if you've done Disney with toddlers...

baby*love

please weigh in on my very prelim itinerary for the first week of May... (We have 2 little girls ages 2.5 and 4yr at the time of the trip)

 We'll be there 8 days (7 nights) staying at my family's condo about 10 mins from the parks.  My DH may only be able to come for 4 or 5 days due to work so I'm trying to schedule 1 day at each of the 4 parks for the beginning of the trip back to back for the days he'll be with us.  My parents will also be down the same week and the condo / resort has pools, waterslides etc. and it is very close to Sea World so the remaining days of the trip we'll re-coop poolside and maybe do Sea World 1 day before returning home.

 For our WDW days here is what I was planning:

Day 1 (Fri): Magic Kingdom (doing the Bippity Boppity Boutique late morning and lunch reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table) - MK actually closes early (7pm) for grad nights so we'd miss the night parade and Wishes firworks but since we aren't staying in the park and it will be a long day otherwise I'm sort of OK with ending our 1st day by 7pm. 

Day 2 (Sat): Hollywood Studios - hit up all the must see rides/attractions (esp. Toy Story) we have a reservation for the Fastasmic Dinner package (Dinner at Hollywood & Vine) and the show begins at 8:30pm.

Day 3: (Sun) Animal Kingdom - with lunch or dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.

Day 4: (Mon) Epcot - breakfast at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary - touring the park; dinner or lunch at Askerhaus Hall w/ the Princesses.

 

WDYT? If my DH was with us all week I'd much rather break up the back to back days touring the WDW parks doing 2 days on and 1 or 2 off but will we survive 4 in a row? We really want to try and keep it laid back as possible and aren't doing a sunup to sundown type Disney vacation with the girls being so little. When they are older we will likely stay in the parks for that reason but we just want to give them a taste of Disney as we know they'll be just as excited about the hotel pools and sleeping in the condo   Thanks for any input!

GinandTonic

I think you'll be exhausted.

I know you want your DH to do all the parks with you, buit it might make more sense to schedule park time in the mornings, go back to the condo for a nap and then do the pool,etc - and then maybe go back to the park in the evenings.  I guess he can still do all the parks with my plan - just not as much at them.   You might also need to still a chillout at the pool day in there as well - your schedule seems ambitious...

Littlejen22

My kids were only 3.5 and 1.5 but we did parks EOW (we stayed at a timeshare 10 minutes away too.)  We did Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Sea World.  Unless your kids are huge into animals and sea life I would skip both their parks as they were not hits with the kids.  Oh, and I would do Royal Table for breakfast if you can b/c if you do lunch you will be losing 1.5 hours of the day plus the time in the boutique - that is a lot of time out of the day especially since they will not last from morning to night in the park.  Oh, and if you do not book Royal Table 180 days in advance you might not be able to get it, I tried 180 days out and they only way I got it was by calling first thing in the morning on the release day...they release to Disney guests 7 or 10 days earlier and they fill up for that restaurant.

Heidisean

Hey Kelly, We took Giada 2 times already so if you want any ideas I can give you them. We took her for her 3rd bday and then again when she was 3 years 5 months. If you are flying gate check your stroller so you have it in the airport that makes life soo much easier. One of the best places to eat at AK is Tusker House and it is with all the Mickey Characters (you can do Rainforest in NJ). We love Chef Mickey's but to eat at Chef Mickey's and Askerhaus both in the same day will be lots of food and Chef Mickey's is in the Contemporary which will take some time to get to Epcot. Honestly, we ate breakfast one time and then dinner another at Askerhaus and wouldn't go back for either. The dinner was not that kid friendly and if you are taking them to the castle they will meet and take pics with all the princesses at the castle. Some of our favorites are: Tonga Toast breakfast at the Polynesian, Le Cellier at Epcot (is the ultimate best place to eat out of all the parks but difficult to get reservations), Chef Mickey's for breakfast or dinner, Tusker House in AK, and Hollywood and Vine package is the best out of the 3 they offer because it is a buffet with lots of kid friendly food and adult foods like peel and eat shrimp. Our pics are all up on my facebook page if you have any questions I could answer them for you! As for having a busy day both times we went we would leave our hotel around 8-9 AM and not come back until 8-10 PM and Giada did great. She would fall asleep on the ride back to the hotel on the bus on the way home every night but was totally fine the entire day but we stayed at Disney both times (Port Orleans French Quarter and then Animal Kingdom Lodge in case you have any questions about them). Love, love, love Disney:)

Heidisean

About BBB we did it both times and honestly try and do it as early as you can in the AM and then do breakfast at the Castle. Make sure when you are booking BBB that you reserve the one in the castle and not the one in Downtown Disney and then book Cinderella's Royal Table for breakfast after. This way they will get their pics taken all dressed up with the princesses and they can strut around the parks all day and you can get your moneys worth of your 200+ each that you will be spending on each girl:)

shopgirl78

Our trip sounded much the same and it was exhausting!  I was also 17 wks pregnant.We got to Disney at 5pm and were able to do the Wishes parade that night--the kids were tired of being in the car and were totally excited.  We also stayed around for the fireworks.   We loved the WIshes Parade!  We didn't make it to the dream come true parade (3pm) and I was sad about that.   We didn't go back to the hotel between time at the parks either.   We loved Hollywood Studios (Toy Story) and so did the kids.  There is a lot of sit down stuff there and that was a great break.   It was also nice to get away from all the Princess stuff for DS1.  We ate at Hollywood and Vine too.  We didn't too much like Epcot but we did to the princess breakfast--you might check into it.  I though they were only open for breakfast and lunch.  DS1 just passed out in the stroller when tired.   Animal Kingdom was alright.  DS liked the animals on the safari and the Lion King show was neat.  Otherwise, we didn't do much there (other than met characters--which was way impt to my kids).  Have fun!