Tips for the parks with a 2-year-old?

[wrldpossibility]

Hi,

I'm still fairly new here, planning my first DW vacation, so please forgive me if this topic has been done to death. We're planning a trip in the late fall of 06 or Jan. of 07 (any suggestions between the two, BTW?) and will have a 7-year-old, 5-year-old, and 2-year-old. The older kids are well behaved and I think they'll be great ages for Disney, but you can't really predict a 2-year-old, lol. If he's really too young, we can wait another year, but at 3, I'm afraid he'll be upset that he's too short to ride everything with his brothers, and at 2, he won't notice/care. Also, I don't want to wait forever, since I want the other kids to be young enough to enjoy the characters, etc.

Basically, I'm asking if I'm crazy to take a 2 to the parks, and any tips I should be aware of otherwise. We plan to take an umbrella stroller, stay at a moderate, and take plenty of snacks and water. Anything in particular 2-year-olds have enjoyed? We've done DL many times, so I'm fairly familiar with what is in the MK, but everything else is new to me. Thanks!

Amy

 

[unixadm]

We took our 4 year old and 2 1/2 year old this past May and are going back in September. We also went Jan '04 when he was a little over a year old.

Both kids enjoyed it. One thing I learned on this past trip, though....don't take a 2 1/2 year old on Pirates of Caribbean....at least as one of the first rides. He got scared, and it took us several days before he would go on any other ride.

Other than that, it was great. You can't fully plan your day since kids that age are unpredictable, but we stayed pretty close to the schedule we wanted. Our 2 1/2 year old really liked the "carnival" type rides like Dumbo and Alladin's Magic Carpet. He also like the shows like "Bear in the Big Blue house" If your child scares easily, I would stay away from the rides like Haunted Mansion, Pirates, etc.


We even had a night to ourselves and got an in-room babysitter for the evening.


My 4 year old is looking over my shoulder and asked me to post this:

 

[SandrainNC]

Like unixadm said, kids are so unpredictable. We went this past November with my son who was almost 4 at the time. He is delayed, however, so cognitively he was more like a 2 year old. He liked Dumbo and that type of thing. He was fine on POTC and HM. We didn't put him on Goofy's Barnstormer because the line was too long to try it out first (we have since learned that he would have loved it - oh well). Where he had trouble was anything with fake smoke (Tough to Be a Bug, Great Movie Ride), and fire (Fantastmic). He didn't particularly like water splashing in his face either which so many of the 3D shows do.

He LOVED the Spectromagic Parade (except for the little bit of smoke coming out of Mickey's float). He also really liked Playhouse Disney Live on Stage. Those kids in there are having a ball!! We didn't get to The Living Seas but he would have loved that (we know because we went to SeaWorld and he loved looking at the aquariums).

Definitely if you can start in Fantasyland and work your way up to things that might be a little more scary so he won't get scared first thing.

Sandra

 

[la79al]

DS is 8 1/2. we just got back from DW two weeks ago and one of his favorite parts was the character dinner. so if you have to wait another year, your oldest one will still be fine.

 

[Mr Poohbrain]

DS will be 3. We went at 2 and 2.5 and each time, he liked something different.

Our guy was fine on POTC at 2, but then hated any dark rides at 2.5 - Spaceship Earth just freaked him out and he whimpered during the whole ride. He also didn't like the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom (again, dark and loud).

Now, one exclusion to the above mentioned statement is that he LOVED Mickey's Philharmonic (which really should be named "Donald's Philharmonic", b/c Donald is the real "star" of the show). I think he liked that one so well b/c Duck was his favorite character at the time. We saw it at least 3 times.

He also loved going on the race cars b/c he "got to drive". Didn't even complain about the 30-45 minute wait for that one.

Mrs. PB

 

[susykt4]

DS was not quite 2 1/2 when we went in April. He usually doesn't like crowds or strollers or waiting for anything. I was expecting the worst from him and DH and I had agreed before the trip that we would switch off returning to the resort pool or playground when he got too awful. (The trip was planned around princess-loving DD5.) DS SHOCKED us! He was great the entire week. We never had to take him back to the resort (though we did return for a nap break every day.) He loved all the rides/shows in Fantasyland, LOVED Goofy's rollercoaster, and did well on all the other "gentle" rides at MK. We were also shocked by how much our usually shy and reserved son loved meeting the characters. He also enjoyed everything we did at Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Other than meeting the many characters, neither child was crazy about MGM. (And I had predicted that would be their 2nd favorite park after MK...)

As long as your family is willing to split up occasionally so the older kids can go on the big rides there's no reason to wait! Two-yr-olds are free! 3 months after our trip, DS still can't get enough of looking at our Disney photos. I'm sure he loved the trip as much as his sister.

 

[estherhead]

My tip is to do what he likes to do, which you won't know until you get there, and be prepared to do a lot of sitting on benches enjoying him enjoying things OTHER than rides. The environment of Disney is what my kids enjoyed at those ages. Climbing on stuff and exploring. And characters. LOVED the characters. And letting the bigger kids and dh ride while you and the little one are outside watching the talking garbage can or Belle's storytime. Also, don't expect your two year old to smile much. This was disappointing to me the first time with a two year old as I had envisioned this amazing pictures of smiles everywhere. But my two year olds (both girls at different times) had their mouths wide open in wonderment most of the time. It's just so amazing to them that smiling is not what happens. Wonderment. Not a great expression for the camera. Especially when they meet characters. Looking at you is out of the question HELLO!!! I'm meeting Buzz Lightyear for the first time. I'd like to converse with him, I have no interest in looking at the camera and smiling.

Plus the stuff the other people said, dark rides and all

 

[SqueakyMouse]

Our 3 children were 12, 4, and 2.5 during our May trip. Of the 3, I think our 2.5 yo dd had the most fun! What others have said about little ones being unpredictable is so true! Dd rode POTC several times. She loved it the first time, was scared to death the second, then liked it again the third time. Believe it or not, the ride that scared her the most was TTA. I think it was the dark and seeing SM.

 

[klineyqueen]

My suggestion is this - don't wait! We took our son at 1.5 and he loved it. I doubt he remembered much but he was so happy at the time. We are going next month and he just turned two. We actually decided to book because he held up the tour planning book and it has dumbo on the cover. He became all excited about flying with Dumbo. So he must have remembered something! You can't do killer days with the little guys but you can have a great time! No Worries!

 

[Sebastianmom]

Imagine what the place will look like through your 2 yr old child! That is what made us go. We are going in September and cant wait! Time goes by so slowly

We are planning to go to all four parks, starting with MK. There we will do what most people suggest, go to Fantasyland first. Character meals are a great too. Try the gentle rides first and work your way from there. You will have to consider splitting your party for some attractions, and then meed to enjoy some other attractions, parades and meals together. Have a great trip

 

[Zoesmama03]

Great tips. I'm going the week of Sept 5th with our dd who will be 2 on the 26th of this month. She will probably enjoy the POTC and maybe even HM but I think we may pass the Its tough to be a bug. I even jumped on it. I heard lots of kids screaming so sounded like a bunch were scared.

the shows seemed to be a hit for kids last time I went. I definitely will not miss those with dd. Especialy the Lion King show. She loves watching the movies.

Its hard to tell what she will like but she climbed up the tallest twistiest slide at the park and went down by herself the other day having never been down even on a lap. So I figure my child has no fears.

She says she wants to meet and give him a hug but we will see she did not like Santa AT ALL would not go near him even with me holding her. But that was months ago she might be fine meeting I can't wait to see.