Mommy Moments
Beyond the Magic Kingdom . . . For Young Children
By Krista Martinelli
So what if your children have already been to Magic Kingdom and you’re ready to try some of the other Disney attractions? When I mentioned to some other parents that we were thinking of going to Disney, but not Magic Kingdom this time, they looked concerned. Skeptical. Loyalty to Magic Kingdom runs deep, especially here in Florida. But never fear – Disney does an excellent job of providing fun for young children at their other parks too.
In mid-October, we ventured to Epcot Center with our four-year-old girl and two-year-old boy and a few friends. We visited during the Food & Wine Festival, so we were possibly mixing with a more “grown-up” crowd than usual. A few rides were safe bets and a lot of fun for young children, as well as for squeamish people of any age. We enjoyed the “Living with the Land” boat ride, where you get to see different environments and the latest technology in agriculture. It’s fun to ride through greenhouses and see big pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes and other veggies growing.
I was also impressed with the updated “Spaceship Earth” ride, which
explores the world of communication. If you might remember, this is the ride inside the big ball that is central to Epcot. Well, they’ve updated it to include the latest advancements in computers. You answer a few questions about your “ideal future” and end up getting your photo taken. Disney then emails you a cute postcard from your trip, as well as a Jetsons-style video about your future. Both are fun, electronic keepsakes of your trip to Epcot and it’s all free.
A few other good ones are “Journey into Imagination with Figment” starring John Cleese, “The Seas with Nemo & Friends” and the “Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros” in Epcot’s Mexico. All very entertaining for toddlers and older children too. I did notice that almost all of these boat rides begin in a dark tunnel and then lighten up quickly afterward. I think this is the same strategy as a school teacher, who turns off the lights for a few seconds to get everyone’s attention.
Epcot was a terrific experience, and then I had the good fortune of returning to Orlando with my son a couple of weeks later, visiting Animal Kingdom and downtown Disney. Before I go any further, I should tell you that Disney has a pamphlet, “For Kids 5 and Under! Maps & Highlights.” You can get it when you purchase your tickets at the entrance of any of the Disney Parks. Of course, I’m the type of vacationer who doesn’t tend to look at the pamphlets or maps until after the fact. So I’m finding some more gems within the Disney parks now, after my two visits. Oops!
As I entered Animal Kingdom, I felt fairly certain that my two-year-old son would be pleased, especially with “Dinoland U.S.A.” So that’s
where we headed first. It’s set up like a big carnival with games as well as rides. He loved the TriceraTop Spin ride, which is similar to the Dumbo ride at Disney. He also enjoyed “The Boneyard,” a play maze with lots of slides and opportunities for digging for bones in the sand. The backdrop is fossil remains of T. Rex, Triceratops and wooly mammoths. Kids seem to get lost in there, having a lot of fun and forgetting that there are entire other lands to explore inside of Animal Kingdom.
We caught a couple of great shows while in Animal Kingdom too. First we went to “Finding Nemo – the Musical.” This was a powerful theatrical performance, in which actors used hand-puppets. It took just a couple minutes to adapt to it, as you could see the actor handling the puppets. Soon enough you get wrapped up in the quest to “Find Nemo” and the excellent singing talent that Disney has found for this show.
Another fun show is the “Festival of the Lion King.” This show gets the audience involved from the beginning, dividing up the circle in the round into four groups: elephant, giraffe, warthog and lion. There’s a phenomenal part of the show where acrobats dressed as monkeys perform in the center, swinging from high bars and from each other’s grasp. This is a very loud, boisterous celebration of songs from the Lion King and, ironically, my son found this a good place to fall asleep and take his afternoon nap. I noticed that with all of the activity and walking that Disney requires, kids will nap whenever their bodies are ready to – no matter what’s going on around them.
Just for young children, there’s a spot called Camp Minnie-Mickey. It’s basically a place in the woods to get in line and get photos with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. We stumbled upon an outdoor singer, who was quite skillful at asking a few questions of parents and putting together a cute, humorous folk song devoted to your children.
Animal Kingdom is also, of course, a fun place to see wild animals, sometimes by foot and sometimes by safari ride. For example, in Animal Kingdom’s Asia, you can walk the Maharajah Jungle Trek, seeing giant fruit bats, birds, tapirs, Komodo dragons and tigers. In Africa, you can go on the Kilimanjaro Safari, riding through a savannah and seeing giraffes, gazelles, elephants, rhinos and lions.
My son and I had a nice “lazy day” at Downtown Disney the next day. There were three major attractions in his eyes: the Lego Land store, the T-Rex restaurant and the $2 little train ride. If I had been visiting with my daughter, I think we would have veered off into the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique inside the World of Disney store, (which would have been a much more expensive escapade by the way). I overheard parents who were dropping between $100 – $200 easily for the princess make-over, involving the hair, make-up, dress, jewelry and other accessories. Good thing I had my prince with me this time, instead of my princess!
I can’t say enough good things about the Lego store and play area. It’s very simple actually, but my son would have stayed there all day
if I had allowed him to. There’s an outdoor area with little “sinks” filled with Lego pieces. Kids are encouraged to build race cars out of Legos; there are race tracks to see who has the fastest design. There’s also a little playground slide, which my son enjoyed too.
We went inside the store and filled up a tall cup with random Lego pieces (for $14.99). As a gal who never really played much with Legos, I failed to get all the right pieces to construct a car, even though I thought I was getting the right stuff. We didn’t discover that we were missing the axels and a few other pieces for making cars until we got back home. You should have seen the disappointed looks on my husband’s and my son’s faces. Just when despair was setting in, I noticed that I could go on the Lego website and write about my experience at the Lego store. I took the opportunity to take their survey, secretly hoping they would have excellent customer service and maybe even call me to follow up. My wish came true…they did have excellent customer service! A nice staff person called me the next day to thank me for my positive survey remarks and asked if there was anything that could have been better. He immediately offered to send me a cup of extra parts for making race cars. We received our extra parts within three days and were made whole again!
Here’s an extra tip! A couple of friends were kind enough to lend us Disney resort cups before we left on our trip and stayed at Disney’s Coronado Springs. As it turned out, the cups are $13 to purchase initially. But then all of your soft drink (and perhaps all non-alcoholic drink) re-fills are free…for life, as far as I can tell. One of the cups was a few years old. I was very happy and surprised to find this out. It seemed very out-of-character for Disney to not make an extra buck on something when they could have, but I’m not going to question the fabulous person who slipped up and decided that all drinks would be free! Woo hoo!!
In summary, you will definitely have fun if you visit other Disney places besides Magic Kingdom, even if your children are five and under.
Krista Martinelli is the editor of www.aroundwellington.com. She’s the mother of a four year old girl and a two year old boy. She plays with the kids by day and works by night. Sleeping is a rarity!