Traveling with a 3yr old

[HenrysDad]

Personally, we always took our own so we knew what we were dealing with. Never had any issues carrying it and the buggy for free with VA or BA

[Maui]

We took a car seat with us and buggy (did not get charged for this, I believe most, if not all carriers offer this free). We just bought a car seat bag from Amazon, the bag doubled up as extra storage for larger items, so more space in your luggage for shopping!

Have not done MNSSHP (so cannot comment on this one), but have done MVMCP and was definitely worth the money.

[Jadebe]

Originally Posted by Toryn

Following this with interest as I have twin baby grandchildren who we would like to take to Florida .We've been many times and our children were 5 and 6 when they first went .But the twins will be around 3 to 4 when we hope to take them .The car seats are not something we’ve thought of

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We took car seats with us for our twin 3 year old granddaughters last year, travelling with TUI. You can take either car seats or pushchairs free but not both. At least their new car seats are lighter, we went when they were under a year and took heavy seats with Isofix base! Cheap bags from Amazon, and you can always put some dirty laundry in the bags on the way home if you’re short of space! Fixings in US cars are fine for Isofix.

[vampiress88]

Can’t help on the buggy. My youngest was 3.5yrs and we didn’t have one.

The car seats we have at home are massive and expensive so we got the gold insurance with virgin holidays that includes car seats for both our kids.

Entertaining wise. We took a little pad and pen for them to draw, sweets and ipad. They didn’t use these much. They got a children’s bag from virgin with crayon and paper in it so used that. Slept a bit, had a go of all the plane food and watched moana on the tv.

We didn’t take any stuffed toys or anything either. The deal was they could buy some from Walmart. Which they did to bring back home.

[ailie]

Originally Posted by nothingless

We went with our 2.5 year old last year, and will be going again with our now-3-year-old in 2 weeks!

We don't bring our own car seat - it's very heavy, we have no bag or cover for it, and I don't want to risk it getting damaged by the luggage handlers as it was expensive. We always rent a car seat with the car, did that last year too. We had no problems with it, the seat was clean and absolutely fine!

We are renting a stroller this year as well - same issue as the car seat. It's heavy, we have no proper travel bag for it, and I hated lugging it around the airports last year. Especially now that we are not flying direct this year and need to collect all our luggage in Newark before checking in for Orlando! Our daughter's just as happy sitting on daddy's shoulders or walking, and it means we can rent a light-weight stroller in Florida, making it tons easier on the busses and transportation too.

I've done MNSSHP when it was just me and my husband, and loved it - but I don't think I'd pay to take my 3-year-old to it. She is usually out cold by 8PM, I feel the whole night may be a bit of a waste for her until she's able to stay up later. Plus, we always buy 14 or 21 day tickets, so you're really paying loads extra just for an evening when you already have day passes! If you don't have Disney tickets, then I might consider it, and would show up at the parks at 4PM on the dot, making sure my toddler has had a long nap in the afternoon. But overall, I'd wait till she's a bit older.

Other tips - make a mental note of where the playgrounds are in the parks! In MK, there's a small playground near Splash Mountain, towards the exit, a big one in the Dumbo queue, and the Casey Junior Splash Pad. In Epcot there's one out the back of of the old location for Mousegear, towards Test Track, as well as one in the exit for Mission Space (indoor, so perfect if it starts raining). In Animal Kingdom, there's a big one in Dino Land called the Bone Yard. These were all perfect for us to let her blow off some steam and run around when she got tired of queueing for things or a bit overwhelmed with all the sights and sounds around her.

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Thanks very much for the heads up on the play grounds will defo keep that in mind!

Appreciate all the tips 🙌🏼🥰

[berniegroves]

On our last trip in 2017 my kids were 6 and 3. (On our 2016 trip they were 4 and 2).

We have done both, take our seats with us and rent them. There are pros and cons to both. We use Car on the Drive and rented seats through them as they are a smaller company so the seats aren’t as used.
Next time we’ll rent boosters for our older two and take a seat for our then 2 year old as he will still be rear facing.
We always rent a stroller with Kingdom strollers.

With Virgin I believe you can take both a stroller and a car seat.

We did MNSSHP when my kids were 6 and 3 and we all loved it! It was a huge highlight for us.

Entertainment wise we used stickers, wikistix and downloaded games and cartoons onto the iPad. We mainly did half days in the parks and then went back to the villa so that the kids didn’t get overtired.

[Lisbon]

Just hand it over with your buggy and collect the other end
We never had any trouble
Rob

[Rabel]

Originally Posted by nothingless

We went with our 2.5 year old last year, and will be going again with our now-3-year-old in 2 weeks!

We don't bring our own car seat - it's very heavy, we have no bag or cover for it, and I don't want to risk it getting damaged by the luggage handlers as it was expensive. We always rent a car seat with the car, did that last year too. We had no problems with it, the seat was clean and absolutely fine!

We are renting a stroller this year as well - same issue as the car seat. It's heavy, we have no proper travel bag for it, and I hated lugging it around the airports last year. Especially now that we are not flying direct this year and need to collect all our luggage in Newark before checking in for Orlando! Our daughter's just as happy sitting on daddy's shoulders or walking, and it means we can rent a light-weight stroller in Florida, making it tons easier on the busses and transportation too.

I've done MNSSHP when it was just me and my husband, and loved it - but I don't think I'd pay to take my 3-year-old to it. She is usually out cold by 8PM, I feel the whole night may be a bit of a waste for her until she's able to stay up later. Plus, we always buy 14 or 21 day tickets, so you're really paying loads extra just for an evening when you already have day passes! If you don't have Disney tickets, then I might consider it, and would show up at the parks at 4PM on the dot, making sure my toddler has had a long nap in the afternoon. But overall, I'd wait till she's a bit older.

Other tips - make a mental note of where the playgrounds are in the parks! In MK, there's a small playground near Splash Mountain, towards the exit, a big one in the Dumbo queue, and the Casey Junior Splash Pad. In Epcot there's one out the back of of the old location for Mousegear, towards Test Track, as well as one in the exit for Mission Space (indoor, so perfect if it starts raining). In Animal Kingdom, there's a big one in Dino Land called the Bone Yard. These were all perfect for us to let her blow off some steam and run around when she got tired of queueing for things or a bit overwhelmed with all the sights and sounds around her.

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I cannot believe that I missed the Splash Mountain one and the Mission Space one. The Boneyard is brilliant - if you get a kids meal from Restaurantosaurus then they give you a bucket and spade but there are "free" ones to use in the digging area (which is over the bridge). The Dumbo playground isn't open until 1030ish and does get very busy. The external ones either shut or the slides are shut when it rains.

We have a "holiday" car seat which we wrap in bubble wrap and put in a rucksack type carrier. Great for carrying extra nappies. When we went the first time we hired one and it took over an hour to work out how to fit it (whereas with ours we could work that out before stepping off a 9 h flight). It is also good to use if you have limited baggage and want to get extra stuff home! The only issue is the luggage trolley when you arrive back into the UK.

[nothingless]

Originally Posted by Rabel

When we went the first time we hired one and it took over an hour to work out how to fit it (whereas with ours we could work that out before stepping off a 9 h flight).

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Oh my, really? We just asked the guy at the Alamo garage to fit it when we were picking the car up, and he had it done in 2 minutes! Ask them next time lol!

[Rabel]

Originally Posted by nothingless

Oh my, really? We just asked the guy at the Alamo garage to fit it when we were picking the car up, and he had it done in 2 minutes! Ask them next time lol!

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DH did after about 45 mins (he's an engineer and doesn't like to give up!), unfortunately the person he asked said that she couldn't fit it for him but gave him some hints. It still took him another 10 mins after that. Maybe we just got a "bad" one - it was either Hertz or Alamo in 2018 - DH even decided to swap seats over a few times as it certainly wasn't him.

I was staying out of it!