First time with 3 & 6 yr old- tips?

[Tydog]

My husband and I have never been to Disney World (or Disneyland)- gasp, I know! We plan to take our 3 year old son and 6 year old daughter for 3 days in February (likely a Monday- Wednesday). We have no idea where to start with planning. We will be flying in from Seattle, plan to spend 3 days at WDW and then rent a car and drive 3.5 hours to Naples to visit family for 4 more days before flying back to Seattle. We are torn between staying offsite and renting a car to have more control over arriving and leaving the park and packing some of our own food versus staying on site to have transportation and then renting a car after to drive to Naples.

How would you spend 3 days with a 3 & 6 year old on first visit? We are not sure which parks to visit. Maybe Magic Kingdom for 2 days and Typhoon Lagoon third day? Are quick service meals easy to do/find? If we bring a BOB jogging type stroller for 3 year old to nap in when he gets tired, is that too big of a stroller to lug around? Maybe one character meal- which one? Thanks for any tips, advice you have!!!

 

[Tk0021]

We took our 5 and 3 year old daughters last year and are headed back in 24 days! The stroller should be fine. We rented a double city mini and we had no problems. For the parks, its what your kids like. My kids love MK and we spent 4 out of 6 days there last year. In our up comin trip we are spending 3 out of 4 days there. One being a MNSSHP. Some people think we are crazy to go to MK that many times but that's what are kids want to do. We have never been to Typhoon Laggoon. My kids don't like water slides yet. We have never stayed offsite, but with only three days it could be a lot of traveling back and forth for food and stuff and that can be waste of your park time. Are you getting the dinning plan? If so, depends on the one you get. Either way it's easy to find quick service restaurants. Hope this helps.

 

[AliceNDinah]

I would vote for Chef Mickey's for a Character Meal---so fun Or perhaps 1900 Park Fare....

 

[lynzi2004]

With 3 days and if you think you will go back at some point in the future, I would do 2 MK days and a resort day with a fun character meal at Chef Mickey's in between. I would consider staying maybe at a monorail resort with the nice resort pool instead of doing a waterpark. There is so much to do at MK it would be no trouble to spend 2 days there! Characters, rides, shows, parades, etc. On the resort day, you could swim and relax at the pool, eat a character meal, and just explore Disney! Our kids were 4 and 3 on their first trip and one of their favorite things was riding the monorail loop through Epcot and back.