When we told people we were taking Little Fox on a 9-hour flight to Orlando, spending two weeks at Walt Disney World. People looked at us like we were crazy. Maybe we were? But we were going to give it a go anyway!
Having already accepted that he may not remember the experience when he’s older, we booked it. We needed a holiday and couldn’t think of anything better than sharing the magic of Walt Disney World with our boy. He might not remember it, but we will.
So, what was it like?
Did we lose our minds or did we have the most magical time of our lives? I won’t lie to you, it was a mixture of the two. It certainly wasn’t easy or relaxing, but holidays with children aren’t.
Over the course of the first week, there were many tantrums and a lot of tears. Thankfully the second week was far more relaxed. He adjusted to the temperature and being out for a lot of the day. We also learnt to relax.
It didn’t take us long to realise during that first week that he craved freedom. He didn’t want his reins, he wouldn’t go in the pushchair. But he also wasn’t keen on holding hands. Not great. We relaxed more in the second week and allowed him to wander alongside us whilst inside the parks and it wasn’t so bad.
The hotel we chose wasn’t anything fancy and it wasn’t a Walt Disney World Park hotel. We stayed at the Park Inn by Raddison which was nearby. Maybe this is something we would do differently next time. The hotel did host school educational trips and days out within Orlando, it also housed a conference centre, Which meant a lot of groups were staying there. Little Fox was happy at the hotel and slept through each night… I say each night. For the first 3 nights, he woke at 2-3am thinking it was time to get up. But aside from that, he slept, it was great!
The temperature in Orlando was around 34 degrees. It was hot. So consider the time of year you go, the sun often causes me to break out in acne which isn’t my idea of fun. Nobody wants acne from the sun or sunburn to ruin the fun. But when you’re 2 it’s worse, it’s humid and sweaty and somebody is always slathering sun cream on your face. Little Fox wouldn’t entertain wearing a hat but he managed well in the heat. We bought a water spraying fan to carry around and he loved it.
Although theme parks are usually aimed at older children and adults the Disney parks have plenty for a 2-year-old to do. Especially in The Magic Kingdom. This left us feeling confident that Disney wasn’t a total waste on a two-year-old. He had a great time!
Many of the rides were for all ages and great fun. We didn’t experience the bigger rides ourselves as we were always with him but this didn’t bother us. We had plenty of fun as a family, from Toy Story rides to flying carpets with Alladin and going on a real life safari we weren’t short of things to do. In the two weeks we were there we didn’t fit it all in!
Little Foxes favourite place of all was the water park. Blizzard Beach has a great toddler area, it’s shallow enough that little ones can crawl in the water with plenty of slides just for them. We stopped off here most days as it was a great way for him to unwind. We floated around a lazy river in doughnuts and had a blast!
On the whole, we had a fantastic time whilst taking our toddler to Walt Disney World. I don’t think the experience was wasted on him at all, he’s still talking about it 3 weeks on. It wasn’t always easy, he threw some epic tantrums and I almost lost my sanity once or twice but by the second week, we were having too much fun as a family to care!
Have you ever taken your little ones on a holiday of a lifetime, even if they may not remember it later?
