which plan is better w/ a toddler?

[jofo]

Background info: DS will be 21 months for our first visit. We are going weekdays in May with predicted crowd levels of 1 (very low). I don't know how he will do with characters or rides, and I have two different plans I'm considering. My main goal is for him to have a positive experience, and we're not planning on riding anything he can't go on. I wouldn't put too much weight in Minnie's Breakfast versus Magical Morning, because he might not be awake for either and we're not going to wake him up if he's sleeping. His usual schedule is up at 7:30am, lunch + nap from 11am - 2pm, dinner/bath/bed starting at 5pm. I realize he might not stick to this very strictly in Disneyland, but my point is we're not talking about huge blocks of time in the park each day. He will probably need to return to the hotel for naps as he's not a stroller-napper. California Adventure is not a priority for us this trip but if we're getting 3 day tix, we might as well do the $199 advance purchase hoppers. I'd appreciate any opinions -- I realize all toddlers are different, but I'm curious what others think of these plans.

PLAN A (two day non-hopper tickets plus up to two character meals):
------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 1 -- arrive at lunchtime, take nap if able to check in early, look around Downtown Disney a little, dinner at Goofy's Kitchen

Day 2 -- take Disneyland at his pace

Day 3 -- 8:10 am breakfast at Minnie's (if he's awake) since we wouldn't have Magical Morning available to us, take Disneyland at his pace

Day 4 -- wake up and head home


PLAN B (three day hoppers plus no character meals):
---------------------------------------------------
Day 1 -- arrive at lunchtime, take nap if able to check in early, head to Disneyland or California Adventure for a few hours

Day 2 -- take Disneyland at his pace

Day 3 -- Magical Morning (if he's awake), take Disneyland at his pace

Day 4 -- wake up and head home

 

[Pesky]

I think I like the first option for a 21mo old. My kids could get overwhelmed and overstimulated easily at that age and this seems like a slow and relaxing intro.

 

[kailuagirl]

Are you coming from the same time zone? The first time we took DD, she had just turned 2 and the whole time zone change kinda ruled our plans, haha. We are 3 hours later, so we never made it in early and DD is a night owl so we just about closed the park every night as it was only 9pm for us.

As for character meals, I don't know, I know someone can tune in on that one for a 21 month old. We took DD to her first when she was 3. Personally I think if you want to do a character meal, I'd just do 1, and get 3 day hoppers. I think he'll have a blast at DCA in Disney Playhouse Jr., (sorry whatever it is called now), and in the cute little rides in Bugs Life, he'll probably love Little Mermaid, and maybe Monster Inc. So even though you didn't mention it, I'd go with a Plan C, a mixture of A and B if you can do it. If not, I say Plan B with no character meals and save those for your next visit when he is a little oder.

So he doesn't get scared of the rides first and then won't ride anything, start out nice and easy, maybe Casey Jr, Storybook, or Dumbo or the Carousel and go from there. We started a tradition with DD from her first visit that her first ride at DL is always Dumbo, it's a fun thing to do. You might want to show him a couple of the dark rides on youtube so he can be familiar with them, we did that and it really helped.

Have a wonderful time!! Take loads of pictures, and use photopass as those might be the only ones with the 3 of you in them (it is for us anyways), and maybe get a silouette done for him. Have fun!!

 

[coaches24]

You know your son best. When we went DD was 28 months. We showed her the DL website and let her see the slide shows and videos of the different rides and attractions (she couldnt wait to see Donalds boat of all things, she told anyone and everyone for weeks that she was going to see donalds boat at DL). We ddint really have a big ride plan. We would try and hit some popular rides early but other than that we just wandered and did what was near us if it didnt have a long line. We would ask DD what she wanted to do and show her everything as we went by to see if she wanted to ride it.

If you can get a Toon town morning madness pass then do so as it is so great with kids that age. Minnie took DD by the hand and led her around TT showing her all the different things. DD didnt say a word just went along, she was so aww struck.

We did Minnies breakfast and it was another hit. DD wasnt scared of the characters but didnt interact much either. She hugged a couple of them but mostly stared and did her nervous wiggle quite a bit. She danced with Minnie but as soon as Minnie let go of her hands DD stopped and stood there frozen like a statue. She didnt really know what to do with the characters but it was still fun and made for some very funny moments.

Dont skip tom saywers island. Your son may not want to climb some of the places there but he will probably love running around and there are some neat things for him to see and do there. DD didnt like climbing the high stuff but the rest of it she loved.

We expected DD to nap in the stroller but she never did. Surprisingly she lasted from park opening (including one MM) till around 8:30- 8:45 at night with no nap. We took plenty of breaks including our meals and let her make a lot of decisions on what to do.

Also go to City Hall and get a first timer pin when you first get to the parks. I think that might have helped DD get so much attention from Minnie and other characters on our trip. First picture in my sig is of DD with her first time pin right outside of City Hall. You can tell how excited she was to be at Disneyland.

 

[Argento]

First time we went our youngest daughter was one and our oldest was two and a half. Prior to and after Disneyland, we had a pretty solid and consistent schedule as far as naps are concerned but once at the parks, those schedules kind of disappeared. We tried like mad the first couple of days to keep the schedule but they were having none of it so we just gave up and they took naps when they fell asleep in the strollers.

We now know that it is far easier on everyone if we just go with the flow.

 

[Eeee-va]

I don't have a toddler, but given that he might turn out to be terrified of characters, I don't think I'd want to spend the money for a character meal (let alone 2). Of course, if it turns out he loves characters, then a character meal would be nice, but you might not be able to figure that out until you're at the parks....

At any rate, it looks like it's a $41 difference per person between 3-day hoppers and 2-day 1-park tickets, and I think dinner at Goofy's Kitchen is $36? So it won't be much more expensive to do the 3-day hoppers and then add on Minnie's (if and only if it turns out your boy likes characters).

Kailuagirl made a great point about the Playhouse Disney show at DCA...everything I've heard is that toddlers adore that show. So I'd go with the hopper. Much of DCA is very kid-friendly.

Have a great trip!

 

[mouseymommy]

We took our kids last month and our youngest was 23 months. She did really well. I was curious about how she would like the characters and really happy to learn she loved them! She LOVED the Winnie the Pooh ride. At times, we wouldn't even get off the ride, just stayed on and rode again. BTW, I only recommend doing this if you have a lot of patience. After 3 or 4 time I was ready to stab myself in the ears! She rode and liked all the rides we took her on, and we took her on anything she was allowed to ride. I would opt for an extra day over a character meal if those were my choices. I'm sure you will have an amazing time!

 

[JoRo]

Hi

Sounds like a fun trip, we took our DD when she was 7 months old and have tried to go as much as we can afford air.

I would recommend getting up early and going to the park first thing, and do the fantasy land rides. Then as the day gets hotter go back for nap, or take advantage of the baby center.

I would start with small world and avoid some of the rides like snow white, mr toad because they are dark and can be scary for little ones. But we try to distract and talk about things as we go through the rides.

I do agree that characters can be a little BIG to little ones however its also a nice chance for mom and dad to have a chance to sit and relax for a moment. Our DS is almost 4 and still wont go near goofy but loves mickey.

Good luck and get to parades early for good seat and chance to relax

 

[jofo]

OP here. Thanks for the responses, I really appreciate the feedback. I guess I am now leaning toward the three day hoppers and keeping one of the character meals.

I definitely want to get a silhouette done of DS, I told DH that was my only personal goal for this trip! And I hadn't thought about the photopass, that's a good point that we'd get some pics of the three of us that way.

Also a good point was made about maybe he'll refuse to nap with all the excitement -- he has been historically a very poor sleeper, and I hesitate to do anything that will mess with his schedule. However, we haven't had a family vacation since he was born and that's important, too. So we will see what happens. At least we are in the same time zone so meals can be somewhat consistent.

 

[pixiepowers]

I'd vote for plan B too. I know personally it would be tough for me to be in proximity of Disneyland that first day and not walk through the gates. It will be a magical vacation for you too - enjoy! We did Disneyland for one day with DD 2 and I really wish we would have spent time at DCA - she was terrified of enclosed rides (even small world) and I think she would have appreciated Bug's Land more.

 

[kailuagirl]

jofo, my daughter too was never a good napper, what it took for me to get her to take a nap.... anyhow, that was a totally different ballgame at DL, even now at 4 she will just sit in her stroller and let's herself fall asleep when she needs to. It's amazing, but she did it and 2 and still it 4, this is something she never ever does at home. When she falls asleep we usually go back to the hotel, DH and her take a nap, I get them ready (clothes, snacks, etc.) for the next block of time at DL and then I go and use their nap time to shop and look around in the stores. They call me when they wake up and off we all go again. So don't be surprised if your son does actually fall asleep in his stroller, you never know....

 

[Mama Who]

We took DD at her 1st birthday. We arrived the night before her birthday and did dinner at Goofy's Kitchen.

It turned out I have one of those kids who is *terrified* of characters. The only one she would have anything to do with was the Fairy Godmother, who was the only face character there that night.

The good news is that the characters are used to this and really terrific about it. After about the third one, they had clearly been tipped off and they would approach carefully, stand a little bit away and let DS or myself come to them to get a photo without spooking the baby. Pluto tried so hard. He waved at her, he stood behind a little half wall and played peek a boo... he did everything he could to try to win her over without getting in her face and freaking her out. She was just not having any of it.

I would definitely schedule one character meal and give it a try. It's a pretty controlled environment to experiment with what the kid's comfort zone is.