Taking Kids To Disney World: Top Five Planning Tips

Taking kids to Disney World is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.  If you are a Disney fan you will love passing on those memories to your offspring.  However, if you are used to traveling solo, as a couple, or with friends, the experience is going to be very different.  You will need to prepare yourself for the drastic change and make some strategic decisions as you proceed to plan your trip.  Here are a few of the best tips for taking kids to Disney World.

Pick the Right Resort

The first thing you want to do when taking kids to Disney World is pick the right resort.  Consider square footage and how many guests the room will accommodate as well as location. location, location.  Budget is also an important factor, which is why the value resorts get more families.  Among those, the most popular resort is the Art of Animation resort which is mostly comprised of family suites.  If you are a smaller family, this won't be as important.  Port Orleans and Caribbean Beach have some very cute themed rooms to make extra magic for your kids.  As moderate resorts they have slightly better proximity to the parks as well.

Bring the Right Stroller

Even if your kid doesn't typically use a stroller, there is a lot of walking involved.  As long as they'll fit in one, I recommend having strollers for kids to avoid aches, pains and general tiredness.  You do not need a lot of storage though.  I recommend keeping important items in a backpack which can be worn onto attractions.  Also, know that if you buy merchandise in the parks, you can have it sent to your hotel or to the front gate, so you don't need to be lugging anything around.  It’s good to go light.  Plus, you don't have to be worried so much about potential theft.

Plan to Do Less

On the topic of transportation, I do recommend using complimentary transportation as much as possible, but Buses can be difficult since you have to collapse your strollers to ride.  They can also take a long while and you already are going to have restrictions on your time.  Be prepared to move a lot slower and consequently do a lot less when taking kids to Disney World.  If you take on too much, you will only worry and become impatient.  The important thing is to enjoy whatever Disney magic you can at any given moment.  Uber or Minnie Van are fantastic ways to save your family time as you go from place to place.

Schedule the Right Things

The more kid centered you can make the trip, the better it will ultimately be for everybody.  If you have very young children, you will be more limited in what attractions you can experience.  It's a good idea to plan these out ahead of time and have a short list of what you have to do as well as some additional things you hope to do if everything goes well.  Be sure to plan days that are not too long and make note of where the baby care centers are in each of the parks so you can conveniently utilize them without interrupting your day.  Take advantage of rider switch when you can for those rides you love, but can’t do with the kids.

Character Dining

This is a great tip.  You may see it as an unnecessary expense.  However, a good character dining experience has a lot going for it.  First of all, kids love them.  You will get lots of great pictures and memories from the experience.  Besides which, it will save you time.  You can have breakfast at Cinderella Castle, or Akershus and meet with princesses that would be very difficult and time consuming to track down otherwise.  That alone might be worth it to you.  Also, these meals are usually all you care to enjoy, so you can fill up and potentially skip the next meal, saving even more time.