10 Disneyworld Tips with Young Children
I don’t pretend to be a Disney expert, we just love Disney. We recently surprised our kids with a trip to Disneyworld. These are just my tips from our recent Disney trip.
1. Character dining. Yes this is expensive and not the best food but this allows your kids to meet, take picture with and get signatures from the main Disney characters. It seemed to be a lot more intimate and you got to spend more time with each character, we saw some more than once. In my opinion, worth it, make sure to reserve in advance.
We went to Chef Mickey’s
2. Save some money. Buy a pack of glowsticks for $1 at Target and sneak these in your bag. At night when all the expensive, glow in the dark items show up you can whip them out for hours of cheap entertainment. I allowed each child to buy one toy, so they looked in every store and choose something on their last day. This prevented the melt downs for wanting to buy something at every stop. Bring Disney stuff from home. We had Mickey ears from last year so I just brought those along so I didn’t feel like I needed to buy more. Also, I bought a bunch of cheap Disney T-shirts at Target and Nordstrom Rack before we left and my kids were thrilled.
This Star Wars T was a big hit with my boys. It was Star Wars weekend while we were there so this was perfect.
Star Wars Tshirt and it was $7
These here are similar to some I bought at Nordstrom Rack and they were actually pretty high quality (soft Tshirt material).
3. Disney resort. Disney resorts can be expensive, but if you can find a deal I recommend it. One of the benefits from staying at their resorts is the amount of travel time saved. Plus, it adds to the magic of your entire trip.
4. Water bottles. These waterbottles I purchased from Amazon were a lifesaver Mist N’ Sip Hydration Bottles. They saved us money, kept us cool, and entertained the kids while waiting in line.
5. Keep it simple. I always see the poor parents with 3 bags, a huge stroller and cooler lugging a tired child around and feel terrible. We are sticklers for simplicity: one umbrella stroller, a few diapers and wipes, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, a few snacks, and a water bottle. This trip we opted to leave the expensive camera home and used the camera on our iPhones. We were pretty pleased with the quality (plus with wrist bands you can scan all the photos the park takes and purchase them later).
6. Park hopper. Consider this. I think it is totally worth it at Disneyland but Disneyworld was a little harder because you had to hop on a bus to get to the other parks. That being said, some of our best time was spent at the other places. We loved Animal Kingdom and the waterparks (which I never thought I would say). They were just more low key, still a lot of Disney and had a lot more for my littles to do.
(And yes my little one had fun despite his face expressions in some of these photos.)
7. Fast pass plus. AMAZING! This waterproof, removable wrist band can be used to purchase anything in the park, and stores Disney ride photos and all your fast passes. Plan fast passes online prior to your trip. A free phone app is available for any fast pass changes desired.
8. Rider swap. With little ones, this is the best thing ever. Since we had a small one that couldn’t ride the bigger rides we would use the fast pass for one of us to take our older child on the ride. When you are getting off the ride you ask for a rider swap pass and you can now switch adults and go back on the same ride without having to wait. It usually has a window of a few days so you can go at a later time. We literally had so many we were giving them away and never waited to go on any of the big rides while we were there, it was awesome!
9. Research. A little research goes a long way. Determine what rides and features you want to enjoy ahead of time. Once you know the time and location where, for instance, characters will be, you can beat the crowds. Be adventurous and explore some of the less popular venues, which can be awesome. For instance, we signed up for Jedi training. Our 5 year old was delighted with the chance to fight Darth Vader!
10. Enjoy. Disney is such a magical place, but it can also be hot, overwhelming, and crazy. Don’t overdo it. Shoot to see or do just 3 things a day. If you happen to see or do anything else it’s an added bonus. Sit back and watch the joy. There is nothing better than the look on your children’s faces!
