when our girls were that age, we ALWAYS took an early afternoon break of a few hours, went back to the hotel for either a nap or a pool break, and then returned to the parks around dinner. We also tried to stick as close to their normal waking/sleeping schedule as normal, as we knew they would get cranky with super early wakeups or super late evenings. We've all seen kids who are used to 7pm bedtimes having a meltdown at the parks or on the bus after a late night show.
So depending upon their normal routine, if the kids are typically early risers, try to take advantage of that with rope drop! If they're night owls, maybe add in an afternoon nap break and try to push bedtime just a hair so they can see that evening entertainment.

 

[sponica]

I would recommend a double stroller actually for the 4 and 5 year old. At 5.5 my older daughter still needed the stroller for WDW.

Honestly, I would recommend they pick up the Kids Guide to WDW and go through it with both kids.

And they should avoid having the perfect be the enemy of the good. First trips have LOTS of "mistakes" because it's a learning curve.

Also, the kids they bring on vacation are not necessarily the kids that they live with.

 

[Anna131517]

Parents of little ones: Thank you so much for your input!! I am thinking of using this as an outline for each day:

Breakfast at resort quick service
First 3 Lightening lanes
12pm lunch at Counter service or snacks
Attractions, more lightening lanes
Dinner: 4:30pm in the park, Table service
5:30pm - Head back to resort for swimming, down time
8:30pm - If they are up for it skyliner to see Epcot fireworks at 9pm

What do you think?

Breakfast - order groceries and eat in the room unless they’re doing a character breakfast, and get to the parks early. Most little kids are early risers but that will partly depend on what time
Zone they’re coming from.

Lunch - do sit down lunch. Gives kids a break and my kids were always better behaved earlier in the day.

Dinner - quick serve. That way if the kids are too tired (or stroller sleeping) its not hard to adjust plans.

Take lots of snacks and water bottles into the parks.

 

[ArielDreams]

I’ve taken my son at 2, 3, and 4. He will ride anything he is tall enough for so they may want to focus on rides if that’s their thing. This is what we do (which I think lines up with what others have said):

Breakfast at hotel - QS or snacks
Rope drop and get as much done as possible
TS lunch during 11:00 hour or head back to resort for QS lunch
Rest at resort until around 4
Back to the park and depending on closing times, stay till the end or leave early (~9)