Visiting Disney with a Toddler

We just got back from a week-long trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and the whole family had a great time! I thought I would share some tips that I thought might be helpful for those of you who are traveling to Disney with a toddler.

Traveling to Disney with a toddler has its advantages, despite the fact that they will never remember the trip except through pictures. First of all, they are FREE if under the age of three. That's right, nobody expects you to pay hundreds of dollars in admission fees for the little ones. Even our character buffet was free. Second, they truly live in the moment and everything is new and wonderful through their eyes. Third, they are so pliable at this age that you can see shows and ride rides and they really don't complain about the agenda. It's all good to them. She would have had a great time had we never even visited Toon Town (although we did and she loved it)! In a few years, she'll request her own agenda, but this time we could set the pace and see what was important to us.

General Tips

Visit During the Off-Season

In general, I would recommend visiting Disney in the off season. We went this past week, which was the week before Memorial Day. We didn't wait more than twenty minutes to do anything, and even then, only twice did we wait that long throughout the whole week! There were practically no lines.

Utilize Fastpass

Fastpass is a great tool for avoiding long lines at Disney. Here's how it works: Rides that have a fastpass option are marked on the park map. Simply go to the fastpass kiosk located at each of the designated rides, enter your park ticket, and it will issue a prearranged window of time to return to the ride. Upon your return, you get to skip the long line, which can run more than an hour at times, and enter through the fastpass line. You end up waiting maybe 5 minutes or less, depending on the ride, and certainly get to ride more quickly than you would have otherwise. The only catch is that they sometimes run out of fastpasses, so if you definitely want to be assured a chance to ride a particular ride, make sure you get your fastpass in the morning when you first get to the park.

Buy Tickets Before You Leave Home

Not only can you save money by buying your tickets in advance through Disney's web site or through AAA if you are a member, but you will also save yourself the headache of waiting in line when you get there! Disney's web site has great charts and tools to help you decide which tickets are best for you. Once you get to the park, you can go to any ticket booth or kiosk and pick up your tickets.

Bring Your Own Stroller

Renting a stroller is expensive, $10/day or less with a package number of days. However, cost is not the biggest reason to bring your own. The strollers at all of the parks in Walt Disney World are hard and uncomfortable. If you toddler will be napping in the stroller, and they are the least bit sensitive about where they will snooze, then the Disney strollers are not a good option. At Disneyland in California, the strollers are mesh and not at all uncomfortable, so I might consider renting there. However, at Disney World in Florida, the strollers are made with hard plastic that looks really uncomfortable.

Another reason to bring your own rather than to buy is that some unscrupulous people don't feel they have to pay for a stroller. They seem to feel that your rented park stroller is fair game for the taking, your stuff and all, and your stroller may not be there when the ride is over. That happened to us on our trip to Disneyland last year, and I was fuming mad all day because of it. We had left a fan for the baby in the stroller, and someone stole the whole setup. When we went to get a replacement, I got the impression for their lack of concern that stealing the park strollers is a common occurrence, and they readily replaced it. However, it wasted about half an hour of our day where we wandered around looking for it, and then had to search down a stroller rental location to replace it.

That doesn't mean that your own stroller won't get stolen, as I'm sure that happens as well. It almost seemed to me, however, that people were more likely to take the ones that belonged to the park. We brought a brand new Maclaren Volo stroller, and not a thing happened to it, although I'm not sure I'd bring the Bugaboo. I would recommend using a Sharpie and writing your name on the stroller just in case, because a lot of strollers look alike. Remember, the lighter the stroller you bring, the lighter your load to push, so bring an umbrella stroller if you have one, leave the Graco at home.

I would also recommend bringing a diaper bag that will hold everything you need. That way when you park the stroller to go on a ride, you can just grab the bag out of the bottom of the stroller and not worry that your child's favorite stuffed animal will be taken while you are enjoying the ride.

Make Dining Reservations Before You Leave

We went to a couple of restaurants that we had planned in advance, and were glad we did. Most of the good and interesting restaurants at Disney require reservations, even in the off season, and we saw several disappointed kids who were sad they missed dining with their favorite character. We made ours a week in advance, which was not quite enough time to get the times/dates we wanted, but we did manage to get in. Apparently some things are more popular than others, and character buffets like Cinderella book up the day the system allows reservations, something like six months in advance. Just call (407) WDW-DINE (939-3463) and someone will help you with your reservations.

What to Bring

I recommend bringing some things from home that are expensive in the parks. Things like sunscreen, diapers, and sippy cups are much cheaper if brought from home. However, if you are in a lurch and forgot to bring enough diapers for the day, the bathrooms are all equipped with diaper packs that include a diaper and tiny supply of wipes, available for an arm and a leg, of course. I suggest bringing a sippy cup from home because the cups given at the restaurants are small ones with lids, and my toddler likes to tip hers upside down and soak herself. It was helpful to give her a sippy cup that we brought to save on laundry expenses!

Toddler Food

The restaurants all serve kids meals, and I have to say I was shocked that Disney provided healthy options. In fact, ordering a meal with french fries is a special order, as is a soda, whereas milk, juice, applesauce, apple wedges and grapes are the norm. I was even impressed that the apple sauce and juice were 100% apples with no added sugar. The only dubious thing on the menu for kids was sugar free jello. I'm not sure why a parent would give their kid something sweetened with aspartame, given the health risks to developing brains, but apparently Disney thinks it is ok. Now if only Disney would clean up their menus for adults and provide healthier and tastier options for adults! Needless to say, Kate had her fill of hot dogs, her new favorite food, but at least I was able to get her to eat a grape and play in some applesauce once in a while.

Don't Forget the Free Shows!

Included with your ticket is admission to a number of shows and movies. Our toddler thought these were great, and they were a good way to get out of the heat and relax our feet for a bit. Each park has several shows geared towards kids, but we found she even enjoyed shows geared more towards adults. We watched all three of the 3D shows (Muppets, Mickey/Donald "Philharmagic", and A Bugs Life), and despite the wind cannons, sprays of water and other surprises they use to enhance the 3D effect, Kate loved them. She even fell totally in love with Donald Duck based on the indignities he faced in Philharmagic (she loves the underdog).

Visit the Water Parks for a Change of Pace

Don't forget about Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon while you are there. We added the "park hopper" option and "water parks and more" to our tickets so we could visit the water parks in the morning a few days while we were there. It was a great way to cool off from the heat, and since there are showers and lockers, we were able to leave around 2 or 3 pm and go to a park that stays open late afterwards and enjoy two parks in one day! Kate really enjoyed the toddler areas and we enjoyed the wave pools and slides. Both are very slick productions and nothing like your average Wet and Go.

Overall, we thought Disney was a great place to vacation with a toddler and we highly recommend it!

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