I grew up in Florida and visited Disney World frequently as an annual pass holder as a child and I lived in Orlando, Florida during my college years, where I also visited Disney World as an adult! Now, I am visiting Disney World with my daughter! Those who know me well, know that I actually am not a huge Disney fan, however I can’t deprive my daughter of having some of the most magical experiences of her life, so here I am visiting Disney World with a toddler!
If you’re planning a trip to Disney World, this blog post covers our visit to Magic Kingdom and EPCOT over a long weekend, where we stayed, food recommendations, plus VALUABLE tips so your family has a smoother experience at the happiest place on earth! Read this before you go, and you’ll be one step ahead!
Planning Your Day Using the My Disney Experience App
The first thing you will want to do when planning a Disney trip is download the My Disney Experience App. This app has all of the information you need about Disney World including interactive maps with wait times, mobile ordering for quick service, dining reservation information, showtimes, photo pass information, and more. I would not recommend just going to the parks and not having a plan or lightening lane passes booked. Our trip went really well because I did a lot of planning and research ahead of time.
You will use the app prior to your trip to purchase your tickets. I also purchased lightening lane passes for both parks so minimize our wait times for rides and allow us to ride more.
Lightning Lane passes are paid skip-the-line services at Disney Parks that let you bypass standby queues for shorter wait times. Passes are categorized into three main types, managed via the My Disney Experience. We purchased the Lightening Lane Multi Pass for both parks during our visit. This pass allows you to pre-book arrival windows for up to 3 participating attractions ahead of time in a single park. Once you redeem an attraction (or after 2 hours pass), you can book another, one at a time, for the rest of the day. You can purchase passes anywhere from 3-7 days before your park visit and schedule your 3 rides at that time. Bookings for advance passes typically open at 7:00 AM. Cost runs about $35 per person for Magic Kingdom and $21 per person for EPCOT. Prices vary by park and day. This is an additional cost apart from your ticket into the park and is not required. Definitely a luxury and worth every penny.
Packing a Stroller and/or Backpack
Highly recommend a stroller because your child is not going to be able to walk the park for hours and that would leave you with a back issue by the end of the day. Bring a backpack in addition to keep snacks, a change of clothes, diapers, bathing suit (for water areas in summer), snacks, water bottle etc. If you do not use a stroller, you will most likely want to pack a small backpack or fanny pack of some sort.
Which Parks Should You Do First?
Magic Kingdom & EPCOT — the best parks for toddlers (in my opinion)
Magic Kingdom is almost always the right starting point for a trip with toddlers. It has the most rides they can go on, the most character meets, and — most importantly — the castle. That first glimpse of Cinderella Castle is something children carry with them for years.
EPCOT is often written off as an adult park, however it offers so much for the little ones while you can walk the park with a cocktail in hand! Let’s be honest, we all need a drink to survive the parks with a toddler! If your daughter is princess obsessed you can meet a different princess in each country! You will also find Frozen Ever After in EPCOT, which is the star of the show for this age group. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is a fun ride through Gusteau’s kitchen from a mouse’s-eye view. Toddlers who love the film will enjoy it; those who haven’t seen it will still find it fun and immersive.
The World Showcase section of EPCOT is also worth an afternoon wander — there are character meets, plenty of open space, and good food options even if you’re not riding anything.
Understanding height requirements
Most of the rides at Disney World require riders to be 40–44 inches tall. Here’s roughly where most toddlers fall:
- 2 years old: approximately 34–36 inches
- 3 years old: approximately 36–38 inches
- 4 years old: approximately 38–40 inches
Highly suggest measuring your child before your visit. The 38-inch threshold is worth knowing about.
One important note: Disney measures children at the entrance to every individual ride that has a height requirement. There is no “measure once, wear a wristband” system. Your child will be measured every time, at every ride.
Transportation to Magic Kingdom and EPCOT
We stayed at Disney’s Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel during our visit to Orlando. Walt Disney World hotels offer complimentary bus transportation to the theme parks.
Navigating Disney World’s bus system can be a easier if you:
- Plan Ahead: Check the bus schedules in the My Disney Experience app to plan your travel times.
- Arrive Early: Buses can fill up quickly, especially during peak times. Arrive at the bus stop at least 30 minutes before you need to leave.
- Allow Extra Time: Buses run approximately every 20 minutes, but wait times can vary, so give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination.
We had our own vehicle, since we drove to Orlando so the bus transportation was not important to us, but if you don’t have a car this will be vital for you. We drove our car to the park, which if you do have a vehicle and plan to drive, when staying at a Disney Hotel you receive complimentary standard self-parking at all Walt Disney World theme parks. We personally like the convenience of having our own vehicle and not waiting in an additional line for a bus ride back to the hotel.
For those of you who haven’t been to Magic Kingdom before, it’s actually an island. That means that once you park your car and head to the entrance, you need to either catch a quick ferry or monorail into the park. If you’re using the Disney bus transportation from your hotel, they will drop you off at the ticket center and you will still need to catch the ferry or monorail to the park. In the morning, there are some serious lines already forming at those boarding locations. So you do need to expect about a 30 minute gap between parking your car and walking into the actual park. I highly recommend taking the ferry if the lines are long, as the ferry fits about 600 passengers and you will get to the park quicker vs riding the monorail.
EPCOT is much easier to get to as once you park your car you walk to the entrance and enter the park. If you’re staying at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel, a comfortable water taxi offers access from the Disney resorts’ dock, running approximately every 20 – 25 minutes to and from EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. You also can take a leisurely stroll along a series of walkways from the hotel that will also lead you to the entrance of these two theme parks.
Many people decide to stay off property in an Air BNB or non affiliated Disney hotel. These options are typically more affordable, however do not offer transportation to the parks or perks like 1 hour early entry.
If you plan to stay off site, I highly recommend the Gaylord Palms Resort, which we stayed at during a separate visit. This hotel is 10 minutes from the theme parks and absolutely stunning! I recommend booking a room with a view of the atrium. The restaurants are all amazing, especially Old Hickory Steakhouse, and the pool/kids waterpark is spectacular!
Our Two Days at Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom is SO magical for children. As soon as you step into the park you enter into a world of enchantment and pure excitement. Around every corner is something entertaining and beautiful in their little eyes. It really is amazing to see them so happy walking the park and in awe of everything they see.
We had purchased a Florida resident 3 day park pass and did Magic Kingdom two days. For us, it was perfect to see everything we wanted, including the parade at 9 PM, firework show at 10 PM and my daughter was able to experience becoming a princess at The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique one of the days we visited. If you have the opportunity to book this experience for your little princess, I highly recommend it!
Our First Visit to Magic Kingdom
We arrived at the park around 10 am. Our first lightening lane ride was scheduled between 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM, which gave us time to enter the park and walk down main street and take photos. Our daughter was able to take everything in without it being overcrowded since it was early in the morning. We took a few pictures near the castle and headed towards Fantasy Land, where our first few rides were scheduled. While there, we would ride other rides that didn’t have a long wait while waiting for our next scheduled lightening lane ride and after riding our first ride we immediately went into the Disney App and booked our next ride. We always had 3 rides booked, which allowed us to not wait for any ride more than 5 minutes.
We strategically scheduled our rides around having lunch and when our daughter was napping in her stroller. When I noticed she was tired, I took her into an area with Air Conditioning and strolled her around until she dosed off. I think her belly being full, taking a nap in the stroller, lots of snacks and minimal waiting with the lightening lane passes, prevented meltdowns thankfully. Once she woke up from her nap we continued on with her scheduled ride passes. She thrived going from ride to ride or meeting princesses or eating a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream in her stroller. She truly was living her best life! We ended our day first day in Magic Kingdom around 9:15 PM after the Disney Starlight Parade.
Our Second Visit to Magic Kingdom
Prior to visiting the park we went to the Four Season Hotel for the Good Morning Breakfast With Goofy & His Pals. We LOVED this character brunch experience and I highly recommend going over any other character brunch. The food is top notch and the experience was perfect for our toddler, who had not seen the characters up close yet. The staff was incredible and gentle when approaching the children. I love the fact that they include all the professional photos they take for free in the brunch price.
We arrived at Magic Kingdom around 12:30 PM this day since we planned to stay until 10 PM to see The Happily Ever After Fireworks Show. Our first scheduled lightening lane ride was from 1:30 PM- 2:30 PM. We approached the day with the same strategy as our first visit scheduling rides around meals and nap time in the stroller. Our main event on this day was our daughter becoming a princess at The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique around 5:00 PM.
We scheduled 2 rides after our experience and before the firework show. Around 9:15 PM we headed to Main Street to hold down a spot to watch the show! I will say we were all tired and debated the fireworks, but our daughter requested to see them and we are so glad we stayed because let me tell you…THEY WERE SPECTACULAR! Don’t miss it when you visit Magic Kingdom!
Our Day at EPCOT
EPCOT is probably my favorite park, not only for adults, but also for the children! There really is so much for everyone including amazing rides, shows, princess meet and greets, food, and cocktails! We visited in March during the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, which is absolutely beautiful! The entire park is covered in bright and colorful flowers and a special dining menu is offered in each country.
We begun our day at EPCOT around 10:00 AM and had a first lightening lane pass scheduled between 10:30-11:30 AM at Spaceship Earth. I highly suggest doing this ride first or last because it’s literally right when you enter/exit the park. Once you get into the main area of EPCOT and start making your way around the countries, it is a really far walk to head back out to the front of the park.
After we ticked our first ride off the list, we booked our next ride and headed towards Canada. We worked our way around the countries starting on the West side and ending in Mexico.
We leisurely strolled and grabbed drinks and snacks along our way, also stopping to meet all the princesses in each country. The highlight for our daughter was definitely Frozen Ever After! We ended our night watching the Luminous The Symphony of US Show at 9 PM!
Valuable Tips
Stroller Parking Rules – You cannot bring your stroller in lines or restaurants, unless you have a sleeping infant. Disney requires strollers to stay outside most attractions, and Cast Members frequently reorganize stroller zones, meaning your stroller can get moved while you’re on the ride, and may be in a different place from where you left it. It makes it easier if you have a tag of some sort to help find your stroller quickly. Also, stroller parking areas are uncovered so be mindful if there is rain in the forecast and cover your stroller with a stroller cover.
Plan around nap time – Leave the park during it, or use it for a stroller nap while you walk the quieter areas; a rested toddler has a significantly better experience.
Snacks – Bring them, buy them, don’t underestimate them; a tired hungry toddler at Disney World is a very specific kind of challenge.
Waiting in line with a child can be stressful – Waiting in line was already tough before I had kids, but trying it with someone who can’t rationalize time, has no concept of personal space, and wants to touch, lick, or climb on every surface is a whole different game. To help combat the wait times I utilize Lightning Lanes as much as possible. If the added cost of lightening lane passes is not something you can splurge on, I suggest bringing snacks in the line and maybe a max wait time of 30 minutes for younger children.
Character Meet and Greets can be scary – It turns out many toddlers freeze, cry, or hide when meeting characters and that’s completely normal. Just be mindful, that it may not go picture perfect. I pretty much hyped my daughter up before meeting all the princesses by telling her how lucky we were to meet them in person. Start with face characters like princesses first, since these characters can talk and do not have overly large facial features, they can be less intimidating. I wouldn’t suggest booking a character brunch as their first introduction as they are huge and scary. Let your child watch from a distance and warm up to the more unrealistic looking characters before getting close. Let them watch you huge them and shake their hand so they can see that they’re not going to hurt them.
Pay attention to height requirements – Not all rides are toddler-friendly, and some do have height requirements. Always check before promising anything. I used the My Disney APP before our trip to look up this information in addition to the map of the park in order to move more easily from ride to ride, especially hen booking lightening lane passes. We love Magic Kingdom so much because it has the most “no height requirement” rides. EPCOT also has a decent selection, but Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios have the least (2 each) actual rides that toddlers can ride (but lots of other fun things!). Knowing this ahead of time can help put your day in perspective and also choosing the best park for your family.
Have a travel friendly stroller that folds easily with one hand – You will be doing this ALOT during your visit to any Disney park!
Strollers do not need to be folded
- On the Monorail
- On the Ferry from the Ticket and Transportation Center to Magic Kingdom
- On the Skyliner (exception is double side-by-side strollers)
You will need to fold your stroller before entering:
- The Skyliner if you have a double stroller that is side by side.
- Disney Buses
- Disney Trams to the parking lot
- Most boats (depending on capacity, sometimes they will let you leave it open, but the child will need to come out)
Mobile ordering is a gamechanger – If you don’t have a plan of what they are going to eat BEFORE they get hangry, you’re setting yourself up for failure! For us, mobile ordering makes finding lunch a lot easier. I know where to find chicken tenders at every park, and we usually opt for that because it’s a trustworthy choice for my kids. Once you do the mobile order, you will get a notification when your order is ready, and you proceed to pick up. The last thing you want to do is wait in another line to eat!
I hope this helps you plan an incredible trip to Disney World! I really enjoyed this trip with our daughter so much and would encourage you to visit with your little one! The memories will be with us forever. We are hoping to visit again one day and visit a different theme park for a new experience at the happiest place on earth.
Have you been Disney World or any Disney theme parks around the world? Let me know your tips for my next trip!
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