Taking breaks during the day at WDW?

[infocrazy]

Tha is for all of the insight! So just to clarify, if baby is asleep in the stroller we can't utilize the baby ride swap then because stroller aren't allowed in line rides? When you ride swap is it immediate like I would ride right after dh, or do I get a pass that allows me to come back and ride in a little while (so dh could come out, find me, and then I could re enter with ds)? Can I go into the epcot world showcase pavilions with a stroller? That seems to be a perfect activity for older ds while baby sleeps in the stroller if I can go in with the stroller. Can someone clarify those two things for me? Thanks.

When you go to a ride, you all go together so they can see the baby/stroller. In most cases it isn't an issue. The CM will give you a rider swap to use. It has no time on it so you could do it anytime. We usually did it right after DH and the boys came back since we were already there. You can take 2 guests with you which worked great for us. IMHO, getting a fast pass and then the rider swap is like getting the golden ticket!

We didn't do the world showcase. The kids wanted to go back and swim instead.

[westwoodmom04]

Thank you!

My list right now is down to Contemporary, Cabins, and Dolphin and maybe Bonnet Creek. I know that my family will get annoyed if the transportation takes forever, so I'm trying to minimize that as one of the priorities.

Sorry to hijack the thread .

If it makes a difference to you, you can walk from the Contemporary to MK, it is maybe a 5 minute walk. I agree with the advice to take a car; car rentals in Orlando are crazy cheap. We drove from BLT to Animal Kingdom and DHS. We also drove the night we ate at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

[megs4413]

Tha is for all of the insight! So just to clarify, if baby is asleep in the stroller we can't utilize the baby ride swap then because stroller aren't allowed in line rides? When you ride swap is it immediate like I would ride right after dh, or do I get a pass that allows me to come back and ride in a little while (so dh could come out, find me, and then I could re enter with ds)? Can I go into the epcot world showcase pavilions with a stroller? That seems to be a perfect activity for older ds while baby sleeps in the stroller if I can go in with the stroller. Can someone clarify those two things for me? Thanks.

I haven't used rider swap, so I'm no help there. As far as I remember, it was immediate, though, and at least on Soarin' (the only ride my mom swapped with DH for the first time we went) she went through the fast pass entrance when he came off the ride. I have no idea how it works at other rides. Sorry!

I'm pretty sure you can take the stroller in all the pavilions...they're all handicapped accessible, IIRC. The only one I wonder about is mexico. I don't remember taking our stroller in there. I know we had a stroller the last time we toured, though, and I don't remember having any problems.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Except car rentals can be crazy pricey during spring break. For a compact in 2009, they wanted $850 for the week! We called off site locations of all the companies and found $250. They must have forgot to up their price. Ridiculous and not affordable!

[BayGirl2]

I can answer both your questions, since my kids both napped in the stroller and we stayed in the park.

1. You can definitely do child swap with baby in the stroller, in fact that's the best use nap time IMO. The whole family goes to the ride entrance and says you want child swap. They'll give the entering parent a pass with the date but no expiration time. Non-riding parent stays with the stroller. Later up to 3 people can use that pass to return via the FP line.

To maximize this you want to get only 1 FP for the ride, remember you only need one because parent 2 will have the child swap card to return with any time. That means you could have used parent 2's park ticket to get another FP with a return time around the same window. If you have a child with a ticket but too young/short/sleeping to ride you could use their ticket to get another FP. So if planned right you could have a FP for 3 "adult" rides and use child swap to ride them all in the otherwise busy afternoon/napping time. (Assuming 2 adults 1 ticketed child, the number grows with more tickets.) This scenario was easier when FP return times weren't enforced but its still doable.

2. The majority of the Epcot World Showcase pavilions are not open to strollers. I saw a couple in China during the acrobat show, but I know for sure they are not allowed in USA, Canada, and France, which are the other countries with movies. The rest of the countries are mostly just shopping, and you can take strollers into stores. If you want to shop during nap time that's a great choice, but at WDW shows are not really an option. Both Innovations in Epcot do allow strollers and have comfy cool places to sit.

[beltm]

I can answer both your questions, since my kids both napped in the stroller and we stayed in the park.

1. You can definitely do child swap with baby in the stroller, in fact that's the best use nap time IMO. The whole family goes to the ride entrance and says you want child swap. They'll give the entering parent a pass with the date but no expiration time. Non-riding parent stays with the stroller. Later up to 3 people can use that pass to return via the FP line.

To maximize this you want to get only 1 FP for the ride, remember you only need one because parent 2 will have the child swap card to return with any time. That means you could have used parent 2's park ticket to get another FP with a return time around the same window. If you have a child with a ticket but too young/short/sleeping to ride you could use their ticket to get another FP. So if planned right you could have a FP for 3 "adult" rides and use child swap to ride them all in the otherwise busy afternoon/napping time. (Assuming 2 adults 1 ticketed child, the number grows with more tickets.) This scenario was easier when FP return times weren't enforced but its still doable.

2. The majority of the Epcot World Showcase pavilions are not open to strollers. I saw a couple in China during the acrobat show, but I know for sure they are not allowed in USA, Canada, and France, which are the other countries with movies. The rest of the countries are mostly just shopping, and you can take strollers into stores. If you want to shop during nap time that's a great choice, but at WDW shows are not really an option. Both Innovations in Epcot do allow strollers and have comfy cool places to sit.

Thank you for your super helpful answer! So we only need one adult fastpass to ride? So if only dh gets a fastpass for say space mountain, he could ride with ds or do they both initially need a fastpass? And they'll give him the rider swap voucher even if I didn't initially have a fastpass for the ride? If this is the case then we will stay in the parks and let baby nap in the stroller and hit some of the baby swap rides while he naps. That's great if I can stay with the stroller and then Switch off once they are done riding. And just to check once I get the rider swap pass, I would still have to wait in the regular or fastpass lines, like it doesn't let the initial set of riders bypass the regular line, right, they'd still have to wait in the line but when I used the rider swap pass I would then bypass the regular line?

[westwoodmom04]

Except car rentals can be crazy pricey during spring break. For a compact in 2009, they wanted $850 for the week! We called off site locations of all the companies and found $250. They must have forgot to up their price. Ridiculous and not affordable!

Wow, that is crazy. But even Disney prices are higher then, no? We paid just a little more than $100 (pre-tax) for a mid-size sedan for a week in November, I believe in was Dollar or Thrifty. Picked up right at the airport, so we skipped the disney shuttle.

[BayGirl2]

Thank you for your super helpful answer! So we only need one adult fastpass to ride? So if only dh gets a fastpass for say space mountain, he could ride with ds or do they both initially need a fastpass? And they'll give him the rider swap voucher even if I didn't initially have a fastpass for the ride? If this is the case then we will stay in the parks and let baby nap in the stroller and hit some of the baby swap rides while he naps. That's great if I can stay with the stroller and then Switch off once they are done riding. And just to check once I get the rider swap pass, I would still have to wait in the regular or fastpass lines, like it doesn't let the initial set of riders bypass the regular line, right, they'd still have to wait in the line but when I used the rider swap pass I would then bypass the regular line?

You'll need a FP for each person who rides the first round, or they could go through the standby line, which is usually slower. (Didn't realize your DS could ride). When you return the child swap ticket acts as a FP for up to 3 people. So you could take your DS on again while your DH stays with the stroller.

[crl]

Haven't read the other responses, sorry if this is duplicative.

My age spread was a seven month old and a seven year old. We started at rope drop, let the baby have cat naps in the park in the stroller in the morning, stayed at the park through lunch, then one parent would take the baby back to the hotel for nap while the other parent took the seven year old to the hotel pool or water park or downtown Disney. We met back up for dinner and a couple of nights went back to the park for a couple of hours.

Catherine

[KrisM]

General transportation thoughts/information:
Travel time depends on 3 factors: 1) what kind of transportation are you taking, 2) where are you going and 3) when are you going.

...snip...

1) some kinds of transportation are quicker than others.
Anything not listed above is BUS RELIANT. As you can see, ALL preferred transportation methods are at DELUXE resorts. IMO, this sort of demonstrates the premium Disney puts on ease of transport and elucidates the importance of ease of transport in having a "magical" vacation. Not everyone feels as strongly about this as I do, but I'm kinda high strung (as if that's not obvious.)

So my preferred resorts for transportation ease in order:
1. Polynesian (you can walk to the transportation and ticketing center!)
2. Contemporary Resort
3. Grand Floridian
4. Wilderness Lodge/Fort Wilderness
5. any of the epcot area resorts (boardwalk inn, swan and dolphin, beach club, yacht club)

*sorry for the novel!*

I came across this blog on touringplans.com today. I think it's visible without a sub., but maybe not. Anyhow, you're pretty good, but check out WL and FW!

http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/02...me-in-transit/