Walt Disney World with Kids

In my family, instead of the Terminator, we have the Vacationater.  That’s me.  I thrive on planning our vacations and getting the inside scoop on the “best of” wherever we are visiting.

Recently, I returned from my 27th trip to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.  This trip was very different from all the others because my husband and I took our children (2 and 4) along with us.  It was intense and opened my eyes to a whole other aspect of vacationing in WDW.  Here are some tricks and tips I learned:

• Get the Disney Dining Plan: During our stay, we were entitled to one snack (can be anything from a soda, to a slice of cake, to a side portion of chicken fried rice), one quick service meal, and one sit down table meal per day.  We were so full on the plan we almost couldn’t use all of our entitlements.   The plan costs $45.99 per day for adults and $11.99 per day for children ages 3 to 9.  One table service dinner can easily run in excess of $90 so the plan is well worth the expense.  Throughout the year, WDW does offer free dining plan with your package for certain dates. 
• Make dining reservations:  If you stay on property, you can make dining reservations 180 days before your stay.  Be sure to make reservations before you go  as it is almost impossible to get into certain restaurants without them.  I can’t tell you how many angry people I saw getting turned away!
• Bring your own stroller: The rental strollers are very expensive, uncomfortable hard plastic, and hard to handle.  We brought a fold up umbrella stroller with a canopy for each child and it worked out great.
• Bring your own snacks: You can bring food and drinks into any WDW park.  I brought steel reusable water bottles for everyone and filled them at water fountains to avoid paying $3.25 for bottled water.  Also, I brought snacks in Ziploc bags along with a few empty Ziplocs to store any snacks that were purchased but not fully consumed.
• Take advantage of Extra Magic Hours: If you stay on property, you can visit parks before they open to the public or after stay after the normal closing time.  A different park has extra magic hours each day and this is a great way to avoid wait times for your favorite attractions.
• Take an afternoon break: It’s a very good idea to take a break when the sun is hottest and return to your hotel for a nap, dip, in the pool, or ice cream cone.  Sometimes being in the parks can get stressful.  It’s important to remember to relax!

Everyone had such a great time that I’ve already started planning our 2012 WDW vacation.  If you have any tips for travelling to WDW with children (especially of the toddler/preschool variety) please share them.