10 Tips for Surviving Disney with a 6 Year Old

*My affiliate links are used in this post. However this does not influence or change my opinion. Thanks for using them and helping support my family and my blog!*

10 Tips for Surviving Disney with a 6 Year Old – Make it a magical vacation with these easy tips and planning tools for taking your children to theme parks.

As I mentioned in my last post, we were able to take lil man to Disney World this past weekend!! It was a last minute trip (mostly paid for by husband’s company, Darden Restaurants…THANKS SO MUCH DARDEN!!) and so once I found out about it, I was in full planner mode! I did tons of research to get the most out of our 3 days down there. I also wanted to make sure that we had everything that we needed to make it enjoyable too with a 6 year old.

I lived in the Orlando area for many years growing up and then moved back there for a while after college, so I had visited the theme parks a lot. However, it has been over 10 years since I had been to one and obviously NEVER with with a small child so I was pretty nervous about making sure that we made it through the trip without a major fight or problems. I can report that we did come through with flying colors!! We had an amazing time and created memories that will last a lifetime!! We also are exhausted and let’s just say that I owe my parent’s a HUGE THANK YOU for taking us there as children!! And they had not just one child but 3. It can be quite a challenge to take a small child to Disney, so I thought I would share what I have learned (and I am certainly no expert) with my 10 Tips for Surviving Disney with a 6 Year Old.

My Disney Experience Account

As soon as we received confirmation of the reservations and park tickets, I headed over to My Disney Experience and created an account for us. I linked our reservation so that I could view it and our vacation packages. The main account is in Chris’s name (since the reservation was made in his name) and I then I added myself and lil man.  You will want to do this for each member of your family or group that you will be traveling with so that you can plan and view your daily itineraries.  You will be able to make Fastpass+ reservations (we will discuss those further later in the post), Dining Reservation and see Entertainment Times. You will also be able see any Disney PhotoPass pictures that are taken at any of the parks. These are the pictures that Disney photographers take of you or the pictures that are taken on rides and attractions.

My Disney Experience App

Next you will want to download the My Disney Experience App. It is available for download on the App Store (Apple) or you can get it on Google Play (android). This app is so helpful when you are in any of the parks! It has interactive, GPS enabled maps of all of the parks! Never get lost and find your way to anything that you are looking for! You can also get live wait times for attractions and the show times for parades and fireworks. If your little one want to do a character greeting, then all you have to do it pull it up on your app to find the location and time. You can even browse restaurant’s menus and make dining reservations. It is a planner’s dream! It allows you to keep your reservations and activities organized and in one place. You can manage them all within the app.

Stay at a Disney Resort Hotel

I also suggest that you stay at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel. They have resorts in categories from value to moderate to deluxe price points, so there is resort for just about any budget. The prices are really comparable to most hotels that you will find in the Orlando area, especially if you factor in that you don’t have to pay the $20 parking fee per park, per day. They even have a campground resort, if your family likes camping, that is really affordable! We used to stay there when I was a child in our pop-up camper and we loved it!! It is also pet-friendly 🙂

The travel ease was really what I enjoyed most. They get you where you want to go without having to hassle with driving, parking or traffic. Each resort has transportation to any of the parks via either bus, boat or monorail. You just sit back and relax and they do the driving for you, taking you right to the front of the park!! We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort and really enjoyed it!! Lil man loved their pool, well more specifically the 123 ft. water slide 🙂 That boy could just live in the pool!!

You can also take advantage of Extra Magic Hours at the parks. These times that they are open for Disney Resort Guests before or after the times that they are open to the general public. This means less crowded parks with much shorter lines!!

Another BIG PERK is if you also have a reservation at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel, you can start making your FastPass+ selections as early as 60 days―plus the number of days of your stay―prior to your check-in date. If you don’t have a reservation at one of their resorts, then you only can start making selections at 30 days out. Again, we will talk more about FastPass+ later on in the post. Also, you will receive a MagicBand with any Disney Resort Reservation for FREE! We will talk in detail about MagicBands later on but they are critical to surviving Disney with a 6 year old 😉

Park Hopper Passes

It is just my opinion, but I think that the Park Hopper Passes are a must! I think it is well worth the relatively small additional cost to have the convenience of being able to visit multiple parks on one day, especially with small children. We all know that their attention span is limited and it is so convenient to be able to “hop” over to another park to get more out of the day or if one park isn’t working for whatever reason. An example from our trip is that we went to Animal Kingdom early Saturday morning to do the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. I had read that you usually see more animals in the early morning before it gets hot. Lil man was really excited about this experience, but I couldn’t get a FastPass for the ride. Animal Kingdom had “Extra Magic Hours” (times that they are open for Disney Resort Guests before or after the times that they are open to the general public) on Saturday morning from 8-9am. We got there right after they opened and went straight to Kilimanjaro Safari and walked right on 🙂 It was perfect!! Then we hung out in Animal Kingdom for the rest of the morning and then went to Magic Kingdom in the afternoon.

MagicBands are a Must

MagicBands are wristbands that are actually an all-in-one device that connects you to all the reservations that you have made in the My Disney Experience. So all your park tickets, resort reservations, FastPass+ selections, dining reservations, PhotoPass pictures and other itineraries are there! Once you have linked your MagicBand to your My Disney Experience account you can use it to enter the parks and unlock your Disney Resort room. If you link a credit card to it, you can use it to purchase food, drinks, merchandise and other items in the parks or at the resorts. I liked that I didn’t have to worry about bringing credit cards or money into the parks, just an ID.

To use the MagicBands, just touch “Mickey to Mickey.” There is a mickey symbol on the front of the MagicBand and at the touch points (entrance to parks, hotel room door, checkout locations, FastPass+ queue entrances, etc.). If you are making a purchase, then a PIN number (you set this up at hotel check-in) is required. Oh and BTW…the children’s MagicBands do not allow for purchases, so you don’t have to worry about your little one buying every toy that they see in the gift shops 😉

Lil man thought that the MagicBands were the coolest thing ever!! He loved touching “Mickey to Mickey” and seeing the touch point’s Mickey turn green! He even took his MagicBand to school on Monday after we got home to show to his class 🙂 It was a souvenir that we didn’t have to pay for!! SCORE!!

Reserve FastPass+ Selections

Ok, we are finally to FastPasses…and they are probably the biggest tips that I can give you!! I had no idea that Disney had implemented these, but they are GENIUS!! FastPasses are like reservations for the rides and attractions at Disney.  You skip the long lines and wait times and breeze right to the front of the line 🙂 You get three of these per day and they all have to be at the same park. Once you have used your 3 for the day, you can add additional ones, one at a time, until park closing (if they are available). You can make your FastPass selections at My Disney Experience online or with the app. The parks also have kiosks for selecting or modifying FastPasses, but I found that using my phone was the easiest.

You will want to make these selections as quickly as you can because they go fast, especially for the most popular ride and attractions. Remember that if you are staying at one of the Disney Resorts you can book FastPasses as early as 60 days―plus the number of days of your stay―prior to your check-in date. So you will want to go on early and grab the good ones!!

Bring Drinks and Snacks

Believe it or not, Disney allows you to bring food and drinks into the parks. You just cannot bring any alcohol or glass bottles. You could actually bring full meals, if you wanted to, as long as they didn’t require heating. They do have a size limit to the suitcases, coolers or backpacks with or without wheels that you bring in.  They cannot exceed 24″ (61 cm) long x 15″ (38 cm) wide x 18″ (46 cm) high.

We didn’t bring full meals, just drinks and snacks but it still saved us a bundle!! We brought water, juice boxes, crackers, granola bars and chips each day and it was great! I would have bought a refillable water bottle with a filter (like this one: http://amzn.to/1SMULC1) to fill up at water fountains in the parks, but we still have soooo much bottled water left over from the wedding that we need to use, so I brought a bunch of that. The refillable water bottle would have made our backpack much lighter though 😉

Have a Necessities/Emergency Kit

In your bag that you bring into the park (and I suggest a backpack: http://amzn.to/1rxkaDR) beyond the drinks and snacks, you will want to have certain necessites/emergency items.

• IDs – with your MagicBands you don’t need to worry about carrying around resort room keys, credit cards or cash, but IDs are a must. For your children, write their names, resort name and your cell phone number on a tag in their clothing.
• Cell phone (make sure it is charged up)
• Phone chargers and External Battery Power Bank (this is the one that I got for our trip and it was awesome and affordable – only $13.99 and I found a discount coupon (sorry it has expired now) that made it under $10.00: http://amzn.to/233SyS7) You got 4 full charges off of it 🙂
• Sunscreen and bug repellant
• Adult and child pain reliever and tummy medicine
• Band Aids and triple antibiotic
• Blister cushions or blister block stick (like this one: http://amzn.to/1VUNTmg)
• Feminine Hygiene items
• Wet wipes
• Tissues
• Hand sanitizer
• Quart-size or snack size zipper storage bags (like Ziplocs) – These come in handy to put a cell phone or other electronic device in when riding a water ride and for organizing things.
• Ponchos: http://amzn.to/26rJZF7
• Towel  – I have to give the hubs credit on this one. He added one (from the hotel…don’t tell and we brought it back) to the backpack and it really came in handy! We used it dry off after a water ride and to sit on the hot concrete.
• Misting fans (I forgot this one but next time I will be getting these: http://amzn.to/1T2wlhL)
• Cooling Towel (I didn’t get these for this trip, but I should have. If you are visiting Disney during the warmer months, it is a must: http://amzn.to/1NPMKVh)
• Hats (okay these won’t be in your bag because they should be on your head keep that scorching Florida Sun off your face, but I am including it because they are necessities. Here is one similar to the one that I bought for the trip and I am in love with this hat!!  http://amzn.to/1MWAI1J
• Sunglasses
• Light sweater or jacket (if it is going to be cooler in the evening and I would only suggest it when you come to the parks later in the day or evening because you don’t want to be carrying ANYTHING more than you absolutely need)

Schedule Breaks

As I mentioned above about park hopper passes, I think it is critical to schedule breaks when taking children to Disney!! We came back to the resort mid-afternoon for a pool break during the hottest part of the day. It was a great way to cool off and relax for a little while before heading back. If you don’t want to leave the parks, then just find a nice shady spot to have a snack or some ice cream and take a load off. Lil man sure needed those breaks! He would get hot, crabby and tired then not want to walk anymore and he is too big to carry…

Be Flexible

I saved the best for last…BE FLEXIBLE 🙂 If you are like me and a total type A personality and planner, you will want to there to be a perfect itinerary all planned out that you will follow to the T. Let me tell you that you are going to have to let it go…you will be OK (promise). You will have to be flexible and just enjoy making memories that will last for a lifetime. There are so many things to see and do at Disney and these are going to catch their attention and then they will want to go in that direction. Like these storm troopers  put on an impromptu show that we just had to see instead of getting to the FastPass that I had planned (ok that may or may not have been more the hubs getting distracted…but it about the same, right).

Or the pop-up thunderstorms that come out of nowhere in Florida that kept us from making our planned dinner plans and just eating at the little cafe that we took shelter in. (BTW…my ponchos were in my backpack, but it was lightening so stayed inside for safety). These things happen and you will just have go with the flow 😉

There you have it. My 10 Tips for Surviving Disney with a 6 Year Old.

What do you think? Do you have any other tips that you have learned? I would love for you to share them in the comments! Now if you would like to see more of our vacation photos, keep scrolling!! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

*My affiliate links are used in this post. However this does not influence or change my opinion. Thanks for using them and helping support my family and my blog!*