Disney World with 3 and 5 yr old
 

My husband has a meeting in Orlando in October and we are going to use it as an opportunity to take our almost 3 year old and almost 5 year old girls to Disney World for the first time. We'll be staying at the Marriott Orlando World Center because that is where his conference is. We will be there 4 nights and we'll rent a car.

I have two main questions:

1) We're thinking of doing a character meal with the girls one day - either Cinderella's Royal Table or Chef Mickey. Both girls like the princesses and the Mickey characters. Which would you recommend? Is breakfast or lunch better? (I'm thinking dinner is too late.) Our youngest will actually turn 3 while we are there, so would one better for a "special" occasion?

2) We're planning to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom. Should we spend two days there or venture to one of the other parks for a day - MGM, Animal Kingdom? I'm thinking that two days of parks will be enough.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Cinderella's Royal Table only serves breakfast and lunch with the princesses. Dinner is with the Fairy Godmother only. It also books exactly 6 months to the day in advance. So, to get reservations there, you will want to figure what day you want to dine there and call 6 months in advance. There are other restaurants in Disney that also have Cinderella (and other princess) character meals that aren't in the castle.

1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian has dinner with Cinderella and Friends. The Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Epcot has 4-6 characters from the princesses for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

BTW, I got this info from the "Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World."

I don't know about the character meals but I can tell you that even though you're going in October, it can get pretty warm inland because of the lack of the ocean breeze.

What many people do is go to the Magic Kingdom in the morning and spend the early afternoon back at the pool. Then they return 3-4 o'clock.

That keeps you away at the hottest time and gives the kids a break so they can make it to the evening.

I'm not a Disney expert, but I am a mom who took her 5-year-old daughter to Disney World last spring. Our daughter made it clear - in no uncertain terms - that she was not interested in meeting ANY princesses. So we did Chef Mickey's for breakfast and had a great time.

It's a very celebratory atmosphere - the characters interact with every child, pose for pictures, sign autographs, etc. The breakfast buffet is quite extensive with a lot of "fun" foods that kids would enjoy. (I'm sure frosted cupcakes and/or brownies for breakfast would be a fun birthday treat for your little one!) But there's also plenty of fruit, cereal, eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, etc. There's also a good variety of the "main" Disney characters -- I think we met Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale. So while I don't know how it compares to Cinderella's table, Chef Mickey's was a lot of fun and I'd recommend it.

You could easily do two days at Magic Kingdom. If you choose to try another park, I'd recommend Animal Kingdom. They have a great safari ride, a fun raft/rapids ride, a great Lion King show and more attractions targeted toward the 3-5-year-old set than MGM or Epcot. We did MGM only because my beautiful tomboy daughter wanted to meet the Power Rangers - after that, there wasn't a lot for her there. Epcot seems more adult-focused, in my opinion.

One of the things my daughter really enjoyed was collecting character autographs. Disney - marketing experts that they are - sells autograph books (and pens!) right at the park. There's also a free guide that indicates where characters/autographs are available in each park. Each character has a distinctive autograph and my daughter had a great time getting signatures, posing for pictures, etc.

I hope this is helpful -- again, I'm no expert, but I do enjoy a nice, low-key (it is possible!) Disney experience. October should be a beautiful, relatively uncrowded time to be there. Have fun!

Breakfast is a little less money but I prefer lunch (or the latest Breakfast reservation available) because morning is really your best time for riding rides and seeing attractions. For example - Dumbo is the slowest loading ride in all of Disney World and it does not have fastpass. Lines get long for this ride, even in the off-season so you really need to ride it right at park opening. You don't want to be sitting in a restaurant at this time.

I would discuss this all in advance with the kids - esp the littler one.

We were at an (involuntary) character breakfast at the Hilton one morning and a couple of the smaller kids were terrified (screaming in fear). I don;t know if they didn;t like these specific characters (Mickey, Goofy etc) - or if they somehow thought the characters would be tiny - like on their videos - and not full size people.

If your daughters are into Princes stuff now, then they will love the breakfast or lunch. You can also meet them in Mickeys Toon town but the lines get long (45minutes), so get there early or really late. My daughter 3.5 LOVES Cinderella and they are always so wonderful to her when she goes to see them.

For their age group, Magic Kingdom is perfect. My daughter doesn't really care for the others too much. MGM is more adult oriented and she just wasn't excited about Animal Kingdom. We are going to Epcot on Saturday because they have the new Nemo ride. I will report back on how my 18m and 3.5yr like it there.

KFJ, we are going the last week of September and already have reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table. I would call RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

KFJ,

I would recommend Chef Mickey -- you'll see the main characters like Mickey, Goofy, Pluto, etc. As a sidenote, I usually find that those characters are harder to run into inside the parks than the princesses are, so it'll ensure that your kids get to meet Mickey ;)

Animal Kingdom really only needs a half-day. Your kids would probably love the little ersatz safari, the Tree of Life, the Bug's Life exhibit, etc. But it's a pretty small park.

Epcot and MGM are geared more towards older kids (the water show at MGM may especially be scary for a 5-year-old). Maybe on Day 2, you could go to Animal Kingdom in the a.m., take a break for lunch and/or naptime, and then go back to Magic Kingdom in the evening for the parade and fireworks.

If you want a resevervation for almost any princess character meal, especially Cinderella's Royal Table, you have to be one of the first few people on the phone on the first morning that your chosen day becomes available for reservations. It really is a little ridiculous. Sometimes, you can get lucky and call when someone has just cancelled. I would NOT do Cindy's for dinner. We went recently during a fairly slow time. In spite of prepaid reservations, we waited 45 minutes for our table. I have been there for breakfast and enjoyed it though. Chef Mickey's is good because it is a buffet. I don't love buffets, but they are good with young kids.

MK could take 2 days with young kids. At that age, my boys could spend hours in one little area. If they liked a ride, they wanted to ride it over and over. If you go to a second park, I would recommend Animal Kingdom. I think most of MGM is geared towards older kids, and EPCOT is just huge to get through in one day. Buy a copy of Disney with Kids. It really helped me with planning when my kids were little.

KFJ,

Here is my suggestion after going this weekend. I took the kids to both Epcot and Animal Kingdom. You would probably do best with spending a full day at Magic Kingdom and then getting a Park Hopper pass the second day and doing a partial day at Animal Kingdom (great shows and play areas) and the rest of the day at Epcot (6-7 good rides).

Animal Kingdom is best done in the morning when the animals are most active. They usually close at 5 or 6pm so you would want to hit that first then go to Epcot in the later afternoon or evening. Eventhough they said the Future World closes early, most of the rides that will be age appropriate, that I thought were part of Future World, stayed open until the park closed at 9pm.

I would not stick around for Illuminations at Epcot. It was a bunch of fire etc and it really just kinda scared the kids. They like the ole fashion fireworks at Magic Kingdom better.

Also, they had a Princess Breakfast and Lunch at Norway in Epcot. Not sure if that is one you had mentioned, but I saw it on the map and heard people talking about it.

Lastly, one thing to think about is in October they have Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party. It's usually less then a one days admission but is from like 7pm-midnight. Maybe an option to get a little extra time in at Magic Kingdom. I know when we have done the Xmas Parties we could hit a ton of rides within that short amount of time.

Good luck, have fun and just make sure you take a break during the day to get some rest at the hotel. It makes life better in the evening.

The movie "It's Tough to be a Bug," located under the Tree of Life in the Animal Kingdom, can be scary for little ones. There were several terrified toddlers in tears on our visit last year. Disney even posts signs that the attraction may be too intense for the little ones.

I would do what you would most enjoy and think your daughters might like. Truthfully they will probaly love any thing in the moment but not remember long term. You will need to take them back when they are older because they will swear they don't remember and need to go again! Enjoy the moment!