First of all, let me begin by saying that our trip involved my just turned 3 year old daughter, my 7 month old daughter, and 2 sets of grandparents! I do not know how parents conquer a trip to Disney with two children and no helpers and I am sure the list of tips for that kind of trip might look completely different!
Staying offsite: We purposely chose to stay off-site because of our large party of people. It was much more cost effective for us to rent a home and split the cost and cook our own meals rather than stay on site and each get a hotel room. Also, with a 3 year old and a baby, the thought of all four sharing one hotel room for 5 nights was not a relaxing or fun idea! We rented a home through VRBO.com and had a good experience. We had plenty of bedrooms and even a heated private pool that we used almost daily. We were able to buy groceries and cook our own meals as well as pack snacks for the park!
The following tips will mostly apply whether you choose to stay on or off-site. Some of these things we did and some of these things we will do next time after we learned the hard way!
1. Rent a double stroller: The strollers you can rent at Disney world are not great and are $15 a day or more. We rented a NICE double stroller for the 5 days from Orlando Stroller Rental for $75. It was delivered to our rental home and we just left it outside on the last day! And get the free rain cover- you may need it!
2. Carefully pick your time of year: We traveled to Disney World at the end of February and it was perfect! We picked a time that was during the school year so it would be less crowded and made sure there were not any marathons or special events going on that would make it more crowded. I have also heard the Fall can be nice. The lines were short and it was relatively uncrowded. Also, children under 3 get in for free if you can plan your trip for right before your child turns 3! We missed that for Claire, but hope to go back before Kate turns 3 so she is still free!
3. Maximize your fun by minimizing your time: As adults who just spent a large chunk of change on Disney World tickets your instinct is to soak up every second of fun and get every dollar worth! If you have younger children, remember more isn't always better. They get overstimulated quickly. 5-6 good hours at the park in a day is better than 10-12 hour with the entire last portion being miserable from cranky kids! We would spend our 5-6 hours at the park and then go back to the house to cook unwind and swim. The one day we attempted to go in the morning and then go back at night everyone was too worn out to go back that night except for John and I (but we thoroughly enjoyed a date night!
4. Plan a rest day: If you can swing it plan a day in the middle of your trip to rest and relax. We didn't do that this time but probably will next time! We spent 4 days in the parks and thought that was perfect, but would have preferred 2 days then a rest day and then 2 more days! We were too tired to fully enjoy day 4 at Animal Kingdom and went back to the house and played putt putt and relaxed. We will hopefully plan a rest day next time!
5: Bring a baby carrier: If you are traveling with a baby take or borrow a good baby carrier! You will be standing in lines to meet characters or ride on slow rides and you will want to strap them on because you can't take the stroller with you in line. I bought a used Ergo off Ebay for $40 and loved it! It saved the day many times on our trip.
6. Splurge on character meals: These can be booked up to 180 days in advance so plan ahead because they will book up! If you have little ones, you will spend much of your trip meeting characters. This is great because it is truly magical to your little one and the characters do an amazing job making it memorable. However it is much easier to plan a character meal, sit down and enjoy a great meal and meet several characters all at once. Otherwise you will spend all day and all your fast passes to meet characters. We did Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios which is a must do if your little one likes Disney Junior. In the future we will plan to do a meal at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom to meet Mickey, Minnie, etc as well as a Princess meal to meet the princesses.
7: Planning your trip: Use the My Disney Experience App to book your fast passes and manage your entire trip. Fast passes are an entirely different topic and vary widely depending on the age and interests of your child. If staying offsite you can book your fast passes 30 days in advance. This is one advantage to staying onsite because you can book them 60 days in advance. However, if traveling during a down time like we did it was fine to book them only 30 days in advance.
8. Favorite Attractions: Keep in mind these were the favorites of a 3 year old girl so yours may be completely different. Her absolute favorite was meeting all of the characters but beyond that some of her favorites are listed below:
- It's a Small World
- Enchanted Tales with Belle
- Carousel
- Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- The Festival of Fantasy Parade
- Dumbo
- Disney Jr show at Hollywood Studios
- Safari at Animal Kingdom
- Boneyard Playground at Animal Kingdom
9. Don't let rain ruin your fun: Pack a poncho and use that stroller rain cover! Our best day was a rainy one because the waits were much shorter! We were able to knock out so much more that day. Most of the rides or attractions are indoors so we were only in the rain going to and from!
10. Learn and Enjoy: Realize that your first trip is a learning one and that hopefully you can go again in a few years and enjoy it even more! Spend time before you go reading and learning about the attractions and select which ones you think will most interest your party of people!
Hope this is helpful!
