Mistakes:
- Booking an ultra-low airline flight with 2 kids under age 4.
I love saving money on my flights, but traveling with 2 very young kids can be a challenge whether you are driving or flying. We booked a Frontier flight that saved us a lot of money, but my son was very sick on the flight home. We were sitting in the back and that helped, but the flight attendants were not helpful at all. You always pay for what you get. It was the longest 2.5 hour flight. We were lucky a nice person in front of us assisted in distracting him. - Missing the Fast Pass Window.
We were lucky that our trip was booked in November, a slower time of the season, but we waited until July to book our trip. Therefore, many Fast Passes were already booked up. We still looked on the app and were able to get Peter Pan, but it would have been nice to get some of the other longer waits at Magic Kingdom. - 8 day trip was not enough
With 2 little kids ages 3 and 1, we did 5 park days. Even though we scattered a day off here and there, an extra 2 days would have been beneficial. They were pretty tired by the 4th and 5th days in parks. - Epcot on the last day of Food and Wine Festival
The park was overly crowded with many local people checking out the food and wine festival. We couldn’t even enjoy any of the countries due to the increased kiosks and lines. It was a bummer. - Selected Epcot over Hollywood Studios
Other than the Frozen ride, I wish we had selected Hollywood Studios (even with all the construction) over Epcot. The Food and Wine Festival caused the park to be crowded and for 2 young kids, there were not a lot of rides for us to do. Epcot needs some improvements and I think my kids would have enjoyed Disney Junior more at Hollywood Studios. - Dress warmer in November
We live in Ohio so it was exciting to get to wear shorts in November! However, we ended up being in Florida for a colder week that we thought it would be. I’m lucky our condo had a washer/dryer as I did not bring enough sweatshirts and blankets for the kids. We used towels instead. Once the sun went down it was cold in the parks. - Disney Springs is crowded too
With the new changes at Disney Springs, we should have realized it would be very crowded at night no matter what time of year. We did not make a reservation for a restaurant, we just assumed we could find a place to eat. That was the biggest mistake.
Positives
- When traveling with kids, bring other family to help
It was so nice bringing Grandma and Grandpa along with Aunt and Uncle on this trip. We were able to split up who sat with the kids while they were napping in strollers. It also didn’t feel overwhelming as parents. We were able to enjoy the parks too. Plus, we made great memories together. - Get to the parks 45 min to hour before they open
It was so much easier to park, get to the monorail and security before the gates open. We did not feel rushed! Even with all the security measures we knew we would be in the parks moments after they opened. - Ride Frozen first thing
If you don’t have a Fast Pass, head over to the Frozen ride right when gates open. We only waited 45 minutes and it was the best way to kick off our day at Epcot. The kids loved the ride and they were wide awake for it. - Magic Kingdom needs 2 maybe even 3 days
If you are traveling from afar, the Magic Kingdom is a special place. You can not do the park in just 1 day. We didn’t feel rushed when went back for a 2nd day, we knew what we had missed and what we wanted to hit again! - Character Visits are for old and young
Our family had never really done character visits in the parks before. With our large group and 2 young kids it was the highlight of our trip. We all had fun stopping and taking photos with our favorite Disney characters. And Photo Pass was perfect for this! Love all our memories.
(Thanks Julie!)
Thanks for sharing