In the first post in this series, I talked about some of the things we’ve learned when planning travel to a Disney park with toddlers. In this post, I’ll continue with our lessons learned during our time IN the parks.

Get there early, on at least one day – This is harder for us to do at Walt Disney World, since we’re used to Mountain time, but it definitely pays to get to the parks early. First, the crowds are usually pretty light when the parks first open, so you can ride some of your “must-dos” without too much of a line. Second, several of the parks do a special opening show, like the one pictured here at the Magic Kingdom, which is a lot of fun for the kids to watch. Makes it that much more special for them!

Take a break during the day – I’ve heard some parents say this just doesn’t work for them, but for us, this is probably our biggest lifesaver. And, it’s not just for families traveling with young kids, it worked very well when we traveled with our parents back in May as well! It works best for us to completely leave the parks and go back to the hotel for a few hours, which is why we like to stay on property, but even if you’re not staying on property (or just don’t want to leave), you can find a quiet spot in the park and just sit and relax, perhaps while enjoying a cool drink or Mickey ice cream bar.

Know where the bathrooms are, and use them…often – ESPECIALLY before you get into a line that looks deceptively short but is actually 45 mintues long. We made this mistake with my son during his first trip. The line for Mickey was 45 minutes but Colorado Boy REALLY wanted to meet him, so we waited. He was really, really good during the whole wait but literally right as we got to the door that led to Mickey, my son said “I have to go potty”. Normally that meant we had about 5 minutes before he had to go, so we figured we’d be able to hustle through the visit and get him to the bathroom. And anyway, we had waited 45 minutes, so we weren’t going to give up at that point Unfortunately, this time, we didn’t QUITE have 5 minutes so we now have a wonderful souvenir of our first visit with Mickey, with all of us smiling…and Colorado Boy with a mysterious dark area on his jeans…Such a bad parent moment for me, but it taught us a valuable lesson!

Let the kids run some energy off - While having a stroller makes park touring MUCH easier, it can make for an antsy kid by the end of the day, so we always try to find a place in the park where the kiddos can run around and stretch their legs. There’s lots of good places for this – at Disneyland, we LOVE Tom Sawyer’s Island, er…I mean, The Pirate’s Lair. California Adventure has Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and at Walt Disney World, there are several places, like The Boneyard and “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” movie set to name a few.

Don’t Park Hop - This is another tip that some people may not agree with, but after trying it both ways, we’ve learned that it makes for a much more pleasant day if we just stay in one park for the day (both before and after our mid-day break). I think, for my kids, the parks are a bit overwhelming because there’s SO much to see. Keeping the day focused on a single park makes it easier for them to adjust and leads to fewer meltdowns.

Don’t force Character interactions – For the most part, we haven’t had problems meeting the characters – my kids were pretty much ready to give Mickey a hug from a very early age. But, I think this is relatively unusual based on the number of unhappy kids I’ve seen meeting a character for the first time. From a young child’s perspective, characters are HUGE – way bigger than they appear on the TV at home, so let your kids dictate the level of interaction they want to have with the characters. Some kids love ‘em, some kids take awhile to warm up to ‘em!

Don’t stay late every night  – While the fireworks at Disney are some of the best you’ll probably ever see, I don’t recommend staying late to see them every night of your stay. Depending on the time of year you go, the fireworks may not start until 8:30 or 9pm, sometimes later, which, if your kids are like mine, is WAY past their normal bedtime. So, pick one night, maybe two if you’re there for a week, to see the fireworks. Oh, and if you stay late one night, don’t make the next morning your early day in the parks…that may sound obvious, but we did it without thinking one year and it wasn’t particularly fun

Don’t try to see EVERYTHING – There is A LOT to see and do at the Disney Parks, especially if you’re visiting Walt Disney World, and it’s important to understand that it’s virtually impossible to see EVERYTHING in one visit (even without kids). So, plan ahead, come up with a few things that are “must-dos” for your visit, but don’t try to do it all. The kids will be happier and it will give you a good excuse to plan another trip!

Although every toddler is different and some of these tips may not work for you, I hope there have been a few things here that will help you plan your next visit to the Disney parks! And don’t forget – take tons of pictures and as always, HAVE FUN!

Our first trip to a Disney park with kids was in 2006, when Colorado Boy was 3. Since then, we’ve gone on at least one trip to the parks every year, including Colorado Princess’ first trip when she was just 9 months old. So, when people ask me if I think it will be ok to take their toddler to the parks, I always say OF COURSE!

Granted, traveling to a Disney park with young kids in tow is certainly NOT for everyone, and I’ll be the first to admit that it was a MAJOR adjustment for me (I’m more of a “commando” visitor ) But, after some trial and error, we learned some things that helped us tremendously, so I thought I would share some of our ideas with you. I don’t think any of these are necessarily new, but it’s always nice to get confirmation from multiple places that these ideas work.

My first five tips are for the planning and travel day leading up to your park(s) visit

Get your child her own seat on the airplane – I know, I know. There are two issues with this – airline tickets are expensive and lugging a carseat around is a pain in the butt. Very valid issues, but for us, the relative calm we get with a carseat in the airplane WAY outweighs the negatives for us. When she was younger, Colorado Princess was relatively content in her carseat and would even nap. Sitting in our laps, she was a squirmy, crying, exhausted mess.

Don’t schedule anything major on the first day – When we go to Disney World, it’s usually an almost all day trip for us plus we cross over two time zones. We’ve learned not to schedule anything, not even a dinner, for the night we get there because the kids are usually too exhausted. Grab something quick, order room service, or, if you’re staying in a DVC suite, take advantage of a grocery delivery service like GardenGrocer.com and have something delivered and waiting for you. If it works in your schedule, I’d even try to make the whole next day a relatively easy going day so the kids can get acclimated, but I know that’s sometimes easier said than done

Stay on property – Again, this can be an expensive part of your vacation, but we feel like it’s just so much easier to just use the Disney transportation and not have to find parking at the beginning of the day, find your car at the end of the day, potentially have to deal with traffic, etc. It also makes it easier to take breaks in the middle of the day. And, you just can’t beat that “Disney” feeling by totally immersing yourself in the experience Keep an eye out for special discounts on Disney hotels or promotions like free dining that can save you money while allowing you to stay on property.

Bring your own stroller – Yep, I know it’s a pain in the butt to travel with a stroller, especially if you have a big one, but it’s been a lifesaver for us. First, I’ve found that my kids are much more comfortable in their own strollers. The Disney strollers are fine, but they’re a little hard on the backside! Second, have you ever had to manuever a sleeping child OUT of the stroller so you can leave the park and then have to carry said sleeping child to the awaiting bus or car? All at the end of a long day at the park? Yeah, it’s not fun. And that’s why we bring our stroller with us almost every time we go to the parks. By the way, if you ARE going to rent a stroller and are going to be in the parks for multiple days, make sure to do the math – it MIGHT be cheaper to just buy one of the small strollers that many of the shops carry. On our last trip we decided to just rent because we were only going to be there for 3 days, but the Cast Member working at the stroller rental place pointed out that it would be cheaper to just buy the stroller. We decided to take it back with us at the end of the trip, but you could always spread some pixie dust and give it to a family in need on your way out if you don’t want to carry it on the plane.

Have a plan…but be flexible – I’m a planner, so maybe it’s just in my nature, but I cringe every time I hear someone say, “Oh yeah, we’re just going to wing it. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Disney and “wing it”? Yeah, those two things just don’t go together So, it IS important to have a basic plan of what you’re going to do each day, where and when you’re going to eat, any attractions that are “must dos” etc. That being said, it’s also important to be flexible. I’ll never forget our first trip to Disney World with my son. I had EVERYTHING planned out – exactly what attraction we would ride and when we would do it. We got to the first ride of the day and my son just REFUSED to go on it, even though I knew it was something he would love (Winnie the Pooh). A round of cajoling and begging ensued, with the end result being tears (mine, not my son’s ) I had to change my thinking very quickly and find the places in my plan where we could be flexible about what we were going to do. In the end, easing up made a big difference, and we did get Colorado Boy to ride Winnie the Pooh…and he loved it!

In my next post, I’ll give you some lessons learned while touring the parks with a toddler or two in tow.