31 days of Disney World: Toddler Tips

Each trip with our kids is a new experience because each age is a new experience and every kid is different.  On our last trip J and E were 25 months and just shy of 11 months and they both had a blast.

A lot of people say they want to wait to take their kids so they remember.  I totally understand that!  Disney World is expensive! We work hard and skimp all year in other things so we can afford to go once or twice that year because it's just important to us, but for others the trip is something they'd only care to do once or can really only afford to do once or maybe they just want their kids to have other vacation experiences too.  J still remembers things about our trip and talks about them daily.  I think that's so great, but I know he will not remember this trip in 20 years and most of his memories of going this little will mesh together.  That's ok with me.

A lot of people also say you can't take babies or toddlers to WDW because they won't enjoy it.  They do!  Even if your baby doesn't know who Mickey is (E did because he sees him in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all the time), he'll love the bright colors, the costumes, and all the things to see and do.  Both of my kids got into rides even as young as 5 months ("It's a Small World" blew their little baby minds!) and I will agree that it all can be overstimulating, but how much they're stimulated in a day is up to you.

So here are my tips for Disney World with toddlers:

1. Go back to the resort (or to your hotel) for naps!!!  I cannot stress this to people enough and even to myself!  There were days our boys fell asleep in the stroller and we pushed on (which was fun) but when they'd wake up they'd be really stressed from still being in the stroller and unable to relax and unwind.  And I get that.  As much as we might have liked to eat some good desserts and do a little shopping and take turns riding rides each day while they stroller slept, we knew it was better for them and us to go nap.  We tried to leave the parks around 1 each day and got our kids back to the resort by 1:30 (we used the WDW free bus transportation).  Sometimes one may have taken a cat nap in the stroller and wouldn't be interested in napping in the room, but they still enjoyed the time to rest, play with their toys,  watch a little TV, color... it was a good break and a little bit of their "normal" routine from home they needed.  Most nights we didn't go back out after naps because we were all still too tired and we didn't want to come back late on the Disney buses (I'll write about this all later), but lots of people do and we will as our boys get older for sure!
2. Bring snacks they're used to.  Every kids meal at Disney World comes with french fries.  You can get fruit instead, but if your two year old is like mine, he learns quickly the beauty of the constant french fry stream and finds WDW that much more magical.  We knew our kids meals would be a little greasier sometimes, so we wanted to control what they ate outside of those meals.  My boys love applesauce in the squeeze tubes and we brought so many of those.  I'd also really recommend any of the baby food brands of toddler squeezers in an attempt to get even more fruits/veggies in.  We also made sure to buy plenty of bananas and string cheese there to keep things healthy and even though a fruit bowl is expensive, buying one every day can be so great.  My boys love melon but only grapes or apple slices come with kids meals.  They would gobble up the melon when I'd buy them the fruit cups and I felt better watching them eat that too.  We also brought the favorite treats for when we needed to buy time (waiting for a bus, etc)... goldfish, pretzels and of course suckers!  My family loves the organic vitamin C juice suckers.  I bought a huge bag at Target and my boys ate lots of those and got an extra boost of vitamin C at the same time.
3. Get them water bottles.  Josh and I bought Camelback water bottles at Target before the trip.  They have straws you bite to suck water out so they don't leak.  These bottles were so great for our boys.  They'd just hold them and drink water all day which was so great because it was hot!
4. Rent a stroller.  We rented a stroller from www.kingdomstrollers.com* and were very pleased with the quality and service and price.  We flew this trip and didn't want to pack bulky strollers when we knew J would just walk through the airport.  This stroller was so great and we loved having them side by side instead of back and front.  It also came with an awesome rain cover which was so needed while it rained and good shade covers.  You can also rent a crib through this company and a few other things, I believe.
5. Be prepared for things to not go as planned.  Kids get cranky or tired or they fixate on something and want to do it over and over.  No matter what happens, kids will change even your best plans.  Try to stay laid back and go with the flow and just watch your kid love seeing everything come to life!
6. Load up your iPhone/iPad/whatever with favorites!  My kids love "Toddler Teasers" app and watching Toy Story.  There were many times we needed to pacify our baby who just so happens to LOVE Toy Story and playing that on our iPhones was so handy and helpful!
7. Go at park opening.  Little kids are up early anyway, so try to push yourself to get out the door (you'll be back for naps in the afternoon and can rest then!).  That first hour the park is open is the time you can get the most rides and character meetings done because so few people are there yet.
8. Make time for normal play.  We're Disney Vacation Club members (discussing more in another post) which means we always get to stay at the deluxe level resorts.  Fortunately all these have parks and pools (actually all the Disney resorts/hotels have pools).  Sometimes a trip downstairs to the park or to walk around in the pool was more fun to my toddler than rides.  Likewise, playing on drums in line queues or at the set ups in Epcot or Animal Kingdom was a blast for both of my boys.  Every park has a splash pad and areas designed for kids to play.  Sometimes these places can be crowded with older kids, but if you can get in there and let your kids out of the stroller and be a little independent, they'll be better for it!
9. Eat early!  The time change (for us it was one hour) may have you thrown off, but if you can try to eat lunch at 11 and dinner between 4:30 and 5.  It's early and foreign, but eating that early means getting a table and getting your food quickly.
10. Wear a backpack.  Josh did this most of our trip this time and it was AMAZING.  When you have to park your stroller for rides it's annoying to load up with a diaper bag and a camera bag and all this stuff along with your kids.  The backpack was so nice because everything tucked neatly inside, was easily accessible, and it was so simple to take on and off rides!
11. Character dining! It's available in every park (usually in buffet form) and is so great!  The food is wonderful and the whole time you eat the characters of that eatery (they're listed on Disney's website) will come around and spend time at your table (not just snap a quick pic and go) playing with your kids, posing for lots of pics... it's great and personal and E loved it!  J, however, was really scared of the characters when they got too close to him which is funny because normally he's quite fearless!  (Above is E with Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates!).

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask!

*Not being paid by Kindgom Strollers - these thoughts and opinions are my own! :)