1st time disney w/ 2 yo girl!

[Stefanie Solomon]

Hey everyone! So excited for my daughters first disney trip. Was wondering if anyone has tips on which fast passes to get for MK, hollywood studios and Epcot. We're going to do a full day in MK and then half day in Epcot and later in the day at HS. Besides the fast passes, which rides/attractions are essential for a 2yo? She'll be exactly 2 when we go.

Lastly if anyone has tips on planning out our MK day I would appreciate it!

 

[Tink_83]

Meet and greet with favorite characters, Winnie the Pooh in MK, FEA in Epcot, Nemo ride in Epcot (DD loves that one) - at that age I’d use a lot of FP on meet and greets (much to my family’s dismay, I was told by my mom that I had too many princesses to meet)... it also depends on your daughter, what are her favorite Disney characters right now? How tall is she? All of those are factors as well, but I will say find a way for her to meet Mickey, my favorite photo is the smile and hug she gave to Mickey. I didn’t even know she likes Mickey that much!

Oh and it’s odd but even though she liked princesses she seemed to do better with the characters in full costumes not the face ones... she would get shy with the face characters.

 

[Suejacken]

Hey everyone! So excited for my daughters first disney trip. Was wondering if anyone has tips on which fast passes to get for MK, hollywood studios and Epcot. We're going to do a full day in MK and then half day in Epcot and later in the day at HS. Besides the fast passes, which rides/attractions are essential for a 2yo? She'll be exactly 2 when we go.

Lastly if anyone has tips on planning out our MK day I would appreciate it!

I will have my great nephew who will be almost 2. I plan on doing a lot of character meet and greets during the extra magic hour the first day and fast passing rides

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

If the adults want to ride the bigger rides, get FP for those and use Rider swap as they will tend to have much longer lines than the kiddie rides.

Every kid is different, but my son at 2 especially loved Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Buzz, and the Speedway at MK. He fell asleep on iasm and the Carousel. The thunderstorm in Pooh startled him. At Epcot, he loved the Mexico ride, FEA (though he slept through the first half), Spaceship Earth, and Nemo. We thought he'd love Turtle Talk since he loves turtles, but he just couldn't sit still through it. He did enjoy the seas pavilion though. There is also a great interactive play area after the Journey into Imagination ride that he had a blast playing in. At HS, he enjoyed TSMM (we went before TSL opened), plus the Frozen show, the Disney Jr show, LM show, and the various character meets. We had a lot of character meals so didn't schedule any character meets but would stop if we saw a short line.

Have fun and try not to stress the planning. 2 is such a magical age to go.

 

[DanaCeppy]

My daughter is 3 and she is still talking about how that thunderstorm in Winnie the Pooh scared her almost a year ago!
Other then that she did good on all the rides but really wasn’t a fan of meeting characters. She would clutch onto me and hide except with Ariel. When we took her at 1 year old she did great with them. It’s funny how they change within a year. I’m excited to see what she does next month when we go.

 

[sponica]

My 20 month old hated basically every ride we went on in MK, so i stopped pushing rides. ETA: Almost a year later she says "i not like dumbo when i was a baby", she's right, she HATED dumbo the most. Like tried to claw her way out of the ride. Most terrifying ride on Dumbo I've ever had.

She did like the country bears, and tolerated jungle cruise. Anything dark or inside she didn't like. The only exceptions were the living seas with nemo and frozen ever after over in epcot.

 

[YesterDark]

For my daughter who was 2.5 her first time:

Enchanted Tale with Belle
Disney Princess Meet and Greet
Journey of the Little Mermaid

..had the most impact. She loved all the rides she was tall enough to go on, but those were the key ones.

 

[TreeFalls]

I agree about the characters being a good use of FPs... But for rides:

Disney Jr Dance Party at HS.

Peter Pan, Winnie The Pooh at MK

Frozen Ever After at Epcot, also Finding Nemo

 

[SleeplessInTO]

We have only been once so far for a 7 day trip, and probably only experienced 20% or less of the parks, but my 2 year old's favourite things were:
- Festival of the Lion King (saw it 5 times in a 7 day trip) - not sure if you already have AK planned out or if you're planning to skip it altogether, but this was our favourite park by far
- Beauty and the Beast (show at Hollywood Studios - surprisingly long attention span!)
- Frozen Sing-along (she's never seen the movie but loved it anyway)
- DinoLand dance party (doesn't require FP+), AK
- Parade at MK ~2PM (doesn't require FP+)
- Character dining (1900 Park Fare dinner, CRT, Tusker House) - I told her she was a princess for that meal (she wore a princess dress bought beforehand from the Disney Store at home) and that the other princesses/characters were coming by to say "hi" to her. She felt very special and was willing to sit still and wait for them to come to her. Best part for me is that the buffet is free for the 2 year old eating off my plate!

We used at least one FP+ every day on meeting Minnie/Mickey and lined up for the other characters that don't offer FP+. The pink dress Minnie and wizard Mickey at HS were big hits.

We did a few rides but none of those made much of an impression on her and she doesn't ask to go on them again the way she wants to see "baby lion show", "belle show", and "elsa show".

I think overall as long as you are flexible and don't mind adjusting your plans once you get there just in case Plan A doesn't go according to schedule, you and your daughter will both have an amazing time. Enjoy!!!

 

[ChaseTheWind]

So glad you asked this question! My twins will be 2 when we go, and I’m excited to see what they like!

 

[Disneyfan754321]

My son loved disney junior area at hs. He got so shy meeting princess Sophia. Loved loved loved toy story meet and greets

 

[stephnerninnie1984]

We went to Disney in November 2017 with my daughter who was 2 (and some change) . Some of her favorites

MK: small world, Pooh, little mermaid, and enchanted tales with belle. You will definitely want to FP+ belle and Pooh. The other 2 rides are typically shorter waits. She did ok with the characters and warmed up to them as the trip went on. By day 3 of our trip, she was finally giving them hugs! But the first 2 days she was very hesitant about them. So if you’re only going 2 days, you may not want to waste a FP+ reservation on characters. For the grownups, you’ll want to do one of the 3 3 mountains as your FP+ (splash, space, thunder). You can do a rider swap so everyone gets a chance to ride.

Epcot: Frozen ride, Nemo ride. She met a few princesses this day and did ok with them. (This was on day 2 of our trip) but there are no FP+ for princess meets in Epcot. For the grownups, see if you can get a FP+ for Test Track or Soarin’!

Hollywood Studios: Disney Jr (it’s different now then when we saw it), frozen sing a long, and Fantasmic-a must see for the whole family! No Fp+ really required for any of these. I would use them in the morning at Epcot.

She is almost 4 now and we have annual passes but she still talks about and remembers details from that trip all the time. You guys will for sure make some life long memories!!

 

[jliucci]

we took our 2.5yo princess in November and it was so much fun. I actually had the opposite approach compared to what others have said. I booked a bunch of character meals (we were on the dining plan so its a good value) instead of wasting time or fastpasses on M&Gs. The only ones we waited for was Merida and Anna & Elsa. We did the Bon Voyage Breakfast, Akershus, Chef Mickey, 1900 Park Fare Dinner, and Ohana breakfast. She loved all of them. For rides she really liked the tea cups, Ariel's Voyage, Dumbo, the Safari and FEA. She slept through HEA fireworks but she loved Fantasmic.

 

[Yoyisdesigns]

Are you having any shirts made for your first trip?

 

[westie55]

2-year-olds vary. A good rule of thumb is to be prepared for anything. I, personally, wouldn't use my fp+ for character meets (except maybe in AK in Epcot because there are fewer kid friendly attractions that you need fp for in those parks) in the Magic Kingdom. The reason is that you may get close to Mickey for the first time and your daughter might start cowering in fear and not want to get anywhere near him. I might book a character meal and see how it goes. This way your daughter can look at the characters and ease into getting closer lol. My older son was fine with them at 11-months but had become scared when he went back at 16-months. He really didn't begin to thaw until he was 3, and even then he was still tentative. We'll see how he does this summer at 4. My younger son was fine last year at 1, but I took him to see the Easter bunny last weekend and he was afraid (he is 20 months now). You just never know how little ones react, but a lot are afraid of characters. Others love them.

The rides can be hit or miss also. My boys have both been fine with dark rides so far, but I remember my 2-year-old cousin going on POTC. He flipped out and didn't want to go on anything after that. Another mom wrote about her daughter trying to claw her way out of Dumbo. That ride is thought of as being the most kid friendly but my sons also didn't care for it.

Shows can be hit or miss depending on their mood and their attention span. I suggest sitting at the end of the row so you can get up and move around a little if need be. This strategy got us through Turtle Talk with Crush and Enchanted Tales with Belle.

With a 2-year-old (if they're anything like mine) you'll want to avoid long lines. Plan to do rope drop and get in some rides in fantasyland before the crowds show up. You can walk onto some rides if you go early. Use your fp for rides with longer waits like Peter Pan and Pooh (or bigger attractions you want to ride-- you can do rider swap).

Have a great trip! My youngest will be a few days shy of 2 when we go back this summer!

 

[tinkerjo]

Of 4 kids I don’t think I took any at age 2 but they would have been terrified of characters( they seemed scared of everything at that age) we did take our grandson at 19 months and he liked Mickey and we took him on any ride he was big enough for. I don’t remember him being scared of anything but that age is really hit or miss

 

[lostprincess_danie]

Our daughter will be 2 this year and going on her first Disney trip as well!

We have started showing her YouTube videos of the rides to get a feel for what she is interested in. And introducing her to characters via toys, books and music (Some of the new animated movies are too intense for her but she likes listening to the music.). We are also doing test runs of similar activities before we get to Disney. For example: We took her to the zoo recently to see how she did with crowds of people and how much walking/riding in the stroller she would tolerate. And we are taking her over the summer to see a fireworks show at a local baseball game so she can get used to that as well - or we find out she's terrified and know to skip it at WDW.

We have 6 months to go and I know her personality can grow and change a lot between now and then so I'm trying to be flexible in our plans. Heck, right now we'd make rope drop every day with how early she wakes up but by October she might be a night owl and we close down the parks with her.