How to Enjoy Disney World with Your Children

Rhiannon: Visiting theme parks could be a lot of fun, especially for the little ones, with the right preparation. Juli has some tips on enjoying Walt Disney World with small kids. Juli: Even the smallest kids can have a great time at Disney World. I'm here with my friend Jessica Hartshorn from American Baby Magazine. You're having a good time? Jessica: I love it here. Juli: I'm having the best time too. And she's going to give us some tips on how you can enjoy Disney’s parks with even the smallest children. So your tip, one of your greatest tips is that you need to stay on a schedule. We're not just talking about your vacation schedule. You're talking about your kid’s schedule, right? Jessica: Right. Their regular routine. Because I love bringing little kids here. The magic is really real for them. And the castle is real, the characters are real, and they love it. But if you keep them on their regular eating and napping routine, you're going to see fewer meltdown and they're going to take it all and stride a lot better. So just stick to your home schedule in Disney World. Juli: No hotel you pick is really important. Jessica: Definitely, I have offered a bargain. And I've been able to price line myself really cheaply outside the resort. But when I'm here with my kids, I like to stay at the resort. I like to stay close to the parks within Disney World itself. It’s easy to hop on a bus or a monorail, even to walk back to your hotel. They get up early, little kids get up early naturally. So hit the park early before the crowd. Get a lot done before noon and then go back and take a nap or sometimes just have lunch in the hotel room. Because it’s kind of nice to take that break. They want to do small world, they want to do the carousel, they want to see the parade. Just stay on their, sort of see things in their point of view. Like look out through the eyes of a 4 year old. And you’ll get to do your thrill rides when they're teenagers. Juli: We're in main street, and there are million amazing shops, souvenir shops. You can get anything with Mickey and Minnie on it. But how you handle that, because they're going to want everything. Jessica: And it’s hard, I have my 4 year olds here and he's asking for a toy every 10 minutes. But I try to buy a toy on the first day so I can be like, no remember, I got you that one. And then we talk about how in the last day we’ll get the souvenir to bring home. A bigger souvenir. Otherwise you're going to be buying something every hour on the hour. Because they have a lot of stuff animals right on the kids level. Juli: Yes they do, they're right down so that they can pick them right up, aren't they? Jessica: Alright, you're ready to go into my favorite place? I love the candy store. There's so many lollipops. Princess lollipops, there's pirate Mickey. I'm going to make my way to the chocolate cakes. Juli: Besides all the rides and the attractions, the characters are everywhere. Pinocchio is over there and Pluto, and Chip and Dale and your daughters are in line to see them. So how do you control that, because they're going to want to see everybody to get an autograph? Jessica: Well, we try to find the favorites. When you walk into the park, I mean the Disney Parks, you can get a schedule where the character greetings are going to be that day. You don’t want to wait in line all day to get character autographs, so I try to just plan like a few for each day a favorite character. Juli: Okay, that’s a good idea. And playgrounds, that’s a great place to bring the kids. Even though you have playgrounds at home, these are different. They're Disney. Jessica: Every resort has a great playground. Even the animal kingdom’s playground is really fun and really unique to that resort. They're fun to just hop around those too. Juli: We have a lot of step to do, here comes the trolley. We have a lot of attractions to see, we're going to hop on the trolley right now. So if you would like a more great tips and advice about Disney, pick up a copy of American Baby Magazine. You're ready to go have some fun? Jessica: Yeah. Let’s go. Rhiannon: Staying on schedule can always be tough, but looks like fun. To get more inside info on Disney, including how to budget the trip, check out Parents TV on Parents.com. We’ll be right back.