theme parks with a 2 year old...

[scjo68]

With my 20-month-old, We did Crystal palace for 10:30 breakfast. Pooh and friends were there, Ds loved it. We went on an EMH morning, so experienced Fantasyland and Pooh's thoughtful spot without crowds until our 10:30 ADR. So it was really more of an early lunch. We had nutrigrain bar in the hotel room for "breakfast". Another option is to make an 8:00 ADR for a non-emh morning, and be finished at 9:00 for opening. Lunch would be a good option, too. Make sure you have an ADR. You don't want to be sitting in breakfast at 9:00 or so, beacause that is prime touring time with low crowds and lines. Vitally important for this age, who are not good waiters.

We also did Chef Mickeys at the Contemporary, for Dinner. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Donald were there. We had a 5:00 ADR, which was the perfect time to go.

You don't pay for these meals till you get there. You won't have to pay for a child under three at all for any buffet or family style meal, they can just eat from the buffet. Now, if you, say, order them chicken nuggets at counter service, you pay for them.

Now, if you want to do Cinderella's Royal Table at the MK castle (a difficult ADR to get, look for info in dining board) Or the Princess Storybook breakfast at Norway in EPCOT, They will charge a $10 deposit to your credit card when you book. Or maybe they just get your cc number in case you don't show up. Either way, for those two meals, you give them you card number over the phone, and you must cancel at least 48 hours before, or they will charge $10 per person if you don't show. The others, you can technically just not show up, but it's nice to cancel as a courtesy.

Both CP and CM meals are quite loud and fun. Lots of music, child participation. If the child likles that kind of thing, great. If they are extremely sensitive to lots of stimulation and easily overwhelmed, A princess meal might be better. Face characters are less intimidating, and the meals are calmer and quieter.

 

[QueenGoblin]

that was going to be my next question, about one of the character meals.. would you do breakfeast or lunch or dinner or what ? and do i have to pay for it up front when i make a reservation ?

You don't have to pay up front for Crystal Palace or Chef Mickey's or any of the other standard character meals, but I think they might require up front payment for things like Cinderella's Royal Table or some of the dinner shows. allearsnet.com has a lot of good information about dining at Disney, including menues and how to make reservations, etc. You should definatly make ADRs (reservations) for the character meals to make sure you get in as they can get busy.
As far as breakfast, lunch, dinner, a lot of that depends on what your party likes to eat and when. Lots of people like to make an early breakfast ADR for Crystal Palace because that means you get into the park before it opens and you are ready to go! My DH is not a big breakfast eater though, so we tend to plan early dinner ressies. You can look at the menus and the prices on allearsnet and decide what works best for you.
We took DD last year when she was just over 2. We had one major meltdown early in our trip which was very hard because we were staying at FW and had to take the boat from MK and then the bus to our cabin with a toddler who would not stop screaming, and we had to endure a lot of annoyed looks and comments. (It really wasn't her fault, lots of mitigating circumstances including a stolen stroller and her confusion because we arrived via the monorail and didn't leave that way). DH was ready to hide out at FW for the rest of the week, but we were brave and went back and DD had a wonderful time and still talks about it. So go! Have fun. Take it slow and if the toddler has a melt down (and what toddler doesn't at some point during even the most normal week?) don't let it ruin your trip.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Our family trips have always included everyone. It has (almost) never slowed us down. Except when someone was sick or injured. One thing I would suggest is that you invest in a stroller that reclines. There is no reason why a toddler can't have a great nap in a padded recliing stroller (Not those huge 300lb. strollers but lightweight comfortable one). I wouldn't encourage anyone to have their child nap in one of hose hard plastic Disney strollers, but we have even seen that numerous times. I'm not saying naps in the room aren't a wise thing too, but sometimes two year olds will crash suddenly, and a nice stroller is worth the money.

My nephew was runner at two, but not as much at WDW - there was so much to see, that it actually slowed him down. Still, we did have to be careful with him.

At two, a child still sees WDW as completely real. It is magical to see the World through their eyes. But seeing characters can be hit or miss. (Beast is pretty big! But Pooh can be scary too. Human characters, like the princesses might be less scary.) I'd choose a character meal of your liking, maybe choose the time of day that your toddler is most likely to be active -when are typical nap times? morning person or night person? Try to introduce your two year old to the characters before you go, so they know what to expect a little (movies, etc.).
Also, character meals are not stress free. They are often loud and hectic. I wouldn't schedule more than one per trip. We include most other meals as part of our 'quiet time.' Dining at sligtly off times and snacking between meals really helps. Popular QS places are a LOT quieter at 1:30pm then they are at exactly noon.
From MK, a mid-day meal at one of the monorail resorts will be quiet and relaxing, especially if you sit an enjoy the quiet for a bit (Like the lounge chairs at the Poly, the lounge area at the Contemporary, the numerous indoor and outdoor areas at the GF. The GF even has relaxing music in the afternoon, and the place is nearly empty most days.) From Epcot or MGM, an early dinner at the YC/Swan, or Dolphin can be quiet. So is lunch at one of the moderate resorts

 

[PrincessV]

I think everyone's already covered this, but just to add one more to the list...
I've taken my DS4 at every age and stage, and age 2 was one of the best WDW trips I've ever had! He was old enough to get into more of the Magic, but young enough to have a pretty specific daily schedule - which forced me to slow down and enjoy a lot more than I ever had before.

My words of advice echo others: stick to the 2 year old's schedule. Plan meals at the same times he always has them; bring toys, snuggle-things, etc. with which he's familiar; take breaks and hit the parks at the times of day he's liveliest; go easy on the characters until you know how he responds to them; make sure you check things out form his perspective often - you'll be amazed at the things we miss when viewing at "adult level"!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

make sure you check things out form his perspective often - you'll be amazed at the things we miss when viewing at "adult level"!

Last year we gave our nephew an old digital camera. He's a lot older than two now, but it was really interesting...He took a ton of pictures, and most of them were far from perfect, but going through them wasa lot of fun, because they showed the trip through his eyes.

For anyone going with children....when you replce your old digital camera, don't toss it. Give to your child to use on trips to WDW (the one we gave him was not high resolution, and it was nearly free when we got it to begin with. It was bundled with something else we bought,), and other vacations. You have to watch them with it - especially getting on/off rides - but the pics are priceless!

 

[DisneyDreamingAubrey]

I took my sons when they were 1 and 3 and again when they were 2 and 4. It's Great!!!! They love the magic, and at two they're very happy with a Mickey Mouse Balloon, by four they want the expensive toys that light up and spin...lol

 

[shruley]

We took our DD when she was a little over 2 and it was wonderful, I would do it again in a heartbeat. And sorry, I have to disagree with the poster who said take the child to the mall beforehand and see how they react. DD was pretty high maintence at that age...lots of tantrums, no patience, couldn't wait in a line to save her life. And to top it off we took her to the local Camp Snoopy to ride rides and she hated every one, from the Carousel to cars that went in a circle. EVERYTHING! We left for WDW thinking even if we didn't ride a ride, how bad could it be??? We were at Disney right?

Well, DD was wonderful. Thanks to TGM we stood in very few lines, but the ones that were about 10 minutes she did fine. She warmed up to rides very quickly (thanks to Pooh), and loved them all. We rode pirates, haunted mansion, about everything she was tall enough for! She loved the shows, too. We did Spectro the first night and the look on her face when she saw Mickey was priceless, a total "He's REAL!" expression. She would wake up each day asking to go see Mickey. We did have our moments, but we got through them- it helped that we went back to our hotel (the Poly) each day for a good nap. What made me decide to take her at that age was DIsney's advertising Campaign "Take them while the Magic's Still Real" and it really was true. It was more special because to her, it was all real!

 

[ILuvWDWorld]

My daughter is 2 and will be going on her 4th trip in a few weeks. Make sure you take a break from the heat & all the excitement. A good long nap in the hotel room away from everything else makes a HUGE difference for my DD. (I enjoy the break, too.)