Best rides for young kids at Walt Disney World®
Walt Disney World Resort itself comprises of four Florida theme parks and two water parks. You may want to visit them all or include just a few of them in your itinerary or all of them.
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom captures the enchantment of cartoons and fairy tales with exciting entertainment, classic attractions, and beloved Disney Characters. The park is designed like a wheel, with its hub being in front of Cinderella Castle. The paths from the Castle spread through the park and take you to seven different ‘lands’. These are Main Street, U.S.A®, Adventureland®, Frontierland®, Liberty Square, Fantasyland®, Mickey’s Toontown® Fair, Tomorrowland®.
Fantasyland is probably the area with the most attractions suitable for small children and babies and the rides are close together making it easy to get around. The best rides for under fives are:
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Snow White’s Scary Adventure (this can be a little bit scary for very young or nervous children)
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• It’s a Small World
• Cinderella’s Golden Carousel
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Many of these rides are slow-moving indoor rides with colourful animatronics, cheerful music and recreations of some of your child’s favourite stories. Babies will just love the sounds, colour and music. It’s a Small World is a water based ride where you float through the different countries and cultures of the world surrounded by singing and dancing dolls in national dress, to the ‘It’s a Small World’ song. You’ll be singing it for days! Dumbo is an outdoor ride where you can fly through the air with your toddler on a flying elephant. Hold on tight!
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Disney’s Animal Kingdom is all about nature, conservation and, of course, animals. There are 250 species of animals in this park and a fantastic Kilimanjaro safari ride which will take you to see them. A good tip is to try to ride the Kilimanjaro Safari as early in the day as possible, when it is cooler and you are more likely to see more of the animals as they are not sleeping in the shade. Disney’s Animal Kingdom has more shade than some of the other parks, but it can get a bit humid due to the heat generated by the animals and the lush vegetation. At the centre of the park, you will find the enormous (and extremely realistic) Tree of Life. It’s quite an amazing sight. Turn a corner, and you’ll come face to face with Mount Everest. That is, Mount Everest with a roller coaster running through it.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom is divided into 7 areas. These are Oasis, Discovery Island®, Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa, Rafiki’s Planet Watch® Asia, Dinoland, U.S.A® Area.
There are loads of excellent shows for kids – especially the Finding Nemo show. The ‘It’s Tough To Be A Bug’ show is situated actually within the Tree of Life and is a 4-D which includes 3-D glasses and ‘sensations’ in the chair. This may be a bit intense for some smaller kids as there is a moment when CO2 gas is emitted into the auditorium; and parents holding babies, beware as, at one point, you will get poked in the back.
Since Disney’s Animal Kingdom is also a zoo, there are several animal treks that offer fantastic views of wild animals which babies and toddlers will love. One trek near the safari ride has a gorilla exhibit, with great close-ups of these amazing animals. Another must-see is the animal trek near the Kali River Rapids ride. Kids can get excellent views of tigers, huge fruit bats and more. The park is full of strange noises, beautiful flowers and plants, and amazing sights. It’s a great day out for the little ones.
Epcot
Epcot is twice the size of the Magic Kingdom and covers 300 acres. The park is divided into two areas; Future World and World Showcase. Epcot makes a wonderful choice for families who have children of mixed ages. It is entertaining for everyone, but also educational and inspiring for tweens and teens.
Future World
The Epcot theme park icon, Spaceship Earth, which looks like a giant golf ball rising high above the horizon, welcomes you as you walk through the Park’s main entrance. Future World is full of sensational attractions as well as inspiring entertainment and shows, all of which focus on technological advancements, innovation and wonder:
World Showcase
Beyond Future World, if entering from the main gate at Epcot theme park, is the World Showcase area. World Showcase is a collective of Pavilions that wrap around the World Showcase Lagoon. Inside the Pavilions, find shops, attractions and restaurants that represent the culture and cuisine of these 11 countries; Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Canada
Live performers entertain you as you walk between the Pavilions. Babies and children of all ages will love watching these and interacting with them. There are Disney Character meet and greet locations too, and Kidcot fun stops where children can create unique souvenirs.
There are some excellent rides in Epcot for kids. Here are some that are suitable for young children or which you can walk through with a baby:
• The Seas with Nemo and Friends
• Journey Into Imagination With Figment
• Gran Fiesta Tour featuring the Three Caballeros
• Honey I Shrunk the Audience (Be warned, there is one loud scene (just following the attack of the mice) which may frighten more nervous or young kids.
• Turtle Talk with Crush
• Circle of Life
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park is dedicated to film and offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Hollywood-style action with live shows, thrilling attractions, backstage tours and special events. The different streets of the park come together like a large, busy movie set and you’re surrounded by the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood Heydays.
Again, this is a great park if you have children of mixed ages. Some of the rides are fast and frightening, like the famous Tower of Terror, but there are Rider Switch programmes available so you can still enjoy these even if you do have a baby or youngster with you.
Disney’s Blizzard Beach
Disney’s Blizzard Beach water park, one of two water parks in Walt Disney World Resort, features one of the world’s tallest and fastest free-falling waterslides, as well as slides and rides for the whole family—like a kid-sized, snow-castle fountain play area with scaled-down versions of the more thrilling attractions.
Blizzard Beach has a specially dedicated area for pre-schoolers called Tike’s Peak. This play area offers kid-sized slides and is well monitored to ensure that older children do not come in and run riot. It’s a safe and pleasant place for your toddler to play and enjoy the water.
The wading pool at Tike’s Peak is very shallow, with a snow-castle fountain and pop-up water jets for tots to splash and play near. Children must be less than 48 inches tall to play at Tike’s Peak.
Tike’s Peak is located on the ground level away from Mount Gushmore on the other side of Cross Country Creek.
Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon
Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park, features attractions for the whole family—from fast waterslides to a children’s area with pint-sized raft rides. You can ride 6-foot waves in the Surf Pool and snorkel with real sharks in Shark Reef.
Typhoon Lagoon is perhaps the park least suited to very young children. There are areas for splashing around in miniature rafts and toddlers can enjoy the shallows, however most of the water park is geared to other rides that aren’t suitable for the little ones.
