A Guide to Walt Disney World with Preschoolers {Giveaway!}

June 3, 2012 By

We are get­ting SO excited for our Dis­ney trip in just 10 days!! While I’m at some media events, Mr. Mom Endeav­ors will be own his own with our two lit­tle guys in the park, so I’ve been mak­ing lists and doing some plan­ning for him. Plus, I’m not entirely sure why–maybe because we’re spend­ing 3 full days there (the most I’ve ever spent in a sin­gle Dis­ney­land trip) or maybe because we’re going as our own lit­tle nuclear fam­ily for the first time ever– but I’ve found myself doing more research/planning for this trip than any other time we’ve gone! Thank­fully, I’ve been get­ting some help from a great Dis­ney plan­ning resource– “Beyond the Attrac­tions: A Guide to Walt Dis­ney World with Preschoolers”.

When you live on this (west) side of the coun­try, peo­ple talk­ing about Dis­ney vaca­tions most often means Dis­ney­land. How­ever, for many of you, a Dis­ney vaca­tion only means one thing–Walt Dis­ney World in Florida! But, no mat­ter which Dis­ney Park is your go-to des­ti­na­tion, like us, many vis­i­tors are trav­el­ing to a Dis­ney park with at least one preschooler in tow. I per­son­ally believe the Dis­ney expe­ri­ence is super fun & mag­i­cal at any age, but obvi­ously, what you can expe­ri­ence & how it’s expe­ri­enced can vary greatly depend­ing on age! Thank­fully, Lisa M. Bat­tista (author of Beyond the Attrac­tions) has cre­ated a great guide with the youngest lit­tle trav­el­ers in mind!

Here’s a brief syn­op­sis of what the book cov­ers to give you a rough idea:

The first few chap­ters cover all kinds of plan­ning & prep information–perfect for get­ting all those logis­ti­cal things taken care of (tick­ets, travel, trans­porta­tion, gear, pack­ing, tour­ing the parks, etc).

Next up is all the fun stuff– attrac­tions (espe­cially those geared toward preschoolers/family), hid­den activ­i­ties (things aver­age Dis­ney trav­el­ers might not know about), din­ing, recre­ation, parades & char­ac­ter greetings!

The last few chap­ters cover some impor­tant top­ics (like child safety) and spe­cial resources, includ­ing sea­sonal events, FASTPASS infor­ma­tion, and some com­pre­hen­sive lists. You’ll find lists cov­er­ing Must-DO activ­i­ties, char­ac­ter greet­ing loca­tions, din­ing & recre­ation rates, a plan­ning check­list, and a pack­ing list. As a list-lover, I found this sec­tion espe­cially awesome!!

This will actu­ally be my 3rd time trav­el­ing to a Dis­ney­land with preschool­ers. Our first time with a kiddo in tow was when Big Brother was about 27 months. Expe­ri­enc­ing the park through the eyes of such a lit­tle guy was, dare I say…mag­i­cal. I know he won’t remem­ber it, but his daddy & I cer­tainly do.

The sec­ond time was last August and we had an even lit­tler guy in tow. Big Brother was a few months over 4, while Lit­tle Brother was just 16 months! There were some chal­lenges with Lit­tle Brother being so young, but he still did great for the most part. And, see­ing those lit­tle barely-toddler legs danc­ing to the parade was one of the cutest things ever!

So, we’d absolutely LOVE to do Dis­ney World one day (and unless we wait a really long time), we’ll likely have at least one preschooler. This book will be a FABULOUS ref­er­ence. And, even though the book is specif­i­cally about Dis­ney World, I actu­ally found NUMEROUS tips & sug­ges­tions per­fect for Dis­ney­land too! The child safety sec­tion cer­tainly applies either place, as do many of the tips on strollers, FASTPASSES (& rider swap), enter­tain­ing the kids while wait­ing in line, and the pack­ing lists! Even though I con­sider myself an expe­ri­enced Dis­ney­land trav­eler, I’m thrilled with some of the tips & ideas I’ve picked up by read­ing the book. Plus, it’s given me lots of things to look into at Dis­ney­land that I hadn’t thought to do before!

If you’re plan­ning a Dis­ney vaca­tion with lit­tle ones, I def­i­nitely rec­om­mend snag­ging a copy of “Beyond the Attrac­tions: A Guide to Walt Dis­ney World with Preschool­ers”. You can head over to the Beyond the Attrac­tions web­site & order a copy for 30% off the reg­u­lar price. The guide is avail­able in paper­back, plus on Kin­dle & Nook! Or…you can WIN IT!

Give­away Has Ended

One lucky Mom Endeav­ors’ reader will win a copy of “Beyond the Attrac­tions: A Guide to Walt Dis­ney World with Preschool­ers”!!

Con­grats to lucky com­ment #6!! Katie, hope your hus­band (or you) get some great tips from the book! :) Enjoy!

To Enter: CLOSED!

1. Just leave a com­ment telling me what kind of Dis­ney vaca­tion you’re plan­ning and/or how you’d most ben­e­fit from read­ing the book.

Get extra entries (leave a sep­a­rate com­ment for each)

2. Share about this give­away on the social media chan­nel of your choice, then leave a link to your “share” in the comments.

3. Fol­low @Momendeavors on Twitter.

4. Fol­low @DisneyExplorer on Twitter.

*If you’re not already a fan, be sure to like Mom Endeav­ors & Beyond the Attrac­tions on Facebook!

(up to 4 entries per per­son): Give­away will end on June 11th at 10pm PST. Win­ner with a valid entry will be selected at ran­dom using random.org and be noti­fied via email (win­ner will also be posted on this post). They will have 48 hours to claim their prize before a new win­ner is selected. Open to U.S. Res­i­dents, 18 years and older.

Dis­clo­sure: I was received a com­pli­men­tary copy of the book for the pur­poses of review. All opin­ions are my own.

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28 Comments

Comments

  1. 1
    Jill says:
    June 3, 2012 at 10:35 am

    We just bought our week­day annual passes to wdw and can’t wait to use them in the fall. Jack is a pretty expe­ri­enced Dis­ney trav­eller for a two year old but we are find­ing all kinds of new things to do. This book would help us in our quest to find things at the parks more age appropriate.

    Reply
  2. 2
    mary norman says:
    June 4, 2012 at 5:55 am

    this is fan­tas­tic, we are plan­ning a trip for eas­rly sep­tem­ber and he can wait to see the cars “land” lol.
    thanks for the chance,
    mary

    Reply
  3. 3
    Jacqueline Smith says:
    June 4, 2012 at 6:46 am

    We are plan­ning our Dis­ney trip for March 2014 and our son will be a lit­tle over 3 (turns 3 on the 4th of March) and I could use all the help we can get…

    Reply
  4. 4
    Katie N says:
    June 4, 2012 at 7:01 am

    My hus­band would really ben­e­fit from this book, because he has no idea how to enter­tain our 2 young (& over-excited) chil­dren who are too short to ride, when I’m on ride with my old­est (and tall enough) daugh­ter. So I ended up on miss­ing out on a few rides that I really wanted to go on (i.e Soarin’) for the sake of my hus­band, since being left alone with 2 kids was too over­whelm­ing for him. Actu­ally, I think that this book would help me out, too :)

    Reply
  5. 5
    Katie N says:
    June 4, 2012 at 7:04 am

    Fol­low­ing @Momendeavors

    Reply
  6. 6
    Katie N says:
    June 4, 2012 at 7:05 am

    fol­low­ing @disneyexplorer on twitter

    Reply
  7. 7
    Mrs Donald Duck says:
    June 4, 2012 at 8:50 am

    I hope you have a won­der­ful trip with your lit­tle guys! We have 3 lit­tle guys and we are head­ing to wdw this sum­mer. We are so excited we are going to sur­prise the boys . A guide to Dis­ney world with preschool­ers would be an incred­i­ble gem as we have preschool­ers and we want to give them mag­i­cal memories!

    Reply
  8. 8
    Mrs Donald Duck says:
    June 4, 2012 at 8:52 am

    Fol­low­ing at momendeavors

    Reply
  9. 9
    LauraC says:
    June 4, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    We’re plan­ning to go to dis­ney­land with the kid­dos next sum­mer. This sum­mer got too crazy. Might be nice though, as they’ll be 2 & 4 by then. Would love an insid­ers guide, and yes, I’m a list lover too! Thanks so much.

    Reply
  10. 10
    LauraC says:
    June 4, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    Fol­lowing @Momendeavors on Twit­ter… LauraCh

    Reply
  11. 11
    LauraC says:
    June 4, 2012 at 1:50 pm

    Also fol­lowing @DisneyExplorer — LauraCh

    Thanks!!

    Reply
  12. 12
    Heather says:
    June 4, 2012 at 2:45 pm

    We go to Dis­ney­land a lot and have been to Dis­ney World only a hand­ful of times with our three year old daugh­ter. We are plan­ning an Dis­ney World visit in Octo­ber and I would love to read this book to pre­pare! Although I’m a Dis­ney­land pro, I’m a lit­tle intim­i­dated by the larger park!

    Reply
  13. 13
    Heather says:
    June 4, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    I fol­low you on Twitter.

    @addictheather

    Reply
  14. 14
    Heather says:
    June 4, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    I fol­low @DisneyExplorer on Twit­ter too!

    @addictheather

    Reply
  15. 15
    Donna O'Neil says:
    June 4, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    I am plan­ning our sec­ond WDW vaca­tion and Dis­ney Cruise for next year. Not sure how it is going to work with a preschooler and a baby.

    Reply
  16. 16
    Donna O'Neil says:
    June 4, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    I tweeted!
    https://twitter.com/DonnaONeil/status/209773828799340544

    Reply
  17. 17
    Donna O'Neil says:
    June 4, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    I Fol­low @Momendeavors on Twitter.

    Reply
  18. 18
    Donna O'Neil says:
    June 4, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    I Fol­low @DisneyExplorer on Twitter.

    Reply
  19. 19
    Carie says:
    June 5, 2012 at 6:38 am

    Hope­fully we will be tak­ing our 3 kid­dos next spring! I would love to know all the lit­tle secrets, mak­ing their trip to Dis­ney amazing.

    Reply
  20. 20
    Carie says:
    June 5, 2012 at 6:38 am

    I am fol­low­ing Beyond the Attractions.

    Reply
  21. 21
    Carie says:
    June 5, 2012 at 6:38 am

    I am fol­low­ing Mom Endeavors!

    Reply
  22. 22
    katrina says:
    June 5, 2012 at 6:48 am

    we live near orlando and have never taken my old­est. I would love some tips and tricks since we plan on going a lot more often next year.

    Reply
  23. 23
    Erica S. says:
    June 7, 2012 at 5:40 am

    We’re plan­ning our first trip to Dis­ney World this Sep­tem­ber with our boys, ages 5 and 2. My hus­band and I went once about 11 years ago and we both went sev­eral times as kids. We’re start­ing the trip by tak­ing the Auto Train from Lor­ton, VA to San­ford, FL…we thought that would add to the adven­ture and excite­ment of the whole trip. :) We’ll be there 7 days and 7 nights and will be stay­ing at Ani­mal King­dom Lodge. The plan is to hit Down­town Dis­ney the day we arrive, DHS on day 2, AK on day 3, Epcot on days 4 & 5, and finally MK on days 6 & 7!! We are all super excited…I think we’re about to hit the start to our 100 day count­down mark! I think this book would help any­one plan­ning a Dis­ney trip. There is soooo much info out there to weed through and I’ve heard that good, well thought out plan­ning can help you make the most of your time at the Hap­pi­est Place on Earth! Happy plan­ning to everyone!

    Reply
  24. 24
    Emelie H. says:
    June 8, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    We are going to Dis­ney­World for Christ­mas this year! We are so excited to take our 3 chil­dren as well as my nephew. Our old­est and 2nd both got to go in 2009 when they were 4 1/2 and 4 mo. Dur­ing that trip we only had to enter­tain the old­est which wasn’t too hard of a task. Now 3 years later the kids are 7 1/2, 3 1/2 and 2 1/2 with my nephew at age 4. Our fam­ily could really ben­e­fit from this book because I am so ner­vous about how to han­dle our kids dur­ing wait times in line. Also, we have one child that likes to run off in a crowd so learn­ing child safety will be huge for us! If it tells me where to find all the bath­rooms too for my newly potty trained kids, it would be my #1 plan­ning tool! LOL! Thank you for the opportunity!

    Reply
  25. 25
    Jennifer Stoufer says:
    June 10, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    We are tak­ing a trip to Walt Dis­ney World in August. It is a last sum­mer hur­rah before our kids go back to school after Labor Day. We have an 8 year old and a 4 year old. We love to go there for longer peri­ods of time and take it slow and leisurely. We go back to the hotel in the after­noon for a cooling-off dip in the pool and some rest­ing time before head­ing back to the park in the evening when it is cooler and a lit­tle less crowded. We LOVE Disney!!!

    Reply
  26. 26
    Jessica says:
    June 11, 2012 at 6:52 pm

    No trip planned yet, but we def­i­nitely want to take our lit­tle one to Dis­ney World once she gets a lit­tle older. Sounds like it would be quite help­ful to have many of the tips in this book.

    Reply
  27. 27
    Sara Hernando says:
    June 11, 2012 at 7:40 pm

    We are head­ing to dis­ney­land in Sep­tem­ber for 3 days with my daugh­ter who will be 3 in Octo­ber and my lit­tle guy turns 1 in Sep­tem­ber. So excited!

    Reply
  28. 28
    Janice says:
    June 11, 2012 at 8:01 pm

    I found your awe­some dis­ney roundup post on pin­ter­est and saw your link to here! How ran­dom that this is a book I was look­ing at buy­ing for our trip to Dis­ney­World this Sat­ur­day. It’s our first time with all four of my boys and I’m more than a lit­tle ner­vous about what to do with my two preschool­ers while my older two want to ride the big rides. This book would be great! Good luck on your trip :)

    Reply

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