Taking Young Children to Disneyworld

When I planned my first trip to Disneyworld in Orlando Florida, I was advised by many different people that we should wait until my son was older; he was two at the time. Thank goodness I didn't listen to that advise, we had such a great time, and I know he did to. Since then we have taken him three other times and took our second son for his first time before he turned one year old.

The basic idea behind this advice is that young children are naturally more difficult to travel with. Another reason seems to be that if you put a lot of preparation and expense into a trip like this, at least from the perspective of people traveling a great distance, you want the child to remember it, and of course very young children will not remember most things that happen prior to age four or five. The third reason is that small children will not be able to ride on most rides, because of height restrictions.

All of these points are true, and make for very good arguments, however, once you overlook these obstacles, and take your precious child anyway, you will realize that it was worth the extra hassle and the few missed rides.

There is something extra special about going to Disneyworld and seeing it through the eyes of a young child. They are naturally going to be more excited over the small details, like seeing their favorite characters up close, and getting their autograph. This is not to say older kids and even adults don't enjoy this, but when a young child actually believes these characters are real, it adds to the magic and innocence, which is what Disneyworld is all about. Everything is real to small children, the characters are not people in costumes, the castle really is where Cinderella lives and Toon Town is really where Mickey and his friends live.

Disneyworld has provided ways of making it easier to bring young children. They offer stroller rentals that come as a single or a double, as well as playgrounds especially designed for their young guests. In addition, they offer a program similar to the fast pass program, which is called baby swapping which allows each adult to ride rides and then switch places without having to wait in line all over again.