Toddler families: what did/does your touring plan look like?

[branv]

Starting to plan out our first trip with our toddler son, which is of course a very different experience than planning our past child free trips. It's certainly interesting to be trying to allow for flexibility all while handling FP+ scheduling and planning for those special little toddler needs (*cough* demands). I'm curious what others have done or plan to do with their toddlers in regards to a touring plan.

 

[azarine]

Our youngest is 2 1/2 so an older toddler, but our touring plan is in our pre-trip report in my signature - hope it helps.

 

[DisneyCAL]

Our plans involve Rope Drop since younger kids are in their "prime happy time" in the morning and this fades as the day goes on, lol. Also build in a planned break in the day if on-site for nap then swim. We go back to parks afterwards but not every night. If off-site, taking breaks is harder so you may just plan to push on until you can't anymore and call it a night (we did this once and typically the quitting time where the kids couldn't go anymore was around 3:00pm pushing 4:00). With a toddler I would plan FP+ for midmorning hours as "things" tend to happen as the afternoon approaches. Happy planning.

 

[myrtleturtle]

Rope drop or pre-park opening ADR for breakfast because my kids are best in the morning and get up at 6am. Every.single.day. Tour until lunch then head back to the resort for a nap/quiet time. After nap, some days we will swim and have dinner at the resort, some days we will head back to the park. I would like to stick to the kids bedtime of 7pm as many days as possible.

As far as park breakdown, we have 4 park days. We will do Magic Kingdom two morning, Animal Kingdom one morning and Epcot one morning. Epcot is the only one we plan to go back to in the evening. We know this isn't our only Disney trip ever, so I'm not trying to squeeze everything in. We will go at their pace.

 

[pigletgirl]

On our prior trip we kept the same schedule more or less.
Mornings: RD always, and touring through lunch time.
Afternoon: Swim and nap time
Evenings: Back at the parks or DTD by 5 or so. We stayed for the evening shows.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Our MK touring plan with a toddler:
Ride dumbo
Ride dumbo
Ride carousel
Ride little mermaid
Ride dumbo
Ride dumbo
Aladdin's carpet
Dumbo
Dumbo
Eat a mickey bar.

Seriously though, we let her sleep as late as she wants, usually 9 or so, have a leisurely morning in the park, eat lunch, let her nap in the stroller. We really hit it is hard once the sun goes down, she is a night owl. Usually out til park close, and sleep late the next day. But that's kind of our normal routine at home. We let her follow her natural sleep rhythms instead of forcing it.

 

[hokieinpa]

We took our first trip with 3 kids - 4, 2, and 1.5 at the time of the trip. My TR is in my signature if you want to read about it!

We usually got to the park for RD or just after. We toured until about 1 and then headed back to the resort for a nap. Most evenings, we returned to the park at about 5 and stayed until 10 or so. The break in the middle of the day made it possible for us to see the night time entertainment that is normally past their bedtimes!

All 3 took random catnaps in the stroller throughout the day. We made sure to pack lots of their favorite snacks and have plenty for them to drink. Also, take advantage of the areas where they can run and play. It makes all the stroller time easier if they can stretch their legs. We liked the Dumbo play area, Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, aquarium area at The Seas, etc.

 

[isabellea]

Last summer (August 5) we only went to MK. My youngest had just turned 2 and her favourites were Dumbo, carrousel, tea cups (she was laughing the whole time), Tiki room, jungle cruise and speedway with daddy!

Our day:

8am CRT ADR (pre-rd)
PP
Pooh
LM M&G
LM ride
Dumbo 2x

All that before 10:30am!

Then she did the carrousel with daddy while I met A&E with my oldest.

She fell asleep in her stroller around 11am and slept thru Belle. We had lunch at BOG, did Jungle Cruise, Tiki room and Philarmagic. Around 4pm we slowly went to Tomorrowland to do Speedway and Buzz. Kids were getting tired so we did Carrousel of Progess and a train ride, ate popcorn and did some people watching until it was time to go to our Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party ADR at 8:30pm. She fell asleep on DH and didn't see any of the show or fireworks.

Was a full day but the next day we were driving a 16h straight so it was perfect since she had multiple naps in the car.

 

[wallskm]

Our kids are pretty flexible on vacation and can really go go go the whole day. We tried going back to the resorts for naps a few times but it seemed like more work. Last trip I told our (then) 2 year old it was nap time and I would lay him down in the stroller and walk for about 15 minutes and he'd fall asleep. Then we'd find a shady spot and relax for an hour or more, however long he napped! We did go back to the resort one day that we park hopped but for the most part going back to the resort added to our stress instead of helping it. We were able to stay for the nighttime entertainment and they really didn't get cranky or anything. After a few days of getting up for rope drop we decided to let them sleep and get to the park whenever we got up and ready....they woke up a whole 15 minutes later than they would have had we set the alarm! As far as the flow of the day goes we usually plan to get there at park opening, have fast passes starting around 2 hours after the park opens, have some in-park downtime, then a couple more rides, then dinner, more rides, then evening entertainment (some nights, other nights we leave after dinner). Our kids have been 16 months and almost 4 on one trip, and 2.5 and almost 5 on another trip.

 

[Ava]

My toddler isn't good at napping in the stroller, so we need to either go back to the resort for a nap or plan for a short day. Last year she was 16 months old and if she got a good nap she was fine through the nighttime entertainment. We even did MNSSHP and stayed for the 2nd parade; she was still awake the whole bus ride back to the hotel and it was probably after midnight by the time we got back. On the days when we didn't go back to the hotel for nap, she'd sleep for max an hour in the stroller or carrier after lunch, we'd leave the park by 4, have dinner around 5 and she'd be in bed by 7 (which is her normal bedtime at home).

I think the most important touring tip with toddlers is to follow their cues and be as flexible as possible. Also schedule meals as close to their normal meal times as possible, and carry lots of snacks to help avoid meltdowns.

 

[branv]

Thanks everyone! Follow up question: how many days and/or how much time did you allot for each park?

 

[Ava]

Thanks everyone! Follow up question: how many days and/or how much time did you allot for each park?

Last year we didn't have park hoppers, so we did:
Day 1: MK - 8am CRT res, stayed at park until ~4pm. (It was a MNSSHP night so MK closed at 7.)
Day 2: Epcot - 8am Akershus res, hotel break after lunch then back around 5. Left before Illuminations b/c it was raining.
Day 3: AK - ~10am-4pm, 5pm dinner @ Boma
Day 4: MK - Rope drop, lunch @ Crystal Palace, hotel for nap. Back to park ~5 & stayed for parade/Wishes.
Day 5: DHS - Got to park ~10:30 for Frozen processional. We intended to take a hotel break this day but ended up just staying. DD napped a little & made it through Fantasmic.
Day 6: MNSSHP - 9:30am breakfast @ O'Hana, then we just relaxed at hotel & DD took a long nap. We got to MK ~5 & ended up staying through the 2nd parade, so it was probably close to midnight when we left. She made it.

This year we have a longer trip and got hoppers, so our plans are:
Day 1 - MK
Day 2 - AK morning & Epcot evening w/ Illuminations
Day 3 - Resort/pool day & early HDDR show
Day 4 - Epcot
Day 5 - MK morning & DHS evening w/ Frozen fireworks
Day 6 - Blizzard Beach
Day 7 - AK
Day 8 - DHS morning & MK evening w/ MSEP/Wishes

The only days we won't go back to the hotel for a nap after lunch are days 6 & 7, but those will be shorter days so she can have an early bedtime. This year I purposefully planned sleep-in days after the late nights so no one burns out. I also only did one 8am breakfast on Day 4, since those were tougher for us to get up for than I thought they'd be last year.

 

[ktlm]

Although it is a little harder with FP+, the main thing is to be flexible so you can figure out what works for him. What works for someone else's toddler may not work for yours at all. I don't think you can really know what will work for a kid at WDW until you have had them there the first time. They can really surprise you with their likes and dislikes and with what works for them and what doesn't. It is hard to plan that first trip with a toddler- especially now with FP+, we didn't have to deal with that thank goodness. That will lock you into some time frames with an inability to see how the day is going and pull FP accordingly. It is also is going to limit the toddler desire to ride their favorite things over and over, and might create some issues. When DD was under 5, at MK, we pretty much just pulled a new FP for Peter Pan every time our window opened to do so- we usually FP it 4 or 5 times a day, and did not FP anything else. Now- that is not possible. Maybe you will get lucky and one of the favorites will be the Donald Duck boat ride in Mexico at EPCOT. The lines are usually short for that. We implemented a 5 time in a row limit for that when DD was a toddler/preschooler- otherwise, I think she would have rode it in circles all day.

We've been taking DD since she was 2 (she is 9 now). She has never been a morning person, but we did get to the parks at park opening even at age 2- or at least within the first 15 minutes of opening. We quickly discovered that pre-park breakfasts were not for her. It was hard enough getting her to the parks by opening- with the one hour time change from our home. So, one tip would be before planning any pre-park opening activities think of any time changes you will be dealing with and whether your DS is a morning person or night owl.

My DD has always been high energy, but I was convinced from the boards that a mid-day break would be perfect and a necessity for her at age 2. We discovered the first day at age 2, that mid-day breaks did not work for her at all. All we got was a very angry kid who did not want to leave the parks and refused to nap. From that time forward we just stayed in the parks from open to close and she took stroller naps when she was tired. That was what worked great for her. Also, we discovered that the best schedule for her was a lunch ADR. We would go full speed in the morning, and then sit down for lunch and she would wind down and get in her stroller and take a nap after lunch. It was also a good break for us, to re-energize, as we typically would take turns riding some of rides she was too little for while she napped. Dinner ADRs weren't as good because she would be starting to get tired and would be a little restless during dinner.

When DD was 2, we did 2 days MK, 1 day EPCOT, 1 day DHS, and 1 day AK. We were in EPCOT from open to close and did not feel like we had enough time, so since then we have done 2 days in EPCOT every trip. We do not do days off. DD would not have stood for that as a toddler. Once we had gotten her good and awake, she would usually be standing at the room door with her stroller telling us to hurry up so she could get to a park! DHS is good for mid or later trip if that works for you because that is a show heavy park which makes for a slower day involving more sitting- we considered that kind of a rest day when DD was small and starting to get tired from all the open to close days in a row.

You might want to plan your FP+ earlier in the day where you can for that first trip, since you can't be sure what the afternoon or evening might be like for him yet.

 

[Ava]

You might want to plan your FP+ earlier in the day where you can for that first trip, since you can't be sure what the afternoon or evening might be like for him yet.

This is pretty much what we did last year; we'd have FPs in the 9, 10, & 11am range so we'd be finished with them by lunch, then we could get a 4th one for later in the evening if we planned to come back to the park. A few times we also ended up not using one of the morning FPs because it just wasn't needed, so I used the app to change it to a different attraction at a later time. I found it very easy to do this, which gave us a little more flexibility. If you aren't going at a very busy time of year, I think FPs are only really needed for the most popular headliners.

 

[lucyddr]

Our 2014 Schedule:

Saturday: Arrived in afternoon. Downtown Disney and TRex
Sunday: Magic Kingdom. Crystal Palace after rope drop. Peter Pan, Carousel, Alladin, Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, Dumbo, Small World, Little Mermaid...then we hit a wall!
Monday: Epcot. Living with the Land, The Seas and Nemo ride, Imaginarium, Innoventions building....then Chef Mickeys
Tuesday: Hollywood Studios Frozen package. Opening parade, singalong, Disney Jr, Playground, Little Mermaid, Fireworks. Day was too long for our two. Won't make that mistake again!
Wednesday: Day at Typhoon Lagoon, dinner with friends at Olivias
Thursday: Animal Kingdom. Tusker House breakfast. Lion King, Safari, Nemo, and "Dumbo" ride. Finished day early and went to resort to relax.
Friday: Magic Kingdom...carousel, Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Train
Saturday: Day at Resort Pool with Friends
Sunday: Depart.


Our 2015 Schedule (subject to changes):
Note: We are spending Saturday through Tuesday with family who do not want to go to the parks...thus the plans!
Friday: Arrive
Saturday: Blizzard Beach (family arrives in afternoon)
Sunday: Day at Cocoa Beach with friends/family
Monday: Morning at resort, BBB at noon, DTD and Chef Mickeys
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom
Wednesday: Hollywood Studios with Fantasmic Package/Disney Jr lunch
Thursday: Typhoon Lagoon, Epcot in evening
Friday: Magic Kingdom