Everything You Need to Know to Plan Your Trip to Disney World with Toddlers

Are you planning a trip to Disney?? This is an extensive list of all the details I could possibly think of to help you plan a trip, specifically with toddlers.  You may not be looking at Disney right now, but do yourself a favor and pin it, save it, like it, whatever you do to save info you want to refer back to.  I sure wish I had saved more Disney tips along the way even when I wasn’t even thinking about a trip because I had a hard time finding exactly what I was looking for when it came to planning details.  I’ve gathered all the information I used to help plan my trip and then am sharing my opinions and tips now that we have been!  I am certainly not an expert by any means, but I do feel like I learned a lot from our trip.  Here goes…

Disney Travel Agent

First thing you need to do once you’ve decided to take a trip to Disney World is find yourself an authorized Disney Travel Agent!  This was so important to me for this trip because it was our first time going and I knew nothing!  I was excited to contact Erika from Mix and Match Mama Travel Agency and get her expertise.  She was super helpful and so sweet to work with.  She makes herself available by phone, email or text and helped us arrange our entire trip.  She’s also a blogger, so you can find and read her trip recaps here too.  You can email her at  mixandmatchtravelagency@yahoo.com if you are interested in planning your own magical vacation ! Tell them Annie sent you 🙂

Lodging

We stayed at The Polynesian Village and couldn’t have been happier.  A good friend of mine (hey, Kate!) recommended this resort to us, so we knew this is where we wanted to stay. Everything was so nice and we were even upgraded to a theme park view (instead of a garden view) when we checked-in.   We chose to stay on the Club Level (an added expense, but based on my friends recommendation) and we were so happy we did.  I loved where the Club Level building was located on property (right next to pool and on the water with sandy beach for kids to play on) and they had a Club room that served food and drinks complimentary throughout the day.  It made it so nice to be able to grab milk whenever we needed for Madelyn’s bottles, they had the most amazing coffee machine, and you could get beer any time of day!! They served wine in the evenings and a nice fruity drink concoction.  They have a continental breakfast every morning, but sadly we are big breakfast people and always went out on our own for eggs and waffles somewhere.  But if you aren’t big breakfast people, this is a really nice feature.  The club room has a TV for the kids, a view of Magic Kingdom for fireworks at night including the music, and just a nice place to hang out outside of your room.

Our room accommodated us perfectly for our 4 night stay.  The hotel provided us with a pack N play (and sheet) and we chose to put that in the bathroom (it was a tight fit, but it worked for us) and me, Matt and Brody slept in the two Queen beds.  We used the bathroom at night with Madelyn sleeping in there, but if you were worried that you might wake the baby; there was a community bathroom in the Club Level tower that you could use.

If I went back, would I stay there again?? I most definitely would.  However, I would take a close look at the Grand Floridan too.  I was definitely smitten by it’s beauty.  It’s so pretty and I have heard the rooms are a tiny bit bigger, but I don’t know that for sure.  It may feel like it’s meant more for the adults, but they have slides and play grounds for the kids too!

It is definitely expensive to stay at one of the three resorts on the Disney Monorail (Polynesian, Contemporary, Grand Floridian), but my feelings are that it is worth it when you have the young kids for the ease of access to the parks and to get around.  As your kids get older and are better travelers, I think there are tons of awesome places to stay off the monorail.  I was happy that we were able to stay on property for our first time!

Best Time to Go

If you do your research, you will pretty much find that October, early November, January and early February are going to be your least crowded times at Disney.  This would probably be the only times I would go to Disney.  The weather is so much nicer and the smaller crowds make a big difference.  I think Spring would still be okay even though you are looking at larger Spring Break crowds, but I can’t even imagine going in Summer !! haha The heat and the crowds would totally deter me.  We went in February and lucked out with the most fabulous weather.  I couldn’t have been happier with it!

Best Age to Go

I’m going to say age 3+.  It’s totally doable with younger kids and I saw plenty of parents toting their 6 month + babies along with them, but I would say the ultimate age with be 3+.  I’m still so glad that we brought our 18 month old with us and didn’t leave her at home, but it definitely limited some of our trip.  I think as long as you are prepared for that, then you are good to go!!

Meal Plans

This is something that I knew nothing about, but can be purchased when you buy a Disney package (hotel and park passes).   There are three different plans you can choose from: Quick Service Dining, Regular Dining, or Deluxe Dining.   Quick Service basically means a fast-food style or cafeteria style dining experience where you order your food from a cashier and wait for it and then find your own place to sit.  These style restaurants are located all throughout Disney properties.   We chose the Regular Dining plan which included One Table Service, One Quick Service Meal, and Two Snacks per day plus a refillable mug you can use at the Disney resorts.  A table service meal just means a restaurant where you sit at a table and are waited on by a server.   I found this website that breaks down the Meal Plans very thoroughly.  We used up all of our dining plan plus purchased a few meals on our own because we like nice restaurants :). We would probably have been good candidates for the Deluxe Dining Plan.

Fast Passes

Fast Passes are EVERYTHING!!!  Especially if/when you have young ones.  My 18 month old wasn’t about to stand or sit still in any long line.  The fast passes allow you to go in a special entrance and bypass most of the large lines.  For example: you wait for 5 or 10 minutes compared to 45 to 90 minutes.  Honestly, we didn’t do any ride that we didn’t have a fast pass for.  Everyone is allowed 3 fast passes per day.  You can book your fast passes 30 days in advance or 60 days in advance if you are staying at a Disney resort (Big BONUS).  You want to book these as SOON as you are allowed.  They will give you an hour time slot for you to go to the ride.  I recommend booking your 3 fast passes in the morning as close as you can, because once you use up all 3 of those; you will have an opportunity to book another one.  But you can’t book another one until all 3 fast passes have been used!  That’s important to remember because our first day I kept getting all pissed off because I couldn’t book another fast pass. I was under the impression that once you used one fast pass, you could just book another.  That’s not the case.  You must use all 3 first.   This part was stressful to me at first because I am not good at having every minute/hour of a trip planned out ahead of time, especially with young kids.  I relied heavily on our travel agent because I just didn’t know what was best for us.  Do your best to plan it out and if you have to make changes when you arrive, it’s not the end of the world!

Parent Swap

This is such a great feature!! This is a program that they have for parents that have a young child with them that is not big enough to ride on the ride.  For example: We got a fast pass for Splash Mountain and both me and Matt wanted to ride the ride with Brody, but Madelyn was too small.  We all went to the fast pass entrance and they gave us a ticket a ticket to give to the attendant.  Me and Brody went on the ride and then I handed Matt the ticket they gave us afterward and him and Brody were able to take it back to the Fast Pass line and ride it together! Does that make sense?  It’s a great feature if you have a small child with you that doesn’t meet a lot of the height restrictions.

Reservations & {Character Dining}

This was also pretty stressful to me because it is highly recommended to get all of your meals planned out and reserved ahead of time because they book up quickly (especially during busy season).  I didn’t know much about where to eat or character dining, but I know my family likes good food!  It’s tough trying to make reservations ahead of time because you’re not sure if you may want to be at the park doing shows or rides or feel like a nice sit down dinner somewhere.  I knew that my kids (at least the 18 month old) were likely not going to make it to any of the late night shows or firework displays unfortunately.  So I figured we would be better off with early dinners most of the time.  Most of the restaurants all have a 24 hour cancellation policy and will charge your card $10 per person if you cancel within that time frame.  So you really want to try and be sure of your plans.  There are SOO many places to choose from and so many places that I don’t know about, so please do some of your own research here too.  This was just our experience.  Also, be sure to keep in mind that lots of times the young kids are still scared of the characters.  Brody (3.5 years old) was good about half the time with the characters, but then scared the other half and my 18 month old was scared about 100% of the time.

Spirit of Aloha Dinner & Show – This was a fun experience for us. We went to the 5:15pm show, but unfortunately we didn’t make it through the whole thing.  The kids were a little antsy and we decided to leave early.

Chef Mickey’s – We went for breakfast (also available for lunch or dinner) and had the BEST time. I couldn’t recommend this spot more.  It books up quick, so plan early. I loved doing it for breakfast before we went to the park, but I think dinner could be a lot of fun too!  It’s located at the Contemporary Resort.

Crystal Palace Buffet – This was a really nice buffet with all the Winnie the Pooh characters.  This was a fun lunch spot in Magic Kingdom.  My kids were a little “over-stimulated” maybe by this point and were not into the characters at all during lunch.  That was a little disappointing. I would love to try Be Our Guest next time we are there in Magic Kingdom.

Citricos – We had dinner here and I was worried it may be a little too fancy for the kids, but it wasn’t.  The nice part about all of Disney is that even in the fanciest of restaurants, they are all still kid-friendly.  It was so nice to have a delicious meal, fancy martini and relaxing glass of wine after a long first day at the park!

Chip & Dales Harvest Breakfast at Epcot – This was pretty good.  The staff was super nice and they serve breakfast family style.  Unfortunately my kids were both scared of Chip and Dale, so the character part of breakfast was kind of a bust for us.  The restaurant is a big circle with a floor that rotates at a very slow speed. Pretty neat.

Kona Cafe at Polynesian – This is a casual restaurant that we grabbed some lunch in at our hotel when we returned from Epcot.  They serve Sushi as well as some other Polynesian style dishes.  The sushi was pretty good and Matt had a nice hamburger.

Artist Point at Wilderness Lodge – We LOVED this restaurant.  It’s quite expensive (approx $50 per entree), but really yummy.  Again, I was worried how the kids were going to do and of course it would have been more relaxing without them; but they still did well and we were able to enjoy our meal.  The one complaint we had with our evening there was that we had trouble getting home.  The bell service called a cab for us but it never showed up.  Then we realized that we could get an Uber (after about 30 min of waiting for our cab) and we finally got home.

My little girl wasn’t old enough yet, but I can’t wait to take her back for these when she’s three: 

Perfect Princess Tea Party {read Jennifer’s review here}

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique { read Natasha’s review here}

Rentals/ Services

Stroller Rentals – You can rent strollers from companies once you are in Orlando.  If you use a company, they will charge you a $20 delivery fee but drop it right at your hotel and will pick it up from hotel for you when you leave.  You can also rent strollers at the parks.  We actually ended up renting one stroller at the park each day for Brody.  We brought our single BOB stroller for Madelyn.  I had planned on using a rental service to deliver us another BOB, but I procrastinated and they were sold out.  I could have tried another company, but we just went with the park strollers.  I would still recommend bringing your own or renting a nice BOB for the parks because we had to return the park stroller every day when we left and sometimes it would have been nice to have all the way home.  Rental Companies: KidsNiteOut and Kingdom Strollers

Sitter Services – We didn’t end up using a babysitter, but friends of mine have used them before in Disney and had a great experience.  You can book them through KidsNiteOut and have them come directly to your hotel.  They are all certified and reviewed.  This is totally personal preference. I know some people would never do this, but others don’t mind. It’s certainly nice to have a kid-free night from time to time and if we had stayed an entire week, I would have really like this option.  There is an STK restaurant at Disney Springs that I would have loved to check out with hubby.  I love STK!! Maybe next time 🙂

Naps

This was a tough one and one I seemed concerned about prior to our trip because I just didn’t know what was best!  Everyone has different opinions because everyones kids are different.  The truth is that my plans were to keep the family really busy in the mornings and then we would come home in the afternoons for naps and then maybe a little pool time before dinner or back to the parks.  I think this plan worked out two of the days, one being the day we arrived.  The other day it worked was the day we spent the morning at Epcot and then came home for naps and regrouped to head to Magic Kingdom that evening.  We had no dinner plans that night and it was fun to do some time at the park in the evening.  The other days, we couldn’t get home in time and Madelyn fell asleep in the stroller.  Those naps were usually short, but we just made it work and she ended up fine.  Brody is 3.5 and he is fine without a nap most days, but it was still nice to have him nap some.  There is no perfect answer for naps and you just need to be prepared to go with the flow the best that you can.

What to Pack

Carry On Bag – This is important if you are using the Disney Magical Express from the airport. Disney will actually retrieve your luggage for you from the baggage claim and deliver it to your hotel room.  You will be mailed a yellow luggage tag that you will put on your luggage for identification.  The luggage can take a few hours to arrive to your room, so it’s smart to pack an extra change of clothes for everyone and some swim stuff for everyone in your carry on luggage!

Backpack for Disney World – Bring a backpack to carry through Disney.  You will need camera, diapers, wipes (LOTS), anti-bacterial Wet Wipes, snacks, water bottles (refillable), baby bottles (if applicable), phone charger, autograph book, sunscreen, magic bands (wear them), extra change of clothes for the kids, poncho or rain jacket if necessary.  Lots of these items can just stay in your stroller and will be perfectly fine, but my hubby wore a backpack for us with the camera in it and wore it on the rides with us.  Madelyn still drinks a bottle and we were able to find milk in the park if we needed it, but mostly just brought one thing of milk with us from the hotel.

Small Cooler – We didn’t bring one, but if you would like to pack a smaller cooler with items that you want to keep cold, you can bring that into Disney with you.

Transportation

Disney’s Magical Express – This is a free service provided by Disney if you are staying on property.  My travel agent handled all this, so I’m not exactly sure how you sign up for it; but basically just call them with your  flight info and they will handle the rest.  It is like a large greyhound bus and they don’t use car seats, so you don’t need to worry about that if you are traveling with small kids.  The only downside to this is that on your departure day, they basically pick you up about 3 hours prior to your flight time.  We actually ended up taking a cab to the airport because we wanted to maximize our time at the park the very last day.  A cab to the airport is about $60+.   It was a lot less stressful for me too because our 18 month old did a lot better in the cab then she did riding the Magical Express.  She wanted to walk the aisles and climb out of her seat on the bus.

Monorails/ Ferries / Travel to Parks – Friends had told us that it can take about an hour to get from your hotel to the parks even if you were staying on the monorail.  I didn’t believe them.  But this really is true and we weren’t even there in busy season.  We had good luck using the ferry to and from Magic Kingdom to the Polynesian.  The Monorail makes stops at all the resorts, so sometimes can take awhile.  One day we were running late for our Chef Mickey’s reservation and we ended up hopping off the monorail and grabbing a cab.  The cab took 5 minutes and was less than $10 and got us to our reservation on time.  So don’t rule out the idea of cabs even if you are only going a short distance.  Uber is also an option if you need to get somewhere.

Disney Memory Maker

This is something really nice to invest in if you are going to be spending several days to a week in Disney World.  You purchase the Memory Maker for about $150 (I think) and then you can take photos all throughout Disney World with professional photographers that will upload your photos directly to your My Disney Experience App.  This includes a lot of Meet & Greet with Characters, several different rides that take photos (ex Splash Mountain), photos in front of the Castle in Magic Kingdom, etc.   It was really nice to not have to stress about our own photos and let the professionals do the work.  It’s important to remember to stop and take advantage of the photographers too though if you are going to invest in this!

Expectations

I think it’s really important to have your expectations in line. It’s clear that so many families dream to take their kids to Disney World at least once in their life.  It really is an amazing and magical experience.  However, it also is stressful and frustrating at times and I think it’s important for parents to understand that that’s okay.  It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns every moment for us, but yet it was still one of the most memorable vacations we have ever been on.  My husband quoted it as “peaks and valleys.”  It’s so true.  It’s so fun to watch it through their eyes, but it also comes with it’s share of meltdowns and struggles.  We chose to take this trip with just our family of four and not include grandparents.  It was so fun to do it this way and bond as a family even though we knew having the extra hands of grandma’s would have made our trip a bit easier.  We certainly hope to include the grandma’s in the future, but I don’t regret doing it this way for our first time.  We just had to remind ourself that we weren’t going to be able to do it all with an 18 month old in tow.

Our Schedule

You can read each of our days schedule here : Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four and Five

Magic Kingdom

I would highly suggest at least two days at Magic Kingdom on your trip.  It is the most crowded of the parks, but it also has the most to do especially for young kids.  We spent 2.5 days there and probably could have done 3 days no problem! Plan your Fast Passes out in advance and you will be so thankful.  You want them to be during the morning as much as possible, because then you can pick up more in the afternoon once you have used all three.

You can find a very extensive guide to all the Magic Kingdom rides and attractions here.  It has short clips of each ride, a quick synopsis and details of any height restrictions.  This could be really useful when you are trying to plan out which rides may be important to your family.

These are the rides we made in Magic Kingdom: Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo,  Buzz Light Year, It’s a Small World, Little Mermaid, Mickey Philharmagic, Splash Mountain, Aladdin’s Magic Carpet, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tomorrowland Speedway (32″), Swiss Family Tree House, Barnstormer 

And these are the rides we didn’t that I wish we could have: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (40″), Monsters Inc Laughing Floor ?, Space Mountain (44″), Enchanted Tales with Belle

If I had my choice of any 3 for my Fast Passes they would be…Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (38″ tall), Splash Mountain (38″ tall), Peter Pan (any height).  I choose these because they are very popular rides that are hard to get fast passes for.  It’s hard to narrow down!

Epcot

I’m just going to say that we didn’t have the best time here, but I also feel like we didn’t explore the whole park.  I didn’t feel like it was great with an 18 month old.  We really only made it to the Nemo ride and a Meet and Greet with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.  We had to miss our Fast Pass to the Frozen ride because it was late in the day and the line was too long for us while we were there.  Just do your research for this park before you go and have a good understanding of the park layout.  You may even just plan for a half day here.  We enjoyed a character breakfast at the Chip and Dale Garden Grill Restaurant, but I also think they have some good princess character lunch options.

Fast Pass Choices: Nemo, Frozen, Meet and Greet with Mickey

Other good Choices: Soarin’ (wish we had done this) {40″}, Text Track{40″}, Mission Space {44″}, Living on the Land (boat cruise)

Hollywood Studios

Se had plans to spend an entire day at Hollywood Studios and we changed it while we were there because we wanted another day at Magic Kingdom. We ended up still being able to squeeze a few hours at Hollywood Studios before we left town, but we had already given up our good fast passes at this point.  We still made the best of it and I really think Brody would have had a great time seeing a little more here.  It still wasn’t great for Madelyn at 18 months old because several of the popular things are shows that last about 30 minutes or so and unfortunately she still doesn’t sit still well for those.

Fast Pass Choices: Frozen Sing Along, Toy Story Mania, Disney Jr. Live on Stage

Other Options:  The Muppet Show, Indiana Jones, Lots of Star Wars Attractions currently

Animal Kingdom

We did not get a chance to do this park, so I can’t give you a real review.  From my research, I felt like it may be a good park for a little older kids and that it was pretty spread out.  There looks like they have some fun rides for ages 3+, but wasn’t a great option with an 18 month old.   You can find lots of details about Animal Kingdom here.

Fast Pass Choices: Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest, River Rapids Water ride

Other Blogger Resources I Used

Natasha’s Disney Trip

Sarah’s Disney Trips

Jennifer’s Disney Trips

Sandi’s Disney Trip (actually saw this after our trip)

Shay & Erika’s Disney Trip

Magic Kingdom in One Day

Magic Kingdom Guide

I hope this helps and let me know if I missed anything!!

I also wanted to thank everyone for bearing with me through all of these Disney posts.  In case you are planning a trip of your own in the near future, I wanted to show my gratitude by giving away a $50 gift card to someone! I hope you’ll participate.  🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway