What age do you think kids will remember their trip?

[elaine amj]

I've given up on this "if they're older they will remember it" stuff. Not my kids. I took my DD to Washington when she was 12. I asked her a year later what she remembered - "walking on a sidewalk with grass next to us". UGH!

 

[Veggie]

My husband went to Disney when he was 6 and when he was 38. I swear he remember more from when he was 6 years old. I don't think age matters. Go because you want to have fun!

 

[ElenaRN]

ODD has memories from the trip when she was almost 3. Some of the memories are vague and some are more vivid.

 

[fairy oma]

GDs were 5 and 3 when they went for the first time and they are have been begging to go back to WDW at least 2 times a month for the last year. They also ask to watch the video Grandpa put together for them on a regular basis. They remember BBB and being princesses for the day, not being able to ride some of the rides because of height requirements, MNSSHP and the Grave Diggers Dance, the Wishes fireworks and the horse that drew the carriage at POR.

They are going to be very surprised when they get off the plane to help Grandma celebrate her birthday in Kansas and are in Orlando instead.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I think for most people the real question is at what age will kids be able to appreciate or get the most out of a WDW trip? I've always heard people say that the "magical" age is 4. On our family's first WDW trip my middle DD was 4; and on our second trip our youngest DS was 4. Looking back on those trips I can say that truly was a "magical" age for many reasons. Don't get me wrong, there is definitely fun for everyone at Disney and it's a great family vacation experience no matter how little the youngest members of the family are .

 

[Misha72683]

Mine will be 2.5 and 4, I doubt they'll remember it, but they'll defintiely appreciate it.

 

[ktlm]

Dd's first trip was at 2 years 10 months. She is 9 now and she can still give a lot of specifics from her 2 year old trip. Even if she forgot, I would remember. That was one of my absolute favorite trips. Everything was real to her and she was in awe of it and had a huge smile on her face most of the time. She stood and sang the entire A Dream is a Wish song to Cinderella with her little hands clasped in front of her, and then they hugged and talked quite a bit. I had tears in my eyes several times that trip. It was magical.

 

[texasroni75]

DD is 20 now, and she doesn't really remember any of her trips before age 8. However, her favorite pictures are from her first trip at age 4. Same goes for second-born DD, since we took a trip while I was pregnant with her - she gets a kick out of knowing that she had a trip to Disney before she was born.

 

[PizzaFryGirl]

Our DD just turned 10 but went to WDW for the first time when she was 2 years old. She loves going to WDW and remembers the trips when she was ages 7 and 8. Even though she doesn't really remember the trips from when she was 2 and 4, she enjoys looking back at the photos from those earlier trips. And I have the memories of all of our children's trips.

 

[btk2333]

What do you guys think? Im opposed to taking infants as they can't appreciate the magic of Disney yet! What age for those in the know did your kids start remembering or appreciating the magic a bit more..?

I'm leaning in the 4 5 or 6 range but I can be mistake!

Parents help!

IMO it's not about when your kids will remember the trip (they won't remember lots of things that we do to entertain them but we do them anyway). It's about when you will remember the trip. We took ours at 10 months and they won't remember a thing; however, I will remember it for the rest of my life and I wouldn't trade that trip for anything.

That being said, my first memories are around 3 years old (we moved and I remember the apartment vaguely)

 

[fanoftigger]

Kind of depends on how much you want/expect someone to remember.

I have a few random memories of my 1st trip to Disneyland when I was 6. The biggest memory is when we lost my cousin. It was the '70s and the characters wandered the park. We were so excited to see Winnie the Pooh, my cousin ended up following Pooh and we didn't realize it. I have a few other vague memories, but that's my biggest one. But I do remember that I loved it at Disneyland.

 

[fanoftigger]

Kind of depends on how much you want/expect someone to remember.

I have a few random memories of my 1st trip to Disneyland when I was 6. The biggest memory is when we lost my cousin. It was the '70s and the characters wandered the park. We were so excited to see Winnie the Pooh, my cousin ended up following Pooh and we didn't realize it. I have a few other vague memories, but that's my biggest one. But I do remember that I loved it at Disneyland.

I went to WDW at age 25 (20 years ago) and, while I do have many more memories, I've forgotten more about that trip than I remember. But again, I remember loving it and having a great time with my family.

 

[MsHook]

My parents took my older brother and I to the World when we were 2 and 4. I don't remember a second of it. And to be honest, we went so many times when I was a kid that I don't really remember anything specific of Disney World until I was a teen. We visited Disneyland once which completely confused me of where everything was! ha ha. However, I remember my trip when I was 6 (my brother was 8) to Disneyland Paris. I could tell you so many things that happened on that trip and it was over 20 years ago now. To me, that was my first trip to Disney. Complete magic!

I asked my parents why they took me so young as I don't remember it now and they said they had a great time as did we. Fair enough. Personally, I think I will wait until my future kids are at least 6 to take them as I want them to have the same magic that I had that they will have a better chance of remembering. There can only be one "first time" in my eyes.

Though I completely understand why you would take your kids at any age. No matter when you take them, there will still be magic - it is Disney after all! Do what feels right for you!

 

[RoosMama]

Sometimes my DD3 does not remember whether she met Minnie Mouse or not on our last trip (she turned 3 the week after), but the other day she told me about how the boat was really loud on the way to Tom Sawyer's Island but not so loud on the way back. Ha - I wouldn't have remembered that if she didn't remind me!

 

[Pesky]

DD was 6 for our first trip and remembers bits and pieces of it, especially when we jog her memory. DS remembers some but not a lot and he was 4.5. Not nearly the same.

 

[lucyddr]

Our friends have 6 children and they live in Florida. They tell us that despite going to Disney a lot, their kids never remember much about the trips! My theory is that if you can only go once, then wait until 5-7 years old. If you can go multiple times, go whenever! We took our children at 20 months and are going back this year. I know they won't remember it, but there are many pieces to our trip that my husband and I will never forget! Sweet memories...

 

[cjparker0110]

I remember a few years ago asking my mom about a guy named David I remembered talking to on a boat ride. Turns out he was my aunt's stepson. I had never seen him since then as he estranged himself from the family. (He didn't even show up to his dad's funeral). I remembered talking to him on the boat. I also remember him treating me to a bowling arcade game (with the old rollerball that games used to sometimes have). As I described him my mom's jaw dropped because he was only there on our first trip and I was only 4. There are a few other details I remembered from that trip as well but nobody but me knows for sure which trip they were from. David was an obvious one. So age 4 can remember.

 

[Susie Cortez]

My daughter first went to WDW when she was 5 weeks. People told me all the time, "you know, she's not going to remember it." Well, duh. Of course she isn't going to remember it, but I am! We had a great time! We went again when she was a year old and she loved Small World, the Carousel and Dumbo. The characters scared her a bit. When she was 18 months we went to DLR and at this point, she had a blast! She loved having lunch at Ariel's Grotto and meeting the princesses. All the fantasy land rides were a hit and she even loved Haunted Mansion and Pirates. We went to DLR when she was almost 2 and my son was 5 weeks (now knowing about the measles outbreak, I would wait until they are 12 months and have had the MMR). At 2 she was just as enthralled and started actively talking with CM and characters. She also started pin trading on that trip, though it was hit and miss on how much she liked doing it. At 2 1/2 we went again to DLR (my son was about 8 months). On this trip we had my older nieces, aged 4 and 5. They definitely brought another spin to everything. Plus this was last spring - so they were absolutely Elsa crazy. It was so fun! Three little Elsas running around in homemade/hacked costumes - awesome. All three girls enjoyed pin trading and all the rides they could go on. The 4 and 5 year olds were tall, so the could do SM, BTM and Splash. They still talk about that trip. With my son at 8 months, he like the carousel and most of the characters. Goofy was a little suspicious though (his head is HUGE!). Last October we rented a townhouse in Kissimmee for the month. My daughter loved MK and Epcot. She still talks about "the Donald ride" and Dole Whips. She is now a pin trading pro. My son was able to enjoy a lot more - small world, Dumbo, Nemo at 14 months.

My opinion is, they aren't necessarily going to remember - but they are going to have an amazing magical time no matter what. And it starts to get really fun at about 18 months. We're going again next month and I can't wait! My son will be 20 months. He now LOVES Mickey (Gee-Gee, as he calls him). I can't wait to see his eyes light up at our first character breakfast!

 

[alicat8]

We went when my daughter was a little over 2. That was about 8 months ago and she still talks about it all the time. Without our prompting too-she'll just randomly say "Remember when we rode the magic carpets with Aladdin and Jasmie?..." and she'll go on with the story. She's talked about things I didn't even remember

 

[AJ1983]

We first went as kids when I was 8 1/2 and my brother was a month shy of 6. I was in LOVE with theme park rides and Disney, so I remember everything from waiting in line for 2 hours for Splash (back in 1991), meeting characters,seeing the Beauty and the Beast show,etc. My brother has less memories of the actual rides and parks. This is partly due to his age at the time, but also because he had a couple of significant moments that were not related to rides: he learned to swim while in Florida, and on our first day at the parks he touched a bug lamp at Sea World and burned his hand (had to keep his hand in a cup of ice all day).

I feel that at about age 5, kids will remember the stand out moments, and photos/videos of the trip will help them "remember" more than they actually do. As for people who say "Maybe the kids won't remember being there as a baby/toddler, but we will". Fair enough. However, I think it depends on your situation. If you can make Disney a day trip, or drive there in a few hours, then yeah go for it, take the 2 year old while they are free-why not? But if you're like me, and a trip to Disney for a 2 year old includes 8-10 hours of travel in airports/planes each way, and full plane fare on top of that, it wouldn't be worth it. I would rather wait until they were old enough to DEFINITELY remember some big things, and the equally important memories of a family time. But if I lived in Florida, my children would be seasoned Disney-goers by the time they required an actual ticket.