Taking a 2.5 Year Old to WDW: Questions

[all4fun]

Actually, there is a DVC Rent/Trade board here on DISboards. The people on there are great and will show you the ropes. That is where we rented ours.

Tricia

That is what I was going to suggest. We stayed at The Villas at Wilderness Lodge on our last trip and while the lobby was always bustling, the building with the Villas was so quiet and relaxing. I would highly recommend it! Even if you get a studio, you'd still have a small fridge (about half the size of a smallish regular one), sink and microwave. Our ds who was just about to turn two at the time, loved the lobby because of the bubbling spring. We always had to stop there so he could run around it for a bit, LOL.

On an earlier trip we stayed at AKL which was nice and ds loved to look at the animals off our balcony, however I have to say that resort seems quite a bit more remote from the parks compared to the others you're considering.

hth,
Cheryl

 

[PortieOwner]

Wouldn't you know it...we decided on Coronado Springs but now it looks like we can't get a reservation for the weekend(s) we were considering in September. Looks like the French Quarter and Carribean Beach are available but not Riverside (which was our second choice).

Strangely, the Animal Kingdom and Wilderness Lodges have vacacies for all three weekends.

Thanks, Portie

 

[PortieOwner]

By calling first thing in the morning after the Disney office opens I was able to get a reservation at Coronado Springs for the weekend we desired. We also decided to upgrade to a King bed. This will allow a bit more space for the crib, and floorspace for the toddler to play.

I'll definitely be doing a lot of planning for this trip. We have lots of nap-times and early bed times to work around and have to get our Disney experience into the 6am to noon and 3pm to 6pm time slots.

Thanks for your help. I'll probably have a few more questions about the trip before we go, and I'll report back after the trip. We hope to check out a lot of restaurants using our "free dining" plan.

Thanks, Portie

 

[DISLOVE]

Hi there! I have been to WDW my daughter when she was 14 mths and 26 months... we are in the midst of planning her 3rd birthday trip right now! I have some quick tips that might be of help to you... I'm sure you might have thought of or heard some already.

The most important thing to remember when traveling with a child (regardless of age) is... HAVE AGE APPROPRIATE EXPECTATIONS
I have worked with young children for more than 12 years now and still have to remind myself of what is appropriate for a 2 year old everyday. Many parents (myself included) get to WDW and let the excitement take us away like a tidal wave. My DH and I felt so frustrated the first day of our trip because we were picturing our daughter behaving like an 8 year old at best. 2.5 year olds are at the pinnacle of the terrible twos (if you believe in that!) and need to feel independence when they want it and to be dependent when they want. (Hard for parents to keep up!) Build lots of breaks into your day, throw out any thoughts of a ride by ride type itinerary... Follow your child's cues and you should be okay. We literally spent 40 minutes playing with the "Singing in the Rain" umbrella on one trip... As a parent of a toddler you have to be okay with this... or you'll end up cranky!

I have a daredevil child who wants to ride everything! We did Goofy's Barnstormer 7 times in a row with a 26 month old. She was shrieking AGAIN over and over... it was a riot. This time we are already preparing her that she might not be tall enough to ride Splash although she insists that "it's okay mom, I'm big now!" But we will absolutely steer clear of Stitch and Tough To Be A Bug beause she isn't that keen on dark spaces or aliens.

The other thing to keep in mind is the scheduling of meals and snacks. We always had a bag of trail mix handy to fend off melt downs. We have been able to predict, without fail, when Allison will have a tantrum. If a meal or snack is late she crashes... and if she is more than 1 hour late for bed. I swear by this and it was no different in WDW. And skip the high sugar options... trust me it will feed into an afternoon at warp speed and then a firey crash.

I hope that helps! Enjoy your vacation!
Kristy

 

[rt2dz]

I haven't read but the first few posts, but I just thought I'd give you my two cents. I wouldn't, personally, stay at the value resorts if you want to be sure your little one is going to sleep well, and enjoy yourselves. They can be quite loud, and are very cramped. I would recommend AKL, because it is my one of my whole families favorites, or WL because of the easy boat access to MK.

You might want to go to the resort board and get more info. there. Any question about any resort can be found there. There are also a few compare and contrast between AKL and WL (since they are so similiar) and between the different value resorts and great profiles on all other resorts.