Plan for 7(ish) days with toddler

Boardwalk_bride

Married in WDW :)
Joined
May 26, 2009
Hello,

We will be at WDW for 8 nights in January. Our daughter will be turning 3 on the trip. The first night is a late arrival (for her) so we are staying @ the Airport. The second day we plan to get on ME at 9 am - giving up 6 full days and 1 almost full day in the park.

My original plan was to go to the park everyday. This is our first time going with a child so I've been doing a lot of reading and notice most, if not all, suggest a rest day, especially for this length. Any thoughts? I'm not sure what we would do for a rest day if it isn't warm enough to swim. We will be staying at Kidani.

My current plan is:
  • AKL - Arrival day and one other day (so probably 1 to 1.5 days total)
  • MK - 2 days
  • Epcot - 2 days (likely both half ish days)
  • HS - 1 day
We are huge Epcot fans (we got married there - and this is kinda a 10th anniversary trip). I'm not a huge HS fan, but DH loves Star Wars.

Our daughter is pretty high energy. She is currently still napping about an hour 5/7 days a week.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!
 
3 year olds can be quite unpredictable in every day life! Put them in a theme park and whew...

We are going in Feb also with an almost 3 year old and we are going to do the same thing we did with our elder daughter when she was that age, which worked well:

We plan on doing mornings, hopefully rope drop if we can all get up. FPs booked for morning or early afternoon.

All our park day ADRs are lunches. We’ll need the break and dinner ADRs can be tricky since you might have a toddler in full meltdown by then or you might all be so tired. Hopefully after lunch we can get her to nap in the stroller for a bit somewhere quiet. We’re not big breakfast people so we eat Mickey waffles at the resort usually.

We leave the evenings open. If she’s tired we’ll just go back to the resort. If not, we’ll keep on going and get quick service for dinner.

Off day is planned after two straight park days. We’ll probably do pool and Disney springs. I’d definitely do the off day in the middle of your trip. We’re staying at Kidani this time too and I’m sure the animals will keep her occupied!

Also of course you’ll need a stroller but let her run around too—being strapped in all day is no fun. Dumbo play area at MK is great, Epcot has a playground and AK has several spaces.

The thing with toddlers, I think, is just not to overplan. If they’ve had too much they’ll make everyone miserable.
 
We have been taking our son since he was about 6 months old. We count on doing a few days in the park and usually a couple days outside of the park.

Similar to the poster above we set our FPs to be the first half of the day and when he still napped, we counted on returning to the hotel after lunch. After nap we usually did the activities at the hotel (pool, playground etc) and Disney springs in the evening.

At 3 we found that he had just as much fun at Disney springs, listening to the music, catching some of the acts along the walk, playing at the Lego store etc. It was great. Honestly I think we planned to return to the parks during the 2nd part of the day but I think we only did that once.
 
I have never done a full rest day with either of my children. We do a.m. park for a few hours, back to the resort for a nap then swim. Then back to park for dinner and maybe one or two rides. We stopped sticking to a nap/ bedtime schedule when DS( now 10) was 4 years old, but now have DD who is 21 months....so we are back to adhering to her nap/ bedtime schedule. This helps her be in a better mood and is enjoy the vacation more. 3 is a great age, your little one may need a nap with all of the extra energy she will be exerting or she may just crash for bedtime early. If she is easy going, going with the flow is doable. We have been 6 times with DD on tow now, and I have quickly figured out we still can't deviate from her routine overly much.
 
I wanted to add we attempted almost every trip to have him nap in the stroller. Our kid never naps in the stroller, even as a small baby he just never did. If your kid can nap we found several areas, including the baby center, at each park where we would have stayed in the park and let him rest. I even rented expensive strollers twice to see if it would help. He just won't do it in any setting.

For our son a nap was like a requirement or he just stopped behaving. However, if your child can nap that might make your trip a bit different!
 
So every trip is completely different, we just got home last night with our DD (3) on her first trip. We had planned to do every park and only have 1 rest day. All I’ll say is be prepared for things to change. Not saying that your trip will be similar, BUT we ended up doing MK 3 of our 4 park days and when we went to DHS we arrived late and left early.

We still fast passed all the stuff we wanted. We saw SW:GE. But it definitely wasn’t the trip I expected. Either way you guys will have a magical time!
 
We alternated park days when we took our almost 2 year old: park day, then water park/pool, then park, then water park/pool, etc. We went in August though when the heat was brutal. Going in January, swimming isn't going to be as appealing (and may be too cold for it anyway), and the park days won't be quite as draining since it won't be as hot. Especially if you aren't planning rope drop to close every day, you could possibly go a week without a full break day by just taking time as needed with partial park days and going with the flow.

As others have noted, the most important thing to be prepared for with a young child is to throw your plans out the window. They may be afraid of the characters or fall in love with one specific ride they want to go on repeatedly, or may just enjoy watching the ducks at every park. Don't overplan and don't be afraid to abandon your plans to do something different. Remember too that everything with little kids takes more time. If still in diapers, changing times will take longer than you think. If out of diapers, be prepared to stop at every bathroom you see and have them need to go again anyway when you're about to board a ride.

My kids are not early risers so if we were to go in the colder months, I'd probably plan on getting to the parks around noon, getting QS lunch, enjoying the parks, having an ADR for dinner to have a little rest time, and continuing on in the parks until they're ready to leave. For many parents though, the opposite would be more beneficial with hitting rope drop, table service lunch, and going back to the hotel early afternoon for the rest of the day.

There are plenty of things to do outside the parks too. If it's too cold for swimming, Disney Springs has lots of stores, the hotels have plenty of activities in the afternoons from arts and crafts to trivia contests, playgrounds, movies under the stars. Fort Wilderness has a campfire sing-along event with Chip n Dale, lots of animals to see, pony rides, carriage and wagon rides, boat and bike rentals.

Have fun and enjoy!
 


I'm going for 9 nights with an almost 4 year old next summer. I don't have true rest days planned. Lighter days but not "rest" days. By lighter days I mean, park in the morning, pool afternoon, back for dinner OR sleep in (of course this kid wakes up at 5 asking if the sun is awake yet...) pool then park.

Of course I'm fully prepared for all my planning to go out the window...which would be ok, I sort of miss the days where you didn't have to plan.
 
We just did 6 days with a 2.5 year old. We arrived at the park at opening (he is a very early riser), left after lunch each day for nap/swim breaks, and didn't return until 4-5 that late afternoon. We didn't have a full rest day, but in retrospect, we probably would in the future because the resorts are so well themed and have so much to do. Epcot is for sure a half day park with a toddler-ours could not have cared less about the World Showcase, but our 6 year old enjoyed the Kidcot stops. we did two days MK, I day Epcot, 1 day HS and 2 days AK, one of which was really a half day as we got there early, left about 11 and didn't return until 7
 
We have always just scheduled daily, "light" park days of our trips. Back to the room/pool in the afternoon. Then, as others have said, back to the parks for dinner and a couple of rides before bedtime. It has worked great for us. But I feel like this is one of those things that you really just have to go with your gut about as kids are so different.
 
What time zone are you coming from? And where is she sleeping?

I think the rush that is mornings on a WDW vacation - character breakfasts, getting to the parks for RD or before crowds/heat - is what can really doom toddlers, even moreso than missing naps. Given her short naps on a typical day, that's probably even more true for your DD as they don't seem quite so "mission critical" for her. Add in an early morning wake up 1-2 hours before usual if you're dealing with time change, perhaps less than quality sleep in trying to navigate sleeping in a hotel room next to mom and dad and it's just hard set of circumstances. Most younger 3 year olds probably don't get the adrenaline rush that bigger kids do from the excitement of a Disney trip either that can sustain them a bit longer.

IMO, you're better off leaving day 4 or 5 openish and seeing how the week goes. Always better to finish a trip wishing you had a few more days than to be stuck on day 5 thinking 2 more days are going to be a nightmare, because the odds are high that they will end up that way. Low, low, low expectations will get you far when it comes to WDW and little kids.
 
3 year olds can be quite unpredictable in every day life! Put them in a theme park and whew...

We are going in Feb also with an almost 3 year old and we are going to do the same thing we did with our elder daughter when she was that age, which worked well:

We plan on doing mornings, hopefully rope drop if we can all get up. FPs booked for morning or early afternoon.

All our park day ADRs are lunches. We’ll need the break and dinner ADRs can be tricky since you might have a toddler in full meltdown by then or you might all be so tired. Hopefully after lunch we can get her to nap in the stroller for a bit somewhere quiet. We’re not big breakfast people so we eat Mickey waffles at the resort usually.

We leave the evenings open. If she’s tired we’ll just go back to the resort. If not, we’ll keep on going and get quick service for dinner.

Off day is planned after two straight park days. We’ll probably do pool and Disney springs. I’d definitely do the off day in the middle of your trip. We’re staying at Kidani this time too and I’m sure the animals will keep her occupied!

Also of course you’ll need a stroller but let her run around too—being strapped in all day is no fun. Dumbo play area at MK is great, Epcot has a playground and AK has several spaces.

The thing with toddlers, I think, is just not to overplan. If they’ve had too much they’ll make everyone miserable.

We are also planning on ADRs for lunches, unless it is at the resort! Glad to know I was on the right track!
 
Thanks, everyone! For some reason I didn't get updates that there was any responses so just saw this now.

I think I'm going to take aspects of most of the advice above and build it into our plan. We live near Toronto - so no time change which is nice! Our daughter is a pretty early riser so I think we will plan on rope drop for most days. DH and I will have to practice patience and flexibility - all of our trips have been planned down to like 15 minute intervals of when we need to be where! This will be different! I can't see us heading back to the parks in the evenings as AKL is such a long trip away.

I'm sad to only hit Epcot once but I also cannot picture her loving it. I also don't like the idea of bringing her in stores (which is why I might skip Disney Springs) - she'll want to buy everything!

Thanks again!
 
We took our DS at 10, months, just shy of 2 , just shy of 3, and just shy of 4. He handled it like a champ. Now with that being said, all kids are different. He is a Disney child and he gets so excited that he doesn't nap when at WDW. I would say plan as close to a "normal" schedule as you can. If you need a break take a break for naps. Plan your days on what would work best for your child.

Just my opinion.
 
@Boardwalk_bride don't rule out more time in epcot unless she absolutely hates it. I think there's a fair amount in the world showcase (characters, entertainment, wide pathways, etc) to keep someone entertained. But I'm biased
 
We're leaving in two weeks with a similar stay length and our 4 1/2 year old daughter. She's very high energy, and doesn't HAVE to have a nap, but does better when she takes one at home on the weekends, she typically goes to bed at 8, but won't fall asleep until 9 usually. We'll arrive Saturday afternoon, leaving the following Saturday afternoon. We're doing two full MK days, 1.5 at Epcot, 1.5 at HS, and 1 at AK. My wife will also be six months pregnant, so we're taking that into consideration as well.

Day 1: MK show up early, try to hang in there long enough to see the Fantasyland parade and head out around 2:30 or 3. It's a MNSSHP night, which we won't go to, so we'll just go for a swim that evening.
Day 2: AK, arrive early and stay until 2 or so, head back to resort for a rest, but try to be back at the park by 5:30 for our FoP FP which expires at 6:10, stay until close at 9.
Day 3: Sleep in and do whatever this day, which probably means swimming all morning. Head to Hollywood Studios around 3:30 or 4pm and stay until close at 10.
Day 4: MK again, show up early and go hard, with the aim of eating lunch at 1pm and heading out. Go back and rest at resort, and come back to MK for our reservation at Skipper Canteen at 6:20, stay for the fireworks.
Day 5: Sleep in again and do whatever, be at Epcot by 4 for our first FP of the day, stay until 9.
Day 6: Epcot, be there for the rope drop at 9. By this point we'll know whether we need that mid day rest or not. We might stay at Epcot all day since we won't be up crazy early to make a 9 am open. We might head back and rest again after lunch at Garden Grill and a Mission Space FP at 1:10. Be back for dinner at Marrakesh at 7 pm, stay until 10.
Day 7: HS, arrive early (but I doubt we are hitting the 6am EEMH arrival) We'll have to deal with the whole checkout process before heading to the park, but we'll hit the park and stay until after lunch, then head out to catch the Magical Express to head home.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top