Magic and Memories: DVC With Kids

I'll kick things off with something that I just ran into yesterday, so that no one else makes the same silly mistake.

We all know that Crescent Lake doesn't have the best quick service options, so when my son wanted chicken and French fries while we were at BWV, BoardWalk Deli, Beach Club Marketplace, and the Market at Ale & Compass weren't going to cut it since they all have chips in place of fries. I walked all the way to EPCOT to Connections (mobile ordering en route) before I realized: Hurricane Hannah's could have been a much closer option! I completely forgot they have chicken and French fries right there.

Come to think of it, Primo Piatto would have been a good option too if the Skyliner hadn't been down at the time.

I recommend to put an AirTag on a stroller. Cast Members often need to move them, even if you are parked in designated stroller parking, They will close up gaps as strollers leave parking.

That's a good one! They definitely get shuffled around quite a bit.

We order grocery delivery with all the snacks, lunch items, drinks, etc. that they will eat and pack them in a small cooler bag everyday. Our kids can be picky eaters, or want to live on French Fries (got the live on French Fries from me), so packing other items they will eat ensures some nourishment and saves on money/food waste. We save a lot on drinks by packing them for all of us. Also, a stroller that has good storage is really helpful! We have a side by side double stroller that is light weight, has ample storage, and fits in all doorways. It is a glorious thing! We don’t have to fold in to get on the Skyliner or Monorail and it is slick man! We have a 5, 10, 12 and 24 year old. Sometimes our 10 year old has still rested in the stroller from around 6 to 9 years old. I think our 24 year old wishes he could still roll too! The double stroller has came in handy even after the years we thought we might only need a single. Honestly, I don’t know what I will do without the stroller when we “don’t need it”! I am building a case with my wife to still bring it. Great for storage especially since Disney doesn’t deliver to rooms currently. The stroller is a part of our family. We named it Beauty.

We are about to do our first trip without a stroller. We attempted to go without one last time and ended up renting a nice one.

I am sincerely a little nervous about our next visit without one. I wish you luck! Having the option to rent if needed is great. What company did you use?

The air tag is great. My wife likes to decorate our stroller and she puts glow sticks on it at night so it stands out more.

Also, those staying at crescent resorts have the benefit of if your kids will only sleep in the stroller you can at least get back to your room from 3 parks. When we stayed at GFV it was harder to pull that off.

We also have started to let our girls lead the way and get us to whatever attraction they want to do from our starting point. They enjoy it and it is fun watching them navigate around the parks.

From VGF, at least you can take the monorail back from MK and Epcot without collapsing the stroller, so your kids can stay asleep. Actually, the walking path is a good way to go too if you're returning from MK with a stroller.

This is true. However, BWV or BCV you can walk back from Epcot or DHS, and you can get back from MK via the monorail thru Epcot if you have park hoppers. We have done that multiple times with the girls and have enjoyed an adult beverage in Epcot as well.

Yes, I've gone from MK via monorail and cut through EPCOT to get to BWV back when my son was still in an infant car seat that attached to our stroller--it was worth it to avoid disassembling that and carrying the carseat to board the bus on my own!

When we found it our girls would only fall asleep and stay asleep in the stroller, there was no reason to take the bus when we could take the leisurely stroll from MK to Epcot to BWV via the monorail so our girls could sleep. There is no point to risk waking them up to ride the bus back.

This Joovy double stroller has been the absolute best for our family. There’s a comfy front facing seat for the child sitting in the rear which can be removed….in its place is a bench seat and the older child can either sit facing backwards or stand up facing forward. It makes it really easy for the older kid to hop in and out when legs just want a short rest. We’ve already gotten over 3 years out of it and plan to use it when we get APs again at the end of this year.

We rented a stroller through ScooterBug. They were able to drop it off at bell services.

In addition to this, AirTag on your child too. They make wristbands that they can wear that holds the AirTag. I know ideally you have your eyes on your little ones 100% of the time, but its crowded and sometimes you can lose track of them. AirTags aren't technically supposed to be used to keep track of people, but it works just fine on a person.

Some fun things to do with kids, especially when its hot out and you need a place to cool off:

1. Epcot - Spaceship Earth has a "World of Tomorrow" area with games

2. Epcot - Mission Space: Advanced Training Lab is an indoor playground

3. Epcot - Aquarium (Seas with Nemo & Friends) is a great area to take little ones and let them checkout all of the sea life

4. Magic Kingdom - Dumbo has a playground (not always open) in the middle of the queue

Stroller Tips:

1. If you want to buy a stroller, I recommend https://zoebaby.com/ which has some of the lightest weight strollers and some unique configurations for more than 1 kid

2. Disney buses require you to fold all strollers

3. The skyliner requires you to fold double-wide strollers

4. The Monorail, Ferry Boat, Friendship Boats and many of the other large Magic Kingdom boats to resorts do not usually require folding strollers (sometimes if they have multiple ECVs they may ask you to fold the stroller to make more room)

If you're rope dropping we like to buy the little travel sized boxes of cereal and bring them with us to the parks so we can skip breakfast in the room and the kids can munch on cereal while we wait for rope drop.

DVC Tip - if you haven't tried staying in one and have the points for it, a 1-bedroom can be a game changer with kids. If your kids go to sleep early, it can be great to have a separate room to go in and hangout while they are sleeping. The Washer/dryer is the thing we love most about the 1-bedrooms but the full kitchen can also be great to eat breakfast in the morning or late night snacks, reheating leftovers, etc!

Can anyone recommend a good travel stroller that has a lay flat/bassinet option? We’d love to rent it if possible, so we don’t have to fly with 2 strollers our next trip.

Taking our first trip as parents of 2 this fall! We’ve taken many trips with our now 5-year-old, but I’m a little nervous moving to 2!

The Nuna TRVL LX can lay flat, and you can snap up the calf support piece to make it like a bassinet. I have the older Nuna TRVL, but it has the same one-hand folding mechanism, and it works really well for collapsing the stroller quickly. I think I've seen the Nuna TRVL LX on Babyquip before for rental. There's also a double version of the stroller.

Great tips! I always forget about this Mission Space playground.

To add to your one bedroom comment, if you're more of a point miser like me, I sometimes like doing split stays with a deluxe studio and then a one bedroom at the end to enjoy the amenities and do laundry before going home.

Those 1 bedroom’s are so helpful with little kids. They go to sleep right after the fireworks in the living area and my wife and I can relax in the master for a bit before going to bed. We also always do laundry before going home so we don’t have to do it when getting home. Tip about almost every dryer we have ever had, the high heat is more like low heat, so it may take awhile to dry clothes.

You forgot the play area in the Imagination Pavilion. My girls will spend hours in there. They also love the aquarium. I usually have to offer them ice cream to get them to leave to go back to the room.

LOL I even thought about the Imagination Pavilion playground while I was writing it up but completely forgot to type it out. Good addition for sure!

We tend to do 1 load of clothes each day we're in the 1-bedroom. Throw the dirty clothes in the wash after the kids goto sleep and then throw them in the dryer the next morning and fold everything the next day after the kids goto bed. It isn't a lot of clothes since its just 1-day and they dry a little quicker that way. For checkout day we might stay up until the wash finishes and then throw them in the dryer so we can fold and pack them up before we leave. Coming home with a suitcase full of clean clothes is so nice instead of having to do a week's worth of laundry and then fold everything :)

Another potentially good option with kids for parks like Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom is the shows. Not always the best for getting the wiggles out, but maybe good to get somewhere indoors / shaded and sit down for a bit. Unfortunately right now, there are no playground areas for HS or AK as far as I know.

Hollywood Studios has Little Mermaid (indoor A/C), Frozen Sing-along (indoor A/C), Villains Ever After (indoor A/C), and if your kids like explosions the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular (outdoors, shaded - maybe too intense for young children).

Animal Kingdom lost the big Dino Yard playground, hopefully it is replaced with something new. But there are also some good shows there, Lion King (indoors A/C), Finding Nemo (indoors, A/C), Zootopia (indoors, A/C - maybe too intense for very young children though), Feathered Friends in Flight (outdoors, somewhat shaded). Animal Kingdom does have Rafiki's Planet Watch (soon to be Bluey themed) which is a great area for kids to run around as well as the Animal Trails.

I was just thinking: HS will soon have a playground area at the new Magic of Disney Animation. Disney Parks Blog mentioned a Drawn to Wonderland playground. I love that it will be indoors too, so there's a good air-conditioned space to get wiggles out.

1 Bedrooms have been a life saver for having the laundry washer and dryer in the room. As a family of 5, I am taking advantage of using as many 1 bedrooms as I can until my little one phases out and we cant get it anymore.

Thankfully we are just family of 4. I remember when my parents bought back in 2005 we got a studio for the first few years then tried a 1BR and then we have never gone back. We stop on the way from the airport with a limo service now since magical express is gone and get waters and other things for the room that the girls will eat. The full kitchen and washer/dryer combo can’t be beat. It also helps with not having to pack as much considering we tend to go over the holidays so you have to layer or could hot and cold spells during a week trip.

These are all great shares! My family loves visiting Moana’s Journey of Water in EPCOT. Our 5 year old could explore for hours. It’s a good way to cool down during the day and have great ambience at night. Really fun for the family! Also, Tri-Circle -D Ranch at Fort Wilderness is worth a visit with kids. You can check out Disney history on display, see the horses used in parades and on Main Street, as well as paid activities such as horse riding for kids. We have done this on Split Stay transfer days, resort/exploring days, etc. and really enjoyed it!

Ryan, we were able to roll our double wide Joovy stroller onto the Skyliner without folding it, which was wonderful! It’s a double that fits in doorways, and we had 5 people total, so it was a smooth fit. Do you think this was allowed per the situation or do you think we just got lucky? I hope not lucky because it was great!

We have always rented a stroller and have used three separate companies. Our experience with both Orlando Stoller Rentals and Kingdom Strollers were fine. Nothing great nothing terrible, but our last trip we used Polar Strollers and they were AWESOME the stroller was the cleanest of any we'd ever had and the staff was super friendly and accommodating. On both pick-up and drop-off day they just texted asking if we would prefer another time...probably to their benefit because they were already out and has space but it worked out great for us.

I am not aware of a bassinet style lay flat stroller for rent, but this one Baby Jogger City Mini GT Series Double Stroller Rental which is available from all the big companies is perfect for smaller kids. They recline to almost flat, and the lower part behind their legs props up to keep their legs flat too. IMO this is the easiest rental double stroller to fold which is nice because you will 100% have to fold it on busses and the Skyliner.

Not that you care right now, but when you're kids are bigger we have had the best luck with this one BOB Revolution Flex Double Stroller Rental. Unfortunately, our kids have now outgrown it, but we still got one for this trip to ease them into not having one...and for me I'm not ready to accept the fact I will have to carry a backpack all day.

Favorite resort pools for kids? My kids are 5 and 3 and we’re looking forward to a resort only stay for our “Welcome Home” on a new contract! Was leaning towards AKL but there’s ample availability and the opportunistic part of me thinks it’s a waste of the benefit 😅

My boys (6 & 3) both loved the RIV pool. My 6 year old went on the water slide over and over and the 3 year old loved the splash pad area. We are June vacationers so pools tend to get crowded in the summer months and we never felt like this pool was overcrowded even then.

As far as welcome home visit goes don't waste that perk! AKL is awesome but routinely available. Find something your family really wants to do that can be more difficult to grab and use it that way I would recommend.

Kidani has a really nice water play area with different sections for different age groups! Also beyond the pool, the savannas, playground, and community hall at AKV are great for little kids. We were just at Kidani, and my 3-year-old didn't want to leave! We took the walking path to Jambo House for the playground, and it was nice and easy.

Kidani has a great pool and it's isolated and feels like it's own place unlike many of the pools at the resorts.

My favorite pools are the VDH Pool and the CCV Pool at Wilderness Lodge and both are very kid friendly, imo, with the VDH probably being a bit more because it has the spashpad/monorail slide that my kids loved.

Any time we aren’t doing parks, we do Animal kingdom lodge. The kids love ALL the things there and we love the food. Part of me hesitates to book AKL because of the lack of alternative transportation to a park, so going when we have no park plans makes the most sense for our family.

The all-bus situation with a stroller in tow kind of deters me from booking AKV more often too, but seeing how happy my son was there may make me change my mind in the future.

I'm not sure - we have a Zoe Double Stroller and we were told every time we had to fold it up to get on the skyliner. It is not a very wide double either at 30" wide. The Joovy strollers I looked at on their website are around the same range (29.7" - 30.3").

It was definitely something that was annoying because it looks like the stroller could fit, but I assumed they just tell everyone with a wider stroller to fold it up.

I have AKL booking for a resort only stay im really hoping it is enjoyable for the kids !!!. With the cost of tickets our family of 4 has decided to do resort only stays every other year and it has been great !