The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to be realistic about what your day will look like. If

It seems like a rite passage for American children to experience Disney World or Disneyland sometime before they re too cool for mice and princesses. But the question over when the time is right seems to be weighed heavily before making greece travel guide that reservation.
The parents in BabyCenter s Bargain Hunters group had some strong opinions. Many of them felt a child should be old enough to remember the trip. Others talked about a little one s endurance to make it through a walking-intensive day. You know what I think? They re all wrong. I have two children and each of them had their first Disney World experience at 13 months. Nine visits later, I m here to tell you that every age has pros and cons.
The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to be realistic about what your day will look like. If you take a baby or toddler who requires two naps a day and won t sleep a wink in the stroller, expect to spend a good amount of time at the hotel. If your preschooler is terrified of Santa at the mall, expect that she ll freak out when a life-sized mouse comes towards her.
One weird phase most preschoolers seem to go through is the fear of inside rides. As my 100+ nights in Disney World would suggest, I m a fan, but some of their rides are unnecessarily dark and loud. Before rationale kicks in at about age five, these wee ones can t distinguish between entertainment and emergency, no matter how much Mom and Dad coax. While it s a bummer that you have to omit quite a few attractions from your agenda, greece travel guide believe me when I tell you that the frustration in forcing the issue/child isn t worth it.
Another piece of advice is to hang onto that stroller as long as possible. Some people get all judgmental when it comes to the age of a child along for the ride. We re used to seeing babies, toddlers, and even young preschoolers in them, but what about a six year-old? Scoff all you want, but if your little Disney addict is willing to be pushed around you provide greece travel guide the family with 1) an ever present seat, 2) a spot to stow your stuff, 3) a place to catch a few zzzz s, and 4) the ability to get from place to place much faster. Even those older kids have the late afternoon meltdown greece travel guide where they turn into a ragdoll and scream, I. Can t. Walk. Anymore..ore ore I ve seen some adults do it too.
While it s certainly easier to travel to the happiest place on earth with kids who can carry their own items and endure greece travel guide a day of go-go-go, I wouldn t trade all of the memories we created when they were younger. I have a clear image of my older daughter sitting in two inches of water at the Animal Kingdom Lodge pool, splashing her little chubby arms wildly. I ll also never forget my younger daughter s joy over her first ice cream sundae at the Rose and Crown Pub in Epcot. For the trips they can t remember, we have tons of video they love to watch. If you re resisting the urge to call your travel agent because you don t think your child is old enough, I say life is too short. Go for it now!
The timing of this post is almost ironic. We ve been discussing this very issue recently. Our almost 5 yr old has been twice, once at age 3 and once at age 4. You are exactly correct about the stroller. We re expecting #2 in October and my husband wants to go back to WDW near the end of the year. I have to admit I m a bit nervous about the idea of taking a nursing newborn greece travel guide to the happiest place on earth .
I agree!! My kids will be 4, 2 and 12 months for our first Disney trip. I get people giving me grief because they wont remember , but I don t care because I will have a video camera ready to capture the excitement in their little greece travel guide eyes. Also I don t plan on just going once gees
We live in the suburbs greece travel guide of Orlando and we now have annual passes to WDW but I waited until he was old enough greece travel guide to walk because I thought hauling the stroller around MK was just too much. At 4 years old Jack is still too young to remember but that is why I always take pictures.
We just went in December greece travel guide with a just-turned 3 year old daughter and a 15 month old son. It was a learning curve for us our daughter threw a huge fit the first day because we pushed her too long at WDW. We also weren t prepared with a stroller for her. Needless to say, we bought one that night. The next day, we were better prepared to handle the crowds and waits. We went really early and got fast passes greece travel guide wherever we could and the lines were still short. We d eat lunch at the park and then go back to the hotel for naps and swimming. We would either stay in or go back to the same park later that day. It was a blast once we figured out our routine.
greece travel guide Oh, and I know our kids won t remember but I loved having a vacation for us to be able to tell them about later. Actually, whenever our three year old sees castles, she asks to go back to Cinderella s castle. She may not remember details, but the trip is a memory somewhere in there!
I think for most people the discussion about what age is best for a WDW trip is centered around the high cost of going. My hubby and I went for our honeymoon and spent $2,000 for one week. We didn t try very hard to reduce the cost at the time, but I m sure it would cost more for the 2 of us plus 2 kids. People debate on when the right time to go, because it s not something most people go to every year. We currently have a newborn and a 3.5 year old. Next year would be a good age for my oldest, but the younger one will be 1.5 and probably wouldn t enjoy it yet so we ll probably wait another year. We have to choose the time right, because we probably won t go back for another 4-5 years after that. I would love to go more often, but I can take my girls to quite a few other places for significantly less money.
The only time I ever went to Disney world, I was 4 years old. The only thinks I remember greece travel guide are being upset that my older sister got to go on splash mountain and I didn t, and riding the dumbo ride. I ve always been a little unhappy that I went so young that I dont really remember anything :/ if I have the money to take my child to Disney world one day, ill wait till they are a little older, like 6 or 7
My parents took us in the 80 s, all of us kids ranged in age from 13-4years old (my twin sister and I were the youngest two at 4 years) I know we were 4 and not 5 b/c we hadn t started kindergarden yet. Anyway, we both remember sporatic events from that trip. The Haunted Mansion, which we loved; Mr. Toad s Wild Ride, that we hated. greece travel guide Tom Sawyers treehouse the pirates of the Caribian ride. As well as Its A Small World and my twin grabbing a baby duck out of the pond when it got to close and asking if she could take it home lol. (the answer was a definate no ). I hope we re able to take our daughter greece travel guide one day, probably around the same age. I think it was the perfect age for everything for her to still believe everything she sees and make it more magical for her:)
I LOVE Disney and can t wait until my son is older. He s still a baby so I don t see the point, but once he s about 2 or 3 I hope to start going again. I don t care if he can t remember a specific trip, he ll still have fun at the time, doesn t that count for anything? He s also really tall/long so hopefully he continues to take after me and he ll be able to go on the better rides earlier. I want him to have the best childhood packed with the most fun I can get in there, age shouldn t hold us back from the fun. Heck, he ll be 10 months greece travel guide in September when we ll be in NYC and I m already planning to take him to Laudree because I want his first cookie to be the best he ll ever have. Why wait until he s 10 years for that?
First of all I just want to say, you re never too old for mice and princesses! That said my daughter is almost 2 and we still haven t been mainly greece travel guide because the ticket prices are ridiculously high $84 a person? JUST for admission? Then factor in food, travel expenses, hotel stays, drinks, souvenirs and you are damn near week or 2 s worth of pay. I just can t afford to take my daughter right now. I wish they still did that thing where you get in free on your birthday would save us some money. I think 2 is the perfect age to take your kid, unfortunately we just can t afford to go right now.
I agree with Milania s mommy when she said you re never too old for mice and princesses. I was lucky and grew up in So Cal. So I went to Disneyland a LOT as a kid and still love it. Unfortunately I now live in SD and it s not as easy to get there not to mention the cost. But I would love to be able to take my LO to Disneyland and Disney World once a year if I could afford it. I just need to win the Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes first.
I live in north Florida and we are actually taking our 9-month-old daughter to Epcot tomorrow. greece travel guide It s her first Disney trip. We don t expect her to get into Mickey or the princesses or anything we just thought greece travel guide it would be fun to see the Epcot Flower greece travel guide and Garden Festival and spend the day together. We ll do the Magic Kingdom when she s old enough to appreciate it, but tomorrow is more of a fun family day trip. One of the nice things about living in Florida is that Disney can be a day trip if it s a raging disaster, we ll just wait and go back when she s older.
We re from Canada, but my in-laws bought a house in Orlando so we were all able to get annual passes for Disney and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Our son was 13 months old the first time we took him to Disney and although he will never remember it, he loves seeing pictures of himself with all the characters. We went again when he was 16 months old, 2 years old, and nearly 3 and now he really remembers it. We ll probably go again in the fall (he will be nearly 4) and our newborn daughter will be about 6 months old. He is already excited to show his sister all of the rides and characters.
We will probably only go once, so I do want to time it well. It is really expensive, and it is far away from where we live. If you figure in airfare, going will easily be the most expensive