Our experience and useful tips for travelling to Disney land Florida with small children.
Earlier this year (April 2023) we took our preschool aged children, who were nearly 4 and just turned 2 at the time, to Disneyland Paris and vowed it was a mistake. Our eldest seemed to enjoy the day but our youngest cried all day apart from when we were on a ride. So after spending hundreds of pounds to visit the park for a day, we felt they were just too young to be able to enjoy it, and we certainely didnt feeling stressed out and defeted by our toddler.
So going against our vow, 6 months later we end up at Disneyland Florida. So heres everything you need to know about taking small children to Disney Florida...
Magic Kingdom, Disney Florida.
I know its a question alot of parents have, is it worth taking my young child(ren) and spending all that money when they wont even remember it? What if they misbehave, what if the weather isnt good for us, what if they are restless queing?
I had all the above questions too. So I hope with this guide I can answer some of those and help with your decision to booking that disney trip, or help make your experience better if you have already booked.
The First mistakes of our trip to Disney with small children
How did we turn it around into a better day?
Summary of top tips for visiting Disney Florida
Conclusion - is it a mistake or not?
The first mistakes of our trip to Disney with small children...
So why did we go against our original views? It was actually not an intentionally planned trip to Disney Florida. We were heading to Florida for a cruise and had a few days before and after to play with. So since we were already in the area, I thought lets give the Disney park day another try. After all, its memories as a family.
We opted for Magic Kingdom after reading this was the park with the most rides without height restrictions, as our youngest is under 3 meaning entry was free, however of course meant she can't go on any rides above her height limit. Top tip: If your not visiting all the parks, make sure you research which is best for your ages of children!
Our first mistake, was that the timing visiting the park wasn't the best. We landed from the UK the evening before our visit and of course suffered with jet lag and the whole family was up from 4am the day we were visiting DL, however we had no flexibility on days as we had a tour booked the day after then the day after that we were embarking on our cruise. Top tip: If it can be avoided, plan your park visit once body clocks have adjusted, to eliminate any extra causes of general child irritability!
The morning at the park started exactly the same as our experience in DL Paris with my little girl crying and moaning; a combination of jet lag and just general toddler behaviour. Then her older brother also had his moments, making it more intense at times.
Our second mistake - we hadn't planned our day out with what rides there were (biggest tip for anyone planning Disney - PLAN YOUR DAY BEFORE!) So, we spent the first couple of hours trying to figure out where everything was and what we wanted to go on, and we just wasted precious time (time is of the essence, as most parents of young children know).
As the park filled up, the queues got longer and some of the main rides alreasy had queue times of 45-60 minutes plus. Had we of known which rides were best we would have tackled those on entering the park rather than the small rides we went on first and wasting our time figuring it all out.
How did we turn it around into a better day?
After a morning of me and my husband squabbling and many "why did we bother" comments to eachother, my husband called on buying the Genie plus to get access to some of the rides faster. It was worth it but sadly we done it around 1pm rather than from when we got in the park and we only managed to use it for 3 rides. Top tip buy genie as soon as you enter the park!
If your wondering what Genie plus is, it's essentially a queue jump (they call them lightening lanes) but for specific time slots. You can only book your slot one at a time, meaning that until your in the lightening lane for your ride you aren't able to book your next queue jump until you've reached the end of the line (you still have to queue too but it's so much faster). Once you swipe your pass you then can book the next ride time slot, however then the time slots become later each time.
For example I book onto the ride "It's a small world" at 1.35pm, but once I queue and swipe my pass, my next earliest riding time for any other ride may not be until 2.30pm and it may not be a ride I want. So if it was one of the more popular rides, the queue slot time could be later, let's say at 4pm, so if I booked that I wouldn't be able to queue jump anything else prior to that time. So generally Disney say the average ride jumps are 3-4 per day as they space out the time slots for each ride. Top tip: If you buy Genie plus, book the best rides as early as possible and just queue for the smaller rides in between!
We really wanted to ride "Peter pans flight" but the normal queue was 120 minutes long and once we had got through 2 genie plus rides by around 3.30pm, the time slot for Peter Pan was approx 9pm, (which was way to late for us, so we sadly had to miss it).
Summary of Top tips for visiting Disney Florida with small children
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So, my top tips for travelling to Disney with young children:
Plan ahead! Don't be like us and wait til the day to even see what rides are there in the park. Also check which parks are best suited to your childrens ages if you dot have time to visit them all.
Plan on a day when body clocks have adjusted to the time zones, if your schedule allows.
Consider buying the Genie plus before you go or as soon as you enter, so that you maximise the amount of rides you can go on - IMO its worth the money especially with small children who dont like to queue for long.
Take your kids favourite snacks - especially if your travelling from another country and your kids are fussy. It's a long day so they will do the usual "mummy daddy I'm hungry" every half hour.
Pack rain macs! I brought loads from England and totally forgot to pack them for the park. And unluckily for us it was a drizzly late November day, but luckily no downpour. If your visiting in the height of summer then of course you will more likely not experience rainy conditions.
Take little ones prams, even if they are bigger and don't generally use a pram, they may get tired walking around all day. Also after jet lag they may even want to nap.
From the UK you can only buy multi day 7 or 14 day Disney passes, but when you reach Orlando you can buy single or multiple day tickets, for one or more parks. It does work out more expensive, however if you only have a day or two to visit them then it will be more cost effective buying the exact amount you need.
Squeeze in smaller queue rides between the rides with longer queues, so that you aren't queueing one long one after another and you get to experience more rides and try to save Genie Plus for the more popular rides with long queuing times to make the most of the pass - book the best ride first.
Conclusion - is it a mistake or not?
I said it earlier, but any memories are a memory for us. Even if the kids wont remember, we always will. Their little souls did enjoy the magic of the park and characters, and most definitely enjoyed the rides. So aside from any tears and stress of the day, it was all worth it in my opinion, especially as we were visiting with another highlight of our cruise, I think if I was doing a specific Disney Florida trip for the parks - I would wait until they were older to understand and enjoy it all, and we personally wont plan another visit until our yougest is perhaps 6, meaning our eldest will be 8.
The only mistake of it, was all the little things I have given tips on, which could have made our experience better and eliminated some of the stresses we experienced.
If you would like a Disney Florida quote, please feel free to contact me via my webpage under the tab "book a holiday" on www.travellingharts.com
Thank you for reading and I hope this helps!
Kasia xx
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