Going to DisneyWorld next week, any words of wisdom?

[egoldber]

DH has a business trip this week to Clearwater, Florida. DD and I are tagging along and then we're spending the weekend in Orlando visiting Mickey and friends. :)

Any advice for doing Disney with a not yet walking 14 month old?

Does anyone know a place to buy Eeyore T-shirts or onesies? (Sarah really like Eeyore.)

TIA!

[Rachels]

Sarah has excellent taste. I love Eeyore, too. I haven't been to Disney with a baby, so can't answer that, but I just wanted to pass along a recommendation for hotels in case you need one while you're in Orlando. My husband and I flew in and out of Orlando with our baby recently, and there's a Hyatt IN THE AIRPORT TERMINAL which is absolutely wonderful. The hotel was great (and quiet, somehow), the food was great, it was less expensive than other hotels in the area, and when it was time to catch our flight, we just walked downstairs and onto the plane. It's the easiest traveling I've ever done. And since we had a morning flight, it was much easier on Abigail than if we'd had to wake her up, put her in the car, return the car, hike to the terminal, etc.

-Rachel
Mommy to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[brubeck]

Just so you know, there is a Disney Vacation Board (although not too active) in the Toddler Bargains section. It recommends the following site (which is pretty good):

http://www.wdwig.com/contents.htm

There is a comprhensive section on travelling to DW with infants and toddlers.

[egoldber]

Thanks, I have looked at the wdwig guide and it is a great site. I think it is really good for people who don't travel a lot. It has a lot of good info, but a lot of it is just general advice for traveling with an infant/toddler. But it doesn't really tell me the specifics that I want to know, LOL! :) Like:

Is whole milk readily available?
Do they have high chairs in all the restaurants (including the outdoor ones)?
Do kids meals consist of anything besides chicken nuggets and mac&cheese?
Will they give me a hard time if I pack in all of Sarah's food? (I am pickier about what she eats than I am about what I eat :) )

We are staying at a Disney resort (Yacht Club) near Epcot.

Thanks!

[bnme]

Don't have any kids yet, so I cant comment on that aspect, LOL! Just wanted to say the Yacht Club seems great! I have stayed at the Boardwalk and think that is the best location in the park (right next to the yacht and beach club).

I am sure whole milk and whatever baby/child supplies are pretty much available everywhere...Disney is so into catering to that...but I don't have any specefic info. I've seen specefic bokks on traveling Disney with kids, so you may want to browse a book store for tips.

Enjoy!!!!

[mommychic]

I was there in the begining of the year (the Boardwalk Hotel).

Inaddition to WDWIG, Disboards has a family board with loads of info:
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?s=b43e9c0236eee9ad7a9175f54ad7075 6&forumid=23

Yes, whole milk is readily available. My husband is the picky one and will only have whole milk in his cereal.

Yes, high chairs are everywhere!

To verify this, call the Yacht Club Hotel's Concierge's desk at 407-934-7000. Even if your not staying on the Concierge's floor, they will answer any questions you have regarding WDW.

This is what I found regarding kid's meals on WDWIG dining guide:
"A Note For Parents of Picky Eaters: Most WDW restaurants can accommodate even the fussiest eaters. Meals can be prepared without sauces if your child prefers them that way and spaghetti and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, while not on the menu, are often available if you just ask. Buffet-style restaurants are also good bets for picky eaters as they are able to take just the things they like in amounts as large as they would like. A number of the buffets have special "kids" buffets, too."

Here's the link to the menus:
http://www.wdwig.com/dining.htm

The menus are really up-to-date on the site and I use them to plan our itinerary. My DH is picky and likes to know ahead of time what he can expect at a restaurant.

I STRONGLY SUGGEST making priority reservations to any restaurant you plan on attending before you leave home!! Buffets for breakfast are great since there is just such a selection. Plus, adults can eat the mickey waffles off the kids buffet too!

WDW is such a kid friendly place I don't think they would mind at all if you brought her food with you. Oh, I read on WDWIG that there are no Cheerios anywhere to be found in WDW so if your little one likes them, bring a large ziplock full!

The Cape May Cafe buffet breakfast in the Beach Club is wonderful. I'd suggest dining around the world in Epcot for an unusual meal. We start in UK with the fish and chips and eat child size portions around the world until we have dessert in France. Great way to sample the countries. In MGM, the Prime Time Cafe is hysterical. Blast from the past! For some reason, burgers are not on the menu but are served. The fried chicken is the house special. Brown Derby is also wonderful for lunch. Had the original cobb salad and it was fantastic. For a romantic dinner (even with baby along) go to Palio's Italian Bistro in the Swan. Superior Italian Cuisine (not too expensive either and resort casual). Flying Fish Cafe on the boardwalk has great seafood and the ESPN Cafe great burgers and wings.

Oh, the best Pooh and characters selection is the shop right next to Pooh ride in Magic Kingdom.

Stop in the Baby Centers to change the baby or just to relax. Each park has at least one of them. Plus the sell baby supplies as well.

Have fun and please report back what it's like to REALLY go there with a baby!!!

Have any questions, let me know. Been going to WDW with DH twice a year for the past 5 years. We just love the place and the exceptional level of service at their hotels and restaurants!

What stroller will you be taking??? Make sure to get a balloon to tie around it so you can spot it before someone strolls off with it by accident :)

Have fun, so jealous can't wait to go next year with future little one!!!
Lisa

[suzska]

Beth, go back to WDWIG and check out the Dining Guides. They have menus for almost all of the restaurants at WDW.

Since you're staying at the Yacht Club, take your own stroller. You're just over the bridge from The Boardwalk (where we stayed last time and will be staying again in January). And you're a VERY short walk to EPCOT. It's so much easier to have your own stroller than to rent one, IMO, if you're staying onsite. Just make sure it's easy to fold up so that you can take it on the buses (which is how you'll be getting to the Magic Kingdom from the Yacht Club). We took our Combi 6600 and had no trouble, but then I had 5 other adults to help with holding baby, diaper bags, etc.

I can't remember their exact policy on bringing in food. But they will search all your bags before you enter now. (Which is usually just a quick glance in for security purposes.) It's easier if you have the bag out and all the zippers opened before you get to the front of the line.

As far as I can remember, all of the restaurants have high chairs. We never really ate outdoors (it was January), but I know we always had a high chair when we did eat. Can't say whether the milk is whole milk or not. I know everywhere didn't have it.

Also, take the time to learn where the Baby Care Centers are (one in each park). These are the best places to change little ones since they have actual changing tables (and more than one). Most of the regular restrooms just have the metal slab, and only one, so you sometimes will have to wait. The Baby Care Centers also have jarred baby food and diapers for sale if you need them in an emergency. They have breast feeding rooms and a usually a small play area. This was great for Grammy and Evan to sit in while I got the bottle prepared. There's also a small kitchen area for heating up food.

Since Evan will eat just about anything off of our plates, I'm not too concerned about food choices this time around. A few times I'll probably not order anything for myself, but get something for Evan. That way I can eat what he doesn't and Evan can mooch off of Dad (he's happier mooching, and I can save a few bucks by getting the kids meal--I'm the picky eater). :-)

Well, I've got to go (Evan just got up), but I'll try to add more later!

Also, another site to check out is http://www.mousesavers.com.

[egoldber]

Ah, the stroller dilemma. I am VERY torn, since we are spending two days at Clearwater beach before going to Disneyworld. I think I have resigned myself to the compromise stroller of my Chicco 2002. I will just have to carry Sarah on the beach. My only other choice is the Instep Safari and that would be too unwieldy for the airport and WDW I'm afraid.

And just to clarify, Sarah's not a picky eater, I'm the one who is picky about WHAT she eats! I prefer her to eat fresh foods and organic foods, but I know better than to expect that from WDW! And HER favorites are frozen waffles and deli ham!!! LOL! I think she would live on those two foods if I let her. :)

Thanks!

[Momof3Labs]

We were at WDW last December (pre-baby) and they allowed us to bring our own food and beverages in the park. Granted, they were just snacks and bottled water, but that wasn't a problem for us at all!

Lori
mommy to Colin Daniel 9/28/02

[suzska]

I forgot a few things. We usually go to the shops at Downtown Disney Marketplace for Disney merchandise. There is a store with just Pooh stuff (Pooh's Corner), but there is also the one that is basically a HUGE Disney Store and then some (World of Disney). I can't remember the specifics, but I think these are the ones where you can get discounts if you have an American Express Card or Annual Disney Pass. It's usually 10%, but you can always ask the cast members if there's any discounts available (see mousesavers.com under WDW-Other Savings-Souvenies).

As for "organic" food, try the food court at The Land (Sunshine Season Food Fair). A lot of the stuff sold there is grown on property as far as I know--or at least I thought the corn-on-the-cob was. You can get waffles at just about any breakfast place. Don't know about the deli ham! :-) You can also buy fresh fruit at stands in all the parks (an apple is $0.99, etc.).

If you want to do any kind of "special" dining, I'd call 407-WDW-DINE right now! Well, not right now--they don't open again until 7am. (Read the FAQ at wdwig.com) Character Dining can be very tricky to get. I've heard that there are something like 80 seatings for Cinderella's Breakfast Table every day (with 75 people manning the phones) and reservations can be made 60 days in advance. People call at 6:58am exactly 60 days before they want the resi, and they're booked up in 10 minutes! Most places you can make the Priority Seating 120 days in advance, but anything for the Magic Kingdom is only 60 days in advance. Yes, I've marked my calendar for the day in November when I have to call to make the Magic Kingdom lunch Priority Seating! I've already got all the non-Magic Kingdom ones made. Maybe it's because we're going in January that I didn't have too many problems. We're doing the new Princess Character Breakfast at Norway in EPCOT--it's gotten good reviews. You can always call and see if there are any cancellations if there's anything you're interested in.

For our stroller I tied a bunch of orange yarn around the handle (it's what I had on hand). But nobody else had a Combi 6600, let alone one in Ebony. But it was still easy to spot our stroller. Just make sure you park it in the stroller parking areas. If you don't, a cast member will come along and move it to the parking area anyway while you're on the attraction. We sat outside the Muppets Theater for a while (waiting for my brothers to come back from doing something else) and watched the cast members move many a stroller to the "correct" area, and many a parent come out of the Muppets confused because their stroller wasn't where they had parked it!

I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting. Any other questions? I LOVE to talk WDW!!! ;-)

[egoldber]

Thanks everyone. I think a lot of you guys are much more hard core Disney than we are, LOL!!! We will probably only eat lunch and a snack at the park. DH and I are usually pretty tired of the park by dinnertime. I haven't made reservations for dinner or character meals because we haven't even decided what parks we are going to yet. :) Also, when we were there before we just called while we there and got into a character meal without any trouble (off season). Not necessarily the Cinderella meal, but we're not really picky.

Which do you think is the best park for a young child? Is it obviously Magic Kingdom? Or does it not make much difference at this age? We didn't really care much for MGM or Animal Kingdon when we have gone before, so we are probably only going to do Magic Kingdom and Epcot at most.

TIA!

[egoldber]

Thanks so much!!! I may check out the Norway breakfast.

We leave today, so I'll let you guys know how it all went next week!

(And Evan is a cutie. :) )

[m2tandk]

A comment on where to buy Eeyore, try Downtown Disney's shopping village. They have a Pooh store completely filled with anything WTP and they have lots of baby and toddler things!!

WDW is so kid friendly! While I haven't taken a baby or toddler to WDW I see them all over the park every time we go! We live in Florida so we are there twice a year. Just remember to pack something warm just in case the weather changes and its a bit cooler! AND, utilize the buses from hotel to the park! They are wonderful!!

Kelly

[suzska]

Thanks!

And have fun!!! I can't wait to hear how it went.

[suzska]

I think Evan's favorite thing from the last trip was the Safari ride at Animal Kingdom. Not because of the animals, but because of the bumpy ride in the jeep! He also liked playing in the dinosaur boneyard. Other than that he slept a lot, so I couldn't say which park was his "favorite." There are certainly more "kid friendly" rides/attractions at Magic Kingdom, but that doesn't mean there aren't things for them to do at the other parks. Get a daily schedule at the gate for times when the characters might show up different places--at EPCOT they had a bus that came around a few times a day, filled with characters, that stopped by the fountain. We were able to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Tigger, Chip 'N Dale, etc. Of course that was naptime for Evan, so he missed it all. But this was also before they started the Early Entry days back up again for people who were staying onsite--they had a group of characters that would come to certain hotels each day instead. So Evan was sitting on the floor in the lobby of the Boardwalk one morning (since he was too small to walk up to them or get in line) and Minnie came over, sat down beside him, and picked him up in her lap!! Great photo-op there!!! :-) (See attached photo....)

I'm not sure if they're still doing it, but when we were there last year EPCOT/World Showcase had these dream masks (I think that's what they were called) that the kids could make. Basically it was a white piece of posterboard on a stick that looked like a mask. The kids decorated them however they wanted and then had to find the "station" at each of the countries where they could get a stamp and a tag that the castmembers put on the mask (in Norway the tag was a viking ship, in Canada a maple leaf, etc.). Evan was too young at the time, but my cousin's kids did them. If they have them this year I'll probably let Evan give it a try.

There's a new character breakfast at Norway (Princess Storybook). Did I mention that already? It's an all-you-can-eat breakfast skillet-type thing as far as I read, and people have really liked it. That might be one to consider since you're staying so close. It's starts at 8:30am, before the park opens, so you need a Priority Seating number to get into the park. Apparently not as many people know about it yet, so for now it's a little easier to get into than Cinderella's. We're going to this one in January.