Contemplating a Disney vacation...need advice

[Anonymous]

We went the last week of January/first week of February. Very pleasant, not fighting with people to get on rides and into things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. My son is exactly 44" now, so I guess he'd qualify for the more advanced rides. We've actually never taken him to any amusement park, so all of this would be new to him. Not sure if he'd embrace it or run screaming (I'm hoping for the former).

Oh good, so you'll have lots of options. Start slow, work your way up. The Unofficial Guide (and their website, TouringPlans.com) has some information about how physically intense and/or spooky each ride is. My then-4 yo liked physically intense rides but not anything "scary"/spooky (like Haunted Mansion). Great Goofini is the starter roller coaster. If he likes that, he'll like Thunder Mountain. If the two parents and kid are not super tall or wide, you can squish into one seat on Thunder Mountain, which makes it less intense because you're not sliding around. If after Thunder Mountain he is excited for more, 44" is tall enough for Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom, which is my favorite roller coaster-style ride. (But note, I am not a crazy intense coaster fan, which is why the mild-compared-to-Six-Flags Disney rides are my speed). He'd also be tall enough for the Tower of Terror, which is a different kind of intense (straight up and down vs twisting and turning) plus a lot of spookiness. I know of 4 yos who have loved both of those rides, but it would really depend on the kid, and I definitely wouldn't start there. My son doesn't like surprises, so we often watched Youtube videos of each ride before trying them.

At 4, as much as my son liked rides and watching shows, he also needed breaks for free play. Animal Kingdom and Studios both have big themed play areas where kids can run free. Magic Kingdom has Tom Sawyer Island, and there's also a little play area near the Splash Mountain entrance that my kid loved. I think it's there for parents entertaining too-short younger siblings while the older kids ride Splash Mountain or Thunder Mountain. Oh, and the Dumbo queue is now an indoor, air-conditioned play area where you get a buzzer that will summon you when it's your turn to ride. Sometimes we went there just to play in the AC and skipped our turn to ride...

On the "when to go" question: http://yourfirstvisit.net/2014/12/28/the-2015-walt-disney-world-week-picker/