Just back from 1st trip with a toddler-our reviews

[aristocatz]

Just back from our first trip with our 1.5 year old DD. We had a wonderful time!!!

Just wanted to share some thoughts for other parents who might be planning for a similar age:

-We stayed at POR. Though I would have loved to be able to afford a monorail resort, I thought POR was great for my DD We stayed in a princess themed room (mostly for my benefit lol). Room was wonderful & clean, pack & play was comfy and spacious for my DD, CM's were great, food court was great, buses were on time & frequent.

-We only went to MK & Epcot. The other parks did not seem to be filled with much that would be age appropriate for her.

-We did half days and returned to the resort for lunch, nap, and playtime before heading back out for dinner. This worked out great! The only exception was one day we stayed at MK to go to BOG for lunch. POR has a great playground as well.

-Best attractions for my DD seemed to be: Jungle Cruise, Country Bears Jamboree, It's a Small World, Little Mermaid, Nemo, Living with the Land Boatride, and Turtle Talk with Crush. Turtle Talk was her #1 Favorite-she was grinning through the entire show! We also tried Peter Pan & Winnie the Pooh-they were both a little bumpy for her (even though she loves Pooh)

-Best character meal was Crystal Palace. The characters and their handlers were fantastic. They spent alot of time with my DD, and they were very gentle with her. Worst character meal of our trip was Chef Mickeys. Food was very good, but the music was way too loud and overstimulating. The characters were also unevenly dispersed throughout the night. Mickey and Minnie spent most of the night in two other areas. Goofy & Pluto spent most of the night in our area. Characters in general did not seem as gentle with my DD as compared to the other character meals we went to. We also went to Garden Grill. Characters were awesome there-very good with my DD and they all came along several times throughout the evening. I would recommend that place as well.

-FP+ is awesome, especially for traveling with little ones. Despite other reviews, we did not wait in long lines for our FP+ rides. I especially enjoyed being able to change my FP's around last minute.

-I highly recommend making a reservation for the "First Haircut" package at the Harmony Barber Shop in MK. They were awesome with my DD and the experience and pictures were just priceless!!

-We also got her silhouette done and a hand drawn pastel portrait-also priceless mementos from our trip! The silhouette was only $16 including the frame. The hand drawn portrait was only around $30 (in Liberty Square). Both artists were wonderful with my DD and the pictures came out incredible!!!! I cannot wait to frame the hand drawn portrait-my eyes mist up every time I look at it!!

-We are locked into vacationing during school vacations, due to me being an educator. Feb. break was way less crowded than I anticipated. We got to the parks at/near rope drop every morning. Between that and FP+, we experienced minimal wait times.

-BOG lunch was an excellent choice for our DD. Food was healthy and yummy, dining room was spacious, just an overall pleasant lunch.

Please feel free to ask any questions!

 

[tinkpower]

Thank you so much for the report. We will be going in a couple of months with our 8 month old. Our touring will certainly be different this time. Thank you for mentioning the pictures. I forgot about those. We definently want to have that done.

 

[beckysko]

Thanks for your review! We are heading tomorrow (!) with a 5-month old and 2.5 year old. We went went DS#1 was 8m, so I'm looking forward to seeing him interact with the characters and enjoying the rides.

We haven't done Turtle Talk before, but now I'm considering it! I thought it might be kind of boring, and my son hasn't seen the movie so I didn't know if it would be interesting to him, but now I think I might!

 

[larryz]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[DisneyHomework]

Awesome thanks! WE leave TUESDAY with our 1 year old son... we can't wait and so exciting to hear what a good experience it was!

 

[DiggityDog]

Thanks for the review! We will be in a similar situation during our stay in March. Did you end up utilizing Rider Switch? If so, can you give any pointers/info with the new magicbands/FP+ while doing it?

 

[aristocatz]

Thanks for your review! We are heading tomorrow (!) with a 5-month old and 2.5 year old. We went went DS#1 was 8m, so I'm looking forward to seeing him interact with the characters and enjoying the rides.

We haven't done Turtle Talk before, but now I'm considering it! I thought it might be kind of boring, and my son hasn't seen the movie so I didn't know if it would be interesting to him, but now I think I might!

We were not expecting my DD to love it so much!! We were sitting pretty halfway back in a seat next to the aisle & my DD was GLUED to the screen where Crush was. She had her mouth hanging open and everytime he talked or moved, she would start giggling & look at us with a big grin, as if to say "Did you guys just see that???" It was so wonderful to watch her light up like that

 

[aristocatz]

Thanks for the review! We will be in a similar situation during our stay in March. Did you end up utilizing Rider Switch? If so, can you give any pointers/info with the new magicbands/FP+ while doing it?

We did Rider Swap one time during the trip-for Soarin'- & it was a lifesaver. We would never have been able to do Soarin' without it! My parents were with us on our trip, so we all went to Soarin' when the park opened. There was only a 15 min wait at that point. I let the CM know we wanted to do the Rider Swap-she said no problem at all & handed us a card. She told us when my parents exit the ride, give them my DD, and show the CM the card and they would let us right on through the FP entrance. Easy as pie! She even suggested that we ride the Livin' with the Land boat ride while we were waiting, which we did. My DD ended up liking that because she is interested in fish and also fruit and veggies, so she enjoyed us pointing out the different plants on the ride.

By the time my parents exited Soarin', there was a 45 min. wait for stand by riders. We were able to show the CM our ticket that was given to us. They let us enter through the FP line, and we handed the ticket over to the 2nd CM where FP+ people would scan their bands for the second time, and we got right on the ride!

As for the Magic Bands, be sure to download the My Disney Experience app onto your cell phone. Make FP+ selections for your "most important/can't live without" attractions. If you are the type to get to the parks right at rope drop, don't bother making selections for that first hour-you should be able to get right on most rides at that point. We also ended up changing our FP+ times & selections several times each day-that was super easy to do & ended up to work out really well!

Be sure to bring your ID to the parks also. There was one instance where my dad's Magic Band was having difficulty entering MK & they asked him for his ID while they were fixing it.

 

[aristocatz]

Awesome thanks! WE leave TUESDAY with our 1 year old son... we can't wait and so exciting to hear what a good experience it was!

I hope you have a wonderful trip!! Where are you staying?

We really were not expecting it to go so smoothly for my DD!! I mean, don't get me wrong, she did have a few meltdowns, fell asleep on a few rides, threw up once from not being used to some different kinds of foods she tried (LOTS of new spices in the 'Ohana meats that I was not anticipating), etc... but overall, we were amazed at how well she did!! & we were not expecting her to gain so much out of this trip!

Not sure if it was coincidence, but my DD gained 1-2 new words everyday of this trip!

 

[aristocatz]

Thank you so much for the report. We will be going in a couple of months with our 8 month old. Our touring will certainly be different this time. Thank you for mentioning the pictures. I forgot about those. We definently want to have that done.

Have a wonderful trip!! Yes, the portraits we got done are so adorable! Here is the pastel portrait:

She had a Minnie Mouse on her dress, but the artist was not allowed to draw it for copyright reasons....

My brother & I actually got this portrait done during our first trip in 1979, so getting this for my DD was very special to me

 

[famy27]

We visited in October with our 15 month old and 7 year old, so our experience was similar in some respects and different in others.

We stayed at AKV with a Savannah room, and that was one of our toddler's favorite parts of the trip. Every morning, she ran to the door and asked, "Animals? Animals?" until someone took her onto the balcony. She loved seeing the zebra, giraffes, birds, etc. When we got home, she asked for animals every day for a week.

We did all four parks, with PHs, so we visited most parks multiple times. Here were her favorites at each park.

AK:
KS--loved the animals
Triceratops Spin--rode 5 times in a row
Dinosaur Boneyard--She really enjoyed digging in the sand

HS:
TSMM--She liked it, but she couldn't really figure out how to pull the string, and she kept taking off her 3-D glasses
Disney Junior Live on Stage--this was one of her favorites. She clapped and danced along the whole time


EP:
Character Spot--She loves characters, so this was very fun for her
Spaceship Earth--Weirdly, she really liked this. I didn't know what she'd think, but she watched everything very intently
Imagination--She liked Figment a lot

MK:
Enchanted Tales with Belle--She didn't participate, but she liked watching the show and watching her sister
Pooh--A favorite. We rode this a few times
People Mover--She wanted to ride this a few times
Dumbo and Magic Carpets--Fantastic. She liked the Dumbo queue almost as much as the ride
PotC--I thought she might be scared, but she was fine



We didn't do any afternoon breaks. She just took some catnaps in her stroller. She was so excited by everything and interested in what was going on that she didn't want to miss anything. She pretty much loved every minute of the trip. I was shocked by how well she did.

In terms of dining, we did Garden Grill and Tusker House. She liked both, but I think she preferred GG because of Chip and Dale. Little kids seems to absolutely love them. My older DD really liked them when she was the same age.

We did use RS passes quite a bit. We had fun playing in the little playground by Splash with the rest of the group rode BTMRR. She and I did Pooh while DH and DD did Space. Then, DH took toddler on People Mover while older DD and I did Space.

One thing that I didn't plan to do for her, but I ended up being very glad I did, was to get an autograph book. She liked having the characters sign it, and now she makes me "read" it to her all the time. She can actually recognize most of the signatures in the book now.

We leave in four weeks for her first DL trip, and she is so excited. She is looking forward to seeing Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip, Dale, and Donald again. She wants me to bring her book so she can get more autographs.

 

[aristocatz]

We visited in October with our 15 month old and 7 year old, so our experience was similar in some respects and different in others.

We stayed at AKV with a Savannah room, and that was one of our toddler's favorite parts of the trip. Every morning, she ran to the door and asked, "Animals? Animals?" until someone took her onto the balcony. She loved seeing the zebra, giraffes, birds, etc. When we got home, she asked for animals every day for a week.

We did all four parks, with PHs, so we visited most parks multiple times. Here were her favorites at each park.

AK:
KS--loved the animals
Triceratops Spin--rode 5 times in a row
Dinosaur Boneyard--She really enjoyed digging in the sand

HS:
TSMM--She liked it, but she couldn't really figure out how to pull the string, and she kept taking off her 3-D glasses
Disney Junior Live on Stage--this was one of her favorites. She clapped and danced along the whole time


EP:
Character Spot--She loves characters, so this was very fun for her
Spaceship Earth--Weirdly, she really liked this. I didn't know what she'd think, but she watched everything very intently
Imagination--She liked Figment a lot

MK:
Enchanted Tales with Belle--She didn't participate, but she liked watching the show and watching her sister
Pooh--A favorite. We rode this a few times
People Mover--She wanted to ride this a few times
Dumbo and Magic Carpets--Fantastic. She liked the Dumbo queue almost as much as the ride
PotC--I thought she might be scared, but she was fine



We didn't do any afternoon breaks. She just took some catnaps in her stroller. She was so excited by everything and interested in what was going on that she didn't want to miss anything. She pretty much loved every minute of the trip. I was shocked by how well she did.

In terms of dining, we did Garden Grill and Tusker House. She liked both, but I think she preferred GG because of Chip and Dale. Little kids seems to absolutely love them. My older DD really liked them when she was the same age.

We did use RS passes quite a bit. We had fun playing in the little playground by Splash with the rest of the group rode BTMRR. She and I did Pooh while DH and DD did Space. Then, DH took toddler on People Mover while older DD and I did Space.

One thing that I didn't plan to do for her, but I ended up being very glad I did, was to get an autograph book. She liked having the characters sign it, and now she makes me "read" it to her all the time. She can actually recognize most of the signatures in the book now.

We leave in four weeks for her first DL trip, and she is so excited. She is looking forward to seeing Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip, Dale, and Donald again. She wants me to bring her book so she can get more autographs.

My DD loved the autographs as well!! I wished we had gotten her an autograph book too. At GG, Dale signed her menu with a crayon, so every character after that she kept handing them a crayon and asking them to sign as well-it was so cute!!

We had plans to go to DAK on the day we arrived, to go to Affection Station and meet the animals, but my DD really needed to just relax that day. We arrived later than expected, plane ride was..... interesting lol If we had more time, I would have taken her to see the animals there. Dumbo was also on our list to try, but we ran out of FP's & the standby line was too long.

It's funny-so many people told us our vacation would be a waste with a baby that young, but honestly, it was an amazing experience-for both her and us!

 

[DIS kid at heart]

Have a wonderful trip!! Yes, the portraits we got done are so adorable! Here is the pastel portrait: She had a Minnie Mouse on her dress, but the artist was not allowed to draw it for copyright reasons.... My brother & I actually got this portrait done during our first trip in 1979, so getting this for my DD was very special to me

Where can you get the silhouette and portrait done? This sounds amazing!!

 

[CNYDisneyFan]

Thanks for the report.

 

[Karbase8]

Aww I loved the portrait it's so sweet and I am glad they didn't draw the Minnie Mouse it makes more classic looking!

 

[KelleyK75]

Thank you for posting with all of this great info! The portrait of your daughter is adorable!

I don't ever think taking a baby or young child is the wrong time. You create memories that will last a lifetime. And even if your child doesn't remember everything, they'll remember what you have in pictures and video. My nephew was 3 when he first went and still talks about things that happened. It's been 3 years since that trip. So they do remember.

 

[aristocatz]

Where can you get the silhouette and portrait done? This sounds amazing!!

It really is a wonderful keepsake!! My mom hung up the portrait of my brother and I in our den throughout my childhood and I LOVED looking at it My DH & I got the silhouette done during our first trip to WDW (when we were dating) so it was really special to get one of my DD.

You can get them in several areas of WDW. You can find a silhouette artist on one of the "side streets" of Main Street in MK. You can also find a silhouette artist in Liberty Square. It's only around $8 & another $8 for the frame (which is really necessary because it's hard to find a frame to match it outside of WDW. They do the silhouettes in less than 5 minutes, and it's really neat to watch. The portraits require your child (or adult) to sit for a minimum of 10 minutes. My 1.5 year old DD sat on my DH's lap and we just kept her busy with snacks and her spinning Minnie Mouse toy. She didn't necessarily need to sit still though. You can get group pictures or separate ones.

The portrait artists are in many locations. We got my DD's in Liberty Square, right next to the silhouette artist. I have seen a portrait artist set up in Epcot France, the Beach Club, and also the Grand Floridian. Just a tip though-pricing is not all the same. Go with the person in Liberty Square-it's only $30, as compared to over $100 in the other locations.

Guest services in MK told us that they are in the parks from 9pm-9pm. They are a 3rd party company though, so they have restrictions on what they can do. As mentioned, the portrait artist was not allowed to draw the Minnie Mouse that was on my DD's dress, or even write "Minnie Mouse" or "WDW"

Several resorts also offer the caricature artists, but for me, that is not as special as the portraits or the silhouettes.

 

[aristocatz]

Thank you for posting with all of this great info! The portrait of your daughter is adorable!

I don't ever think taking a baby or young child is the wrong time. You create memories that will last a lifetime. And even if your child doesn't remember everything, they'll remember what you have in pictures and video. My nephew was 3 when he first went and still talks about things that happened. It's been 3 years since that trip. So they do remember.

Thank you-I am so happy with how it came out and the artist was really nice

I totally agree with you, after having this trip. The looks of awe and happiness on my DD's face during our trip was so worth it.

 

[baldy6060]

This thread has been very helpful especially since the OPs itinerary looks incredibly similar to how we are planning our next trip with our 1 yo. My main concerns right now are booking a room in a resort where my kid won't bother others if he has a rough night sleeping or has a meltdown. Good to read the post and other feedback. Thanks!

 

[DIS kid at heart]

It really is a wonderful keepsake!! My mom hung up the portrait of my brother and I in our den throughout my childhood and I LOVED looking at it My DH & I got the silhouette done during our first trip to WDW (when we were dating) so it was really special to get one of my DD. You can get them in several areas of WDW. You can find a silhouette artist on one of the "side streets" of Main Street in MK. You can also find a silhouette artist in Liberty Square. It's only around $8 & another $8 for the frame (which is really necessary because it's hard to find a frame to match it outside of WDW. They do the silhouettes in less than 5 minutes, and it's really neat to watch. The portraits require your child (or adult) to sit for a minimum of 10 minutes. My 1.5 year old DD sat on my DH's lap and we just kept her busy with snacks and her spinning Minnie Mouse toy. She didn't necessarily need to sit still though. You can get group pictures or separate ones. The portrait artists are in many locations. We got my DD's in Liberty Square, right next to the silhouette artist. I have seen a portrait artist set up in Epcot France, the Beach Club, and also the Grand Floridian. Just a tip though-pricing is not all the same. Go with the person in Liberty Square-it's only $30, as compared to over $100 in the other locations. Guest services in MK told us that they are in the parks from 9pm-9pm. They are a 3rd party company though, so they have restrictions on what they can do. As mentioned, the portrait artist was not allowed to draw the Minnie Mouse that was on my DD's dress, or even write "Minnie Mouse" or "WDW" Several resorts also offer the caricature artists, but for me, that is not as special as the portraits or the silhouettes.

Thanks!! I hope I can get at least one of these. We're driving for the first time this year so I'm hoping we can get some souvenirs that I normally wouldn't consider.