Pre-Trip The "I'm Going to WDW Solo with my Toddler" Pre-Trip Report! :)

Good evening! Thanks for joining me!

I'm Courtney, and I'm 36 years old. My last trip to WDW was well documented in a separate trip report here. I'll post a link to it for reference later.

I've been divorced from the man I was with in that trip report for almost a year now. I've been a little bit depressed, and I've had a rough year for other reasons too, so I decided I was treating myself and my son to a trip to WDW over fall break. It'll be his first ever trip! He's four, and I had always said I'd want to wait until he was bigger to take him there, but honestly, I needed something to look forward to, and he'll love it! Here are our plans so far:

Dates: October 8-13
Lodging: Contemporary (lavish, I know, but since it's just us, I figured being on the monorail line would be worth it).
Plans:

Tuesday:
Check in
Dinner at Chef Mickey's

Wednesday:
Epcot
Breakfast with Chip and Dale at Garden Grill
Fast passes: Nemo, SE, Frozen
Planning to rope drop test track and see if my son measures 40 inches... he's 39.5 now.

Thursday:
MK
Breakfast at CP
Halloween party that night
Fast passes: Thunder Mtn (I know, I'm risking the height issue here...), Pirates, and Peter Pan

Friday:
Pool day/maybe lunch at T-Rex
Dinner at O'hana

Saturday:
AK
Dinner at Tusker House with River of Lights package
Fast Passes: Safari, Lion King, and Na'vi River

Sunday:
Head home

I hate that only gives us one MK day, but I think that'll be fine since we're rope dropping AND doing the party on the same day.

I don't think I could do the HS crowds with my child by myself. Not with SW being so new. So I figured Epcot was a better choice than HS for this trip.

I'd love to hear suggestions and feedback!

 

[cw1982]

Y'all! MY SON IS 40 INCHES TALL!!! Test track and Big Thunder, here we come!!!

 

[DryerLintFan]

Y'all! MY SON IS 40 INCHES TALL!!! Test track and Big Thunder, here we come!!!

I remember that excitement well!! It's fun when more stuff becomes doable, especially when you're a single parent!

My 4.5 yo daughter is barely hitting 44" so we might try for FOP, which we have never been on. Not sure though, as she's just barely there.

 

[DryerLintFan]

It's getting closer to your trip, have you started showing your son ride videos? I find with my daughter that it makes a HUGE difference once we get to the actual ride if parts of it feel familiar.

Have you started making his costume yet? I saw sparkly blue felt at Joann's and thought of you!

 

[cw1982]

It's getting closer to your trip, have you started showing your son ride videos? I find with my daughter that it makes a HUGE difference once we get to the actual ride if parts of it feel familiar.

Have you started making his costume yet? I saw sparkly blue felt at Joann's and thought of you!

I've shown him a video of 7dmt, and we've been watching more Disney movies to make sure he knows the characters well. I have his yellow shirt and hat and blue shorts. I just need to find that felt and start working on it.

I'll go by Joann's soon!

 

[DryerLintFan]

I looked for the dress you found but couldn't find it, so I got A a Snow White dress instead and me a dwarf hat and a #Sleepy shirt instead. Less of a cop out than last year, so... progress

I'm looking forward to seeing your costumes!!

 

[Mainahman]

Following along! I just got back and Hollywood studios was not bad at all. I got right on smugglers run. Might be worth watching wait times etc. I think alot are waiting for rise of the resistance in December. Sounds like a great trip you have planned!

 

[cw1982]

Following along! I just got back and Hollywood studios was not bad at all. I got right on smugglers run. Might be worth watching wait times etc. I think alot are waiting for rise of the resistance in December. Sounds like a great trip you have planned!

Oh good point! I'll definitely do that

 

[Mainahman]

Oh good point! I'll definitely do that

We were going to skip it too, but hopped over Monday night from EPCOT for like 3 hours and got toy story mania, alien swirling saucers , and smugglers run. Plus we ate at Woody's lunchbox, made a Droid and took a ton of photos. Was on the way back by 930. Spent about 3 hours all without a single fast pass. Would of gotten slinky too, but wife was beyond tired so I skipped and saved for next time. It was fairly slow, but October may be different..

 

[DryerLintFan]

I wanted to this and say we didn't really get to see the electric water pageant on the pirate cruise. We saw it from afar but they didn't wait around for it

I've been doing a live tr if you want to read it. Here alone my four year old.

Trip Report - COMPLETED - (live) Building Castles in the Sky

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forums.wdwmagic.com

 

[Momof3$$$]

Good evening! Thanks for joining me!

I'm Courtney, and I'm 36 years old. My last trip to WDW was well documented in a separate trip report here. I'll post a link to it for reference later.

I've been divorced from the man I was with in that trip report for almost a year now. I've been a little bit depressed, and I've had a rough year for other reasons too, so I decided I was treating myself and my son to a trip to WDW over fall break. It'll be his first ever trip! He's four, and I had always said I'd want to wait until he was bigger to take him there, but honestly, I needed something to look forward to, and he'll love it! Here are our plans so far:

Dates: October 8-13
Lodging: Contemporary (lavish, I know, but since it's just us, I figured being on the monorail line would be worth it).
Plans:

Tuesday:
Check in
Dinner at Chef Mickey's

Wednesday:
Epcot
Breakfast with Chip and Dale at Garden Grill
Fast passes: Nemo, SE, Frozen
Planning to rope drop test track and see if my son measures 40 inches... he's 39.5 now.

Thursday:
MK
Breakfast at CP
Halloween party that night
Fast passes: Thunder Mtn (I know, I'm risking the height issue here...), Pirates, and Peter Pan

Friday:
Pool day/maybe lunch at T-Rex
Dinner at O'hana

Saturday:
AK
Dinner at Tusker House with River of Lights package
Fast Passes: Safari, Lion King, and Na'vi River

Sunday:
Head home

I hate that only gives us one MK day, but I think that'll be fine since we're rope dropping AND doing the party on the same day.

I don't think I could do the HS crowds with my child by myself. Not with SW being so new. So I figured Epcot was a better choice than HS for this trip.

I'd love to hear suggestions and feedback!

I have searched for other moms taking solo trips with their kiddos. I have three!!! It’s my first time being divorced. Is it easy to navigate? I wish I had other friends going to even have a girls night one night and get to be a kid again myself lol.

 

[cw1982]

I have searched for other moms taking solo trips with their kiddos. I have three!!! It’s my first time being divorced. Is it easy to navigate? I wish I had other friends going to even have a girls night one night and get to be a kid again myself lol.

I forgot to come back and update this, but my son and I had a BLAST!!! I honestly feel so empowered because I did this. Best advice I can give you is plan to make adjustments based on the needs of your kids, expect to take a midday break each day, and don't stress if things don't go according to plan. Ultimately, it's vacation. Don't ruin it by hyping up too many expectations.

Please feel free to message me if you want my input on planning things! I enjoyed our trip so much that I upgraded our tickets to annual passes and have gone back since this trip. Disney has become my happy place.

How old are your kids?

 

[DryerLintFan]

I have searched for other moms taking solo trips with their kiddos. I have three!!! It’s my first time being divorced. Is it easy to navigate? I wish I had other friends going to even have a girls night one night and get to be a kid again myself lol.

I have a trip report linked in my signature from September 2019 where i was solo with my daughter if you wanted to read.

I agree with above though, be really flexible and have fun!!

 

[Momof3$$$]

I forgot to come back and update this, but my son and I had a BLAST!!! I honestly feel so empowered because I did this. Best advice I can give you is plan to make adjustments based on the needs of your kids, expect to take a midday break each day, and don't stress if things don't go according to plan. Ultimately, it's vacation. Don't ruin it by hyping up too many expectations.

Please feel free to message me if you want my input on planning things! I enjoyed our trip so much that I upgraded our tickets to annual passes and have gone back since this trip. Disney has become my happy place.

How old are your kids?

Mine are 6,5,2. I’m such a planner though and it’s hard to leave things up to chance sometimes lol but I have learned that life does not always go as planned so I’m dealing with it. I was thinking about doing that after our first trip to see how it went but we live in Atlanta area and not sure how often we would make it down when I work full time now since my divorce. I’ve done a weekend getaway with my kiddos but never a big trip like this. Thank you so much to have a moms opinion is nice when doing this!

 

[Momof3$$$]

I have a trip report linked in my signature from September 2019 where i was solo with my daughter if you wanted to read.

I agree with above though, be really flexible and have fun!!

Thank you so much! I’m going to check now!!

 

[cw1982]

Mine are 6,5,2. I’m such a planner though and it’s hard to leave things up to chance sometimes lol but I have learned that life does not always go as planned so I’m dealing with it. I was thinking about doing that after our first trip to see how it went but we live in Atlanta area and not sure how often we would make it down when I work full time now since my divorce. I’ve done a weekend getaway with my kiddos but never a big trip like this. Thank you so much to have a moms opinion is nice when doing this!

I'm not far from Atlanta either!

 

[DryerLintFan]

Mine are 6,5,2. I’m such a planner though and it’s hard to leave things up to chance sometimes lol but I have learned that life does not always go as planned so I’m dealing with it. I was thinking about doing that after our first trip to see how it went but we live in Atlanta area and not sure how often we would make it down when I work full time now since my divorce. I’ve done a weekend getaway with my kiddos but never a big trip like this. Thank you so much to have a moms opinion is nice when doing this!

I'm an uber planner too. Going with the flow but with a healthy dose of planning is the perfect approach to Disney solo with kids. For example, we had plans to do things like meet Ariel and go on her ride again and then ride Dumbo, but A was adamant that she only wanted to ride splash mountain. And when i forced her to meet Ariel all she talked to Ariel about was splash mountain so i ditched the plan and we headed for splash. You won't be able to know in advance how things will shake out, but the app makes it pretty easy to replan on the fly.

 

[cw1982]

I'm an uber planner too. Going with the flow but with a healthy dose of planning is the perfect approach to Disney solo with kids. For example, we had plans to do things like meet Ariel and go on her ride again and then ride Dumbo, but A was adamant that she only wanted to ride splash mountain. And when i forced her to meet Ariel all she talked to Ariel about was splash mountain so i ditched the plan and we headed for splash. You won't be able to know in advance how things will shake out, but the app makes it pretty easy to replan on the fly.

Exactly this!!!

I had planned for us to take an early nap the day we went to the Halloween party, be in our costumes and back in the park by 4, and spend all evening in the park. Um... no. My son woke up cranky at 5. Begged me to let him have pizza for dinner and go swimming, despite my pushing him to go trick or treating. Finally I realized my party tickets would be wasted either way... I could waste them poolside with a happy kid and a drink in my hand, or I could waste them miserably in the park. So we went swimming instead. An hour later, my son decided he wanted to go trick or treating. So we ran upstairs, got our costumes on and went to the party. It turned out perfectly. The trick or treating lines were lighter, and we still had 3 hours for rides and fireworks and shows. My son couldn't have handled more than that anyway after all the running around we did that day. He even got to be the last kid to meet Aladdin and the Genie for the night.

So yes, have a plan, but know that the kids will want to change those plans. Be prepared to be okay with that.

 

[Momof3$$$]

I'm an uber planner too. Going with the flow but with a healthy dose of planning is the perfect approach to Disney solo with kids. For example, we had plans to do things like meet Ariel and go on her ride again and then ride Dumbo, but A was adamant that she only wanted to ride splash mountain. And when i forced her to meet Ariel all she talked to Ariel about was splash mountain so i ditched the plan and we headed for splash. You won't be able to know in advance how things will shake out, but the app makes it pretty easy to replan on the fly.

I’m going to have to really get a hold of y’all when I get a free moment. Getting the kids to bed brb

 

[Momof3$$$]

I haven’t been on here for awhile since all this closing down has happened. Now with the parks opening back up and all. I still haven’t rescheduled our trip. I’m incredibly sad from all of this. Is anyone else still going and when? Trying to figure out things and if we should still go just on different dates

 

[DryerLintFan]

I haven’t been on here for awhile since all this closing down has happened. Now with the parks opening back up and all. I still haven’t rescheduled our trip. I’m incredibly sad from all of this. Is anyone else still going and when? Trying to figure out things and if we should still go just on different dates

I don't think anyone can answer that for you, but I'm so sorry this impacted your big trip!