Visiting with my 18 month old - tips?

[DisneyFave]

my son (who will be 18 months) and i are staying at the poly 3 nights in september - any tips for dining or rides?? We just took him at 11 months for one day (in the COLD) so his schedule will be different and he will be walking. What did your kids like to do at 18 mo? We will definitely do rope drop. Should I bother with ADRs (i’m obsessed with 50s prime time).

 

[AFwifelife]

Is he tall enough for the speedway? That was my son’s favorite ride once he was tall enough. Also loved Astro Orbiter. He’s always wanted the more extreme rides so rides like IASW and Pooh bore him lol.

 

[AFwifelife]

Oh and for ADRs, my kids hate sitting down for a meal at Disney. They like to stay moving so we do mostly CS. The only two that are usual big hits are Sci Fi and Garden Grill.

 

[DisneyFave]

Ooh ok! Did you do fast passes? I guess we can reserve them for things like Na'vi River Journey and Peter Pan. I also love Sci Fi so might do a reservation there!

And now looking at Blizzard Beach too....

 

[h&D3]

We took our daughter when she was 15 months. It was perfect! She loved just about everything. From the characters to shopping (hey, she took after me on that part!) Meals were no big deal. Mac and Cheese, or uncrustable sandwiches (yes, some restaurants have those on hand)
She loved Prince Phillip Carousel, Pirates (she was actually cheering "HOORAY" or belting out "YO HO", Dumbo was a hit, Small World... but the thing she loved the best was the monorail. We took scheduled breaks from the parks just to ride the monorail. It was nice and cool, and quiet. There were several times we rode it around just for naps. Then she was good to go for hours on end.

 

[pixie08]

Rope Drop (because my son wakes at the crack of dawn anyway). If you want a sit down meal Crystal Palace for breakfast or lunch to get the Pooh characters in. FP Dumbo, Small world and Pooh. He also loved the carousel and tea cups but the waits are not bad on those so usually no FP is needed for TC (no FP is available at the carousel). Also Flying carpets, tiki room and Jungle Cruise if you are going 2 days to MK (which I recommend highly over every other park at that age plus you are staying at Poly). Those with the carousel and tea cups were my sons favs at that age. He was a bit scared on dark rides like LM & Buzz (although now at 3 he loves them).

Take a mid day break. My LO usually napped at 1pm so we would eat lunch and then take a 1-1 1/2 hour nap.After nap we would hit the pool or run around to get his sillies out. We stayed at the Poly when my LO was 18 months and he loved that resort. A lot of space to run a round and the splash pad is great. We usually only scheduled on sit down a day because my LO didn't want to sit for too long at that age so we didn't want the trip to be him in a highchair for hours. For that reason BOG lunch was great because we would preorder and they bring it to your table so that is nice with a toddler.


My lo loved the breakfast at Ohana last time. It is Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. They have this adorable parade around the restaurant and he held pluto's hand the whole time. It was one of those "this is why we go to Disney" moments. He still talks about it! Plus they bring the food to your table which is way easier with toddlers then a buffet. Ditto for garden grill in EPCOT.

 

[KrazeeK120]

We took our son at 18 months last May.

We did TS meals at GG and Tusker House. He loved them both. He was really into the characters.

We did lots of rides. He generally liked them. He didn’t like the drop in FEA. We did EMM...it was nice for him to get to ride PP and Pooh over and over! We also did a lot of FPs to minimize time waiting in line.

He took naps in the stroller. We did RD every day...he is up early anyway.

Some of his favorite things were Dumbo, Enchanted Tiki Room, Turtle Talk, and Festival of the Lion King.

We didn’t do nighttime entertainment...keeping him on his regular bedtime schedule saved our sanity. We had a wonderful trip and will do nighttime entertainment when he is older.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Every toddler is so different. My DS's favorites were the flying dinosaurs and carpets (never got around to Dumbo), HM, Pirates, the Safari, Nemo ride. He LOVED the 3 Caballeros ride in Mexico and basically played peek-a-boo with all of the Donald Ducks. I thought he'd love Turtle Talk because he loves turtles, but he just couldn't sit still through it. He slept through FEA and fell asleep on iasw and the Carousel (while sitting on a horse with me next to him). He also loved the Lion King show. His favorite play area was definitely the light up carpets in the play area after the Figment ride.

We like ADRs because it's a way to escape the heat and we enjoy the character meals because we don't have to pay for him yet and then we don't have to wait in the meet and greet lines. DS seemed to really enjoy Garden Grill (amazing character interaction) and Crystal Palace (even though he had no prior exposure to Pooh and friends, he loved them). At SciFi, he wouldn't sit still in the booth. You can't put a highchair at the car booths, so something to consider there.

 

[pixie08]

Oh yes! My son loved the ride in Mexico too for some reason. I think he liked Donald Duck!