Helping children plan

[Charl_bb]

Hi, we are a family of 4 going to WDW for the children's first time and our first time on site. I want the children (7 and 4) to be able to choose some restaurants and rides/shows they really want to do but I don't know where to start. Is there a website or book that they could look through easily and choose things? I find the Disney website difficult to use if they want to compare restaurants, rides etc. Any tips appreciated!

[HappyThoughts]

YouTube will be your best friend for this. Get them to watch some of the rides & shows on there, they’ll soon point out which is their favourites.

For food I tend to ask my kids what characters/themeing they’d like to see at meals or what food they’d like to eat & then I pick the restaurants from that. There’s some YouTube videos of a lot of restaurants as well that you could get them too watch

[Stitch73]

Agree with HappyThoughts, YouTube is your place to go, we still spend time looking at rides and restaurants on there.

[Jakey Neverland]

I second YouTube is a great idea, just make sure you check height restrictions on what they choose.

[bigshaz]

we got copies of the maps and went "round the parks" to see what there was. The height restrictions point already made is very important - nothing worse than your child not being able to ride when they get there

in terms of food I'd recomend the buffet at Crystal Palace and Tusker house in Animal kingdom for their character meals, you'll cover the big characters that way - but I'd let them see a character its he park from afar first - its amazing how scary Mickey can be to some small children.

You'll have a ball planning

[Mel49]

At that age I'd have a tendency to research them first and then give them a choice from one's you want to take them to anyway based on price and food choices. My kids when they were younger loved to have Breakfast with WInnie the Pooh and friends at Crystal Palace but now it is quite overpriced in my opinion but if you are on a Dining Plan woud be worth it for the Character Interaction. Another hit was Rainforest Cafe which is at entrance to Animal Kingdom and at DIsney Springs. Favourite memory foodwise is of them sitting eating Mickey Ears Ice-Cream while waiting for parade.

As someone has mentioned check their height and ride restrictions as there may be some that the eldest can do with one of you while the other goes on younger ride. Have a Look under the Theme Park Hours & Tools for guide to this and the DIsney Menus on the tool bar for great information to help with your planning.

Also to help people give you suggestions let us know which resort are you staying at and what Dining Plan you are on .

[Charl_bb]

Thanks for the suggestions so far, my husband is watching many YouTube videos (mainly based around the best snacks!) but I don't want to watch many videos and take away from the surprise of seeing things if that makes sense? Would also prefer the children to see things first through their own eyes, although we are probably missing out on some excitement building opportunities by not watching lots of videos.
We are staying first week at POFQ (probably upgrade QSDP to DDP) and the second week in a villa. Doing Disney, Universal (just for 2 days) and Kennedy. The children like Pixar more than anything but do like Mickey etc too and of course Frozen. I think they both sneakily like the princesses too.

[HappyThoughts]

Originally Posted by Charl_bb

Thanks for the suggestions so far, my husband is watching many YouTube videos (mainly based around the best snacks!) but I don't want to watch many videos and take away from the surprise of seeing things if that makes sense? Would also prefer the children to see things first through their own eyes, although we are probably missing out on some excitement building opportunities by not watching lots of videos.
We are staying first week at POFQ (probably upgrade QSDP to DDP) and the second week in a villa. Doing Disney, Universal (just for 2 days) and Kennedy. The children like Pixar more than anything but do like Mickey etc too and of course Frozen. I think they both sneakily like the princesses too.

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In that case I’d do as BigShaz said & get copies of the maps to show them & maybe a TA brochure & let them point out what they like from that

Sadly there’s no Pixar or Frozen character meals (though someone correct me if I’m wrong but I’ve yet to find one). ‘Cause of that I’d be more likely to do TS meals that had the classic Disney characters so the kids could see them & get their autographs done there & then focus more on the Pixar/Frozen characters in the parks to limit how many queues you have to do.

[bex85chelt]

Last time we went my nieces went for the first time 9 and 11. There was 9 of us total as well so wanted to make sure we did at the least some of everyone's 'must dos' we had a day where we looked at the little planning books watched a few videos if we wanted more info and then everyone grown ups too did a top 10 of things they wanted to do I made a little sheet with pics on to make it fun and people picked what they wanted to do including rides shows food etc was fun and got everyone excited and involved in planning

[Redriva]

As said, Youtube is your friend here ... my kids watch hours or ride & food review videos and then tell us what the fancy :-)