Going to Disney World in the beginning of May with 3/1.5yr old - need your help!

[krobbin]

I bet these questions have been asked 1000x before, but I am reading some of the other posts and getting lost because I just don't know DW that well.

We are getting a 3 day pass that allow for 1 park a day. I know nothing about Disney with kids, I've been myself, but only went to the Food & Wine festival.

1) What rides will be good for the 3yr old (she is over 40in)? She is not a fan of scary things, but could probably tolerate a dark ride with nothing popping out at her. Can the 1.5yr old (technically she'll be 20m old) go on any rides at all? I'm seeing that Peter Pan is a popular ride.

2) What shows should we plan on seeing? My youngest is sort of a handful and might be disruptive, can I even do a show or do I leave her with Grandma and the stroller and see the show(s) with my older child.

3) I would love to see the fireworks, when are those and what's the best time/place to get a good view? Again, the youngest might be problematic with a long wait.

4) My oldest is in love with Belle, where can we meet her? Do they have character dining with the princesses?

5) Fast passes, I pretty much know nothing about these, especially since they changed how it works. What rides do I run and get them for?

6) Is there anywhere safe I can let my youngest run off some energy (like an open grassy area) or do we keep that for the hotel?

7) What should I pack in my stroller? I heard you can bring food/drinks.

8) Should I be installing some app that can tell me where things are in each park? Like a trip planner? I get so lost at the parks, I don't want to spend all our precious time wandering around.

I *really* appreciate any help or advice you may offer. Also if there is a thread or website that already answers a lot of these questions, please feel free to throw me in that direction :)

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, I don't really have a choice about bringing my youngest child. She could stay with my Mom back at the hotel for part of the day, however. We live in Florida, so we get discounted rates thankfully.

[BunnyBee]

1) I recommend the Passporter guide for good ride descriptions. They rate by ages. There are also YouTubes of all of the rides so you can preview before going. Your youngest (and older, at 3 she won't be tall enough for several things) can ride any ride without a height restriction. If the ride does have a height restriction, you can ask for a Parent Swap/Rider Switch Pass and let one parent ride with the older child while the other stays with the toddler, then you switch and the older child can ride twice. Or the parents can ride a roller coaster.

2) There are outdoor shows at MK at the castle. There's an outdoor pirate show in Adventureland. You could walk away easily. Indoor not-live shows would be things like the Tiki Room, Country Bear Jamboree (personal ugh on that one), Carousel of Progress (my kids call it the Carousel of Boring), Hall of Presidents, and Mickey's Philharmagic (4D movie, a favorite!).

Epcot has some movies (indoor) and outdoor performances in the countries (we like the drums in Japan and the candy lady), Turtle Talk with Crush in Future World (cute)... All of these would be in the Passporter and on YouTube.

Animal Kingdom's Nemo is not to be missed.

DHS has many shows. Beauty and the Beast is great. The Little Mermaid is a live action combo puppetry thing. Cute as well. The Disney Jr Playhouse is loved by kids and torturous for adults. ;) Also Indiana Jones stunt show and a car stunt show.

Kids all over Disney pitch fits. Just try to sit on the end of an aisle and walk out. Snacks are helpful too, if allowed.

3) Fireworks are at MK typically at closing time. Check the calendar on WDW site for times. Best viewing depends... They're renovating the "wagon wheel" to allow for better viewing spots. We typically get our place for the parade then scoot around for fireworks. I think they may have fastpasses now for the fireworks? We used them for the parade last time. There's also a big Illuminations show at Epcot at 9:00pm nightly. Best viewing there is also a matter of preference. They have fastpasses available for one area. Check disboards for threads on best viewing areas and you'll get photos to compare.

4) Sometimes (usually?) Belle's at Cinderella's Royal Table in her blue dress. She's always at Akershus in her yellow ball gown. She greets everyone and takes a photo with you before you are seated.

5) Check disboards for the latest on the FP+ system.

6) There are play areas at each of the parks. Look on the maps. There's a really cool new one inside the queue for Dumbo.

7) You can't bring in glass or alcohol to the parks, but yes, you can bring in food and drinks. We bring water and shelf-stable snacks. I leave extra diapers and wipes in the stroller. We also bring ponchos. There's a recent thread on what do you bring to the parks that should be helpful.

8) My Disney Experience is the official Disney app that lets you adjust FP+ times and dining reservations. It may have a map, but I would look at those online and maybe order some to familiarize yourself with the layout before going.

Why would you leave your youngest? Disney is for everyone! :)

Helpful websites:
disboards.com
mousesavers.com
allearsnet.com
easywdw.com (great, free crowd calendar)

PassPorter's Walt Disney World 2014: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake! by Jennifer Marx et al. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1587711273/

[123LuckyMom]

Your little one may really be enthralled and not as disruptive as you fear.

The most important thing is to get to the parks EARLY! Be there before they open and the rope drops. You will be able to walk right on your first few rides. You can now schedule your fast passes ahead of time. I know very little about this new system, so I'll let someone else explain it, but you should get fastpasses for popular rides you want to ride later in the day.

I highly recommend this book:

The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2014 by Bob Sehlinger et al. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1628090006/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_Iteptb1SDNY46

There's an app that goes with it called Lines that I found very helpful for planning out the order of rides each day. You need to purchase a subscription to use the app. There's a discount in the book and others on the web.

My 4 year old and 11 month old didn't find any of the rides too scary (though the 4 year old did balk at the first part of the Haunted Mansion), but they are not sensitive to scary stuff at all.

The Disboards online are the Mecca of Disney information.

[anonomom]

Where are you staying? Depending on the answer, you will be able to reserve up to 3 rides/shows/experiences a day 30 or 60 days in advance (It's called Fastpass+ and you arrange it through the WDW website).

If your daughter loves Belle, make sure to look for Enchanted Tales with Belle at the Magic Kingdom. It's a cute little show where Belle acts out the night she met the Beast with willing audience members. Any child who wants a part may have one, and afterward anyone who participates gets to meet Belle and take pics. It's a good Fastpass choice.

As PP said, there are tons of ways for a little one to blow off steam. I think you'll be there for the Flower & Garden festival at Epcot, for which they set up 3 playgrounds around the park. Also, when they were little, my kids loved the hedge maze in the UK pavillion at Epcot, and there's a small indoor playground in the Mission Space building. DHS has the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and AK has the Boneyard, all nice places for the kids to play. MK and Epcot also have water play areas, so maybe bring extra clothes and let your kids wear crocs or other quick-drying shoes.

[krobbin]

Sometimes (usually?) Belle's at Cinderella's Royal Table in her blue dress. She's always at Akershus in her yellow ball gown. She greets everyone and takes a photo with you before you are seated.

Just saw that you could get reservations for Akershus, holy cow nothing available. You must have to book months in advance! Thank you so much for all the advice to each question, very helpful.


Where are you staying? Depending on the answer, you will be able to reserve up to 3 rides/shows/experiences a day 30 or 60 days in advance (It's called Fastpass+ and you arrange it through the WDW website).

If your daughter loves Belle, make sure to look for Enchanted Tales with Belle at the Magic Kingdom. It's a cute little show where Belle acts out the night she met the Beast with willing audience members. Any child who wants a part may have one, and afterward anyone who participates gets to meet Belle and take pics. It's a good Fastpass choice.

We are planning on staying at the Caribe Royal (so off-site), at least they have shuttles that go directly to each park. So, I may not be able to reserve those rides like you said. Thanks for the heads up on the Enchanted Tales, this might be our best bet at her meeting Belle. She hasn't even seen the movie because I figured some scenes might be too scary for her (she just turned 3). Hopefully the Beast isn't very scary in the play.

I'm very happy to hear there are areas where they can just run around for a bit, thanks for those suggestions.

We're definitely going to MK and AK, but I am not sure about what to do for the 3rd park, should we do MK again? Any suggestions for Epcot vs HS?

Thanks again :)

[acmom]

We're definitely going to MK and AK, but I am not sure about what to do for the 3rd park, should we do MK again? Any suggestions for Epcot vs HS?

Thanks again :)

We have taken both DD and DS to Disney at those ages - they will both have a great time! Your youngest will do fine and there is plenty that the whole family can ride.

I would probably do MK 2 days - we have done MK 2 days on all our trips with kids bc there is so much for little ones there. Epcot and HS both have things my kids liked but they were more enthralled with MK and there were lots more options for them. My kids loved AK too, but I know different people have different feelings on AK and some people prefer to skip AK and do Epcot or HS. My kids are big animal lovers though and really liked the safari ride (did that 2x each visit) as well as just walking around there bc it has beautiful grounds with animals. They also both loved the Lion King show even at young ages because of the music and dancing. If your kids are big Disney Jr fans and really want to see those characters, HS is the only place to do that. We have only done that park 1x with kids (our last trip when they were 3 and 5) and they really liked the Disney Jr Live show and meeting the characters at Hollywood and Vine lunch, but a lot of the other stuff there was too old for them. At Epcot, they liked walking around (DH and I liked walking around the countries with a beer!), meeting characters, the Nemo ride, Figment ride and play area, and a couple of the boat rides.

HTH!

[anonomom]

Just saw that you could get reservations for Akershus, holy cow nothing available. You must have to book months in advance! Thank you so much for all the advice to each question, very helpful.



We are planning on staying at the Caribe Royal (so off-site), at least they have shuttles that go directly to each park. So, I may not be able to reserve those rides like you said. Thanks for the heads up on the Enchanted Tales, this might be our best bet at her meeting Belle. She hasn't even seen the movie because I figured some scenes might be too scary for her (she just turned 3). Hopefully the Beast isn't very scary in the play.

I'm very happy to hear there are areas where they can just run around for a bit, thanks for those suggestions.

We're definitely going to MK and AK, but I am not sure about what to do for the 3rd park, should we do MK again? Any suggestions for Epcot vs HS?

Thanks again :)

The beast is usually played by a little kid, and they seem to try to pick the cutest and most mild-mannered looking kid in the room for the role.

[klwa]

1) What rides will be good for the 3yr old (she is over 40in)? She is not a fan of scary things, but could probably tolerate a dark ride with nothing popping out at her. Can the 1.5yr old (technically she'll be 20m old) go on any rides at all? I'm seeing that Peter Pan is a popular ride.
As others have said, anything that doesn't have a height restriction, the 20 month old can ride. We just got back from a trip with our 18 month old. :) She rode Peter Pan, Dumbo, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (wouldn't really recommend if your older daughter is scared easily), carousel, tea cups, basically everything, and that's just at Magic Kingdom. :)


2) What shows should we plan on seeing? My youngest is sort of a handful and might be disruptive, can I even do a show or do I leave her with Grandma and the stroller and see the show(s) with my older child.
At MK, Mickey's Philharmagic. At AK, go to the Flights of Wonder show. My 18 month old loved it.


4) My oldest is in love with Belle, where can we meet her? Do they have character dining with the princesses?
Enchanted Tales with Belle at MK to meet her in her yellow dress, France in Epcot to meet her in her blue dress, the Beauty & the Beast show at DHS to see an abbreviated version of the movie, but you won't get to meet her there. Others have already handled the character dining.


5) Fast passes, I pretty much know nothing about these, especially since they changed how it works. What rides do I run and get them for?
They just opened up allowing those who are staying offsite to register up to 30 days early for Fast passes. If you have yoru tickets, go to the My Disney Experience website & register them. You'll be able to pick fastpasses 30 days in advance. With your kids ages, I'd get an Enchanted Tales with Belle, one of the princess meet & greets, and then probably something like Buzz Lightyear for MK. For AK, get a safari, Finding Nemo, and a Mickey/Minnie meet & greet. Or something like that.

You may want to check out easywdw.com Josh goes through the logic behind which fastpasses to get at each park as well as which days are better for each park and a basic plan for your day. On your MK day, I'd go straight for the Anna/Elsa Meet & Greet. It's the hard FP to get & the line may be crazy.

[krobbin]

Awesome advice people, thank you. :boogie: I just wanted to share that someone mentioned to me that the fantasmic show has a scary dragon(?) character that scared their 6yr old. I might hold off on that show - just for example, my girl is scared of monocles and the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk - LOL! We've never watched Disney Jr (crazy!), so that's not a big deal for her.

Forgot to add that easywdw.com is an awesome site and very helpful, thanks for that!

[123LuckyMom]

Awesome advice people, thank you. :boogie: I just wanted to share that someone mentioned to me that the fantasmic show has a scary dragon(?) character that scared their 6yr old. I might hold off on that show - just for example, my girl is scared of monocles and the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk - LOL! We've never watched Disney Jr (crazy!), so that's not a big deal for her.

Forgot to add that easywdw.com is an awesome site and very helpful, thanks for that!

If your DD is sensitive to bad guys, you might want to skip Fantasmic. I love it, personally, but there are villains and the dragon, and a sensitive kid really might be afraid.

There's nothing scary in the MK nighttime shows, though.