advice on taking young kids (twins)

lynnzrae

Mouseketeer
Joined
Feb 27, 2018
Hello.

We just got back from a 7 day trip with my four year old and 18-month-old twins. The twins were challenging. They often took two to three adults attention at one time. Prior to this trip I was planning to take the family one more time next summer before the twins turn three and start costing me $. Now, I am wondering if it is worth waiting. Does anyone have any experience on taking 18-month olds and then taking slightly over two year olds and can comment on the difference and if you suggest me taking them next summer or waiting a bit longer?

I know one thing that will majorly help is the vocabulary growth between now and then. Did you notice a big enough difference at restaurants? Better behaviors, etc.

And any twin advice is much appreciated.

Thank you.
 
Practice... do go to restaurants at home, to make them familiar with the process, for them, and for you to find what works, mine are content with a pack of oyster crackers and movie in my phone, they usually destroy the kids menu before. Schedule toddler time, to let the run free, taking those break from the stroller will help them to drain energy, snacks tons of them.
 
We have taken all ages...I agree 18 most is hard because they are squirmy and wont st through shows or restaurants. The hardest part for us when we took them at 2 or close to 3 was getting them to nap. Mine don't nap in strollers well because they aren't used to napping in strollers? I would definitely recommend taking breaks for naps if they aren't napping on the go. And on our last trip we only did 2 or 3 sit down meals and that was so much nicer. I find lunch works better for TS meals. They are worn out and ready to sit. Dinner meals they have just napped and are roaring to go so they don't want to sit. HTH!
 
we have been practicing at restaurants every Friday since this past spring. I think the difference here is it took longer to get our food and my daughter was TERRIFIED of the characters so she wanted to be on daddy's lap therefore my son of course had to be on mine. I try to save the phone as a hail mary since I have one phone and three kids. I don't want them to then fight over the phone. Plus at 18 months I don't know that the phone would an 18-month-old's attention but maybe a 2 year old?
 
We have taken all ages...I agree 18 most is hard because they are squirmy and wont st through shows or restaurants. The hardest part for us when we took them at 2 or close to 3 was getting them to nap. Mine don't nap in strollers well because they aren't used to napping in strollers? I would definitely recommend taking breaks for naps if they aren't napping on the go. And on our last trip we only did 2 or 3 sit down meals and that was so much nicer. I find lunch works better for TS meals. They are worn out and ready to sit. Dinner meals they have just napped and are roaring to go so they don't want to sit. HTH!
We definitely took breaks. But my 4 year old was so excited that he wouldn't sleep in the hotel so I had to push him in the stroller for him to sleep. Then he would sleep for two or three hours and I would enjoy food and wine festival. :) Of course that means I never really napped. :(

Would you suggest waiting until they are 4 then vs going next year because they are still free?
 
We definitely took breaks. But my 4 year old was so excited that he wouldn't sleep in the hotel so I had to push him in the stroller for him to sleep. Then he would sleep for two or three hours and I would enjoy food and wine festival. :) Of course that means I never really napped. :(

Would you suggest waiting until they are 4 then vs going next year because they are still free?

I see! My 4 year olds don't nap in the hotel either! I say go both times. All ages just have a different magical experience. Give it some time and the roughness will.wear off and you will remember the magical moments better. Also don't be afraid to have one parent take kids back to nap and the other stay with the older one...those are magical memories too.
 
We have twins, and took them when they were just about to turn 1 (and our older son had just turned 4 at the time). While we had fun, I honestly am not sure I'd do it again. We waited until the twins were 3 to go again...they were just turning 3, so they were still free. It was a vastly different, and much better, experience. If you've got the financial resources and want to go again next year, do it, I would. But we didn't because money is always tight and felt we'd be better off waiting until they were toddlers.
 


we have been practicing at restaurants every Friday since this past spring. I think the difference here is it took longer to get our food and my daughter was TERRIFIED of the characters so she wanted to be on daddy's lap therefore my son of course had to be on mine. I try to save the phone as a hail mary since I have one phone and three kids. I don't want them to then fight over the phone. Plus at 18 months I don't know that the phone would an 18-month-old's attention but maybe a 2 year old?

Did you have "emergency" snacks ready to stave them off until the food got there? Just a question, I know I found that necessary with my 21 month old.

I'd be inclined to try again at just before 3 but I don't like staying away too long if I can avoid it.

My kid was the exact opposite, completely unphased by fur characters but not too thrilled with face characters.
 
I would rather save up and go later than rush it just for them to be free. That's still really young.
 
Seems like you have received a lot of good advice, but I will chime in anyway. I don't have twins but our kids are really close in age, and we have five. They range in age from almost 3, to 9. There is just under 7 years age difference between our oldest and youngest, and we have been to Disney 4 times since my oldest was 6. I was pregnant with #5 then, and #4 was 16 months old during that trip. We have gone each summer since, cashing in on those free under 3 tickets. My advice would be to do it. It's a bit tough, but it was worth it to me because I love Disney vacations. And, in reality, I have never been on ANY vacation that hasn't been somewhat tough with that age group. We did a "relaxing" week at the beach this summer and my son was a nightmare. He was sick at Disney in July with a temp for two of the days we were there, and even that was easier than dealing with him at the beach, having a total meltdown over the feeling of dry sand sticking to his wet feet. We took our 3 oldest girls to Ireland (we have family there) when they were 4, 2, and 18 months and also ran into other age-difficult dynamics on that trip. If you think you may just take a year off from vacationing all together, then maybe waiting until they are older would be easier. But, if you are going to do a trip one way or the other, then it can't get much more family-friendly than Disney. :-)

One thing we do differently is that we really don't do a lot of table service. Not just due to expense, but because it's less stressful with the little kids. Actually, on our last two trips, the only TS meals we did was just 1, at Disney Springs. Never in the parks. We only do QS or pack food since we stay offsite. If the meals are a big part of your trip, then maybe waiting is advisable, or plan meals at restaurants that are loud and a bit more kid-centered. We did breakfast at Belle's Castle when one of my daughters was 2.5, and she cried through most of it for some God-only-knows reason. She probably didn't like the shape of her muffin or the color of the glaze on her pastry. She annoyed us with her screams, but the restaurant was loud and no one else seemed to notice much. And my kids are generally really well-behaved, FYI (I know, everyone says that.. haha). But, meals on vacations can be tough sometimes.

Not sure if you are onsite or offsite people, but I think having a separate bedroom for the twins at age 2 would be an absolute MUST. Either rent DVC points to get a villa, do the suite at AofA, or stay offsite in a condo where you can close the door at night after they have gone to bed. I would possibly lose my mind if I had to spend all day at a theme park and then come back to one small room and shove in with all the kids, without having even 30 minutes to decompress. My kids @ 2 years old never went to bed in unfamiliar environments as easily as when they were 18 months old, so separate space was a must for us, to make the trip a success.

Edited to add: 18 months and 2 years- both present challenges, in their own way. I don't think one age is easier than the other, for me.
 
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we have been practicing at restaurants every Friday since this past spring. I think the difference here is it took longer to get our food and my daughter was TERRIFIED of the characters so she wanted to be on daddy's lap therefore my son of course had to be on mine. I try to save the phone as a hail mary since I have one phone and three kids. I don't want them to then fight over the phone. Plus at 18 months I don't know that the phone would an 18-month-old's attention but maybe a 2 year old?

I would try to schedule your ADRs a little earlier. If you typically eat at 6pm, don't schedule a 6pm but make it for 5:15 or even 5pm. That should help a lot towards making sure they'll have food in front of them at the expected time. Or even stick to counter service meals to avoid as much waiting as possible.

And if one is that terrified of characters, I'd avoid the character meals. There are opportunities to see characters in the parks without impacting everyone's meal. The two who are OK with characters can go do meet & greets with one parent while the other parent takes the third child elsewhere. No sense forcing it until the child is ready. That said, he/she may be ready for characters in a year; but I'd avoid them until you are sure.

Enjoy your vacation!
 
I would try to schedule your ADRs a little earlier. If you typically eat at 6pm, don't schedule a 6pm but make it for 5:15 or even 5pm. That should help a lot towards making sure they'll have food in front of them at the expected time. Or even stick to counter service meals to avoid as much waiting as possible.

And if one is that terrified of characters, I'd avoid the character meals. There are opportunities to see characters in the parks without impacting everyone's meal. The two who are OK with characters can go do meet & greets with one parent while the other parent takes the third child elsewhere. No sense forcing it until the child is ready. That said, he/she may be ready for characters in a year; but I'd avoid them until you are sure.

Enjoy your vacation!

I think this is great advice. I am sure dinner table service is busy all the time at WDW, but 4:30 dinner is popular for us whenever we eat out with our kids. They behave a lot better at that time than if we are there at 6:30. :-)
 
Thank you everyone for your great advice.

After taking some time to reflect on everyone's wonderfully rich advice I realized that if I brought them the trip would revolve around them more than my (will be) 5 year old. We would be worried about their sleeping, there would be rides that we would have to rider swap which takes time, we would not be able to really play with him at the pool b/c my mom and I would both have to closely watch them as they won't be able to swim yet, I don't see us being able to stay out as late... We would be going over my older son's birthday so it would be nice to make it a little more about him.

Mommy guilt over not taking the twins or mommy guilt over not letting the "birthday and graduation from daycare" trip be older-son focused if the twins are there. And I guess if they won't remember it anyway why not make the trip easier and more enjoyable for those that will?

With this being said, the trip isn't until June so I know I still have plenty of time to make the decision.

Question, for those of you who don't do the TS with young kids due to length and expectations of sitting...is QS that much easier with young kids than doing the buffets? I would think since the food is right they can be the same amount of time but I have never really done QS at Disney so I don't know if they are even comparable.

Totally rambling I know. Thanks again for everyone's help and support.
 
At Magic Kingdom, we always do Cosmic Ray's for QS. My husband goes up to get the food and I sit at a table with the kids. My older two are now old enough to actually help him with the trays etc. But, it's always been pretty quick. We were there on July 4th one year and the park was packed, the restaurant was packed and we still managed to find seating quickly. The turnover is high. The only time it took a while to get our food was during the MNSSHP in August last year. Not sure if they cut down on staff during parties, but the food took forever that one time. It was a bummer because the parties are short enough without having to wait for food. We were kicking ourselves for not packing our own dinner that night.

In the other parks, we did QS successfully each time. We ate at Pizzafari in AK. I don't recommend the food but it was fine for the kids and a totally painless process. Almost empty dining room actually (since we try to eat before or after the rush). We ate somewhere near Tower of Terror in HS a few years ago. It was outdoors with umbrellas, easy. And it was raining! In Epcot, we have never done QS. In the past we have done TS there, but now we just bring a meal and buy ice cream or a treat instead.

We have never really had a problem getting a meal when we need it, and something everyone can enjoy.
 

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