Tackling Disney World with an almost 6-year-old
Our family recently had the chance to spend a few days at Disney World in Florida. It was magical – and hot and amazing and overwhelming and lots of fun. While everything is still fresh in my mind, and while it’s not exactly sleep related, here is what we learned about doing the Disney thing with our almost 6-year-old.
Use a Disney Planner. We worked with Stacey from Marvelous Mouse Travels and will recommend her to everyone. Using a Disney Travel Planner did not cost us anything extra, but Stacey took care of pretty much everything. Hotel, park, and dinner reservations were all set before we left. Now, in addition to having a park ticket, you also need a reservation for the day that you attend the park. All sit down restaurants in the park and on property now also require a reservation. We worked with Stacey to decide what we wanted to do, and she truly handled everything. She was also super quick and responsive to our last-minute questions while we were there.
Throw your schedule out the window. At home, we’re a pretty regimented family. Our meals/snacks/family walks/downtime typically occur at the same time each day. For this trip, we did not follow a schedule. We stayed up late to watch the fireworks. We got up early to head to the parks. We ate breakfast in bed while watching cartoons. It was exhausting and required some recovery time when we got home, but it was totally worth it.
Plan a pool or “off” day. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and had dinner at Disney Springs. We went to Magic Kingdom on Monday, Epcot on Tuesday, and had an “off” day on Wednesday. We ate breakfast at the hotel, spent the morning swimming, and had lunch back at Disney Springs. We spend the afternoon napping and watching cartoons before heading to Chef Mickey’s for dinner (note: the food wasn’t great, but the experience was totally worth it. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald were all there, and they each stopped by our table to say hello and take photos).
Get Genie+. For our family, this was worth the cost (especially at Magic Kingdom). The Disney App is not the most user-friendly app that I’ve encountered, but we were directed over and over to use the app. Hotel key? On the app. Ordering lunch at the park? It was faster to mobile order. Ride wait times? Character meet-and-greet times and locations? Dinner reservations? Lost and found items? Checking out at the Disney souvenir store? We were directed to the app. It’s not great if you’re trying to be off your phone, but almost everything was on the app (make sure you bring a portable phone charger, too!). And if you are like us and were going back and forth between getting the MagicMaker pass or skipping it – we decided to skip it. Most of the rides that we were interested in did not take photos mid-ride, and a lot of the photo spots in the park with a Disney Photographer had long lines. We were intentional about snapping pictures, and park employees (and other guests) were more than happy to help out.
Pack light! Since we were traveling with an almost 6-year-old, we didn’t take much to the park with us each day and we did not take a stroller. While it would have been nice to have had a place to store extra “stuff,” we decided to pack light and just go with it. I should note that we are a pretty active family, and our kiddo did pretty well walking around the parks. There were a few instances that we would carry him, but, in our case, not enough to justify a stroller. I had a small cross-body bag with essentials: cell phone, wallet, ChapStick, hand sanitizer, snacks, mints, masks, portable charger, autograph book (this was fun when meeting the characters!). That was pretty much it. Everything else we needed we got at the parks. Side note: I should have included deodorant and face wipes because it was hot! If we were taking a backpack and/or stroller, I would have included water bottles and extra snacks. We did pack Liquid IV packets to add to water since it was so hot, and we really wanted to stay hydrated. I recommend something similar!
Packing light also came in handy when we arrived early at the airport for our return home, and there was a flight to our destination in the process of boarding. We were able to speak with an amazing gate agent who got us on the flight (we had no checked backs, so it was even easier!). We ended up making it home hours earlier than we originally anticipated.
Overall, we had a really great time. We truly felt like our son was the perfect age to really enjoy Disney. We didn’t try to jam too much into each day (trust me – the days are long enough!) and honestly, we set low expectations for the trip. Our number one priority was to meet princesses, and mission accomplished. Anything else was a bonus. And yes, we did ride the carrousel three times.
Any questions about Disney – or traveling with a little one? I’m happy to answer what I can!