A member of our MousePad message board recently asked for tips and tricks for taking young children to a park and staying “alllll day”. That inspired today’s Panel question! We asked: How do you handle taking young children (under 6 or so) to Disneyland for alllllllll day? What are your tips and tricks? What worked well—or was there anything that went wrong that you learned from and never did again?
Mary Kraemer, a travel consultant with CruisingCo/MouseEarVacations, loves to travel with her husband and four children. She is an avid Disney fan who visits Disneyland several times a year and Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line as often as possible! Mary shares from her experiences:
What’s the secret to all-day (and well-into-the-evening) fun for young kids at a Disney park? Being in tune with your kids. And I recommend bringing your own familiar stroller, too. When you rent a stroller at the park, you have to leave it there at the end of the day, right when you might have a child who is completely asleep and must be carried back to your hotel (along with your packages and Mickey-shaped balloon).
Know your kids and know their limits (which can change in the exciting atmosphere of a Disney park). Above all else, respect those limits and you’ll stand a much better chance of having a positive experience. Going to a Disney park is really exciting for little kids (which is great) but they can tire more easily (which isn’t so great when they meltdown on Main Street).
If you only have one day to visit a park and you are determined to get everything done in order to “get your money’s worth,” you might just be setting up yourself (and your kids) for disaster. If you slow down your pace, you might miss some attractions but everyone will have a much better time.
You might dearly want to have a photo of your child with Mickey to commemorate their visit to the park, but if your child decides—even at the last minute, after you’ve stood in line for 45 minutes—that that huge mouse is terrifying, don’t push it. A possible second option is for you to hold your child and say hello to Mickey (characters are really good about not forcing children to interact); if that works, then maybe your child will feel safer in your arms while standing next to Mickey for that picture.
If your kids must have an afternoon nap, then don’t try to keep going at the park; go back to your hotel for a couple hours of naptime. Even if that means losing $XX per hour. You might just get it back because you can stay at the park later in the evening—maybe until after the fireworks! (You might be able to get away with letting them nap in their stroller—this worked well for my kids—but sometimes people need down time completely out of the park environment.)
Don’t push kids to do things they won’t want to do. Sure, your idea of a great day at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom involves multiple rides on Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but even if your kids meet the minimum height requirement, it doesn’t mean that they’re “ready” for the experience. It’s tough, I know (and I speak from experience because I broke this rule with my kids at Disneyland Paris when I insisted they go on Space Mountain there—and even though they love it in the United States, it’s an entirely different ride in Europe and they came off the ride crying and hating me for making them ride it.)
It’s not about losing money, it’s about winning…and that is in the form of spending quality time with your kids (which is not “Stop crying! You’re in Disneyland!”) And that, as they say in the commercials, is priceless.
Chris Salata and his family stumbled upon the Disney magic in 2002, and have made a number of trips since then. Since then, he makes it a point to seek out the ultimate in Disney trips and share his experiences with friends, family, and complete strangers.Chris writes:
When my family and I started to going to Walt Disney World, my daughter was around 8 years old and was easy to take anywhere. We had it made, or so we thought, when it came to how to tour Walt Disney World in general. Enter our son into the family and our touring plans took some turns, some which included learning how to tour all over again.
During the first 18 months of my son’s life, we visited Walt Disney World three times and included a Disney Cruise Line trip in there, as well. For the most part, we took things slower, putting his needs first of course, and learned that there were benefits to non-commando touring. For example:
- Using Rider Swap can be your family’s best friend. While we did have to take things slower because of my little guy, my daughter was able to reap the benefits of riding some of the more popular attractions more than one time. My wife was also able to not worry about missing out since she could ride without long waits.
- Going slower, you tend to see things that you normally don’t see. For example, I took advantage of my time with my sleeping son to take pictures of the surrounding area while waiting for the rest of the family to return. When my wife was waiting for me, she would shop, grab a snack, or even absorb some streetmosphere that she would have normally missed if we were just going from attraction to attraction.
- The Baby Care Center is probably one of the greatest finds for any parent with a younger child. Fully stocked with everything from diapers to sippy cups, and with a cool, quiet area for moms to be with their child, it is a haven away from the busyness outside.
- Being that my son would fall asleep in the early evening, and that he slept really soundly in his stroller, it did not matter if we wanted to stay out late at the parks or Downtown Disney. We took advantage of this to make up for having to go a little slower in the daytime.
However, as my son grew older, so did his tendency to become like me when he is tired, hungry, or overheated. We quickly found this out during a trip while he was 4 years old. We were used to being at the park or parks all day long—including the chance to be at both early and evening Magic Hours. My “mini-me” decided that he did not want to do the same. The problem was that it took a while to read and understand why he was acting in ways that he never did so before at Walt Disney World and it was quite confusing.
Because of this, we had to change our style once again and found that:
- While you may want to be at the parks all day, downtime is a very good idea. Disney is a place with near-constant stimuli and we found out that our son would rather take a break for a couple of hours than be at a park all day. This is where we found a benefit to staying at Disney resorts that tend to have more on-site activities during the day.
- Be prepared to combat line boredom with small, portable games and have plenty of drinks and snacks available. Even simple “eye spy” or “what Disney character am I” games work well for the entire family.
- Have a plan, but be prepared to change it if necessary. We like to get the kids involved with the planning process and list out everyone’s attraction goals for the following day. In general, if you hit your goals, everyone is happy and everything else is extra magic.
But, most importantly, we made it a point to never let our children get the best of us. Meltdowns do occur and I think we have all seen them result in sad endings from time to time. We take time to calmly try to find out the problem and see what we, as the parents, can do to make the vacation as magical as possible for our children. Sometimes its just best to get their perspective and then you can see the World from their eyes.
Sivje Parish (pronounced like “SeeVee”) lives in Northern California with her husband Donald (like the duck) and two daughters. India, 18, is graduating in June from high school and she is homegrown. Ahnalin is 5 and came to the Parish family by way of adoption from China when she was just over 1 year old. Her first trip to the park was five weeks after arriving home to the United States. Sivje offers:
We like to get into the park when the gates open and be there all day.
We have taken our girls many times over the years and have tried many different strategies and some worked better than others. Our girls love the character breakfasts and our favorite of the restaurants is Storytellers Cafe. The food is fabulous and the characters are gentle and respectful to little ones. We find that loading our kids up on protein and fruit before heading into the park is crucial to a good experience. Ahnalin has been enough times now that she looks forward to getting her autograph book signed starting at breakfast!
Sometimes we just can’t wait and simply must get to the park before breakfast. Since most of our stays have been at the resort hotels, we get to enjoy early entry into Fantasyland. On the morning we use our early entry, we eat granola bars, cheese sticks, and drinks before entering the park so we can get to the rides in Fantasyland before breakfast. We ask each of our girls what are their most important rides, attractions and foods before we even get into the park so that we can make sure we do those first. For Ahnalin, we must go on Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Casey Junior, “it’s a small world,” and the Storybook Land Canal Boats. We usually go on these multiple times. We also go on the King Arthur Carousel as many times as we can! For India, Indiana Jones at the Temple of the Forbidden Eye and Space Mountain are crucial! Both girls love to ride the fire engine and Autopia.
Toontown is another place we love. It is often not as crowded as the rest of the park and there are things to climb on and more space to run. We found that when India was little, and now with Ahnalin, in order to make it through the whole day, we need to vary the pressure of activity. When the main part of the park gets super crowded, Toontown is a good place to relax.
Ahnalin has some sensory issues and is easily overwhelmed. For her, a good way to calm down is to climb and jump. Disney’s California Adventure has lots of great places for her to do these things and it buys us some time as well. She loves the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail to “get her energies out!” She can jump and run and recharge for the rest of the park there. We also spend a lot of time in Bugs Land on the rides meant for little ones.
Ahnalin does not nap anymore, but still needs her quiet time. We try to time our visits to the Enchanted Tiki Room in Disneyland (along with Dole Pineapple Whip!) and the Aladdin musical for when we all need sitting-down time.
We have used the rider switch passes several times so that we can ride the attractions that Ahnalin is too small for. One of us will go with India while the other stays with Ahnalin. This was great when she was still napping as she could sleep in the stroller, one of us could have a snack and people watch with her, and the other could be whooping it up on the bigger kid rides.
We have also found that it is important not to put our meal times too far apart. If the kids get hungry and blood sugars drop, no one is happy. So we know our favorite places to eat and make sure we get there before everyone starts to get crabby. We make sure to carry water with us and some fruit or nuts so we can nibble while waiting in lines. We also make reservations for our sit-down meals a little earlier than our kids normally eat so that wait time is built in.
My kids have never been big on the parades. After a few times of staking out spots and waiting for parades, and the girls going crazy, we decided that parades were not a priority for our family. Fireworks are important to us. After a day of playing in the park, we grab our final meal or snack and find a good place to park our stroller. Usually by this time we all have tired feet and are happy to just sit and watch the people, listen to the music, and wait for the fireworks. We found that for Ahnalin, it was important to take earplugs. She loves the fireworks but the noise could be upsetting to her at times. We always take her favorite blanket or stuffed bunny so that when she needs to calm down, she can snuggle with them.
We also make use of the Baby Care Centers and the First-Aid Stations in both parks. It is good to know where these are before you need them. While all the restrooms have diaper-changing tables, the baby stations are really nice for feeding your little one and changing diapers in a quieter environment. And the first-aid stations? Well, lets just say that I have active children. It was very good to know where those places were before Ahnalin fell and smacked her head on her first visit. Make use of the Disneyland Website before your trip so you can see where everything is just in case you need it.
We are heading back to the Happiest Place On Earth in just a few weeks and do not want to waste a minute of our trip. We are already writing our lists of “must-dos” and “must-sees” so that we can make it all day in the park.
Monica works and lives in Arizona but loves everything California. She is the mother of three, ages 7, 13 and 16. She hopes her kids remember all the fun times they had together at Disneyland when they take their kids. Monica contributes:
My husband and I can both remember the times we visited Disneyland as children. We remember the rides, the food, and the excitement of seeing down Main Street to Sleeping Beauty’s castle for the first time. What we don’t remember is what our parents did to make it a more enjoyable and memorable experience for us. The first time we took our daughter to Disneyland she was 3 years old. We were using a three-day park hopper and decided to go and relive our childhood memories. We went with a camera and a stroller and our wallets.
One of our first memories was of a family in line looking like they were on a survivalist trip. Both parents had backpacks equipped with snacks and water like they were on a 30-mile hike. We thought “why bother?” The park has food and snack food stands, what more could we want? Well, after trudging around a few hours we found out how expensive it was to buy a bottle of water every time one of us was thirsty. I cried after I paid $25 dollars for a corn dog, bag of chips, and soda with a Tinker Bell straw. I actually took pictures of some of the food because it cost so much. We vowed to return the next year with a better plan.
Our daughter is now 7 years old. We have faithfully returned to Disneyland every year since. There are a number of things we do differently. In our first trip the only smart thing we did was bring a stroller. Every year we make sure to buy a comfortable stroller that lets our daughter rest her feet or take a nap whenever she needs a rest. We take several bottles of frozen water that we stash in the bottom of our stroller. Both of us (Mom and Dad) carry backpacks with built water reservoirs. When these backpacks run empty, we usually refill them at one of the Disney restaurants. We found that the Camelbak brand works the best.
We carry other things that you think you might need that you don’t want to purchase in the park, including: batteries for camera, wipes, hand sanitizer, sun block, first-aid items, change of clothes for little ones, and, most important of all, snacks. Now don’t get me wrong, we still take in our share of churros, turkey legs, and chimichangas, it’s just that sometimes in line the little ones can get a little fussy. Nothing works better than a granola bar or bag of beef jerky to settle everyone’s stomach until we can make it over to Goofy’s Kitchen. Another thing that helps is keeping our daughter entertained while in line. Sometimes she’ll watch cartoons on our Zune or play games on her Nintendo DS. They are small and portable and can kill some time if the wait is 40 minutes or longer.
We found that if we plan ahead, our experience at the parks is more enjoyable. Spending less money on items such as bottled water saves us money and lets us spend it on things we enjoy more at the park, such as Goofy’s Kitchen and Ariel’s Grotto. Our experiences at Disneyland have been so great following these plans that we go every year on a five-day park hopper from open until they kick us out.
Vivian Osborn is a 30-year old stay-at-home mother of one with a passion for newborn photography. On her friend’s advice, she spent her honeymoon at Disneyland and has been obsessed with the parks ever since. This obsession was recently shared with her son on a trip to Walt Disney World; what will, no doubt, be the first of many trips for him. Vivian writes:
In February 2010 we took our 18-month-old son out to Walt Disney World for 10 days. We planned our trip about six months prior. Some people suggest that children under 2 or 3 are just too young to enjoy the park, or it’s not worth taking them because they won’t remember, and that it’s a lot of work, etc. Based on our son’s personality, we felt he would really enjoy all the sights and sounds Walt Disney World had to offer, and would take in a lot from this experience. As far as the work goes of having an 18-month-old along? It’s all about preparation.
I have to start off by saying we did have an advantage: We had four adults to one child. My biggest concern in our group was that our child would become a hassle or inconvenience to our two friends in their own quest to make best use of their time at Walt Disney World. As the parents, we were OK with the delays and extra work that comes with traveling with a small child, however, we also desired to participate in activities as a whole group as much as possible. I did as much reading as I could on bringing young children along. I strongly agree that no two children are alike, and all advice given should be taken with the child’s individual personalities in mind. Between anecdotal stories both in guidebooks and online we devised a plan that we felt would work well for us.
The first thing I researched was the basic needs for an 18-month-old. I was pleased to read on the availability of Baby Care Centers (one in every park). As a nursing mother, I wanted to make sure that we would not have any problems finding a place to nurse, or that we could plan to be in appropriate areas when we needed to. At this time, my son was only nursing once during the day so we found it fairly easy to make our way toward the Baby Care Centers or one of many quiet benches when the time came. Also diaper changes—pretty much every bathroom had a changing area that I found to be adequately clean. I think during our entire 10-day visit we only ran into one bathroom that didn’t have a change area.
One of the best pieces of advice I got was to bring a good stroller. We invested in a higher priced (around $230) umbrella folding stroller, and it was perfect! It was able to recline almost flat so our son could nap, it gave us extra storage for jackets and bags during the day, and it was lightweight and super-compact! I couldn’t imagine spending a whole day with one of the rentals available from Walt Disney World, I can’t see how that would be comfortable to sit in all day for our little ones.Also we made sure to get a rain cover for our stroller, too, especially when leaving it unattended in the Stroller Parking area on rainy days. No one wants to come out to a drenched stroller! I saw several people using Disney ponchos to cover strollers as they have snaps on the sides to open up, and that seemed to work well for many.
As far as food goes, we had a picky eater on our hands. Although general kiddie favorites like chicken strips and mac & cheese were available, I was thankful for the ability to bring in our own food to make sure our son was still able to eat a good balance of healthier foods. We felt Walt Disney World didn’t offer much when it came to healthier snacks—there is fruit available in the park, but it was usually only at one or two locations in each park making it harder to get to. It was both more convenient and a lot cheaper for us to bring our own fruit in, and since we had the stroller, it wasn’t a hassle to carry during the day.
The next thing on our minds was how to avoid burn-out. I read on how some children will make a good go of the first day, skipping naps entirely but end up being overtired and cranky for the next couple days following. We didn’t want that. Based on what I read, a mid-day return to the hotel for a nap was the best solution. We stayed off property but still close by (just a 10-minute drive) so we anticipated one parent would be taking our son back to the hotel for a nap daily. Our best-case scenario would be that he would nap in the stroller, but we weren’t sure if that would happen with all the things to do and things to see (have you ever tried to get an over-stimulated child down for a nap?). Our solution was again, preparation. A couple months before the trip, we started taking our son out to the local pool at it’s busiest—on weekends. The first trip overwhelmed him, but subsequent weekend visits got him used to being around a lot of people, noise and activity. I feel this really did the trick for us, as when we finally got to it, we had ourselves an 18-month old who was willing to nap in his stroller no matter how many people were around (and our mid-day mantra of “keep the stroller moving!” to get the longest nap possible).
Next: Attractions! Since all of us were fans of pretty much every attraction, it was important to us to be able to do it all! To make best use of our time, we used a combination of Fast Passes and Child-Swap/Rider Switching, especially during his nap time. For Rider Switch, I would take our son and push him in the stroller while he napped, while my husband and our two friends would get a Rider Switch pass and go through the attraction lineup. Once the three rode and came out, my husband would take the stroller and I would get to ride with our friends using the Rider Switch Pass. When my son woke, we would all do the rides that he could go on, switching up the pairs for variety (since most rides seat in pairs). There was little concern of this being difficult to achieve, as we were correct in our hunch that our son would quite enjoy all the rides he could go on. To prepare him, we would do “rides” whenever possible in the two to three months before our trip. Local merry-go-rounds, and Quarter Kiddie rides in the mall is all we had, however we felt it was a good indicator of what he would be up for.
For shows, we found our son did best in ones that were less than 30 minutes. Around the 30-minute mark he would be done. Since we were expecting and, therefore OK, with this, switching off the parent who would be ready to exit with him if he got overly fussy. That parent would wait at a nearby kiddie play area and let our son run around and stretch his legs while others finished the show.
The last thing I can think of is good old playtime! There are lots of places an 18-month-old can run around and enjoy, and they will need it. They can’t sit in a stroller all day, and need to run around time as well, they can only take so much of queues. We found many small kiddie play areas spread throughout each park. We also found that some attraction exit areas had things to do, for example Test Track—it’s a big showroom with GM cars that kids can crawl into and check out, or even just run around the showroom itself.
One more tip for everyone, adults and children alike—in Orlando, one has to always be prepared. The weather is all over the place. Sunscreen was a must, no one wants to get burned and have to spend the rest of the trip that way! And be ready for a downpour even on the sunniest of days. At least the rain never lasted too long. There’s lots to do under cover during those rainfalls anyway.
We really didn’t encounter any big melt downs or problems during our trip. I really have to credit weeks of preparation— training if you will—for our son before arriving at Walt Disney World.
Yesenia Valencia and her husband David have a 1-year-old son named Ian. Yesenia shares:
Ian is a handful and we have been taking him to Disneyland since he was 4-months-old. Ian is now going on 2 years old and he loves Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. We had a family vacation to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure for Thanksgiving 2009 and were at the parks for two days. Our tip for all parents that have little ones would be to not lose out on anything about the park because you have a baby. You could still have plenty of fun. My husband and I did and loved every moment of our trip. We found that getting on the kiddie rides first thing in the morning really worked for us. We took our son on some rides in the morning, let him walk around and then took a break for lunch. We went to our car and relaxed, had some lunch, and just got away from all the noise that could make babies fussy.
After lunch is when our son always takes a long nap, so we took advantage of that. We used the Baby Switch Pass for the bigger rides and while one of us waited at the exit with our son, the other one rode with a friend, then when one was off the other one got to enjoy the same ride with virtually no wait. That worked perfectly because our baby was not fussing while waiting. He relaxed and got ready for the rest of the day. We did the same thing after he woke up, rode some rides that he could get on, let him run around some more, we ate dinner and then came bed time.
By the end of the night(s) he had lots of fun and was ready to sleep which allowed us more time to enjoy our rides as well . We in turn had a fantastic time, watching him have all that fun was such an awesome thing for us to experience. He loved every minute of it and we did not end up with a screaming child by the end of the night. We hope that this can help you as well. Disneyland is just as magical for them as it is for us adults believe it or not.
It’s your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
Visit the Parenting on the Parks section of our MousePad discussion board, and share your opinions about “Pregnancy in the Parks” (link), or send your suggestions via e-mail (link). Don’t forget to follow @MousePlanet on Twitter! Reader-submitted tips might be used in a future article, and you might be selected to participate in an upcoming panel discussion!
