Beginners help

[onthemove]

We are doing a last minute trip to WDW the first week of March. We arrive Sunday lunch time, my parents will be joining up with us, and staying at the Art of Animation until Wed. Thursday-Sat I have a work conference at the Coronado Springs, and will be working all day but DH and DD will just be hanging out. My parents and I have 4 day park Hopper passes and I got my husband 5 day so he has something to do while I’m working.

DD is 18 months and her normal schedule is up at 6, lunch at 12, nap 1230-230, dinner at 6, bed at 7.

My thoughts are go early to one park, come back, nap, then hit a different park in the afternoon.

One day DH and I may try to go to do the Star Wars stuff, but all the fast passes are gone.

Fast passes are very different then the last time we went just us 10 years ago. How would you tackle the parks and fast passes? What about dining? Even bother with Epcot? We aren’t a “Disney family” really, so my kid doesn’t know any of the stories or characters.

[nsl]

I never took a kid under 4 to WDW, so take my thoughts with that grain of salt.

Regarding park hopping, I wouldn't count on that being a huge hit. Transportation takes quite awhile--I'd budget an hour on either end to get to/from your hotel, plus go through security, and the parks themselves were totally overwhelming for my young kids. We'd spend our post-break afternoons swimming or playing games at our hotel. You may want to give it a try early in your trip and be prepared to adjust your expectations for how other days will go based on how your daughter holds up to that much park time in a single day.

For Fast Passes, keep checking the app to see what pops up. People will cancel them to swap times or for different rides, particularly the day of the pass, so I wouldn't give up on anything just because you don't see availability now. No matter what, GET FAST PASSES. Even for rides that aren't "big" they will save you quite a lot of time in line.

I strongly prefer having table service lunches because it gets us into a quiet(er), air-conditioned space where we can rest and recharge for at least an hour after a big morning. Given your daughter's nap schedule you may or may not need or want this approach, but it has consistently worked well for my family. I've only heard really good things about the food court at Art of Animation, so you may not really need reservations at all if you plan to eat meals at the resort.

Epcot isn't the most exciting park, and at the moment there is a ton of construction going on there, but I wouldn't skip it given the length of your trip and your park hoppers. Just walking around World Showcase and taking in the atmosphere is one of my family's favorite things to do in WDW. There are also several boat rides that your daughter might enjoy--the 3 Caballeros in Mexico and Living with the Land might be fun for all of you.

[curbsideprophet]

Since you are staying at AoA and have access to the Skyliner I think hopping between EP and HS would be pretty easy. I would potentially go to EP for at least half a day.

I think your overall plan sounds fine. I would keep an eye on park hours. If they add hours more FP will be added.

I would book what you can and check day of to see if anything better is available.

[stephm0188]

We took the kid at 18 months for a business trip and planned to go back to the hotel for naps. He absolutely refused to nap in the hotel day two once he realized we were going back. I gave up on making that work and he'd doze in the stroller.

That trip was laid back for us. Rode a few rides, met some characters he did know, kept it pretty low key and not scheduled.

[pisces]

We took our 2 year old and had park hoppers when we went. We went to 1 park in the morning(we picked all 3 fast passes for morning times so we could get more later at a different park), came back to the hotel to have lunch and swim, took a family nap around 2-3(this was not the normal time she napped at this age) every day, slept til 5/530, then went out again for the night. We picked our evening park based on how busy they seemed and which fast passes were available.

When we went this past August when the MF just opened, they had single rider lines available that went really fast. So you guys could still ride Star Wars rides without fast passes. We also stayed at AoA this past summer, and were disappointed in the food because we had heard good things.

Since you don't care about characters, I would just pick whatever restaurants sound good to you, or just do quick service options.

Epcot has good food and drinks so you could go there for food if you wanted. And, test track haha. The nemo ride and and the boat ride in mexico are rides I think you guys would enjoy together like pp said. The food in Mexico is obviously delicious, too. We like Epcot a lot.

[sent]

DS went at 9 months and then 22 months. The second time, your plan is what we did some of the days. Other days, we only had enough energy to do one park in the morning and then we did a table service dinner at night. As far as fast passes, on most days, we mainly just did our 3 fast passes from 9 - 12, ate lunch, and then went back to the hotel. In the evening we got the additional fast pass or just did whatever attraction that had less than a 10 minute wait. I also have a 6 year old DD so rides were important to her. We did rider swap the roller coasters with DS. Some days DS skipped his nap so then we got him to fall asleep in his stroller by 8 pm and we could take our time at dinner. Two of the days we went back in the evening, we returned to Epcot. One night we had dinner at the restaurant in France, and another night we had food and drinks at the booths during the Art festival.

[milano]

We always do FPs in the morning because my kids are consistently good during that time. Afternoons are always loosely planned that way we can drop it and head back the hotel if someone needs a break or the kids want to swim. My kids never napped well in the room, they did better sleeping in the stroller while we walked around the park/resort.

[covergirl82]

Keep in mind the time it takes to go back to the resort for a nap. I haven't been there since the Skyliner opened, but it could take up to/around an hour one-way when you take into account walking to the bus, waiting for the bus, and travel time once you're on the bus back to the resort. Plus then the travel time back to the park.

I agree with PP who said to keep checking for FPs as people change their plans all the time. You could consider getting a Disney travel agent, who could do that for you.

Walking around the worlds in Epcot is great for adults. Maybe you DD would nap in the stroller one afternoon while you do that? Also, Living with the Land is one of our favorite rides, and usually it doesn't have a long wait. It's very relaxing.

[Mrs.flang]

We went when DD was 16 months and we went back to the room to nap each day and back out in the afternoon. We stayed at carribean beach so the travel time wasn't insignificant, but it would have been a disaster otherwise. I can't remember entirely but I think we typically went back to the same park in the afternoons. HS was only in the morning because it didn't feel like there was as much to do. I tried for FPs for as early as possible and just tried to maximize our rides because DD didn't care about characters. I went into it super breezy and without much of a plan. We definitely didn't totally optimize all our time, but everyone had a blast.

[VillainV]

Feb 11, 2020 9:39:03 GMT -5 covergirl82 said:

Keep in mind the time it takes to go back to the resort for a nap. I haven't been there since the Skyliner opened, but it could take up to/around an hour one-way when you take into account walking to the bus, waiting for the bus, and travel time once you're on the bus back to the resort. Plus then the travel time back to the park.

I agree with PP who said to keep checking for FPs as people change their plans all the time. You could consider getting a Disney travel agent, who could do that for you.

Walking around the worlds in Epcot is great for adults. Maybe you DD would nap in the stroller one afternoon while you do that? Also, Living with the Land is one of our favorite rides, and usually it doesn't have a long wait. It's very relaxing.

I have a question about checking fast passes. If I already have three booked, it appears I can’t check what’s available unless I cancel an existing fast pass. I think you used to be able to see what was available but not book, but now when I try to check it makes me select my party first, then tells me nobody has any fast passes remaining.

Am I missing something?

[curbsideprophet]

Feb 17, 2020 14:48:33 GMT -5 VillainV said:

Feb 11, 2020 9:39:03 GMT -5 covergirl82 said:

Keep in mind the time it takes to go back to the resort for a nap. I haven't been there since the Skyliner opened, but it could take up to/around an hour one-way when you take into account walking to the bus, waiting for the bus, and travel time once you're on the bus back to the resort. Plus then the travel time back to the park.

I agree with PP who said to keep checking for FPs as people change their plans all the time. You could consider getting a Disney travel agent, who could do that for you.

Walking around the worlds in Epcot is great for adults. Maybe you DD would nap in the stroller one afternoon while you do that? Also, Living with the Land is one of our favorite rides, and usually it doesn't have a long wait. It's very relaxing.

I have a question about checking fast passes. If I already have three booked, it appears I can’t check what’s available unless I cancel an existing fast pass. I think you used to be able to see what was available but not book, but now when I try to check it makes me select my party first, then tells me nobody has any fast passes remaining.

Am I missing something?

You should be able to check without canceling the existing FP. Select the one you are potentially interested in changing and try to modify it.

[bowies]

We took young kids and stayed at AoA (twice!). Not once did we go back to our hotel for naps and then go back out. It can take upwards of an hour to get from point A to point B using the bus. It wasn’t worth it (to us) to spend 4 hours commuting every day. Stroller naps are where it’s at.

A safe assumption to make is that you’ll do maybe half of what you want to do with a little in tow. That’s ok! Prioritize and give yourself a game plan for how you go through the parks (i.e., don’t crisscross all over the place).

Epcot ended up being one of our favorite parks, especially with really little kids. It’s a food paradise so that’s how we entertained ourselves. A good number of rides don’t have height restrictions and rider swap works well there, especially in the Land pavilion. AK was the park we struggled with the most, even though it has two of the best rides in all of WDW. I’m also sensitive to crowds so AK felt claustrophobic to me whereas Epcot has tons of space, including spots to just let them play.