WDW Family Vacation - Toddler's First Visit!

We arrived to our resort, Disney's Caribbean Beach, unpacked and rested a while before heading over to Magic Kingdom to use our special event tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We were able to enter MK around 4pm and the event started at 7pm. Upon entering, we were handed trick-or-treat bags and were guided to the first treat trail. We then grabbed a quick dinner at Cosmic Ray's and tried their special event food (yum!). Our first ride was Pirates of the Caribbean, which would be my toddler's first official ride at Walt Disney World! One of my must dos during this event was to watch the special event parade, which we got a great spot for without having to wait very long before the start time, about 15 minutes. Throughout the night we stopped at treat spots, rode a few rides and caught a glimpse of the fireworks before heading back to the bus to take us back to the resort.

Late morning we made our way to Epcot via the skyliner from our resort, entering through the International Gateway. While walking in the back entrance you will sometimes see characters around and we saw Daisy which would be my son's first character interaction of the trip! Since we were visiting during Epcot's Food and Wine festival, each country around the world showcase had different booths with a variety of small food plates to try. Whenever we were hungry we'd try a different country's booth, my personal favorite was the filet mignon in the Canada pavilion! Epcot also has a few great rides for young toddlers, like the Seas with Nemo and Friends and Journey into Imagination with Figment, my son loved the play area in the imagination pavilion! September in Florida is also hot and humid, so we took a nice midday break at the resort and returned in the evening. On this evening it stormed so bad that the skyliner shut down and some of our group had to return via bus to our resort.

We woke up bright and early for breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and Friends at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom. We went around park early entry, so we made sure to have plenty of time to make our reservation incase we didn't make the first bus. Character meals are a great way to meet characters without waiting in line and get a tasty meal in too! After breakfast it was still very early so we were able to ride lots of rides, my toddler loved the Haunted Mansion, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and It's a Small World. We were also able to meet Donald and Goofy, my toddler was a bit timid with the characters at first but they were great and took their time with him. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at a quick service and then took a midday rest. In the evening we ventured back to Epcot to "snack around the world" and explore Moana's Journey of Water, another big hit with my toddler and was a great way to cool off. We had more rain again this evening but it was over fairly quick.

It's important in the hotter and more humid months in Florida to take break from the heat and rest. While some of the group slept in, my toddler and I ventured to Disney's Art of Animation Resort to check out the Cars area, which was easily accessible via the skyliner at our resort. We met up with some of our traveling party late morning to enjoy a character breakfast at Topolino's at Disney's Riviera Resort. This is by far the best character breakfast I have ever had, we met Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Donald and enjoyed amazing food. We then relaxed at our resort's pool and my toddler had a great time in the water play area. Towards the evening we made our way to Disney Springs to enjoy some shopping, my personal favorite store is the largest Disney store in the world, World of Disney. After a bit too much shopping, we returned to our resort to enjoy a nice meal at the resort's quick service and rest for the night.

In the hotter months in Florida, Animal Kingdom may feel hotter than the rest of the parks and this was the only park that I began to feel uncomfortable in during our trip. We started our morning late and ventured to Dinoland USA to meet Chip n' Dale in their adorable dinosaur outfits. My toddler also became an official Wilderness Explorer and we collected a few stickers at their stations around the park. We then took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch to visit the animals at the petting zoo and cool off in conservation station. My toddler loved look at the tarantula enclosures that they had on display (yikes!). We also enjoyed a great lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque before heading back to the resort to escape the heat. In the evening we ventured back to Epcot to try more of the festival booths and my toddler rode a few of his favorite rides. This was a particularly relaxed day and we had no real plans or agenda, just to go with the flow and enjoy what our toddler wanted to do.

On this morning, we went to Hollywood Studios. We were visiting this park on a Saturday so we bought Lightning Lane, which I was able to preschedule three rides one week prior to our arrival day at our resort. Once we scanned into our first LL I was able to grab a late night ride for Frozen Ever After at Epcot! We also went over to Lightning McQueen's racing academy (which sadly is no longer an attraction) and my toddler got to see his favorite character race on stage! After riding all our LL's we grabbed a quick lunch of Ronto Wraps in Galaxy's Edge and then went to Star Wars Launch Bay to meet another favorite of my toddler's BB-8! We rode several rides and met a few characters before heading to the resort to rest. In the evening we were off to Epcot for more festival food, one last ride of the Seas with Nemo and Friends and first ride on Frozen Ever After. When we returned to the resort we had a beautiful view of Epcot's fireworks to top off the last night of our vacation.