Orlando parks with 2 & 5.5 year old? Too young? Travelling from UK.

[Sunnyhunny123]

Hi everyone!

My other half and I are big Disney and Universal fans but we've only managed to do DLP so far, with our son last year. Sadly, COVID cancelled our 2020 trip and we have since become parents and settled down and not managed to plan and go for various reasons.

We are debating going in 2028, where our sons will be 5 (nearly 6) and 2ish. Is this too young for them?

I see a lot of posts where people say age doesn't matter but then speaking to family, a lot of them say "they won't remember or be able to ride anything".

We'd be flying from UK, and as we all know, it is not a cheap holiday, so just wondering if my anxiety is correct and we should wait or do we enjoy the little years and go?

Also any money-saving Orlando hacks would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

The 2 year old won't remember it and will probably be unsettled by the flights (in both directions). You also need to take into account you wont be able to go on the rides as a family as one person will have to look after the toddler who will be too small or too young for some things. Personally I'd wait until the youngest would appreciate the trip as its a lot of money and a long way to go.

Too young.

I love Disney and I love travel.

This wouldn't be for me.

I'd go when they are 9 and 6 or 10 and 7

We will go when our youngest is 6 or 7

If it’s a once in a lifetime holiday, then I’d definitely wait a few years so you all have a much better experience. There’s a lot of waiting in queues, walking, late nights, sensory stimulation etc… You’d find it much easier and more enjoyable when your dc are well out of both nappies and naps!

Far too young, go back when they both meet the height limit.

Hmm I’m undecided. With an under 5 I would say you need to stay onsite or hire a car as you can’t lug a car seat around all day and relying on Ubers to have car seats will be tricky.

I took DS to Antigua when he was 2 and he was fine with the flight and jet lag. He will be free at WDW which helps and unless you have a particularly tall and daredevil 5yo I imagine you would be doing the same rides anyway. Does the 2yo nap in the pushchair?

Mine loved it at 5.

Too young. You won’t be able to go on ANY rides together as two adults. At two you’ll likely still be dealing with nappies, buggies, nap times. Far too young IMO.

We’ve took mine every other year from being a year old. We don’t do Disney anymore because he’s 14 now and it doesn’t float our boat and so we explore more of the state and do Universal exclusively.

Does he remember the first few times he went?! No! He remembers from about 5! But did he love it at 1 & 3?! He absolutely did! You’ll remember though and have fabulous memories! If we only started doing lovely things with our kids when they have the ability to remember them, it’d be pretty boring for the first 5 or so years.

Having said all that, if it’s going to be ‘once in a childhood’ type holiday, then I would wait til they’re older!

How many times can you afford to go? We go every 2 years or so. We have taken both our DC at 2 and 5. You have to tag-team parent if you want to go on rides, and and spend a lot of time going round the carousel type rides repeatedly with 2 year old. 2 year olds don't cost on tickets I don't think? so it can be a good time to go as it'll be cheaper compared to when they're older.

But if you can only go once or twice then I'd save it until they're both old (and tall enough!) to go on a fair amount of rides.

Only you can know, you know what the parks are like so should be able to make the judgement. I had absolutely no desire to go long haul with babies/toddlers, mine were 9 and 6 when we first decided to take them to Florida. For me the faff of flying, naps, nappy changes, over tired toddlers in 30C held no appeal whatsoever.

But plenty do it at a pace they’re comfortable with and enjoy; for us, it’s an expensive holiday and not good value at those ages.

If you are going to go many times then I would take them as it's for you as much as for them and you will make memories, but if it's a one off trip of a lifetime then they are both too young really. The first park we did was Hong Kong and the kids were 4 (on the verge of turning 5) and 7. We had loads of fun, the youngest was big enough for everything apart from the grizzly runaway mine cars but he doesn't remember being there now. We have since been to other Disney parks but not yet Florida and they have stronger memories of those visits. A few people commented about one person having to wait with the baby, but ours are now 11 and 14 and the youngest won't ride anything too exhilarating, so in Paris that means no crush, no tower of terror, no space mountain, no avengers assemble, no Indiana Jones, no RC racer. We do some rides together, but we still end up pairing up and doing different things at various stages or if the queue is short sometimes he waits in the queue with us and gets taken to the exit by the staff members when we board. Just saying that riding separately doesn't necessarily go away just because they get tall enough to go on all rides.

We went to Disneyworld with our dcs aged 2 and 6 and it was great. The 6yo loved it and the 2yo was happy to tag along (though she napped through the parade!) We aren't able to do very long days with them (i.e. until 11pm) as we are all too exhausted by 8, I've seen some hardcore families still going strong with toddlers sleeping in buggies though!
The flights haven't been a problem, but we fly to FL once a year to visit family anyway, so they have been doing long haul since they were babies and are used to it.

We could take the 2yo on quite a lot of rides, and I'm not a big fan of fast rides anyway so I'm happy to sit them out and let DH take the older one.
We have a disability in the family which meant that queuing wasn't an issue - if we didn't qualify I'd have paid for fast passes as long queues would have been stressful with young dcs.

The first time we visited the Disney Orlando parks our kids were 7 and 4 and it worked really well. They don't remember much about it now (it was 10 years ago), but they loved it at the time and we had a really good holiday. However, if you want your kids to remember it and it will be a once only holiday then I'd definitely wait until they're older.

hoping to book Disney & Univesal Florida for after my sons exams next year. It will be just me and him. Can anyone advise best flights/hotels and tickets to buy and how much am I looking at spending for the 2 of us.

@DaisyTutu80if you join some of the Disney/florida facebook groups e.g Disney world Florida for Brits or Orlando tips for Brits then you’ll get lots of replies and advice. There’s also a Mumsnet Disney board but it’s pretty quiet.

We first went when my youngest was 11. I would not have wanted to go with a younger child. It’s exhausting for everyone, although enjoyable. My DS still remembers going but doesn’t remember as much as the two older DC.

Would you be going again when older? Our first family trip we had a 15 month old, next time it was a 4 month old and nearly 4 year old. Our third trip they were 7& nearly 4. The easiest trip was with the baby and 4 year old. The funnest was the latest!

In a similar vein we love Japan but currently have two children and missed going in 2021 because of Covid. We’re now waiting until the youngest is five or six (oldest will be 8/9) before we go back as the flight is sooooooo long.

I didn’t do Orlando Disney for the first time until I was 11. I think at their ages now maybe stick with Paris and give it a few more years before heading to the US? My brother was four when we went to Paris and remembers bits of that trip.

We did this and it was great but we stayed with family there so I think that made a difference. The one thing that is an advantage is that the two year old would get free Disney park access which is a massive saving but as others have said, they won’t really remember it.

We took our children at a similar age and he had an older child. For the two younger ones they did enjoy the parks but they don’t remember it now for sure.

some advantages of being younger - my elder child was 5 and we rented a big American double buggy he fitted in so neither child had to walk anywhere and the 5 year even had naps in it.

we didn’t try to do 12 hour days at the parks and in the end changed up to mess around in the pool in the morning, nap for the toddler and head to the parks mid afternoon and stay till close. People leave at this stage so queues goes down and it’s not as hot. Rope drop crowds were just awful.

Too young I think. They're won't be able to go on loads of rides. We did.it a few years ago with preteens and it was amazing. Everyone could go on more or less everything and they were more able for the queues and heat.