What Our Kids Enjoy at Disney World

Hey, y’all! I am so glad you are here today! Today I want to share with you some of the things our (small) children like to do while at the Most Magical Place on Earth. I know some of you have never been to Disney World before and if you are wondering what there is to do for your little ones, I will share some of the things we have found that our littles really enjoy!

The Rides

Okay, so I get this is an obvious one, but I thought I would share some of our favorite family rides that anyone in your traveling party can enjoy. These are also our almost 5 year old daughter’s favorite rides (I asked her to give me her favorite rides at WDW and these are the ones she came up with).

5. Prince Charming Regal Carousel: Magic Kingdom is definitely home to many of our favorite attractions and this one is a classic! There is just something about riding behind Cinderella’s Castle right in the middle of Fantasyland with the music playing that makes this a must do for us when we are at Disney World as a family. There is no height requirement so anyone can ride. My daughter loves to run and pick out her “favorite” horse each time she rides. Her “favorite” changes each time, but it makes her happy! One tip for this ride, there are no fast passes for the carousel so you will have to wait in line, but typically the lines move pretty quickly if it is not a peak time of day.

4. Peter Pan’s Flight: Definitely another classic Magic Kingdom attraction that our whole family loves! This ride takes you through the story of Peter Pan while some pixie dust sets you soaring above the scene. I love that we see something new each time we ride. It is also one of those nice, cool, dark rides that make it great for a break from the heat if you are traveling to Florida in the warmer months. There are no height requirements for this one so it is a great family attraction. There is FastPass available for this one and I highly recommend getting one if you want to ride because wait times are almost always high for this one!

3. Frozen Ever After: This is a must do for any Frozen fans! Located in the World Showcase of Epcot, this ride brings the movie to life as you ride through Arendelle. There is a small backwards drop so keep that in mind for your little world travelers, but this one is a lot of fun! I will say that it has taken our daughter a few years to really enjoy this ride without being afraid of the drop, but she included it in her list so there ya go! Elsa and Anna are pretty popular so I highly recommend getting a FastPass for this attraction if you don’t want to wait in line. There is no height requirement for this one, but as I mentioned earlier, you know what your little one’s limit is as far as being okay with the drops.

2. Alien Swirling Saucers: This one is definitely one of our daughter’s favorite rides at Disney World…I enjoy it as well, but I probably wouldn’t have ranked it in the second spot.. You can find this super fun attraction in Toy Story Land located in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It is a spinning ride that plays fun Toy Story themed songs. Guests must be 32 inches or taller to ride this one. This is the only attraction in our list that has a height requirement. My son was able to ride it this summer when we went (he was 1.5 years old at the time) so I feel that it is still pretty family friendly. FastPass is available on this one and if you aren’t interested in riding Slinky Dog Dash or you have a huge little green aliens fan, then I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

1. it’s a small world: Well here we are..this is seriously the favorite ride for both of my kids. It is another one of those classic rides that takes you back in time if you know any history of how Walt Disney wanted to entertain his guests in his theme park. The song will definitely get stuck in your head and you will find yourself humming it as you go on about your day. I have to tell you a little story about this ride and even though it may not be my number one, it is so important to our little family. In September of 2018, our small Eastern NC town was devastated by a hurricane named Florence. People all around us lost their homes and businesses. We were very blessed and did not sustain any damage, but we were without power for almost 6 days. My daughter who was 3 at the time, became really afraid of the dark after that. She was scared the “hurricane was going to come back and get her.” It was awful. The daycare we sent our babies to sustained a lot of damage and decided not to reopen. We had to put them in a different daycare and it was a huge adjustment for all of us. If you have small children, you know they thrive off of a steady routine and ours was thrown upside down for a while. Fast forward about 2 months, and we were going to our happy place, Walt Disney World. I just knew it would help our daughter forget all her fears and just be happy for a week…oh man was I in for a surprise! Any ride we rode that was the least bit dark, she would lose it! She was literally terrified. I will admit that I was so disappointed on that trip. I had super high expectations since she was a little older and remembered stuff and recognized characters. I felt like I had failed her as a mom for not realizing she was still dealing with this hurricane stuff and I wasn’t helping her, but making it worse. That is NOT how you want to feel at the Most Magical Place on Earth. Back to how small world fits in this story….So after riding/screaming on many rides, we used our FastPass for it’s a small world. She loved it! She started smiling (this was a huge deal) and even singing along. She kept saying, “this ride isn’t dark or scary, mommy!”. We ended up riding small world a total of 5 times that trip, but it was worth hearing the song in my dreams to see her little face light up. Our son also really loves it. He sings along to the words during bath time…don’t judge me for listening to Disney music in the bath tub, we are just those people! There is FastPass available for this ride, but if you get to Magic Kingdom pretty early in the morning, you shouldn’t have to wait too long. If you have a small world super fan like we do, best to make a FastPass just to be sure.

Okay so I am throwing in an honorable mention here because it is an absolute classic and we all love it, but she just couldn’t put it in her top 5, but it’s definitely in mine…Dumbo! We usually ride it at least twice on every trip and it’s so much fun to ride above Fanstasyland and catch the views of the Castle as you soar by. Ahhh. Here’s a tip for you on this one…there is FastPass available, but there is a really fun inside queue where kids can play, jump and climb and may not even want to ride when it’s time..so fun! One more pro tip, if there is a super long ride and your little one doesn’t want to play/wait, check out the Magic Carpets of Aladdin…it’s the same ride and may have a shorter wait. It definitely has my favorite snack nearby, the Dole Whip Float. If you are in Animal Kingdom, the TriceraTop Spin is also the exact same ride and doesn’t usually have a long line!

The Playgrounds

Yes, you read correctly. We spend a good amount of money to visit Disney World and our kids absolutely love going to the playgrounds on property. That is one of those battles I have had to learn to just not fight. The parks can be overwhelming for our kids and playgrounds feel “safe” and smaller to them. There is usually one at every resort and our kids always seem to find it almost immediately. We sometimes spend our breaks from the parks playing on the little playground at our resort.

If you are traveling to Walt Disney World during the spring when Flower and Garden Festival is going on at Epcot, they sometimes have a little playground set up for kids to run around and get out some energy. We didn’t realize that was there until we were leaving one day, but it looked like a lot of fun!

One area our kids really, really enjoy is the Boneyard at Animal Kingdom. This play area is located in Dino Land and has lots of space for the littles to run around and go down some fun slides. There is also a place in the back of the Boneyard called the Dig Site where kids can dig in a huge sand pit for fossils. I am pretty sure we stayed in there for almost 2 hours one time. Again, it may not be what you envision for your day, but it is also your kid’s vacation too so its important to keep that in mind. I took the opportunity to rest my legs, eat a snack and watch them have a blast. One tip mom to mom though, take off their shoes in the dig site…or else you will be dumping sand out for the rest of the day.

There is a little splash area called Casey Jr Splash ‘N’ Soak in Fanstasyland inside of Magic Kingdom that our daughter loves to play in. Our little boy wasn’t big on getting wet so he watched from a distance in the stroller. This was a perfect way to beat the June heat on our last trip this summer. You could bring some extra clothes in your bag, but honestly clothes tend to dry out so quick from the heat that it’s not necessary.

Swimming

In another post about how we do Disney World with our little ones, I mentioned that sometimes during our breaks from the parks, we check out the resort pools. We have been swimming at Disney World in November and December so if you aren’t traveling in the typical warmer months and worried you can’t get in the pool…I wouldn’t worry too much. There is usually a little kiddie pool/splash pad at the resorts along with at least one full size pool. Some resorts have more than one pool located in different sections of the hotel.

Resorts

Speaking of resorts, one thing I needed to mention is that my daughter is obsessed with our resort’s elevators…not even kidding. When she was 2 and we stayed at Pop Century, all she would talk about was the purple elevator at the hotel…it was seriously the highlight of her trip. One of the first questions she asks to this day when she finds out we are going to Disney World is, “what color is the elevator at the hotel, mommy?”. It really is the little things, y’all. Another fun thing our kids like to do is ride in the stroller/walk around and look at the theming of the resorts. The value hotels have larger than life character statues and our littles love to visit and have their picture taken with them. Some of our favorites are Woody and Buzz at All Star Movies and Lady from Lady and the Tramp and Mr. Potato Head at Pop Century. We stayed at All Star Movies this summer and every time we left our room to head to the buses, our son would just light up and squeal, “Buzzzzzz!”. It was the sweetest thing to me.

Well folks, there ya have it. Here are most of the things our kids enjoy doing while we are at Walt Disney World. I am hoping we can continue to add to this list as they get older and are willing to branch out and try new things. You may have noticed I did not add any of the shows, parades or fireworks…we have not been successful at those in the past, but we hope we can warm up to some of those soon. Every kid is different and we have learned which battles are worth fighting and when it’s time to just go ride the purple elevator..seriously, she was that obsessed. I hope you guys have enjoyed following along and if you are thinking of taking your tiny tot to Disney World and have no clue where to start, I would love to help you plan your magical vacation!

See ya real soon,

Kelly