Tips for Taking Kids to Disney World
Parents planning their child’s first trip to Walt Disney World often have a lot of questions, as visiting Walt Disney World with kids is uncharted territory that can be intimidating. This guide answers some of those questions with helpful advice to avoid mistakes and common planning pitfalls. (Updated March 2, 2025.)
Let’s start with the latest update, which comes as we’re reviewing this guide as parents ourselves. When we first covered this topic several years ago, we were the dreaded Disney Adults without kids. The tips & tricks were written based on a mixture of firsthand experiences with friends and their kids, seeing families meltdown in certain scenarios, plus fan feedback. The goal was fresh advice from an outsider perspective, and include quotes from readers who are parents offering a variety of perspectives about visiting with kids.
Admittedly, we’ve long worried that some of the strategy here would come back to haunt us. That our expectations would be unrealistic or idealized. As we now update this after visiting Disneyland on a weekly basis with our now-toddler and having made a few trips with her to Walt Disney World, we’re revisiting what we got right and wrong. The biggest thing we got right was big-picture philosophy about visiting with kids. What we got most wrong was underestimating just how much longer everything takes with a kid, and how time truly is money because you have a lot less of it as parents of a small child!
This guide is meant to supplement other guides (including our own Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide) and provide a reasonably informed (hopefully) perspective parents might not otherwise hear. All in all, we think this is a pretty decent resource to read as you plan that trip with the kids to Walt Disney World!
We’ll be back for far more comprehensive updates in the years to come as our daughter continues to grow up, and we have more Walt Disney World vacations as a family under our belts. And probably many more times in the years to come as we make mistakes and learn from them. For now, here are some things that we think are good to know before your first visit with children.
Attitude
The biggest piece of advice we can offer is to know your limitations. We’ve seen this scenario time and time again, in a variety of forms: parent pushes kid’s limits in one way or another, and everyone has a bad time. For many families, Walt Disney World trips with are a once in a lifetime thing, and a rite of passage for the kids.
We understand that these trips are really expensive, and with that comes higher stakes and more pressure to “make as much magic” for the kid as possible. Our strong advice–and this goes equally for couples or solo travelers–is to disabuse yourself of this notion. Think about the money when budgeting, but once it’s already spent, think about the trip only in terms of enjoyment.
Kids get cranky after too much stimulation. Everyone knows that. However, adults can too. Parental crankiness manifests itself in a variety of ways, but the unseen way is the most common: in the stubbornness of wanting to keep pushing when they normally would not in “normal” parent mode.
This in turn causes crankiness in the child who is beyond their breaking point, which in turns causes more crankiness in the parent, who keeps thinking about how much the trip cost, and how much fun they “need” to “make” their kids have. It’s a vicious cycle, and before you know it, there’s a full-blown meltdown.
As a parent, attitude is everything. Don’t go into the trip with the expectation that you need to do 17 attractions per day and must have X, Y, and Z done before 11:30 am. There is no magic number of rides for a great and memorable trip. Four hours per day of quality time in the parks is better than 2 hours of quality time and 6 hours of miserable time.
If you’ve been to Walt Disney World before having kids, don’t expect to go at your old pace or to do the same things you once did. The trade-off for seeing the magic through your children’s eyes as they light up with joy upon meeting Mickey Mouse for the first time is that you can’t do marathon hours in the park (unless you bring grandparents!).
Approaching the trip with realistic expectations and a positive attitude is the most important element of planning a trip to Walt Disney World with kids. A plan of attack for hitting rides in the most efficient order is a great thing to have (as you’ll read below), but parents should be prepared to abandon those plans immediately once the kids on the trip are beginning to approach that wall.
What Age is Right
One of the most common questions when planning a child’s first trip to Walt Disney World is: “what age is right?” This is a loaded question that really depends on your circumstances.
For many adults who take their really young children, the experience is not about the memories of the kids, but for the parents. It’s about watching their kid’s face light up as they touch Eeyore for the first time, or it’s about getting that first photo in front of Cinderella Castle. Obviously, infants are not going to remember any of that. But they’ll be indelible memories for the parents.
Our advice here would be not to let other people talk you out of the decision you’ve already made concerning when is right for that first trip. It seems like a lot of parents find themselves thinking that they want to take a trip with their toddler for whatever reason, and then turn to other people, almost as if they want to be talked out of the crazy idea.
In this area of planning, your individual instincts and gut feeling should trump all else. If you want to wait until the kids are old enough to walk, wait. If you want to take them as soon as it’s safe (experts advise that you limit a newborn’s exposure to large groups of people so that they don’t get sick, so they’re the only group we’d rule out definitively as being “not” the right age), more power to you. You know what you want more than I know what you want.
We made our first half-day visit to Disneyland about 2 months after our daughter was born (we’re locals). We waited until she was over 6 months old before making our first trip to Walt Disney World. She’s since visited Florida a few times, while also taking trips to Tokyo Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland. Those long flights were very intimidating and made us nervous, but she adapted just fine. So much so that we’re planning more trips to Asia and Europe!
Since this section is more or less, “when to go to Disney World with kids,” we’ll lump time of year in here too. If possible, don’t go when school is out of session–especially if your kids aren’t yet in school. There are actually two reasons for this, the first of which should be pretty obvious and intuitive.
Walt Disney World’s key demographic is families, and school breaks are the time when that demo is most inclined to visit. This actually is not quite as bad as you might expect in summer. Many families do take vacations to Walt Disney World from late May through mid-August, but since that’s a multi-month break, the attendance and crowds are diluted.
By contrast, the weeklong or shorter breaks are far worse–especially when everyone is out of school at the same time. There’s only one Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and so forth. Even fall break and spring break occur for many school districts around the same time, so those weeks and long weekends are bad. This is to say nothing of the many lesser known holidays or breaks that have an outsized impact on crowds. Things like Presidents’ Day, Mardi Gras, Jersey Week, etc. Suffice to say, see our 2025 Walt Disney World Crowd Calendars.
The underappreciated component of this is weather. Summer is the worst time to visit Walt Disney World not because of crowds, which are “only” above-average, but because of crowds plus the worst weather of the year.
The heat and humidity makes those congestion and crowds feel so much worse. Even the late summer and early fall off-season, which has the lowest crowds of the entire year, is arguably not worth it due to the weather.
This could all probably be reduced to “comfort.” Lower crowds means greater comfort, as does better weather. Less comfort increases the chances of a meltdown, whereas the opposite is true of more comfort. Everyone should optimize for comfort–minimizing crowds and maximizing weather to the greatest extent possible. That’s even more true for families with small children, who are more meltdown-prone.
We took our daughter to Walt Disney World in mid-June, and it’s not something we’d recommend. Due to weather, we lost big chunks of the day and took far longer breaks than we did during our trips in the spring or at Christmas. See our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026 for the sweet (and not-so-sweet) spots.
Where to Stay
Where to stay really depends upon personal preference. Common advice for families is to stay at the most compact hotel in each price tier. This means French Quarter out of the Moderates, Contemporary out of the Deluxes, and All Star Music out of the Values. The advantages are more pronounced at French Quarter and the compact Deluxes than they are at All Star Music–pretty much all of the Values are equal in size.
Other families may want to stay at resorts with interior hallways (Deluxe Resorts plus Art of Animation suites and Gran Destino Tower). Some may want to avoid resorts without elevators (Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans Riverside). Then there are the resorts with internal bus loops and multiple stops, which is related to sprawling size but slightly different.
Speaking of which, transportation is really a big one. We strongly favor resorts that offer non-bus transportation to at least 2 parks. Typically, this means the Magic Kingdom area (monorail loop, boats, walkways), Crescent Lake/EPCOT area (boats, walkways, Skyliner) or Skyliner gondola resorts. See Our Favorite Hotel for Walt Disney World Trips as Parents with a Toddler for our #1 recommendation within walking distance that also offers great bang-for-buck by Deluxe Resort standards.
Buses are the least-predictable or reliable form of Walt Disney World transportation, and being able to use non-bus transportation can make things easier on families. Less stress with strollers, lower commute times, and a greater likelihood of actually taking a midday break. (This is advice that is not unique to families with kids, but it’s more pronounced for them.)
Resort pools should also be a consideration, as midday breaks at the pool seem to be popular and well-remembered by kids. See what pool theme appeals most (the best pool by far is Storm-Along Bay at the Yacht and Beach Club) to your kids, and factor that in the decision.
Picking the “right” hotel seems to be one of those “YMMV” things. Different themes will appeal to different families. You might not mind being farther from the parks, or relying on bus transportation. But over the years, we’ve receive a ton of feedback from parents who think the spread out resorts are awful because of how inconvenient they are to navigate with kids. In any case, see our Rankings of All Resort Hotels at Walt Disney World from Worst to Best for recommendations of where to stay for all parties and travel styles.
Where to Eat
Certain restaurants are more fun for kids. Namely, restaurants with cool and kid-friendly themes. Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater ranks at the top of this list. I still remember eating here as a kid, although I don’t really remember any other restaurant (besides Hoop De Doo Revue, and that’s only because we went there every year, so something was bound to stick to my memory). Our list of the Best Themed Restaurants at Walt Disney World is a great resource for making Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs).
We have a List of Best Character Meals at Walt Disney World, and we’d strongly recommend booking at least one meal at these far in advance of your trip. This is a great climate-controlled way to meet several characters, and eat while doing so. Kill two birds with one stone. (For some families, character dining experiences are the highlight of the trip–they do one every single day!)
Our other recommendation for places that many families should avoid is Signature Restaurants. These restaurants do allow children, and a lot of parents bring their kids to the restaurants. However, they’re upscale restaurants that definitely skew towards adults, with adult ambiance, adult cuisine, and adult prices.
If your kids are often loud or unruly during dinner, it’s probably not the best of ideas to bring them to these restaurants. We mention this because a lot of “for kids” guides written by actual parents try to justify taking any children to these restaurants with the mentality that “it’s Disney World, the place was made for kids, they are okay ANYWHERE.”
Speaking for the adults without kids who form the main clientele of Signature Restaurants: this isn’t true. Walt Disney World is not solely “for kids” (there are tons of convention-goers, honeymooners, businesspeople, couples, etc.) and other patrons will be irritated by the presence of unruly children during their nice, expensive meal.
Not only that, but you’ll probably be less comfortable and feel out-of-place at a Signature Restaurant if your children are unruly. The meal is pricey and neither the menu nor the atmosphere are aimed at families. Frankly, it’s hard to see how this is more enjoyable than just eating at a more family-friendly restaurant.
However, it’s important to emphasize that this pertains to unruly children. If your kids are well behaved, by all means take them to any restaurant (besides Victoria & Albert’s, where they flat out are prohibited). It might be an expensive way to feed kids, but there’s not necessarily a problem with taking them. Other people won’t give side-eye at the mere presence of children–only misbehaving ones.
As for counter service restaurants, most places in Walt Disney World have pretty tame options that will appeal to children. World Showcase in Epcot is a notable exception to this, but that’s really about it. Otherwise, almost every counter service restaurant at Walt Disney World will offer something that’s suitable for even the pickiest of eaters.
Our final recommendation with dining is to go early to avoid the crowds. We recommend everyone do this, but it’s especially important with kids. Some restaurants get really busy around noon, to the point where it can be difficult to find a table. Juggling the kids and trays of food during these times can be difficult (we’ve seen plenty of families struggle with it), and it’s just much easier when things aren’t so busy. The opening times for restaurants varies, but most start serving lunch at 10:30 am or 11 am.
Attractions
The salient recommendation here is to not take kids on rides that they’re not ready to experience. For starters, read our Disney Parks Ride Guides that describe, rate, and provide other info for each ride. Beyond that…how can you know whether they’re ready? Well, the best way is to gauge their reactions or what they say when they approach an attraction.
Lots of kids are scared at the prospect of the Haunted Mansion, and just because a Cast Member tells you that it’s mostly comical ghosts doesn’t mean your kids will pick up on that nuance of the attraction. To them it might be the case that a ghost is a ghost is a ghost, and all are equally scary. You may also find they’re scared of things that seem innocuous.
Kids won’t even be able to ride some attractions due to height, and you should not attempt to circumvent these rules to get your child on an attraction before they’re the appropriate height. Those restrictions are not arbitrary–they’re for the sake of safety.
It also important to remember that height is no guarantee that a child will enjoy an attraction. It seems like everyday we’re in Walt Disney World, we see parents trying to coax their kids to “be brave” and go on a particular attraction. This probably stems from the mentality that the vacation was expensive, and parents want to get their money’s worth.
Also don’t be surprised if these fears change and “evolve.” One day they might be fine with Haunted Mansion or whatever attraction, the next day they may not. Just roll with it. Heck, if they are reluctant to go on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, don’t force them. Some of these fears might defy logic, but it is what it is.
If the attraction is going to traumatize the child and make them nervous about experiencing subsequent attractions with which they otherwise wouldn’t have had an issue, what is gained by forcing them to “be brave”? Nothing. Their memories of the trip will form around those negative experiences, and there will be issues for the rest of the day or rest of the trip. So why force it?
The rationale kids have for wanting to do or not wanting to do things perplexes even the smartest scientists, so there’s no sense trying to rationalize or reason with them about experiencing an attraction. Karin J. offers solid advice in this regard: “Do not take young children on attractions they aren’t ready for. I’ve heard many stories from others who did that and it can ruin the trip, because the child is miserable and then can be fearful of everything afterward. Test them with tamer rides first if young and see what they like and can handle.”
Of course, you know your kids better than a guide written by some stranger, and there’s always the chance that your kids have initial hesitation but are typically fine once they actually engage in the experience. If you know this to be the case with your kids, disregard the above advice, and encourage them to go on attractions about which they’re nervous. But if you don’t know, and find yourself just pushing them because you want to do as much as possible, rethink the strategy.
As for what attractions are best for kids, that depends on the kid. We’ve seen kids like and dislike just about every attraction at Walt Disney World, and any list you see elsewhere is going to be based on what the list writer’s kids enjoy. Their kids aren’t your kids.
I absolutely loved Country Bear Jamboree as a child (and still love it), but I read parents all the time who call it a snoozer that puts their kids to sleep. What different people and kids enjoy may be shocking. Erin S. illustrates this point with her daughter: “You can’t plan for everything, so be prepared to go with the flow. Who knew my daughter’s fave ride would be the transportation bus?”
To get an idea of what your kids will like in advance, we recommend watching YouTube attraction ride through videos; just search for the attraction name plus “ride-through” and you’ll find plenty of results. You might even watch these with your kids so you can see their reaction to specific attractions (like we said above, they may be scared by things that surprise you and they may like things that you thought would’ve scared them).
It’s also important to remember that, for kids, character meet & greets are an important part of the experience. Doing a character meal can be a great way to see several characters without waiting in line, and while eating in the air conditioning. We highly recommend character meals. If you don’t want to do character meals, indoor meet & greets are typically better options.
Chris T. has a recommendation for meet and greets that proved polarizing: “Skip the stupid autograph books. If you have an outgoing child who’s not afraid to talk, get them to interact with the characters. They’ll have a lot more fun.”
Like so many things, we disagree with this as one-size-fits-all advice. For some kids, the autograph book might be a conduit for an interaction that they might’ve not had otherwise. For more social kids, the autograph book might be wholly unnecessarily–and prevent an organic interaction. (One thing we do recommend in our Unique Packing List for Walt Disney World is an autograph book replacement.)
No matter how much you prep yourself and them, there’s always the possibility (nay, probability) that your kids will surprise you once you visit. To this day I remember being scared senseless by the Universe of Energy as a child and hiding on the floor of the ride vehicle when I saw the dinosaurs…and I loved dinosaurs as a child. This was no fault of my parents, but it made for a bad experience that I still remember. Unpredictable things like this happen, and the best you can do is damage control once they do happen.
Plan of Attack
If you’re like my dad, you teach your children life lessons through maxims and colloquialisms. A popular one is always “the early bird gets the worm.” A trip to Walt Disney World is a great time to really hammer this one home. (Okay, maybe not in the sense that the trip is really the time for teaching them life lessons, but you should follow it on the trip.)
Tackling Walt Disney World with kids is so much easier if you’re up early and to the parks before they open. Ideally, you want to arrive 15-30 minutes before official opening time, and you want to have a plan of attack for at least your early morning. If you’re eligible for Early Entry, you absolutely want to take advantage of that.
Usually this will involve experiencing several attractions in Fantasyland, most of which are quickly experienced and can get long lines later in the day. In these cases, the difference between being to the park at 8:30 am versus 10:30 am can be a 5 minute wait for Peter Pan’s Flight versus a 60 minute wait. The importance of arriving early cannot be understated.
We’d also recommend reading itineraries in advance of your trips and making some notes. However, we do not recommend creating binders, spreadsheets, and scheduling every step of their day. People get serious and obsessive about this, which is a mistake. (See above about parental expectations leading to meltdowns.) The best laid plans often go awry, and when that inevitably happens (and it absolutely will if you’re traveling with small children), it can be disappointing if you’ve over-planned.
As with most things in life, balance and moderation are key. We have the following flexible step by step plans for each park that cover our perfect days using standby-only:
- 1-Day Magic Kingdom Park Itinerary
- 1-Day Epcot Itinerary Park Itinerary
- 1-Day Animal Kingdom Park Itinerary
- 1-Day Hollywood Studios Park Itinerary
Do NOT expect to stick to these plans if you have small children. Use those as a broad strokes outline, not as a strict schedule. Kids may become tired, irritated, or they may spontaneously see something they really, really want to do. We’re not suggesting that you should always let kids call the shots, but at Walt Disney World…there are a lot of circumstances where you should let kids call the shots.
It may sting to skip your Lightning Lane return time for Frozen Ever After because your kid can’t get enough of the interactive water in Moana’s Journey of Water, but don’t fight it. Embrace the joy and spontaneity–forcing them to stop having fun to do a “higher-priority” ride likely won’t end well.
This was advice multiple parents shared with us, and the recurring theme of this advice was that it’s important to slow down and not over-plan. Sharlene M. said this: “The youngest member of your group is always going to determine your touring style. Slow down, take a nap, and keep them on as close to their normal schedule as possible, especially for meals. You will have a better trip and everyone else will too. A melt down is no fun for anyone.”
Beyond arriving early and having a loose plan, you may want to consider using Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (there’s also Lightning Lane Single Pass and Premier Pass, but Multi-Pass is the optimal option for parents with small children). Everything you NEED to know, including ride priorities, where it’s NOT necessary to buy Lightning Lanes, and much more is covered in our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World. We do not recommend using Lightning Lane Multi-Pass every day or for every park.
Another similar time-saving option is the Rider Switch Pass (more commonly known as a “Child Swap”), which can be obtained from Cast Members outside attractions with height limits. This pass allows one parent to stay with the kids who don’t meet the height requirement for an attraction while the other parent (or group of above-height people) waits with the kids. When the riding parent/group is done, the waiting parent/group can use the Lightning Lane.
Midday breaks are another popular recommendation, and these are something we advise taking advantage of for both parents and non-parents. The middle of the day is not only the busiest time at the parks, but it’s the hottest, too! A midday break allows you to return for nighttime fun, so definitely leave the park during the middle of the day.
When it comes to a “plan” for preserving memories, Karin J. reminds families that photo time should be early in the day on the plan: “Take pictures early in the day when the kids are happy and not worn out…have a current photo that shows exactly what they’re wearing if you get separated during the day.”
Strollers
We’ve just started using a stroller more regularly at Walt Disney World.
Before that, we used a BabyBjörn Baby Carrier everywhere–from day visits to Disneyland to six weeks in Japan. We are huge fans/advocates of baby-wearing, and went primarily that route for as long as possible. We avoided strollers to the greatest practical extent…until we had no other choice, which started around the time our daughter became more mobile. See our Guide to Baby Wearing for Disney World & Travel.
As we’ve started to use our stroller more, we are now of the opinion that strollers are often a necessity or a valuable asset to have. The parks are huge and small children simply cannot be expected to traverse World Showcase or Animal Kingdom without some assistance. And even though it can be a pain to fold strollers on crowded buses, find parking, navigate through crowds, etc–there’s also a huge advantage to napping on the go, having a “free locker” and more.
Still, we’ve tried to minimize our stroller usage at the parks, and often leave it parked for hours on end. When you look back at photos of Walt Disney World from past decades, you notice far fewer strollers. This isn’t because more children are visiting now–it’s because a greater segment of children are using strollers. When visiting the international parks, we’ve noticed shockingly lower use of strollers by guests. There are still strollers, but not nearly as many. Part of this might be due to the active lifestyles of Europeans and Asians as compared to Americans, and reality that people who live in walkable cities and rely on public transportation are less likely to use strollers.
Anyway, our advice is to work on increasing your child’s stamina before the trip. It’s always good to have a stroller as a safety net, as very few children will walk as much during an average week at home as they do at Walt Disney World. But “safety net” isn’t the same as being dependent upon the device.
Reader Rhonda B. agrees: “Have your child walk. We took our children to Disney back in the days when children were not obese, went outside to play, and exercised. They were 2 and 4 years old….now 22 and 24 (currently a cast member). My youngest, age 2, did just fine.”
However, not everyone agrees. “Rent a stroller! Even for your kids that have outgrown them…Something that’s comfortable for the kids, we had an lightweight break and had to call Orlando Stroller Rentals they got us one that day. Amazing. It cost the same as our stroller we bought and it was a double, had lots of room for bag and a big sun shade,” says Jill M.
It’s about a 50/50 split as to whether you should bring a stroller or rent one at Walt Disney World. Megan R. shared this: “TAKE your own stroller! Totally not a hassle in the airport (can be gate checked for free) and so much nicer and cheaper than renting the plastic ones from Disney.”
On the other side, many parents recommend renting a stroller because what you’ll want at Walt Disney World might differ from what you’d normally use at home. Again, a YMMV situation. The overwhelming recommendation other parents shared with us was to use an umbrella stroller.
Dawn B. said this: “When my boys were younger, we always brought umbrella strollers (if it reclines for naps, that’s a bonus–not all umbrella’s recline). The umbrella stroller was nice because it folds easily for bus rides to parks and helps save grown ups from carrying little ones from the parking lot into the park.”
Kayla E. shared a few additional tips: “Bring a poncho or rain cover for your stroller…if you’re in a ride or eating when an afternoon rainstorm breaks out, that will help. Tie a scarf, balloon, something identifying on stroller. It will probably be moved from the time you park it to picking it up.” She further added, “think in advance how you’ll ride the bus. If you have two or more kids, a stroller, and a few bags, boarding the bus can be a mess.
Know how to fold the stroller, and if you can, fold it before the bus arrives, not as you’re stepping aboard. The bus advice is something to consider when deciding which stroller to use in the parks. On the one hand, a Cadillac-sized stroller can be nice to use, but the drawback is transporting it when there aren’t kids in it, which can really be a pain. Weigh the pros and the cons before settling on one stroller.
Enhancing the Magic!
A lot of people look for little ways to make the trip more “magical” for their kids. We’d advise parents not to fret too much about adding more “magic” for the kids, as it seems more likely to put pressure on the adults than to really result in that much of an enhanced experience for the kids. Really, if you’re a kid at Walt Disney World, that’s already about as magical as it gets.
There are ways to make the trip more “interactive” for the kids. Ben H. summarizes some of our favorites: “Hidden Mickey books go over well, too. And prizes to daily winners, if you can afford. The books have different Mickeys at different point values, as do the apps! Disposable cameras are an inexpensive way to let a kid be a photographer without risking their iPod Touch or your iPhone to damage. Zip-top bags are a must for electronics… they’ve saved my butt more than once in a surprise rain storm!”
Buying Disney pins in advance of the trip to trade with Cast Members was another piece of popular advice. Here’s what Bernadette G. had to say: “Pin trading was a huge hit for our three kids (teen through six year old) on our first trip to WDW last year – great for helping shy ones muster up the courage to interact with cast members, etc. I second (third?) buying them in advance on ebay – we doled them out a bit at a time over the vacation to spread out the fun.”
The over-arching advice regarding souvenirs is to always buy before leaving home, as things are much more expensive in the parks. Rosalie gives another example: “Bring your own costumes, never buy them at the parks. Buy your Princess dresses right on or immediately after halloween from Disney.com, they will be on sale, or wait for any of the numerous sales shopDisney.com has. Never pay full price, if you like it, wait and it will go on sale.”
A recommendation of something that might make the trip a little more special for parents is shared by Darleen L., who writes: “Many people don’t know about the Main Street Barber Shop. It is NOT just there for looks/atmosphere. They do an AMAZING “baby’s first haircut” there! By amazing, I mean, take your tissue and camera!”
Another miscellaneous tip comes from Sara S., who recommends taking a lot of photos (we agree!): “Another tip that was great for our family is take pictures of everything. My husband loves photography and snaps pictures constantly. It’s not uncommon for him to take over 6,000 in a 10 day trip…. He took tons of shots of our kids, but also took lots and lots of pictures of the parks themselves. There are so many details that I missed because I was so busy looking down at our youngest. I was so grateful to have to pictures when I came home, even the ones that were a little out of focus!”
We’ll close out this article with perhaps the best piece of advice and something that’s always worth remembering from reader Anthony G., who writes, “BE A KID TOO! All the prep tips are awesome. But enjoying Disney with your kids as a kid is the best part of going to Disney with Kids!”
We agree. A trip to Walt Disney World with kids can seem overwhelming and it might sound like a lot can go wrong…but way more can go right than can go wrong. Roll with the punches and remember to lighten up and have fun!
As our own experience increases, we’ll undoubtedly be back with many (many) more pieces of advice. For now, if you need personalized help with planning any aspect of your vacation—we recommend contacting a no fee “Authorized Disney Vacation Planner” (Disney’s term for a travel agent) to get a quote and to help you plan. They get their commission from Disney, so none of the authorized (key word) planners will charge you for booking their trip and helping. Here’s one such recommended Authorized Disney Vacation Planner.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What tips do you parents think are most important? Which advice we shared do you agree with? Where do you disagree? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Great article and excellent tips from a couple without kids. Our family has gone to WDW the past two years. Our son has been 2 (almost 3) and 3 (almost 4) on our trips. I will offer one tip. Assuming you are okay riding an attraction by yourself, don’t be afraid to stay at a park late, or if you don’t want to rest with your child (and in my case wife), head out to a park and do some of the things your little can’t or doesn’t want to do. I thoroughly enjoyed heading over to DHS and EPCOT while my son and wife took naps at the Beach Club resort. I was able to ride Star Tours multiple times (I’m a bit of a nerd) and take a leisurely stoll through the World Showcase (grab a beer or snack). Staying late at Magic Kingdom was also great. Once our son fell asleep in his stroller, my wife and I took turns doing things we liked, while the other one stayed with our son. For example, while my wife was riding Space Mountain six times in a row, or something crazy like that (it wasn’t busy while we were there), I sat on a bench, texted friends, checked my email, checked the football scores, tweeted about my trip, etc. It was a great way to catch up on the outside world while waiting, and then doing something I wanted to do while my wife stayed with our son.
Great Comment Aaron, my wife and my son (2 1/2) will be travelling two weeks today, alhtough I have been 11 times before to WDW, it will be my wife and sons firt time, although I know my wife will love seeing our little boy having so much fun, in the back of my mind I also want to show her how much fun the adults can also have, therefore utlising the ‘nap’ times will be my method. This is why I will be taking a reclining stroller!! While the kids asleep, the adults will play 🙂
I’m curious if the comparative number of strollers in Europe versus the U.S. has less to do with activity than it does with European families waiting to take their children. I’d argue (full disclosure: I’m single, very happily without children, and fiercely desirous of remaining same) that unless your child is verbally fluent, they’re probably too young to get much from the WDW experience. I think it’s droll to see the wailing and gnashing of teeth attendant to parents’ (well, mothers’, really) planning for their special snowflake’s first trip. Aside from impressions of bright colors and noise, what is a one-year-old going to get out of it? My mother tells me I wasn’t a difficult child, and yet my parents took their first two WDW trips without me, and waited until I was five before taking me. I certainly don’t feel denied, and it probably made them happier.
Where I go full jack@ss is the issue of children in restaurants and lounges. I don’t give a French flying one if it is WDW, there are some places children just don’t belong. Signature restaurants are one, and lounges without specifically family-friendly entertainment (I can think of only River Roost with Yeehaa Bob) are the other. I’d love to see them all adopt Victoria & Albert’s no-child policy (and a real dress code, but that’s another land mine). I’m certain to lose this argument ten out of ten times. It truly chaps my personal buttox when my friends and I go into some place like Top of the World with the intent of running up a truly admirable bar tab, only to see all the tables taken by the sippy cup mafia, where maybe one person in the party has an actual purchased drink.
Once again, get off my lawn.
I always enjoy the rich language and turn of phrases you use. A “truly admirable bar tab” …priceless!
I agree completely with the lounges. Sadly, I think it’s a battle/policy we’re not soon to see.
Yes, I’m a mom of three boys (18, 16 and…4- on purpose), but I LOVE your comment! I so agree that there is a time and place for kids, and a separate and fiercely protected time and place for “grownups”. If I didn’t have my mommy alone time, I would be a horribly miserable parent. Going to Disney with my youngest strikes fear in my heart, but I’m doing the research and plan to use as much help as possible, including a grandparent and the Child Care services I feel I can trust. The hubs and I can handle this and will make many special memories, both for the Little Man and for our marriage!
Being one of those mom’s planning for my “snowflake’s” first trip, I wonder if you were an only child? I ask because I have a soon to be 5 daughter that I am bringing. She will believe all of the magic for now, though she’s super skeptical and probably won’t believe for long. We will also have her younger sister in tow. She will be a 2 year old who might not remember anything. Does that mean my older child should miss out so we can wait until the other is 5? If you had a 2 year old sibling would your folks have left them at home?
I fully agree about lounges. There is a right time and place for kiddos, and any place that exists mainly for drinking is not it. MK, however, is.
It says so much about your blog, Tom, that even non-parents would read and comment on this article.
Seriously, I have two kids, and I absolutely agree. So you can change that ten out of ten times to nine out of ten at least. I’m taking my kids to Disneyland next November when they’ll be five and six. There are absolutely places we won’t be attending. Disneyland is for FAMILIES, not for KIDS.
So you take pride in your lawn! Sometimes people shouldn’t be there. 🙂
So I immediately read your title and involuntarily rolled my eyes… But you did a great job. I was looking for something to ‘help’ you with, but honestly, nothing you said was wrong. The only thing that annoyed me was the connection to pushing your TWO YEAR OLD in a stroller and obesity, but that was just the opinion of someone who hasn’t had a small child in over 20 years, and it’s easy to forget things as our kids get older…
The youtube videos was one of the greatest tips I used last year when my kids were 5,3,&1 (not so much the 1 yr old). My girls get nervous of the ‘unknown’, but then after it’s over, they’ll talk about how much they loved it. So watching the youtube rides was awesome. How do I know that this actually worked and wasn’t just Disney’s charm??? The ONLY two attractions I didn’t have the girls watch first were Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and the Little Mermaid show in HS. My girls both LOVE these two movies, so I thought since the seats didn’t move it would be no problem. I was wrong. Both of these shows included tears, heads buried into my shirt, and many “I-wanna-go-I-wanna-go!”s. I feel that this is scientific proof that watching the youtube videos first allowed my kids to fondly enjoy Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Malstrom, etc. They knew what was coming, and all was well.
One thing I think you missed was souvenirs. Here are my merchandising tips: 1. Bring your own costumes, never buy them at the parks. Buy your Princess dresses right on or immediately after halloween from disney.com, they will be on sale, or wait for any of the numerous sales Disney.com has. Never pay full price, if you like it, wait and it will go on sale. 2. Pack Disney goodie-bags. Fill goodie bags with dollar store Disney items, and maybe one or two days have a nicer item included, like the 2 for $20 Disney movie figurine sets. We told our children first thing in the morning that they will get their goodie-bag at whatever TS restaurant we have planned that day, and this excites them all day. If they even glanced sideways at Park merchandise, I would excitedly remind them of the treasures awaiting them, and on our last trip our kids didn’t ask us for one thing. Like you said, attitude is everything 🙂 AND our kids were happily occupied with their little trinkets throughout the entire meal making Coral Reef the surprise favorite meal for my husband and I last trip when we thought for sure it would be a character meal. (because we had assumed that the kids would be more happily occupied during a character meal, but we found that we were ALSO occupied taking pictures and video of the kids being ‘occupied’).
Okay, I know I’ve put a lot, but last tip, ziplock bags. – Oh you’re done with that $3.50 sucker after 5 licks? Put it in a ziplock. – You have 3 tiny mouths but one bag of popcorn? Now you have 3 ziplock bags. – Oh it’s raining? Camera and phone in a ziplock back. Seriously, I could do this all day…
Excellent anecdote about the YouTube videos. I hope others take that advice to heart.
Also great tips about merchandise (there are some tips in the article along these lines near the end). Buying souvenirs in advance seems to be the best way to go, regardless of what you’re buying.
My daughter will be 3 when we go to WDW and even though she’s been on Pirates 3 times at Disneyland Paris and was just a little nervous every time but ended up enjoying it ..she’s already started the “no pirates,mummy”! I just don’t get my kids sometimes!
Great article! One of my favorite things we do each trip – and I would encourage others to do too – is to pick a favorite spot, fun spot or special area and take a picture of your child(ren) in that same place each trip. We have a picture of our son at 8 months sitting with the sword in the stone ( well not as much sitting as mom ducking down and holding him up from behind:). We have another one at 1.5 yrs and can’t wait to take one there each trip to show how he’s grown and changed.
Thinking of his hands on the touched-a-million-times-a-day sword brings me to another tip: wet-ones or anti-bacterial wipes are great for quick clean ups for little ones :).
Thank you for sharing the terrific info.
oh, hand sanitizer is a great and important tip at Disney! The trip to the bathroom to wash hands before a snack is not possible if the snack is being given in the middle of a line to an attraction…
The Cigar Store Indian on Main Street is where I’d recommend to take this photo while your kids are still growing. Excellent barometer of their growth.
Gosh! I forgot one more! One way to help avoid your child buying everything in sight, but is also fun for the kids, would be to give every child Disney Dollars! Looking like real money, but having Disney characters, Disney Dollars are a fun way to allow kids to pick what they want on their own for their souvenirs, but they’ll be quite sure they want it! Having physical money will make them think twice about wanting a generic plastic sword on your first day in the Magic Kingdom, but they’ll be sure of it when they see that Figment doll they cannot live without in Mouse Gear! Alternatively, Disney Gift Cards are also just as useful, however, I think having physical paper money is much more fun!
Also, don’t be scared to hand your camera to a PhotoPass photographer. They’ll be very happy to get a picture with everybody in the frame, without you having to spend $10 on a Disney-print later in your vacation.
I agree completely with Ben on this one. Whenever we go to Disneyland, my daughter brings her own money (which I’ve stuff into her piggy banks over the previous months 😉 )and she defintitely slows down on the spending. She’ll look things over, check prices to see how much she’d have left, etc. A MUCH better solution than using mom and dad’s money! Especially when it’s a $45 pink wizard hat she wants! lol
Also, I wanted to mention that my daughters first trip to Disney was at age 4. We never considered using a stroller and never have at the parks. I think that you tuned in on it at the beginning, don’t force your kids to do something and if they’re tired enough that they you have to put them in a stroller to keep going, it’s break time. As a kid when I went to DL and WDW, my parents never used strollers with my sister and I. We walked and rested when needed. When we go to the Disneyland, we’ll head out early, then take a mid day break and head back to the Grand Californian’s pool and relax for a few hours to recharge. It’s great for all of us, kids and parents alike and helps reduce the stress of walking all over the parks. Sometimes, there’s a nap, then we head back out and get some late lunch/early dinner and have more fun in the parks!
Anyway, hopefully that makes some sense. Another great article, thanks for writing it! (I’m looking forward to part 2 of Disneyland Paris.
Excellent tips! Teaching children the value of money is important, and something that I feel a lot of parents neglect to do.
Great Tip! My son has a chore chart and is saving up money for our September trip. He is learning about the value of a dollar through homeschool. I think this is invaluable for teaching kids to be responsible and only buy what they really want.
Great point. We have a similar strategy with our three kids when we go limit the endless requests for toys. We tell them they get one toy or souvenir for the whole trip, and they get to choose that the last day. They can spend time in each gift shop researching and deciding which thing they ultimately want during the week, but they know they don’t actually get the item until the end. It has worked wonderfully to cut down the begging after each attraction/gift shop.
Of course, I reserve the right to purchase something additional for them on the fly. One year they all fell in love with Figment but had used their choice already, so I bent the rules and bought them all a Figment stuffy.
Yeah, rules like that are definitely meant to be bent.
The biggest tip I came away with after taking my 5 year old son to WDW: on the day you visit the studios, be there at rope drop and book it to Star Tours in order to get on the list for Jedi Academy. Also, let them get the Darth Maul face paint if they ask. They’ll never forget that day and the pictures will be treasures.
That’s a great one! I’ve heard that the demand for Jedi Training Academy is INSANE now. They need a more permanent home for this show, I think.
We’ve done 2 trips with kids… One when our girls were 1 & 4, the next a year later at 2 & 5… I think our top advice for our friends with toddlers/ younger kids (besides making ADRs) is to make a list of 5 “must-dos” for each day. If we got all 5 done, I was satisfied! May not seem like a lot, but we try to keep our goal achievable so we don’t push the kids too much & wind up with sobbing puddles of “un-Disney” crazies. We also like to have a pool day in the middle of our trip just so we have time to chill out and have a totally unplanned day. I actually loved going with younger kids– they totally believe in all of tge Disney Magic! I told my then 5 y/o that we were going to shrink when we walked through the door to meet Tink in the pixie hollow m&g area of adventureland last year… She still talks anout how we shrunk & got big so easily! 😉
I’ve been looking forward to reading this post because eight months ago my husband and I were just like you– a childless couple who visited Disney World frequently. Fast forward to the present, and we are planning our son’s first visit in May when he will be ten months old. Having read a great deal about this topic lately from many different resources, I found your blog thorough. Writing about travel anywhere with children before having children is not a challenge I would have taken on– quite gutsy. As a teacher, however, I disagree with the advice about avoiding school holidays with children up to age 10. Parks are crowded because these holidays exist for a reason. It is not a good plan to take kids out of school at any age for extended vacations. Plan your October vacations before your oldest hits kindergarten.
You have mentioned in blogs that you do plan to have kids someday. Don’t rush, but when you are expecting,I have lots of advice about your last child-free trip. We did that one right.
The age 10 thing was a reader comment–don’t shoot the messenger. I will not weigh in with my own opinion on that controversial subject…
As for the last child-free trip, I’m envisioning “The Hangover 3: Walt Disney World.” Am I right?!? 😉
I’m not sure when government enforced schooling became a priority over family. My kid goes where I go when I go. We travel in the fall and so does my child. Good parenting will ensure he doesn’t fall behind in school. The busy work and teacher yelling at little Johnnie to sit down and Suzie to spit out her gum really isn’t as important as family time. American schools are WAY behind other nations and a lot of this has to do with bad parenting but it doens’t change the fact that kids aren’t learning as much as they could in these institutions.
Take your kid to Disney when it works for you. If you are an active parent who is engaged with your child’s education and teachers, it won’t be a problem. If you have no idea what your kid is studying, then don’t be surprised when this doesn’t work out well for your kid.
Again, YMMV. To each his own and don’t let someone who doesn’t know your kid or your family tell you when it is okay to take your kid on vacation.
Well, being a happily childless couple, I thought this article was going to be very different, lol. That being said, it’s exceptionally well-written and I can’t imagine anyone being offended.
I work in one of the largest children’s museums in the country. On the floor. With the public. EVERY day. The biggest thing I see is the first you mentioned. Don’t force your kids to do something they may not be comfortable doing. You may be able to force them to do it, but they are going to make you pay one way or another, lol.
Another HUGE problem? HANG UP YOUR PHONE!!!! (Or tablet, whatever) You are NOT spending time with your children if you are staring at a screen. The years that your kids actually want to spend time with you are very short and very fast. It won’t be long before they really don’t want you watching them. And it doesn’t take them long to realize that screen is more important than they are. Keep that in mind. Hang it up, turn it off. Whatever it is can wait.
Now – how about an article letting families with kids know how to behave with families with no children, lol?!? Disney was NOT built for kids, it was built for families and we all know families come in all shapes, sizes and varieties. If I’ve been waiting in my spot for the parade for 45 mins and you come up at the last minute, NO your child can NOT stand in front of me. At the other end, if I go to a character dinner, I EXPECT kids to be running around screaming, lol. (I know the article won’t happen, but that’s totally what I thought I was coming to read! *face palm*)
I have totally had that happen with the parades. Just becasue I don’t have kids with me doesn’t mean I’m not as important. I’ve gotten looks while standing in line for characters as well. We all pay the same to be in the parks so one person isn’t more importnat just because they have kids.
I totally agree with this and thought about including it, but I didn’t want this post to come across as finger wagging under the guise of “tips.”
Perhaps a future post on etiquette is in order…but again, that borders on finger wagging.
Let’s be a little realisic here though. My 3 foot tall kid can’t see over you and you wouldn’t even notice him there if you stepped on him. Why does it hurt to let a kid who doesn’t come up to your hips stand in front of you so they can see something they’d entirely miss otherwise?
I am a big fan of keeping kids in line. My son is exceptionally well behaved (most of the time) in restaurants and frequently gets a lot of attention from servers for being so. He says “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me” when he is talking to people. I don’t expect anyone to let him see Mickey first just because he is a kid. He knows that he has to wait his turn just like everyone else.
However, there is room for common courtesy as well. It doesn’t change your viewing of the parade to let someone much much smaller than you sit on the curb in front of you (unless of course you are sitting which is entirely different and completely understandable). But they can’t see ANYTHING over adults at all.
I am not at all saying you “have to” let the kids in because they are “entitled” to a better spot. But really? It doesn’t change your experience or obstruct your view. I always let little kids go in front of me because, well, I am a pretty short person (5 feet tall) and I remember being totally bummed out as a kid because my tiny baldder and single mom couldn’t do the 45 minute pre-sit required to get a good spot. It’s pretty sad when a 5 foot 6 inch person stands directly in front of a kid (especially those who actively work to keep the kid from being able to see) and the kid misses the whole thing only because at 4 years old they had to pee 10 minutes before the parade.
Totally agree, Lisa. I’ve found some adults can be very rude to small children , there is just no need!
I’ve always instilled manners into my kids and they are always very polite and don’t push in front of people so don’t see the harm in letting them stand infront of you if they’re well behaved and don’t obstruct your view
As an adult I wouldn’t mind letting a child or two in front of me, however I have heard horror stories of one child becoming a party of ten.
This past year I had a very rude woman try to push her way between my nine year old daughter and I. She about pushed her into the road, so finally I offered to physically move her if she didn’t step away from my daughter. She moved. Disney is for all ages, but I think the adults need to think like adults and not four year old children. Ugh.
Wow this was pretty great for a kidless couple… and this is coming from a fellow kidless couple! (Do fur-babies count? I would LOVE to see my puppy take pictures with Pluto!)
One more comment about park hours. As you say, early mornings are great for park touring with short lines, but so are late evenings. We’ve done both, but found for our night-owl daughter that staying in the park until later worked better than trying for early mornings. (Some kids need to be on a regular schedule, but ours happily stays up later/sleeps later.)
My favorite Disney memories are running around the MK at midnight, walking on any ride we wanted.
My daughter is also a night-owl. So, we usually stay at the parks pretty late and there’s really no way we will ever get there at rope drop. I never even bother to look for Extra Magic morning hours because I know we will never get moving that early. If I tried to get her up and rush her to the parks early in the morning she would be miserable.
Nice article. Bradford has a good point – we’ve going during “free” dining, which forces us to sit down for ~1 hour for a table service. It’s a good downtime. Although I tend to agree with you about kids in signature restaurants I must say that the commonly espoused fear of unruly kids in sit-down restaurants at Disney is something I’ve rarely if ever seen. Perhaps we’ve been lucky.
“The rationale kids have for wanting to do or not wanting to do things perplexes even astronauts” is a great quote. Case in point: my 4-yr-old would not ride the Jungle Cruise because she remembered the animatronic hippos from a previous trip. She was perfectly fine with the Safari with real hippos, however…
I find robot hippos much scarier than the real thing, too. Ever seen “The Terminator”?! 😉
I may be reading this wrong, but the bit about umbrella strollers (saying they keep kids cooler during naps)–are you confusing strollers with sun shades with “umbrella-type” strollers? I don’t have kids either, but I thought umbrella strollers were the very lightweight, sling type ones with the curved handles like an umbrella grip. Many of those don’t have shades, but are less bulky to manage than regular strollers. Just the way the paragraph ended made me go, “huh?”
I absolutely am confusing them. I honestly had no idea that there was a difference. I thought everyone was recommending the ones with shades!
Too funny! I have three kids and have worked at a daycare for 11 years and I thought to myself, “wow, they make umbrella strollers that allow the child to lay down now?” It never occurred to me that you might be wrong, you should start a cult…
Umbrella Strollers can have sun shades and some recline. I have a 3 year old and an 11 year old. The changes in the variety and technology that they offer with strollers was a little overwhelming when we have our littlest one. (So were the prices!!!!). So Tom, you were correct in you original post.
Ha! Tom, there is a slight difference. Many very cheap and lightweight umbrella (read short but eaily foldable strollers as in this one here ) don’t have much in the way of comfort at all. However, newer “umbrella” stollers are still foldable, lightweight but not feature shades and a recline ability like this one here .
They so didn’t have those when I was a kid!
Thanks for the info!
Thanks, Tom! I really appreciate this article! While I’ve been around children for all of my life (including time as a nanny), I have no kids of my own. In September, I will have the privilege of taking my cousins and their two children (ages 2 and 4) on their first trips to WDW. I’m having a hard time tempering my exciting about FINALLY getting to take someone on their first visit with the realization that the kids will most likely not have the stamina to do what I’m used to. I now have some new ideas on how to approach the trip and help the parents prepare, as well.
Great post – even without kiddos, you’ve certainly experienced WDW enough to make some really helpful suggestions regarding bringing children to WDW. Thanks for taking a YMMV approach towards some of the more ‘controversial’ topics. I think sometimes people don’t stop to think that (as is our case) that six year old who is ‘too old to be in a stroller’ might be using one for medical reasons that are not immediately apparent to the casual observer. Different strokes for different folks – as long as everyone does their best to be courteous and respectful towards other guests in the parks, different approaches to bringing kids to WDW can coexist and we can all still have a magical time! 🙂
I completely agree! Everyone is different and people really shouldn’t be so quick to judge.
My son just turned 5, and we will be bringing a stroller for him. On days when the park is open 0900-1700 (that’s 5pm for the civies) he will hoof it just like us. For those days when we plan to be in the park from early until 10pm or later, he’ll have the stroller to make things easier on everyone. He is a night owl and loves to stay up late. But, he’s still pretty little and over 12 hours in the parks is a lot of walking, even for a highly active child like mine.
Hey Tom,
Great Article. Something that my wife and I did with two kids (ages 4 and 1 1/2) was to get the deluxe dining plan. I know that it is expensive and not for everyone, but what it did do was create sit down diversions during the day in air conditioning. My youngest would eat and nap all while we were dining. It allowed us to dine for 1 to 1 1/2 hours during the busiest parts of the day. It seemed to work for us and we plan on doing this again next May when we will have three children (now 6, 4 and 1).
I really enjoy your blog and look forward to your next stories>
Thanks,
Brad
That’s great that it works for you, it sounds like a good strategy to keep good pace. We also enjoy the Deluxe Dining Plan. I will caution anyone reading that it’s A LOT of food. I couldn’t do the DxDDP for a week long trip, but more power to those who can!
Tom, great article. Is this a method of collecting your thoughts before taking the plunge??? lol
Haha! We definitely plan on having kids, but we’re probably 5 years away from that. We still have a lot of adventures planned, many of which would be really difficult with young kids in tow. We know kids offer a great new perspective, but for now we are enjoying the perspective we currently have.
I’m sure I’ll look back at some of these tips a few years after becoming a parent and laugh, realizing how little I knew about visiting with kids. From the outside, most seem solid, though!
On my Disneymoon in 2005 my husband and I looked at each other after watching a 3 year old melt down in front of us, and we both said that we would NEVER take a child that wasn’t at least 6 to disney (why we chose 6, I don’t know). Last year we took our 5,3,&1 year olds for their first trip. And it was amazing, so glad we didn’t wait. But yes, you will laugh at some of the things you ‘thought’ you knew.
Tom, I think so much of this is perspective. I am a single mom with a boy who just turned 5. I take that kid everywhere! We have been to Disney every year since he turned 3. I’ve taken him to Civil War reinactments, NYC, Philidelphia, DC (a lot), Alexandria, Annapolis, St. Augustine, and a crap ton of 80s rock concerts (Heart, Rush, Def Leppard just to name a very few). Kids are as hard or easy to travel with as you make them. My son travels great! We drive everywhere (15 hours from where we live to Disney) and he has no problems. He is adventurous, will try lots of foods, is not at all shy. He wants to go to the Grand Canyon next summer as opposed to Disney and we are going to Paris the year after that. No reason your little one couldn’t be just as great of a traveler! :o)
Hi Tom
I would really appreciate it, if you could private message me. I am so confused for my trip with my soon to be 6 yr old -.-
Excellent advice. I agree with pretty much all of it. My first trip to any place Disney was my honeymoon to Disney World. I remember my husband and I seeing a lot of unhappy children and we said we would never take a child before the age of 12 (we chose this age because of a particularly well behaved boy waiting in line with us for Big Thunder Mountain.)
Fast forward to actually having a child. Her first trip was at 1 (almost 2). We are now looking forward to our 7th trip in Sept./Oct. She is now 7 and we go every year. In 6 trips she has only had one meltdown. That was during her first trip and we had waited FOREVER to eat at the Boardwalk. We had just finally been seated and she lost it. We walked out, went back to our hotel and put her to bed. We learned to make reservations!
I also thinks it helps that we had been to Disney World several times before having a child and had ridden all of the thrill rides so it wasn’t something WE had to do when taking her.
I am a teacher and this will be the 2nd time I will be taking my child out of school to go to WDW. I love being a teacher, but I hate that I can only take trips when everything is the most crowded and most expensive. I really never take time off work and have hundreds of sick leave hours, so I don’t feel too bad taking off a week to enjoy something fun with my child (who is a good student so far so not a worry).
As for strollers: I have taken my own–total pain on the buses. For the last few years I have rented the ones at WDW. They are kind of expensive, but totally worth it. My daughter will be 7 this trip and I asked if she needed a stroller and she said, “YES!” She is not even close to obese and very active. She usually spends at least an hour or more playing in any of the playgrounds she can find in the parks (which are some of her favorite attractions). The stroller is a nice resting place for her between attractions, a great place to store all the stuff you need when you have a child, and for me, I get a LOT more exercise with the stroller. I can speed walk around the park pushing the stroller and I would have to walk MUCH slower if she were walking herself.
My child also is a very good traveler. We are driving 15 hours to her grandparents tomorrow and she can’t wait. We did a 45 day road trip when she was 3 travelling through 11 states visiting 10 national parks– not one complaint the entire time. We love adventuring together and are hoping to move to Europe next year for a couple of years for a new adventure.
Awesome article!! I just got back from WDW on Monday night and I can not tell you how many burnt out miserable children were having meltdowns through out the park. The Magic Kingdom’s magical hours were til 3am on Sunday and parents still had their toddlers out and about then and none looked happy to be there. I’m not a parent yet but I can’t imagine that forcing your young child to be out til 3am is ever a good idea.
One of my kids’ most-mentioned memories from our trip to WDW last year is of seeing a little girl in a princess gown who had clearly just had her hair done at Bippity Boppity Boutique rolling on the ground during a full-blown temper tantrum. The parents looked as overwhelmed as the child – hopefully they all went back to their room for a nice long nap after that!
Yikes–can’t help by feel sorry for everyone in that situation.
HELP!!
WE are planning on going to Disney World for 2 days only before taking a Disney Cruise out of Port Canaveral in mid-September (2015). Our children (twins) , are 6 years-old. We are first-timers at DW.
Does anyone out there know where we can find a really, really, good and do-able itinerary for a 2 day visit with 6 year-olds?
Help!!
And … thank-you all.
Very good tips, though I’m a bit surprised you didn’t mention the Child Swap option for some attractions. Definitely a life-saver for families with multiple-age kids when one is too young to ride.
I also agree with your sentiments on the strollers. It wasn’t long ago I read a question posted to the Disney Parks Mom’s Panel of a mother inquiring about where she could get a stroller for her 13 year old son. That’s when a stroller isn’t the best solution, a mid-day break is (or maybe an exercise regimen).
Great article! I always enjoy reading your and Sarah’s ideas and tips!
Oh wow, I can’t believe I glossed over Child Swap. I guess that’s what happens when you write a 5,000+ word article and bounce around from section to section when writing it. Hopefully I don’t have any unfinished sentences anywhere! Going back to add that now…
If anyone sees anything else that I missed that’s really obvious, please post it!
As for the 13 year old thing…wow.
I don’t think we should be too quick to assume and comment about a 13 year old Not Needing or that should Not be using a stroller, for the simple reason that We don’t know if this teenager is Handicap and perhaps does Not walk, in which case a Stroller especially the ones that easily fold are way more easier to fold and handle than a Heavy Wheel chair… Just Saying.
GREAT POST TOM!
You did a great job piecing all the advice together. I especially loved the closing quote…I am a bit biased however…..
I LOVE reading your and looking at your blog. Keep up the good work. I am going to Disney with my four kids(ages 3-6) from April 23-30 this year. I will be utilizing the great photography advice you offer…as well as the advice from this post!
Have a magical Day!
Have a great trip and bring back plenty of photos…don’t forget the ones of humans! 😉